* A request from the commissioner of an independent wrestling promotion requested that foul language be avoided. This spawned chants of "HOLY BEEP".
* English slander laws make it unwise to describe someone as "drunk" unless you've got medical evidence of an elevated blood-alcohol level to back it up. Hence the euphemism "tired and emotional". This is doubtless the source of the "tired" for "drunk" references elsewhere.
** Probable origin of the phrase: the official explanation for the behaviour of [[http://uffish.net/archives/000327.html this]] gentleman.
** In ''YesMinister'' the title character is caught drunk in public after a champagne reception. He's pleased that one newspaper only describes him as "overwrought" until he learns that the full description was [[http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080909152443AAjzus2 "overwrought as a newt."]] The phrase "tired as a newt" is in use as well.
** A similar one is "unwell", from the note "Jeffery Bernard is unwell". It appeared in ''The Spectator'' whenever he was too drunk to write his column in that magazine, and was later used as the title for a play about Bernard's life.
*** Though arguably if someone's drinking is affecting their commitments to this extent, they might be an alcoholic, which is regarded less as a moral failing and more as an illness nowadays. The point of Bernard's column ''was'' that he was a drunk (in fact, a barely FunctionalAlcoholic) in the ancient tradition of British boozer cultural critics (the column was called "a SuicideNote in weekly instalments").
*** And then one day, when the magazine printed the notorious line "Jeffrey Bernard Has Had His Leg Off," everyone assumed it was another euphemism. In fact, his leg ''had'' been amputated, and he never forgave the editor in question for treating it so casually.
** Politician and novelist Alan Clark is the only MP to have ever been accused of being drunk whilst making a speech, when in 1983, fellow MP Clare Short said he was "incapable". In his diaries years later he actually admitted to being so (thanks to wine).
** This is also why some celebrities are said to suffer from "exhaustion".
* Likewise, rather than directly accuse people of having sex while on official duty (which, again, could net them a libel suit if they don't have proof-positive), the satirical magazine ''PrivateEye'' coined the term "Ugandan discussions", after a journalist who had had a "meaningful confrontation" with a former Ugandan Cabinet minister at a London party claimed she was merely [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow "discussing Uganda with him"]].
** JohnMajor's campaign for "family values" used the slogan "Back to Basics," so naturally when a number of his ministers were caught having affairs, "Back to Basics" became a fashionable alternative to "discussing Uganda."
** The recent disappearance of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has led a number of people to push "hiking the Appalachian Trail" as a similar euphemism.
* Rounding out the ''PrivateEye''-fest, the magazine famously responded to a libel allegation by Mr Arkell with the response "''We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages 'will be governed by the nature of our reply', and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: Fuck off''". With that precedent, ''Private Eye'' went on to tell a number of other people "We refer you to the reply given to the plaintiff in the case ''Arkell v. Pressdram''".
* The US military uses the term ''blue falcon'', or the phonetic ''bravo foxtrot'' as polite versions of the epithet "Buddy F-cker".
** Also Charlie Foxtrot for Cluster F-ck and "Foxtrot Oscar". The phonetic alphabet also gives us Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF).
*** And "Foxtrot Uniform" (which is the title of a level of ''HalfLife: Opposing Force'', in which some HECU soldiers find out just how badly their ''own side'' wants them dead).
*** (From ''TheOddCouple'')
----> Oscar (to Felix): You leave me little notes on my pillow. I told you a hundred-and-sixty-eight times I can't... stand... little notes on my pillow! "We are all out of Corn Flakes. -F.U." It took me three hours to figure out that "F.U." was Felix Ungar!
** During the Vietnam War, "Viet Cong" quickly got abbreviated to "V.C.". Which, in MilitaryAlphabet, is "Victor Charlie". Since that's longer than the original (let alone the abbreviation), it quickly got shortened to "Charlie", a name that's probably more well-known to most Americans than any of the others.
** One more, usually considered a rude farewell, was "Alpha Mike Foxtrot" (Adios, Mother F—).
* The name of the famed Japanese store [[GratuitousEnglish "Violence Jack Off"]] was supposedly intended to be an anti-violence slogan on the mistaken basis that "jack off" was a euphemism for other "off" phrases.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity Swearing in Quebecois French]] has elements of this. The vast majority of curses are the names of religious items. Suffice it to say, unless you are actually in a church, if someone is talking about ''hostie'' (Communion wafers), ''calice'' (chalice), or tabernac (tabernacle), they are ''not'' in a good mood.
** But...is it still like [[GratuitousFrench wiping your arse with silk?]]
** And there are unusual euphemistic versions of those same words, used more publically when one doesn't wish to offend; these are based on the original words, but with serious alterations to make them into nonsensical words: ''Calvace'' or ''Calvaire'' for ''Calice'', ''taboire'' or ''tabaslak'', and so on. ''Calvaire'' might be the only exception, since it's also the french word for ''Ordeal''.
** Interestingly, this contrasts with French (the country) or English (the language) curses, where most swear words are related to sex, the f-bomb being the most obvious English example. Swearing in any language will fit one of these 4 categories: Scatologic (Shit), Sexual (Fuck), Parental (Bastard, Son of a Bitch) or Religious (Holy Christ). The French use more of the first two, while the Quebecois use a lot - a LOT - of Religious words: furniture, sacramental events and important figures.
** Japanese has "shit" ("kuso", somewhat milder in impact than the English equivalent) but most vulgarity in the language is based on altered word forms or synonyms with no difference of literal meaning (don't use "temee" for "you" in polite company!), and the most common terms of abuse mean "fool" ("baka") and "beast" ("chikushou", also used as an exclamation). The Japanese have very little actual profanity. Due to the highly complex nature of courtesy encoded in the language, with multiple levels of politeness and propriety depending on the context the usage, insults and expletives are most often accomplished by varying the usage of words and phrases to something other than what would normally be appropriate for the context. The farther outside of normal usage, the more serious the language. Metaphor and comparisons are also common. For example, referring to someone as a "tiger" means that he's a drunkard. Modifying that to "little tiger" or "great tiger" alters the severity of the insult (the former being more of a playful jab; the latter a scathing insult). Even more commonly used terms of profanity also depend greatly on context. "Baka", for example, can be used to refer to someone as "silly" in an affection manner, or as the equivalent of "fucktard", depending on the situation and how it's used. And there are plenty of regional variants, with those typical of the [[KansaiRegionalAccent Kansai province]] the most [[TheIdiotFromOsaka well-known]].
* Rik Mayall, after fluffing a line as [[TheNewStatesman Alan B'Stard]]: "Oh - bum - buttocks! Oh, big hairy testicles... ''OF [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]]!''"
* Some of the more hardcore ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fans say "OME" (Oh my Edward!) instead of "OMG". [[{{Facepalm}} Head, meet desk]]. (Also, "OMC" for "Oh my Carlisle!/Cullen!") Similar thinking led to "Oh my [[Series/TheColbertReport Stephen]]!" for Colbert fans, and parts of Literature/LordOfTheRings fandom used "OMV" (Oh my Valar).
* The blog [[http://gofugyourself.com/ Go Fug Yourself]] has many euphemisms for what might be seen if a celebrity's dress is too skimpy: ladyparts, the world is your gynecologist, assets, the girls, puppies...
** A review of ''BasicInstinct'' once remarked on the scene where Sharon Stone displayed her ''acting ability.''
* The whole unusual euphemism trope is played with in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOKojyCLIQY this]] highly entertaining video about ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. It has to be watched to be believed...
* [[http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-toontowns-speedchat-or-blockchattm-from-disney-finally-arrives/ "The Untold History of Toontown's SpeedChat (or BlockChattm from Disney finally arrives)"]] tells the story of creating a chat system in a virtual world for {{Disney}} under extremely stringent rules that there would be "no swearing, no sex, no innuendo, and nothing that would allow one child (or adult pretending to be a child) to upset another".
-->"OK. That means Chat Is Out of ''[=HercWorld=]'', there is absolutely no way to meet your standard without exorbitantly high moderation costs," we replied.\\
\\
One of their guys piped up: "Couldn’t we do some kind of sentence constructor, with a limited vocabulary of safe words?"\\
\\
Before we could give it any serious thought, their own project manager interrupted, "That won’t work. We tried it for ''KA-Worlds''."\\
\\
"We spent several weeks building a UI that used pop-downs to construct sentences, and only had completely harmless words – the standard parts of grammar and safe nouns like cars, animals, and objects in the world."\\
\\
"We thought it was the perfect solution, until we set our first 14-year old boy down in front of it. Within minutes he’d created the following sentence:\\
\\
'''I want to stick my long-necked Giraffe up your fluffy white bunny.'''\\
\\
''KA-Worlds'' abandoned that approach. Electric Communities is right, chat is out."
* One of the more humorous things about [[MadLibsDialogue Mad-libs]] is the unusual euphemisms you infer from common words when put into an unusual context.
* UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} is famous for the level to which practitioners avoid swearing, which has led to a bunch of [[http://www.google.com/search?q=mormon+swears perfectly straight playing of this trope]]. Maybe it violates the spirit of the thing, but swearing is not completely disallowed so much as generally discouraged.
* The fandom of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' frequently uses "Italian" as a euphemism for "incestuous", after some fans tried to argue that the [[BrotherSisterIncest suspicious]] touchy-feeliness between Nathan and Peter Petrelli was perfectly normal and non-sexual among Italian-Americans (real Italian-Americans then protested that while they did hug their siblings more often than [=WASPs=], they didn't do it '''that way''').
* In China the phrase "hitting airplanes" refers to... self-pleasure.
** Chinese press coverage of [[http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?us_military_specific_cases_and_issues=us_military_tmln_spy_plane_crash_in_china&timeline=us_military_tmln this incident]] must have been interesting.
* A Seattle-area couple once tried to set a world record for having sex. Rather than say "having sex" on air, a local conservative news program substituted "visiting Tukwila", a nearby town which probably didn't appreciate the UnfortunateImplications about their community.
* On ''{{QI}}'', StephenFry related the following entry from an eighteenth-century wager book:
-->"Lord Cholmondely has given two guineas to Lord Derby, to receive 500 guineas whenever his lordship 'plays hospitals' with a woman in a balloon [[MileHighClub 1,000 yards from the Earth]]." For "plays hospitals with" I think you can [[AccidentalInnuendo insert your own]]-- [[LastSecondWordSwap word]]."
* Here's an interesting one in a [[http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/28/italy.catholics.celibacy/index.html letter]] opposing the celibacy rule for Catholic priests (admittedly this has been translated from Italian to English):"The priest, like every human being, needs to live with his kindred, to experience feelings, to love and be loved, and also to conform deeply with another..."
* A lot of fansites for the Toronto Maple Leafs substitute "God" with "Wendel", in tribute to legendary forward Wendel Clark. On at least two of those, "Jesus" is also replaced with "Luke", for defenseman Luke Schenn.
* Back in 2008 in the UK, a few secret documents were leaked from a Government department. One of the arrested politicians was accused by the police of "grooming" a mole. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlwHvT_HW_o Made fun out of]] by ''TheNowShow''.
* Comedienne Monica Piper coined the term “splazoinkas” to make fun of men’s tendency to make up random terms to refer to women’s breasts.
* Thanks to a sex scandal where anti-gay crusader George Rekkers was caught hiring a male prostitute the phrase ''lift my luggage'' has come to be a euphemism for gay sex.
* After [=LeBron=] James' controversial move to Miami, he made a press conference in which he said he was "taking his talents to South Beach". ESPN sports columnist BillSimmons has started to use "taking my talents to South Beach" as a reference to taking a #2.
** "Taking [[UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} the Browns]] to the superbowl" is also a reference to defecation.
* Rocky Colavito was a star for the Cleveland Indians in the 50's. He was traded away by a man named Frank Lane. Several years later he returned to Cleveland, only to fall out with Lane's replacement, a man named Gabe Paul. Some 40 years later, Colavito told reporters that when he still said he "took a Frank Lane" when urinating and "took a Gabe Paul" when...doing the other bathroom thing.
* EM Forster used the phrase 'parting with Respectability' to refer to losing his virginity in letters to a friend. Later, he noted that 'R. has been parted with'. Possibly a case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar given his letters were being censored and homosexuality was still very much illegal in England.
* GeorgeCarlin had a bit about the euphemisms that airlines like to use. Such as:
** "A sudden loss in cabin pressure." = ''Roof flies off!''
** "Water landing." = ''Crashing into the ocean!''
** "Change in equipment." = ''Broken plane!''
* In many places in the American South, a euphemism for an AmbiguouslyGay man is "sugar in his tank" or "sweet", as in "I think Bob has a little sugar in his tank" or "I think Bob is a little sweet".
* In many UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} newsgroups/mailing lists is common to self-censor profanities or expletives using shell variables (e.g.: $GENERIC_EXPLETIVE , dear $DEITY_OF_CHOICE), or commands, e.g.: fsck(8)! [[hottip:*:(8) is the man page section which you must include the too, so you know it's a command [[BlatantLies and not an]] UnusualEuphemism or typo. Using the ''filesystem check'' command as an expletive would be fitting even without this syntax, obviously.]] Sometimes going as far as writing faux code (e.g.: SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0)[[note]]the latter example returns 0 rows[[/note]], or [[FunWithAcronyms devising obscure acronyms]] to insult users with (e.g.: PEBKAC[[note]]Problem Exist Between Keyboard And Chair[[/note]]). Some of this stuff eventually makes its way into other tech savvy circles.
* Many police departments radio codes (and security departments who subsequently adopt the same codes) have "enhanced" them. For example, Las Vegas Metro uses 421A to refer to someone with a mental illness, and 421AAA (Four-twenty-one-triple-A) to refer to someone who is nucking futs. And while 469 is officially a "bar/perimeter check" the term is used for prostitutes.
* In Mexico using the name of almost everything, including fruits, ''especially'' fruits, in the wrong place in the wrong moment will make everyone to laugh. This is because Mexican people love the albur.
* Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described the controversy over the "dodgy dossier" on nuclear weapons in Iraq as "a complete Horlicks".
* After disgraced politician Lord Archer was proven to have lied under oath in court (he denied having paid a prostitute with a thousand pounds in used notes) any sum of exactly £1,000 could also be called ''an Archer'' for short. (Bent politician Jeffrey did time in prison for perjury).
* An urban myth, with a little validity behind it, alleges that British hospitals use the shorthand ''N.F.N.'' in cases where inbreeding or incest are suspected to be the root cause of phytsical/mental abnormalities. ''N.F.N.'' stands for ''Normal For Norfolk'', a very remote rural English county whose principal industry is agriculture.
** Norfolk is apparently one of two counties in England where the midwife attending a pregnancy routinely has to ask if the father of the child is a blood relative. The other is Gloucestershire, another remote agricultural economy whose most famous son is serial killer Fred West.
* Another British medical euphemism is [=PFO=] when referring to someone whose injury is suspected to be alcohol-related ("Pissed, Fell Over", using the British English meaning of "pissed").
* Amongst younger Jews, a "double mitzvah" is a metaphor for sex, especially on Shabbat. This is actually based in Judaism: fulfilling the marital sexual obligation is a mitzvah (a good deed), as is celebrating the Sabbath. Note that the ''married'' portion is key for an actual mitzvah...
* The word, "Tibet" is occasionally used as an expletive by Microsoft employees, particularly those working in speech recognition. The joke has to do with Microsoft having a list of words considered profane that it will discourage its speech recognition from picking up. "Tibet" is on the list due to Chinese sales.