History Main / InformedObscenity

-->'''Mork:''' Don't blame me. I didn't give him that smutty name."

* ''Film/Spirited2022 Apparently when the Ghost of Christmas Present was alive, the innocuous phrase "good afternoon" was an unspeakably obscene insult, to the point that he's immediately ready to fight when someone in the modern day says it innocently.

* ''Film/{{Spirited}}: Apparently when the Ghost of Christmas Present was alive, the innocuous phrase "good afternoon" was an unspeakably obscene insult, to the point that he's immediately ready to fight when someone in the modern day says it innocently.

* In ''Anime/HanasakuIroha'', Tsurugi Minko uses the word "hobiron" (meaning [[ForeignQueasine "balut"]]) as an insult towards Ohana as a replacement for the more harsh insults that she'd been using, as per Ohana's request.

* In an episode of ''[[Anime/OnegaiMyMelody Onegai My Melody: Kuru Kuru Shuffle]]'', Miki and [[TheUnintelligible Piano]] get in an argument over creative differences, to which Piano eventually responds by saying "puukyuu", which causes her to gasp. Hilariously, it sounds a lot like she's saying "fuck you".

* From the original ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'':
-->'''R2-D2:''' (electronic beeps)\\
'''C-3PO:''' You watch your language!
** Gets a callback in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', where Luke scolds R2 for swearing on a sacred isle.
* In ''Film/Paddington2014'', Mr. Brown's attempt to pronounce Paddington's bear name is met with the following:
-->'''Paddington:''' ''(with forced calm)'' Mr. Brown. That is ''extremely'' rude.

* In ''Film/TheSmurfs'', Patrick gets annoyed with the Smurfs {{Smurfing}} and says "Smurf! Smurfity smurf smurf smurf!" in anger after questioning what the word "smurf" even means. All of the Smurfs gasp in horror and Gutsy says "There's no call for ''that'' kind of language, laddie!"

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'':
** ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' did this in the U.S. edition of the book, trying to avoid saying the word "fuck" for the American censors. The original British version refers to an award for the "Most Gratuitous Use of the Word 'Fuck' in a Serious Screenplay". The U.S. version changed "fuck" to "UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}" -- the single most vulgar expletive in the known Universe. The radio adaptation used the straight British "fuck" and overdubbed the word with a [[SoundEffectBleep starship engine]] (even the scripts just said "fuck"). The U.S. version of the book, though, expanded significantly on the gag; it's an illustration of [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet Earth's isolation and backwardness]] that it has a country with that name (in the same book it's revealed that the Galaxy's bloodiest and most horrific war was adapted into the game of UsefulNotes/{{cricket}}). The UnfazedEveryman Arthur, on hearing "Most Gratuitous Use of the Word 'Belgium' in a Serious Screenplay", innocently uses it to chat up a girl at a party:
--->"Have you 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."
** "Zark" sees frequent use in the series as a multi-purpose swear word. It's uncertain exactly how strong it is; it's as productive as "fuck" (as "zarking" is heard as well), but it seems to be derived from the name of the Great Prophet Zarquon, making it analogous to the much milder "Jeez".
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'':
** In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidTheLastStraw'', Manny starts calling Greg "ploopy" out of the blue. Thinking it is a "little kid bad word", Greg asks their mother about it, though she is clueless and does nothing about it -- freeing Manny to use the word wherever and whenever he wants. Later, while the family is in church, Greg uses the name on Manny to get him to stop bugging him, and Manny becomes hysterical -- only then does the word become obscene in their mother's eyes.
** In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidCabinFever'', Greg and Rodrick come up with their own system of bad words so they can use them without their mother knowing. This includes nonsense like "spooky stork" and "raspberry plastic tickle bear."
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', carolers have changed the lyrics to a song so it starts "the red rosy hen" (presumably the word used to be "cock"). The book goes on to say that the carolers often had to stand and show people where they thought the obscenity was before they would be offended by it (and being bewildered that they had to point it out).
** In ''Literature/GoingPostal'' Miss Maccalariat scolds Moist for his language using TWordEuphemism. The thing is, no real English profanities exist starting with the letters she calls out. The Y-word? Then again, [[TranslationConvention Morporkian isn't English.]] ([[FlipFlopOfGod Unless it is.]]) The ''Post Office Diary'' says that any addition to the initialism code ("S.W.A.L.K." etc.) must be approved by Miss Maccalariat, which will only happen if she can't think of ''anything'' obscene it could ''possibly'' stand for. This never happens.
** Sergeant Colon in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' and Nanny Ogg in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'' say "I'll be mogadored!" which is apparently the word you use when regular swearing simply isn't enough. (It's actually just an archaic word for "confused".)
* At one point in ''Literature/TheMysteriousDisappearanceOfLeonIMeanNoel'' by Ellen Raskin, Mrs. Carillon is jailed and protesters gather outside the prison. Because the signs the protesters are using were painted over and reused after a grape farmers' strike, one sign that was evidently left unfinished inadvertently reads "GRAPE MRS. CARILLON". Nearly everyone who sees the sign comes to the conclusion that "grape" means something horribly offensive, culminating in a bystander attacking the sign-holder and yelling "Grape Mrs. Carillon? Grape ''you''!".

* ''Literature/SamuelBlinkAndTheForbiddenForest'': Stinkymudfungle!
** Alluded to with "cagal" in Harrison's ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat Gets Drafted''.
* In one of the [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz books]], in a moment of great rage, the Nome King exclaims "Hippikaloric!" The narrator helpfully notes that this "must be a dreadful word because we don't know what it means."
* In the ninth ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book, the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] set up a front organization called the Dapsen Lumber Company. [[TokenNonHuman Ax]] is amused by that, since apparently "dapsen" isn't a very polite word on other planets.
* In the ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'', Roxim has to apologize to his neighbor at the dinner table when he lets slip a "by George!". Since these are dragons we're talking about, it makes sense.
* In ''Literature/EndersGame'' a group of playground bullies repeatedly insult Ender by calling him "Third," a reference to his status as the third child in his family. The society they live in only allows two children per family, and Ender's parents were only able to have him with special permission from the government; the other kids look down on him as a lesser person for it.
* In the society of Literature/BraveNewWorld, the words "mother" and "father" have become obscenities; all women are rendered sterile by having their eggs extracted, and babies are [[UterineReplicator grown in incubators]].
* Done in ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy'', when Harriet overhears her father angrily complaining about all of the troublesome "finks" at his office, and assumes that it's an all-purpose swear word. Later, when she gets into an argument with her parents after they try to force her to take dance lessons, she screams "I'll be FINKED if I go to dancing school!", much to her parents' puzzlement.

* In Creator/EEDocSmith's ''The Vortex Blasters'' (a novel loosely associated with the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series), the ultimate unrepeatable expletive on Tominga (where the language metaphors all revolve around plants) is "srizonified". Sentient telepaths, just like the Lens, leave this untranslated, but we are told that it is loosely rendered as "descended from countless generations of dwellers in stinking and unflowering mud."
* In Creator/CordwainerSmith Norstrilians swear by the mutated sheep which are the foundation of their [[OneProductPlanet One-Product Economy]]. At one point Rod is even admonished for his "sacrilegious" language.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': Occurs InUniverse when Belgarath asks the Gorim about Zandramas, the ''Malloreon'' sequel series' BigBad, only for the Gorim to react with utter shock -- the name is the most profound curse in his people's language, such that Belgarath never knew because nobody in seven thousand years was willing to repeat it to him before.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode, "The S-Word," the eponymous 12-letter "s" word is "spearchucker." While this is a derogatory (if somewhat antiquated) term for a black person, 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 non-stop [[RefugeInAudacity mambo]] over the NWordPrivileges [[CrossesTheLineTwice line]].

[[folider:Films -- Animation]]

* In the Polish classic comedy ''Miś'' the protagonist is watching a children's ShowWithinAShow while trying to figure out what to do. The specific episode he gets is about how the kids stop one of their group from excessive swearing - and the swears he uses include "butterfly's leg!" This is treated by the other children as the height of profanity.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' claims that there are thirteen dirty words, all of them represented by some sort of sound effect, the most prominently featured being a dolphin's chirp. This appears to be an odd version of SoundEffectBleep until a moment of LampshadeHanging at the end of the episode in which [[MediumAwareness an actual car horn is mistaken for a character swearing]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' there was an episode where T.J. was brought to court for use of his CatchPhrase "This whomps". The judge decided that "whomps" was not dirty in and of itself, and that only a dirty-minded person would think it was.

** In "Radioactive Man" a scene from the titular hero's movie has his sidekick Fallout Boy spout his CatchPhrase: "Jiminy jilikers!" Radioactive man responds with "There's no need for profanity, Fallout Boy."