History Main / CensorDecoy

** A variant was done for the filming of ''Plato's Stepchildren''. The script called for Uhura and Kirk to kiss (commonly and mistakenly referenced as the first scripted, onscreen, interracial kiss on TV at the time[[note]]Though it was the first kiss between a white person and an African-American, in a time when this was unacceptable, so its place in TV history is justifiable.[[/note]]), but the network called for the scene to be filmed with and without the kiss, to decide later which to use. William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols deliberately screwed up every take of the non-kiss scene, [[note]]And by "screwed up", we mean that Shatner followed their instructions about "not kissing Uhura" [[BotheringByTheBook to the letter]], by violently shaking her back and forth and bellowing "''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! WON'T KISS! YOU!]] '''[[ChewingTheScenery I! WON'T! KISS! YOU!]]'''''" as [[LargeHam only Shatner can]], reducing the scene to [[{{Narm}} an unusable joke]][[/note]] making the version with the kiss the best option. The producers were prepared for that: someone mentioned that such a risqué (for the time) scene might get cut short, so they modified the script for the scene to take a lot longer than they intended, so even if the censors would object to it, they could suggest to cut down its length as a compromise. In the end, this wasn't even needed.

-->-- '''Matt Stone''' on ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', interviewed in ''Film/ThisFilmIsNotYetRated''

->''"We purposely left in stuff that you don't even want in the scene. Because you have to give them something to cut so they feel like they've pissed on it, somewhat. So we left the sex scene, just... basically, we put in every second of footage we could. A four minute sex scene, it's just ridiculous. It is not the way it should have been cut, you know, it was bad, it was not even good for the movie, and we ended up shooting, like, extra shots, that we didn't even want to put in there, that we just put in there. You push the line way back so maybe they only cut to here...."''

* Creator/DavidFincher pulled off something like this in ''Film/FightClub'' (similarly to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone with the title of ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''). A producer ordered him to change the bit from [[Literature/FightClub the book]] in which Marla Singer declares, "I want to have your abortion." Fincher agreed on the condition that he only had to change it once, and the producer took the bait. The replacement line? "''Oh my god, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.''" The censor told Fincher to change the now-worse line back to the original one, but since [[ExactWords she'd agreed to only change it once]], it was left in. Also, Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter only said the line because [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage she didn't realize that "grade school" is the American equivalent to "primary school" in Britain]]. She said if she'd known what she was asked to say, she'd have insisted on a rewrite.

* Creator/DavidFincher pulled off something like this with ''Film/FightClub'' (similarly to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone with ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''). A producer ordered him to change the bit from [[Literature/FightClub the book]] in which Marla Singer declares, "I want to have your abortion." Fincher agreed on the condition that he only had to change it once, and the producer took the bait. The replacement line? "''Oh my god, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.''" The censor told Fincher to change the now-worse line back to the original one, but since [[ExactWords she'd agreed to only change it once]], it was left in. Also, Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter only said the line because [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage she didn't realize that "grade school" is the American equivalent to "primary school" in Britain]]. She said if she'd known what she was asked to say, she'd have insisted on a rewrite.

* Creator/DavidFincher pulled off something like this with ''Film/FightClub'' (similarly to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone with ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''). A producer ordered him to change the bit from [[Literature/FightClub the book]] in which Marla Singer declares, "I want to have your abortion." Fincher agreed on the condition that he only had to change it once, and the producer took the bait -- but boy did she regret it. The replacement line? "''Oh my god, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.''" The censor told Finch to change the now-worse line back to the original one, but since [[ExactWords she agreed to only change it once]], it was left in. Also, Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter only said the line because [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage she didn't realize that "grade school" is the American equivalent to "primary school" in Britain]]. She said if she'd known what she was asked to say, she'd have insisted on a rewrite.

* Creator/DavidFincher pulled off something like this with ''Film/FightClub'' (similarly to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone with ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''). A producer ordered him to change the bit from [[Literature/FightClub the book]] in which Marla Singer declares, "I want to have your abortion." Fincher agreed on the condition that he only had to change it once, and the producer took the bait -- but boy did she regret it. The replacement line? "''Oh my god, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.''" The censor told Finch to change the now-worse line back to the original one, but since [[ExactWords she agreed to only change it once]], it was left in[[note]]Also, Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter only said the line because she didn't realize that "grade school" is the American equivalent to "primary school" in England. She said if she'd known what she was asked to say, she'd have refused and insisted on a rewrite.[[/note]].

* The radio edit of Music/LilJon's "Get Low" censored the line "To all skeet skeet motherfucker, to all skeet skeet goddamn!" with a repeated "Skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet". "Skeet" [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a slang term for semen]], and somehow repeating said word multiple times is ''less'' explicit than just two skeets and a PrecisionFStrike. Eventually averted, as by 2017 or so the radio version has the entire chorus vocals being omitted.

That's how the Censor Decoy should work in theory -- it's something so offensive that it's the only thing the censors are supposed to pay attention to. Creators write extra lines, produce extra scenes, even design extra characters fully expecting all this work to die in the editing room. [[BatmanGambit Hopefully this sacrifice ensures the survival of the questionable parts the creators ''really'' wanted to include]]. If the gamble succeeds, we have to take the word of the creators that this is actually going on. The entire point of the decoy is so that we never have to see it.

* Music/TheKinks managed to do this ''by accident'' with "Lola." The BBC was so busy getting them to change the mention of Coca-Cola to cherry cola to comply with their strict rules about {{product placement}} that they completely missed the fact that the song was about a sexual tryst with a crossdresser.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'' in-universe example: Jason and Marcus ask for money to rent "Big Slashing Mommas with Chainsaw Daughters", which is shot down immediately. Jason then says they'll just rent Scarface, which works.

* In Spain, during Franco's oppressive fascist regime, one trick that filmmakers used to get crap past the radar is they would write the script they wanted to make, then submit a different script for approval, knowing it would get marked for change. When they submitted the original script, the censors would see that everything marked for change had been and approve the script, letting the filmmakers do almost whatever they wanted. The most infamous example of this was Creator/LuisBunuel's ''Film/{{Viridiana}}'', whom even after using the above tricks submitting incredibly tame versions of the script and footage the Censor-approved cut was still deemed a bit too indecent to be premiered in Cannes Festival as Spain's representative; but because the film could be premiered as an independent one, film's star Silvia Pinal smuggled on the uncensored version to be show instead of the Spain-approved one. This stunt cost Buñuel his Spanish passport.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon ''An Itch in Time'', about a dog tormented by a flea, one scene has the itching dog scooting across the floor on his backside, then turn to the camera and say "I'd better cut that out, I'm starting to like it!" Reportedly, this was done by Creator/BobClampett to give UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode something to cut, but they didn't.

*** Even the movie's ''title'' was an example of this. Parker and Stone originally wanted to call the movie ''South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose'', but the suits vetoed it on grounds that the title could not contain profanity. The duo sarcastically suggested "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" as a subtitle, and were flabbergasted when the executives missed the obvious phallic DoubleEntendre.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' got away with many of their adult jokes by using this tactic, according to [[WordOfGod the creators]] in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's [[http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-animaniacs-tribute-part-2/ Animaniacs Trbute.]] Take UpToEleven with the infamous "finger[[Music/{{Prince}} prints]]" bit, which the show's writer admitted was thrown in just to give the censor a laugh but apparently (''somehow'') got through: