Basic Trope: Someone says a nonsense word in a non-angry voice, but others act like it's a swear.
- Straight: When Alice says, "Dipsy-doo-da" to Bob in a voice that's just as happy as usual, he tells her to watch her mouth.
- Exaggerated: Alice greets Bob with a string of unintelligible gibberish, which he treats like a Cluster F-Bomb.
- Downplayed:
- Alice did sound a bit put-out when she said "Dipsy-doo-da" but not angry enough to swear.
- Bob doesn't act as if Alice said a swear, but more as if she said a mean (but not profane) word, like "idiot".
- Justified:
- Alice likes to make up words, but Bob was raised in a family who believes nonsense words are as bad as swearing.
- Unlike Alice, Bob is fluent in Troperian, in which "Dipsy-doo-da!" means "Fuck you!"
- Inverted:
- Alice swears at Bob, but he doesn't understand her.
- Alice says "Dipsy-doo-da" and Bob thinks she's being formal, like calling him "sir" or something.
- Subverted:Alice: "Hi there, Bob. Dipsy-doo-da."Bob: "Watch your mouth!"Alice: "All I said was 'dipsy-doo-da' and that's a made-up word that I didn't intend to be rude."Bob: "I wasn't talking to you."
- Double Subverted: Bob then says, "I was talking to my cat, who said the 'M' word to me."
- Parodied: When Alice asks what all the curse words are, Bob says, "Well, think of the usual Seven Dirty Words. It's those, plus any word that's not in any dictionary."
- Zigzagged: Alice says "Dipsy-doo-da" to a whole group of people. Bob tells her to watch her mouth, Charlie says "Don't Call Me "Sir"", Diana says "No, I'm not a dog," and Evan says "What does that mean?"
- Averted: Alice doesn't say any nonsense words, or she does but Bob doesn't treat them as swears.
- Enforced: The work isn't allowed to use actual swear words, so they make one up and treat it like one.
- Lampshaded: "How come when I make up words, he thinks I'm swearing?"
- Invoked: Bob's parents raise him to believe all nonsense words are swears.
- Exploited: Bob wants an excuse to be mad at Alice, so he treats saying "dipsy-doo-da" as a reason.
- Defied:
- Bob refuses to take offence to any of Alice's nonsense words.
- Alice refuses to make up words.
- Discussed: "Is it rude to say 'dipsy-do-da'?"
- Conversed: "Why do those characters think a word as goofy as that could be a swear?"
- Implied: Bob says a Big "WHAT?!" to Alice's "Dipsy-doo-da". It's unknown whether he's offended or just confused.
- Deconstructed: Because of Alice's habit of making up words, people think she's Sir Swears-a-Lot.
- Reconstructed: Only Bob thinks that. They others think she's just using funny words.
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama: Alice risks losing her job when she says a nonsense word to her boss, who thinks she's swearing.
Back to Informed Obscenity.
