History Main / AndSomeOtherStuff

* ''Film/TheAgressionScale'' very carefully doesn't show exactly what Owen mixes to create the gas trap he places in the freezer. He grabs two large bottles from the cleaning supplies, so it seems likely that bleach and ammonia (which will create chloramine gases) are among the primary ingredients, but anything else is a mystery.

* The creators of ''Series/BreakingBad'' had a real live DEA agent come in to teach the writers how to actually cook meth, so that they could then carefully (and invisibly) subvert the processes shown on screen, retaining verisimilitude while actually offering directions on how to produce an over-the-counter nasal decongestant. Also, the difficulty of procuring the raw materials (which include some of the most highly DEA-controlled chemicals there are) means that anyone who tries to copy the TV show (presumably because [[ComicallyMissingThePoint they have a stuffy nose]]) will be facing down the police in fairly short order.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'' contains a number of recipes which Nanny notes have had "some of what you might call the more ''active'' ingredients" taken out. (Anyone who's read ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' will understand why.)

'''Michael:''' ''[taping bottles together and tossing them out a car window]'' It will, if it's mixed with chlorine dioxide, and some other stuff.

** That actually works fairly well.

--->''[The text on Homer's computer screen is too small for the viewer to read.]''
--->'''Homer:''' Let's see... ''[pointing to different parts of the text]'' I can make ''that''...you can get ''that'' by smashing open a golf ball...''that'' you can find in any player piano...all I need is some plutonium!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E9StealThisEpisode Steal This Episode]]", Bart showing Homer how to pirate movies is censored by Fox because DigitalPiracyIsEvil, which then proceeds to [[BitingTheHandHumor air]] a UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} race instead. The gag is repeated [[BookEnds again]] for an [[TheUnreveal unreveal]] at the end of the episode.

* ''Series/MythBusters'' omits bits of information concerning the exact chemical explosives they're using for various experiments.

** Another episode censored ingredients with [[SoundEffectBleep animal noises]], leading to a remark from the narrator about the reaction you get when you "add donkey to rooster."

[[folder: Real Life]]

* In ''Literature/MaximumRide'', the titular character narratively that hotwiring a car doesn't take two wires being forced together, rather a few operations and other things. This is deliberate, as she doesn't want dedicated readers to become carjackers.

-->'''Narrator''': We ''maaaay'' have left a step out, so, sorry.

* Parodied in strip during the ''Last Laugh'' CrisisCrossover in Franchise/TheDCU. The strip had ComicBook/TheJoker explaining how to make his lethal Joker venom but censored out the names of various ingredients but left in comments like "You'll need to go to the hardware store for that". The joke, of course, being that you couldn't make the entirely fictitious Joker venom even if you did know what it contained.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' has survivalist training manuals (or rather, scattered torn-out pages of them), which, [[GottaCatchEmAll when collected]], provide Joel with handy-dandy information on [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing how to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland]]. The pages about treating injuries more effectively have some actually pretty useful information on splints, tourniquets and the like. The pages about making smoke bombs, tying knots on weapons, sharpening shivs, and improving the construction of molotov cocktails all noticeably trail off with "..."s.

Not all writers think ViewersAreMorons. Still, they're GenreSavvy enough to not want to teach their audience how to make bombs. Something about "not wanting to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent souls." Wimps?

Writers don't want to teach their audience how to make bombs. Something about "not wanting to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent souls." Wimps.

* An infamous 1979 case, US v. Progressive, Inc., concerned the publication by ''The Progressive'' magazine of the basic working principles of a thermonuclear bomb, a curious trick of physics involving using the radiation generated by the trigger blast to compress the fusion material. The magazine won the lawsuit despite the fear that it would lead to the proliferation of fusion bombs around the world, but in fact the description was missing several components, including one material known as FOGBANK that appears to have been a packing material of sorts (actual function unknown outside US nuclear weapons research) in warheads. [[note]]All that's known for sure about it is that it requires some fairly toxic reagents to manufacture, most notably acetonitrile, which caused several industrial accidents in 2006 where the material was being made.[[/note]] It was discovered in the 2000s that the recipe that the US government had used to make the stuff in the 1970s and 80s was faulty, and had relied on a contaminated ingredient to work; the result was that work on updating the US nuclear arsenal stalled while they figured out what the Some Other Stuff in question actually was. That's right... the US's nuclear security was dependent on replacing stocks of something that no one even knew how to make.