Censorship Tropes

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WARNING: The following program is a realish documentary, and may contain language which is is vulgar, offensive, or grammatically awkward. Such language has been censored whenever possible, but for the sake of higher ratings, we may have let a few gratuitous and especially titillating instances slide.

—The opening of the "American Dicks" episode of Duckman

WARNING: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

—Disclaimer from the webcomic Xkcd

Minnie: The cartoon stopped?! What's wrong?

Horace: It wasn't me

Mickey: It's the Censor Monkeys! THEY stop the cartoon!

—House of Mouse Episode 2, Big Bad Wolf Daddy

Interesting tropes about blanking out things not meant for corrupting sensitive eyes or ears.

Compare These Tropes Should Watch Their Language.

Censorship Bureau

Radar Systems

Barbie Doll Anatomy (formerly "Anime Anatomy")

Censor Box (can immediately become a Gag Censor if this trope is Played for Laughs)

Censor Shadow

Censor Steam (also a Bathing Trope)

Censor Suds (also a Bathing Trope)

Censorware

Digital Bikini (sometimes used in conjunction with a Shower Scene, Bathtub Scene, or a Hot Springs Episode of an anime that has been edited when aired in America)

Speech Bubble Censoring

Black Screen of Death

Censor Decoy: A vital tool used by daring writers who want to get crap past the radar. Say there's a writer or director with two scenes: one that's too violent or sexual to be shown on TV or in the movies, and another that's a bit more toned down, but has heavy innuendo or inferences to violence. The censors will have to choose between which scene can be suitable for air (usually the first choice will be picked as the sacrifical lamb while the second scene will be put on TV or film, but sometimes there will be a goof-up and the radar will be shattered either way).

Censored Title

Censorship by Spelling (can also be used as a Comedy Trope)

Clumsy Copyright Censorship (often used when TV shows or movies are rerun or put on DVD)

Cluster Bleep Bomb

Country Matters

Culture Police

Curse Cut Short (sometimes used as a Comedy Trope)

Defying the Censors: Sometimes you just have to stand up to those who would silence you.

Dropped Abridged on It

Dub Text (only if the dubbers are bored, do it by accident, or want to make a scene more risque than what is originally intended)

Family-Friendly Firearms (used in a majority of American-edited anime)

Finger on Lips (used mostly in music videos and music performances)

Frothy Mugs of Water (used a lot in American-edited anime)

Fun with Autocensors (mostly seen on Internet forums)

Get Back in the Closet

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Defying the Censors on an underhanded level (leads to Refuge in Audacity if the writers use explicitly racy material and it still gets past or if the writers use this trope repeatedly and the censors either don't notice, don't care, or have fallen for a Censor Decoy one too many times).

Hide Your Lesbians

I'm Having Soul Pains

Informed Obscenity

Live but Delayed

Narrative Profanity Filter (mostly used in written media, but can also be used on television shows if a narrator is used)

Scunthorpe Problem (mostly seen on Internet forums)

Set Swords to Stun (for the same reason as Family-Friendly Firearms)

Seven Dirty Words

Sleeping Single (also a Comedy Trope used in conjunction with Exiled to the Couch or if a work parodies the allegedly "squeaky clean" 1950s sitcoms in which married couples were shown sleeping in separate beds)

Sound Effect Bleep

Streisand Effect

Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion (can be a Comedy Trope or used for non-censorship reasons, such as trying to avoid a lame and predictable rhyme scheme — i.e., subverting the old "Roses are red, Violets are blue" poem)

Symbol Swearing (used primarily in American comic book stories or literature)

T-Word Euphemism

Think of the Censors: When characters in a fictional work know or realize that their words and/or actions are subject to being censored if actually said or done. Also a form of Breaking the Fourth Wall.

Think of the Children: The call to arms for many a Moral Guardian or Media Watchdog group.

This Trope Is Bleep (can be used as a Comedy Trope if done in excess or if what's being bleeped isn't offensive at all)

Thong of Shielding

Too Soon: Sometimes used to censor something in retrospect, as seen in the wave of media that featured The World Trade Center towers or terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.

Unacceptable Targets

Video Nasties

Witch with a Capital B

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