History Main / CensoredForComedy

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' being the kind of show it is, it censors all the time. Then in one sketch, a death-row convict is asked what he wants for his last meal and he says, "Your wife's *bleep*." The prison guard sighs and calls his wife, telling her to bring her famous lasagna to the prison ''again'', and then points out that they need to replace the battery in a smoke detector that made the ''actual'' bleep sound.

--->'''Klaus:''' Hey, what's with the bleep? He said it and she said it, but I can't? I'll give you something to bleep! [bleep] you, you mother[beep]er! You can suck my fat, fishy wiener! ...Oh, you can say "wiener"? Guys, we can say "wiener"!

-->''Cuss like a sailor, drink like a mick, my only words of wisdom are "su-'' '''<RADIO EDIT>'''

* Music/FallOutBoy has a live album titled ''*** Live in Phoenix''. [[WildMassGuessing But what lies behind the *** anyway...?]]. They also have a song entitled "Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued". (actual title: "My Name is David Ruffin... and These are The Temptations").

** In his episodes about ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'', he points out the AccidentalInnuendo with some of the dialogue (e.g. "Are you growing hair in weird places?" between two teenagers), culminating in the main character checking his stomach to find more. Naturally, Jon blurred it out to make it look a bit further south, which cues the FBI to stop the video entirely.

* The LicensedGame for Film/{{Grease}} had very inconsistent censorship regarding the lyrics, as [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Vinny]] [[https://youtu.be/67iQQ673FPA found out the hard way.]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' commonly censors out things [[NothingIsScarier to make articles scarier]] (or to remove names and dates). Thus, multiple joke articles will use the same tactic [[NothingIsFunnier for the opposite effect]]. For example, [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1960-j SCP-1960-J]] states that testing is to be suspended for a censored reason, but anyone familiar with [[spoiler:the Apollo program]] will realize that nothing spooky happened, [[spoiler:[=NASA=]'s budget was just cut and they couldn't afford any more lunar missions]].

* One season of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' featured a contestant whose regular outfit included camouflage-pattern pants. For some reason, CBS censors blurred out the pants, thus making it look like the contestant was pantsless.
** The reasoning (well, "Reasoning(TM)") was probably that camo... somehow... indicated gang affiliation.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In his review of ''3, 2, 1, Smurf!'', WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} randomly bleeps out some of the {{Smurfing}} to make the sentences sound dirty.
[[/folder]]

* Another ''Wheel of Fortune'' gag turns up in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson." Randy is a contestant on the show, having reached the bonus round, and is confronted with the following puzzle phrase (in the category of "People who annoy you"): "N_GGERS". With time running out and after several long moments of hesitation, he finally blurts out [[NWordPrivileges the only answer that occurs to him]]... after which the correct answer is revealed as "NAGGERS".

* During J Michael Straczynski's run on ''The Amazing Franchise/SpiderMan'', JMS had a scene where a Video Editor for a News Station was pulling out archive footage of Spider-Man in battle, all of which involved Spider-Man swearing (covered with bleeps), one of which involved more 'bleeps' than words and one incident where, fighting a Sentinel, Spider-Man says 'Hey buddy, that's not a bag of peanuts you're crushing!'.
* The ''ComicBook/ArcherAndArmstrong'' villain General [Redacted] constantly does this, even to his own name.

* In ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP, the freshman boys' attempts to sneak out of the dorms for the night are hampered by air guns that mark them with an obscene symbol or image that is both embarrassing in and of itself but also exposes them as having tried to sneak out of the academy. Said mark is completely pixelated.

[[caption-width-right:300:There's an F and S revealed already - the obvious answers are bluffs.[[note]]The actual answer is "Go tuck yourself in".[[/note]]]]

* ''Literature/TheTruth'' has a character named Mr. Tulip with an odd VerbalTic - he keeps peppering his speech with a brief pause followed by "-ing" as if he was cursing and being censored. Another character tries adopting this behavior, but leaves out the pause, causing her to just start describing everything as ing.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' features a visual rather than audio example of this trope. In "The Office Job," the characters are performing a con at a greeting card company and during talking-head interviews (a documentary film crew is filming there at the same time - the episode is an homage to ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'') characters hold up a blurred-out greeting card.
* ''Series/FlightOfTheConchords'' - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqxnm6t3QMw "Mother Uckers"]]

* Negativland's song 'Happy Hero' contains the line, 'Accused of fucking teenage boys'. While there is a bleep inserted, it doesn't actually censor the word at all - it's just put between the two syllables, so the resulting line is heard as 'Accused of fuck-[BEEEEP]-ing teenage boys...' Knowing that this is in a verse making fun of how celebrities can get off scot-free for even the most terrible crimes [[ControversyProofImage just because people like them]] makes this beep placement even funnier.

[[folder:Pinballs]]

** In 1987, portions of a televised "debate" between Wrestling/KenPatera and [[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan Bobby "the Brain" Heenan]] – as part of a build-up surrounding Patera's return to the [=WWF=] as a babyface, after serving a two-year prison sentence for a real-life vandalism incident – were "bleeped." Mostly, this was Heenan insulting Patera and calling him a criminal who was unworthy of respect or redemption.

* The game show ''Series/CatchPhrase'' is played by guessing the phrase associated with an animated scene. Correct guesses earn a chance to guess the round's main puzzle - which is uncovered 1/9th at a time. In one famous incident, the contestants and host Roy Walker struggled to contain themselves when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqb-j1cNPhQ the uncovered squares made it appear that the show's mascot, Mr. Chips,]] was pleasuring himself. The answer was [[spoiler:"Snake Charmer"]].

* On [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF70amuZ4g one episode]] of the American ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'', during a game called "Title Sequence", Drew asked the audience for "Unlikely Roommates in a Sitcom". One audience member shouted "Bill Cosby and Hitler!", and the group all looked really excited to run with it... until the director walked over and told them they couldn't use Hitler. Carey and the crew, obviously pissed, ripped on the whole fiasco up until Ryan's fantastic verse during "Hoedown" -

* The broadcast of the 2016 summer Olympics had a score ticker running near the bottom of the screen. This led to unintentional hilarity during the men's swimming and diving competition - if the athletes were standing in the right position, [[https://www.dailystar.co.uk/diet-fitness/537387/Rio-2016-Olympics-naked-swimmers-divers/amp they appeared to be nude and "censored" by the scores]], rather than wearing speedos.

* The radio edit of Ice Cube's "You Can Do It" blanks out the word "ass" in the chorus and replaces it with the sound of a whip cracking and a woman moaning - sounding way more sexual than the original words...

** Also happens on BBC radio when presenters "crash the pips" - accidentally overrun so that their dialogue overlaps with the hourly time signal.

* Music/LilJon's "Get Low" includes the line "skeet skeet, motherfucker!" during the chorus. The radio edit naturally cuts the "motherfucker", but replaces it with "skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet". Creator/DaveChappelle joked that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTqHsMqkb0 only reason]] why "skeet skeet" wasn't censored was because white people didn't know what it meant (it's a slang term for [[spoiler:ejaculating on someone]]), and that they'd have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction if they figured out what they were playing on the radio.

* The radio version of Lily Allen's "Alfie" lets her mention her brother's "lazy arse" but transforms "smoking weed" to "smoking ..." and "high on THC" to "high on ...". It's not even a positive portrayal of drug use and seems especially bizarre.

* MTV does this a ''lot'' with any lyrics relating to [[DoesntLikeGuns guns]], [[ViolenceIsDisturbing violence]] [[WouldntHitAGirl (particularly against women)]], or [[DrugsAreBad drug abuse]]. One example that makes the song sound filthier was the video edit for "Le Disco" by Shiny Toy Guns, which turned "on your back, with loaded guns" into "on your back, with ---".
** There's a line in Music/{{Eminem}}'s "Cleaning Out My Closet" where he refers to his altercation with a guy who was having an affair with his wife:

** MTV censored "shit," "bullets" and "gun," thus destroying a condemnation of violence. [[SeriousBusiness There's probably some kid somewhere who drifted into a life of crime because he never got to hear his idol denounce violence.]]
** Music/{{Everlast}}'s "What It's Like" contains the line "He pulled out his [[spoiler:chrome .45]], talked some [[spoiler:shit]], and wound up dead" on some radio stations. The second bleep is a legitimate swear word, but the first is "chrome .45." The gun-less version easily leads to some bad guesses about what exactly he "pulled out" that got him killed.

* The song Love The Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna is heavily censored on radio stations to get rid of offensive language and references to violence against women. One line is usually completely censored, which inadvertently gives the message that committing arson is okay [[spoiler:by editing out the reference that a woman is being forcibly tied to the bed just before the aforementioned act of arson]]:

[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/this-trope-is-bleep_family-guy_8588.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:300:There's an F and S revealed already - the obvious answers are bluffs.[[note]]The actual answer is "Go tuck yourself in".[[/note]]]]

** In the original standard definition version of the episode “Clubhouses”, in the scene where Randy says “bitch” and his wife reacts as if he said “[[CountryMatters the C-word]]”, the word “bitch” was bleeped out. In the remastered high definition version, the bleep was removed.

** One bit where Ryan and Colin were doing everything like a film noir, the setting was a pizzeria. Ryan’s aside was bleeped out.
---> “Like that pizza, I wanted him [[spoiler:in me]].

-->If she ever tries to [[spoiler:fuckin’]] leave again\\
I’ma [[spoiler:tie her to the bed]] and set this house on fire.

-->'''Rocky:''' Not so bad?! Pu-lease! Dey’re a bunch’a [censored]!\\
'''Pinkie Pie:''' Oh, c’mon now. “[censored]” might be a little strong, don’cha think?\\
'''Sir Lintsalot:''' After the way they treated you? I say “[censored]” isn’t strong enough!

** Most schools have abandoned actual bells to signal the beginning and ends of periods and instead use a tone played automatically over the PA system at a certain time. If a PA announcement is being made while the tone is scheduled to play, this trope happens. It's especially funny if it happens during the national anthem. "Oh, Canada! Our home and *** land!"

* The ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rude_Removal "Rude Removal,"]] which was never aired on television due to complaints from Creator/CartoonNetwork's standards department. As a result, it became a MissingEpisode that, until 2013, was only screened on a few occasions by Creator/GenndyTartakovsky.

* ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'': The first episode adds a pixelated filter over the [[TrashOfTheTitans sink full of dirty dishes]] in Taiga's kitchen, as if it were a violent crime scene. [[NeatFreak Ryuuji]] [[ComicalOverreacting reacts to it]] as if it ''was'' a violent crime scene.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u5ua7uL4aY does this]] with The Non-Fat Yogurt episode after Jerry drops an F-bomb and the store owner's kid starts repeating it.

* In the Octo Expansion DLC for ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', the aptly-named song [[https://youtu.be/m3ihXBVOQbU "#$@%* Dudes Be #$@%* Sleepin"]] features a long censor-bleep in the middle of it, heavily implying that Pearl started singing whatever the Inkling version of swearing is.

* ''LightNovel/{{Shimoneta}}'': While much of what Ayame says and the pictures she shares in her Blue Snow persona do have to be censored in order to meet Japanese broadcast standards, the anime's production staff decided to take advantage of this by using cartoonish caricatures of her and strategic bleeps to go for this. Partially averted in the English dub; some images are still censored for comedic effect but all the language is uncensored.