History Main / SoundEffectBleep

* In Toby Keith's angry post-9/11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue," he famously warns the terrorists that "we'll put a boot in your ass." The radio stations would sometimes replace the word "ass" with an explosion.

* "It's Hard to Kiss the Lips At Night (That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long)" by The Notorious Cherry Bombs (translation: a side project by Rodney Crowell's backing band) censored the word "ass" with a spring sound. This even got lampshaded at the end, which features the line "It's all right if we say it / 'Cause the radio won't play it."

* Kid Rock's "Cowboy" uses a variety of "standard" censor sounds early in the song, like radio static and a record scratch. Near the end, lampshaded with a female voice stating "radio edit".
* In "Stand Up" by Love Tribe, the line "asses shaking" was censored with a [[POW!]] vocal sample.

* Big & Rich's "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" has "I'm a crazy son of a [bad word] / But I know I'm gonna make it [[StealthPun big and rich]]." Another voice literally says "bad word" over the offending word.

Strangely enough, the bleep effect often makes the joke funnier than if the swear word had actually been used (thus forming the premise of ThisTropeIsBleep comedy). This is particularly true when it's used to cover up a ClusterFBomb. This is likely because profanity is often a mundane occurrence in real-life conversation, whereas loud incongruous bleeps are not. Unfortunately, it can have [[{{Narm}} the same effect on scenes that are supposed to be serious]].

* In the ''Literature/Xanth'' series novel ''Yon Ill Wind'', The Adult Conspiracy magically censors swearwords so that children will not hear them. If children do swear, the word is bleeped.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': Both Claptrap and Mister Torgue have this in-universe, the former because he's a robot and it's easy to program into him, the latter because his backers got tired of hearing him throw ClusterFBombs at shareholder meetings and had a censor device surgically grafted onto his voice box.

* This 90s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDlfJ2KBjw commercial]] for Designer Imposters, with AliLarter. "[[FetishFuel And spray it on your *beep*.]]"

--->'''Peter:''' Lois, you are so full of '''HONK'''! What!?! I can't say '''HONK''' in my own '''HONK'''ing house? '''HONK'''ing great, Lois, just '''HONK'''ing great! You're lucky you're good at '''HONK'''ing my '''HONK''' or I'd never put up with you. You know what I'm talking about. When you '''HONK''' lubed up '''HONK''' toothpaste in my '''HONK''' and you '''HONK''' cherry '''HONK''' Episcopalian '''HONK''' extension cord '''HONK''' wetness '''HONK''' [[NoodleImplements with a parking ticket]]? That is the best!

* ''{{Borderlands 2}}'': Both Claptrap and Mister Torgue have this in-universe, the former because he's a robot and it's easy to program into him, the latter because his backers got tired of hearing him throw ClusterFBombs at shareholder meetings and had a censor device surgically grafted onto his voice box.

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'': Both Claptrap and Mister Torgue have this in-universe, the former because he's a robot and it's easy to program into him, the latter because his backers got tired of hearing him throw ClusterFBombs at shareholder meetings and had a censor device surgically grafted onto his voice box.

* Every week [[LateNightShow Jimmy Kimmel]] presents a video of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Unneccesary Censorship"]], with quite some funny results, for example, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrqsfXoNVug here]].

** Used oddly in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]''. The teachers are patrolling the corridors at night due to the monster attacks, but Team Harry has to sneak out to do something so they drape Harry's InvisibilityCloak over themselves. As they pass Snape, Ron stubs his toe and swears. Luckily, Snape sneezes at the same time.

* On {{NPR}}'s ''Radio/WaitWaitDontTellMe'' the host and guests censor themselves (usually when reading news quotes) by yelling "BLEEP!" loudly during the sentence.

* This was mocked in a ''RoyalCanadianAirFarce'' parody of the ING Direct commercials. Walking along the street, the dude selling the bank says, "What can you expect from the [car honk]ing Bank? Well..."
* Unexpectedly used, or at least implied, in ''AdventuresInOdyssey''. Jason struggles to get an uncooperative answering machine to work...

* During the late 70s and early 80s, WBZ Radio in Boston used a rather... unique... bleep noise that sounded something like someone trying to hypnotize a Rubik's Cube... ItMakesSenseInContext.

When a [[Videogame/EverQuest [DING!]]] character's [BOING!] words, usually [[BlackAdder [BAAA!]]] expletives, are [BOOM!] drowned out by a [ZAP!] artificial ''BEEEEP'', or, more [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} [TSEEEEER!]]] creatively, by a [BONG!] sound effect (e.g. a [[WesternAnimation/{{FairlyOddParents}} [HONK!]]] car horn or a [[StockScream [AAAIIEEE!]]] scream). Usually the [BEEEEEP!] words are [TWEET!] completely drowned out, but [[VideoGame/{{Eversion}} [SCREEE-BOOM!]]] sometimes the first [BLAM!] syllable is [[ThatPoorCat [MREEEEEEOOOW!]]] audible before the [MOOOOO!] sound effect [[CurseCutShort fu-]][[VideoGame/{{HalfLife2}} [SLAM!]]] kicks in.

* In ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Lee Jordan calls a player on the opposing team a "filthy, cheating bastard", but in print only the "b" part is heard, as Professor [=McGonagall's=] own shouting at the player drowns it out. For once she didn't pay attention to Jordan's language (or favoritism, or any other [[AccidentalInnuendo junk Jordan pulls regularly]] while commentating).
** Used oddly in ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]''. The teachers are patrolling the corridors at night due to the monster attacks, but Team Harry has to sneak out to do something so they drape Harry's InvisibilityCloak over themselves. As they pass Snape, Ron stubs his toe and swears. Luckily, Snape sneezes at the same time.

* The radio edit of TheBloodhoundGang's "Fire Water Burn": "We don't need no water, let the mother-[HEE-HAW] burn." As with the Adam Sandler example above, some people find this edit funnier than the album version.

* The radio edit of Adam Sandler's song "Ode to My Car" uses various automobile/traffic noises to censor the ([[ClusterFBomb copious]]) swearing. Some people think this makes that version funnier than the uncensored album version.

* The radio edit of The Bloodhound Gang's "Fire Water Burn": "We don't need no water, let the mother-[HEE-HAW] burn." As with the Adam Sandler example above, some people find this edit funnier than the album version.

* ''"Da Mystery of Chessboxin'"'', and other tracks by the Wu-Tang Clan, often used standard Kung Fu sound and voice effects to censor curses in radio and video versions.

* Subverted by Denis Leary's ''Asshole Song'' video, which lets all the words go through, but puts a large graphic of horizontal stripes with BLEEP across the center on the screen.

* It is also used in Lemon Demon's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXPnH0C9UA Song Of The Count.]]

** In another one Lois reads her title on the television screen on Dianne Simmons talkshow which reads "She's probably more of a bitch then she lets on" and she responds "Go [BEEP] yourself Dianne".

-->'''Mrs. Davidson:''' Ralph [VROOOOARRRRR!!]—it says a great deal. Solid! Capable! Stable! Feet on the ground! ''[Cut to Ralph in the suit, flying over the desert, feet kicking in the air]''

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish audio episode]] ''...ish'' features the eponymous syllable as its MonsterOfTheWeek (it's complicated). In order to protect Peri from the Ish, the Doctor uses AppliedPhlebotinum to bleep the syllable out whenever she says it. The effect on her dialogue is ... interesting. ([[LampshadeHanging Hilariously]], they don't bleep out any of her actual swearing.)

* Wired All Wrong have several songs where curses are either replaced by static or else chopped up enough to be unrecognizable - the unusual thing is this how the songs appear on the album too: Reportedly this is because Jeff Turzo, as one half of the band, had second thoughts about making an album with lyrics he wouldn't want his young son exposed to.

-->'''Mrs. Davidson:''' Ralph [VROOOOARRRRR!!]—it says a great deal. Solid! Capable! Stable! Feet on the ground! ''[Cut to Ralph in the suit, flying over the desert, feet kicking in the air]

* [[MontyPython Eric Idle]]'s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37xrO54_6Po "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio"]] uses creative bleep sounds (some of which serve to get the point across) in lieu of actual swearing.

* In the film adaptation of TheSpiderwickChronicles The main characters set a trap for the goblins chasing them using tomato juice in an oven, which is like sulfuric acid to goblins. As the goblin leader walks into the room, he notices the trap and screams "OH SHI-" and is promptly cut off by the sound of the oven blowing up, vaporizing the goblins.

* The movie {{Kuffs}} both uses and subverts this trope in the same scene, when Kuffs' dispatch radio overrides every swear word in a conversation between him and his police chaperon until the end, where he very clearly enunciates the [[PrecisionFStrike F Bomb]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12dEvNOMvmo here]].

* Eric Idle's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37xrO54_6Po "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio"]] uses creative bleep sounds (some of which serve to get the point across) in lieu of actual swearing.

* MontyPython's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" derives a good portion of its humour from these.

*** Infamously, "201" was censored with a long, disruptive bleep that actually cuts off the background music. The DVD version cleans it up so the music is also audible, and in the commentary, Parker and Stone actually succeed in tempting the bleep censor by discussing classified material at one point, which makes you wonder if the censorship of the episode and its predecessor was a well-timed publicity stunt coordinated by Parker, Stone, and Viacom.