History Main / InformedObscenity

* There is a ShaggyDogStory about a man who repeatedly gets into progressively worse trouble (culiminating in a courtroom case) for uttering the phrase "blue flower", because he keeps saying it when asking people what it means and getting into trouble instead of getting an answer. The punchline involves him getting hit by a truck or something and suddenly dying just as he's about to find out.

* In ''TheBoondocks'' episode, "The S-Word," the eponymous 12-letter "s" word is "spearchucker." While this is a derogatory (if somewhat antiquated) term for black people, the fact that the school district expects people to automatically know what the "twelve letter S-word" ''is'' is what makes this an example. Of course, the entire episode is a [[RefugeInVulgarity non-stop]] [[RefugeInAudacity mambo]] over the NWordPrivileges [[CrossesTheLineTwice line]].

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snuggle_buns.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:That is ''totally'' {{NSFW}}.]]

->''"Are we talking," said Arthur, "about the very flat country, with all the EEC and the fog?"\\
"What?" said the girl.\\
"Belgium," said Arthur.\\
"Raaaaaarrrchchchchch!" screeched the pterodactyl.\\
"Grrruuuuurrrghhhh," agreed the seven-toed sloth.\\
"They must be thinking of Ostend Hoverport," muttered Arthur. He turned back to the girl.\\
"Have you ever been to Belgium in fact?" he asked brightly and she nearly hit him.\\
"I think," she said, restraining herself, "that you should restrict that sort of remark to something artistic."\\
"You sound as if I just said something unspeakably rude."\\
"You did."''
-->-- ''[[H2G2/{{ptitlex7dt39fg}} Life, the Universe and Everything]]''

** In the radio version, and the British editions of the book, the explanation of Belgium was put elsewhere. The Serious Screenplays business simply involved [[ClusterFBomb "Fuck"]].

Anyone who's ever dealt with the [=FCC=], the [=MPAA=], or any other organization run by MoralGuardians, knows GettingCrapPastTheRadar is ''hard''. Why? Because some MoralGuardians are ''paranoid''. So paranoid that they see profanity in the most bizarre places. Sometimes, what they come up with as being "indecent" just boggles the mind. In fiction, this is often ridiculed by having a completely nonsensical word (sometimes made up, sometimes not) be established as being "inappropriate".

* In {{Nodwick}}, one issue revolves around the word "Krutz", an intentionally created [[spoiler: by a cabal of villains hoping to resurrect a powerful warlord]] swear word that ends up being a one-issue BerserkButton to Piffany. It even comes with its own marketing campaign!

** There's also an episode where a variety of sounds, like a dolphin chirp, are seen as the dirtiest of swear words in Bikini Bottoms. While it may seem throughout the episode that these sounds are simply an odd version of censoring, its shown that the sounds ARE the swear words at the very end, when an old man's car horn is mistaken for a swear word.

* In the ''SouthPark'' episode "It Hits The Fan", The Knights of Standards and Practices each represent a different bad word. One of these: Meekrob, the name of [[ForeignQueasine a really nasty Thai dish]] that [[BrickJoke Cartman had earlier said he was going to start using as a swear word]].

* Among the many edits made to the original issue of FrankZappa's ''We're Only In It For The Money'', the lyric "And I still remember Mama with her apron & her pad, feeding all the boys at Ed's Cafe" was inexplicably cut out of "Let's Make The Water Turn Black". No reason was given for this, but Zappa himself concluded that someone at the record company thought it referred to a woman feeding men her sanitary pads, rather than a waitress taking down orders with a notepad.

* "Louie Louie". The Kingsmen's version of the song was the subject of an '''FBI investigation''' about the supposed but non-existent obscenity of the lyrics, an investigation that ended without prosecution.

* In a brief arc in ''BloomCounty'', moral guardians were cracking down on the strip for the use of "inappropriate language", citing frequent uses of "the four-letter H-word, the four-letter D-word, and the fourteen-letter S-word". After heavy speculation as to what this latter word is, one of the characters announcing this can only think of "Snugglebunnies?"\\

* ''DragonWarriorMonsters'': Joker heavily censors what you are allowed to name your monsters, presumably because you can use them to fight people over the Internet. The name not allowed include anything with the word 'poo' in it. This includes 'Spoon'. Also of note: 'penis' and 'testes' are not allowed, but 'labia' is. 'Blow Me' is dirty, but 'Eat Me Out' is okay. And so on.

* In the ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Hitchhiker's]]'' series, the word Belgium, while on Earth the name of a [[UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} country]], is elsewhere [[strike:a very foul]] the ''last'' vulgar expletive, properly reserved for use in Serious Screenplays.
** In the radio version, and the British editions of the book, the explanation of Belgium [[strike:either didn't exist or]] was put elsewhere (radio listeners, please correct); the Serious Screenplays business simply involved [[ClusterFBomb "Fuck"]].

** In the radio version, the explanation of Belgium either didn't exist or was put elsewhere (radio listeners, please correct); the Serious Screenplays business simply involved [[ClusterFBomb "Fuck"]].

* ''DragonWarriorMonsters'': Joker heavily censors what you are allowed to name your monsters, presumably because you can use them to fight people over the Internet. The name not allowed include anything with the word 'poo' in it. This includes 'Spoon'. Also of note: 'penis' and 'testes' are not allowed, but 'labia' is. 'BlowMe' is dirty, but 'EatMeOut' is okay. And so on.

* For proof of MoralGuardians' paranoia: [[strike:Jerry Falwell]] The media famously called the {{Teletubbies}} obscene because Tinky-Winky was gay. [[strike:His]] Their [[InsaneTrollLogic sole reasoning behind this]] was that he (Tinky-Winky) was purple (that's the color of lesbians, not of gays), wore a handbag and his antenna was shaped like a downward-pointing triangle (the pink triangle being a gay symbol). [[YourHeadAsplode Cleaners will be coming around]] to mop up what's left of your brains.

* For proof of MoralGuardians' paranoia: [[strike:Jerry Falwell]] The media famously called the {{Teletubbies}} obscene because Tinky-Winky was gay. [[strike:His]] Their [[InsaneTrollLogic sole reasoning behind this]] was that he (Tinky-Winky) was purple and his antenna was shaped like a downward-pointing triangle. [[YourHeadAsplode Cleaners will be coming around]] to mop up what's left of your brains.