Bowdlerise - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Bowdlerize; Bowdlerized; Bowdlerization; Bowdlerised; Bowdlerisation

I'd put a caption here, but it'd probably be considered offensive and removed.

"With ABC deleting dynamite gags from cartoons, do you find that your children are using explosives less frequently?"
— Mark LoPresti

Some days I pray for silence

Some days I pray for soul

Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll

—Meat Loaf

I'm gonna fill your hoo-hah with goof juice!

—Patton Oswalt giving an example of cleaned up filth.

To alter existing programs, plays, etc. so they are less rude and/or offensive. Used in a very negative sense, by those who think the alterations are often done with a ridiculously high fear of lawsuits and/or need for political correctness.

North American releases of anime are frequently targeted with this accusation. Differing cultural norms create separate notions of what is okay to show on television, but some companies in their attempts to stomp out any preliminary complaints from Media Watchdogs and Moral Guardians are quite famous for going undeniably overboard. This may be because of the American perception that cartoons are for kids, so that shows meant for slightly higher age groups that aren't specifically marketed to them are edited down. In fact, one of the most notable Bowdlerizers is actually named 4Kids Entertainment.

This can also be done to movies that were originally made for television in an era where standards were looser. TV movies once lauded for their daring when first aired are now edited as much as any R-rated theatrical film when rebroadcast.

Named after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who first did it on The Bible and Shakespeare's plays; for instance, changing Ophelia's drowning from suicide to accident. It's worth noting that Bowdler himself created his "Family Shakespeare" versions as a way to introduce Shakespeare's plays to audiences who would otherwise be barred from experiencing them at all, and actively encouraged people to seek out the originals. Sadly, this cannot be said of most modern Bowdlerisers.

Americanitis can often contain elements of Bowdlerization. See T Word Euphemism for a mild form of bowdlerization. See also Macekre (which specifically refers to Bowlderization in translated works and refers more to the final product than the process) and Disneyfication (which generally goes further, in not only removing content, but adding new, "kid-friendly" content). See Bluenose Bowdlerizer for when it happens here on the wiki. Sometimes the Bowdlerizing becomes Narm. The opposite is essentially what happens when American Kirby Is Hardcore.