Basic Trope: A character, especially a young child, uses swear words without realizing they're offensive.
- Straight: Charlie learns the word "shit" and begins using it without knowing what it means.
- Exaggerated:
- Charlie learns multiple swear words and uses them constantly without knowing what they mean.
- An outright Precision F-Strike occurs.
- Downplayed:
- Charlie learns a mild swear word (such as "hell", "damn", "ass", or "crap") and starts using it innocently.
- Charlie learns a fictional swear word (used especially more often in media aimed at children) and starts using it innocently.
- Charlie learns a swearless phrase that's still not a very nice thing to say, such as "as if" or "in your dreams", and goes around saying that to people without knowing its meaning.
- Charlie only repeats swearing infrequently.
- Justified:
- Charlie is a young child and is too innocent to know what the swear word means.
- Charlie is otherwise unfamiliar with the English language (either due to being a foreigner, or even a non-human character) and doesn't know that swearing can be inappropriate.
- Charlie is a parrot repeating a word his owner said.
- Charlie believes that swear words are Forbidden Fruit, due to not knowing much about them other than the fact that he's not allowed to say them. He tries to think about what the swear word could mean - judging by some reactions he's seen to the word, he might even think it's a magic word that makes people drop things.
- Inverted: Charles, an adult sees a baby saying "goo goo ga ga". He decides to say it at work, not knowing what it means.
- Subverted: Charlie appears to be saying "damn it", but he's really trying to say "donut".
- Double Subverted: Charlie starts saying "damn it" for real afterward.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: Charlie hears a swear word from somewhere and seems to vaguely understand that it's a swear word, and starts repeating it while telling people that it's a bad word... without realizing that he's swearing himself.
- Averted: Charlie doesn't swear.
- Enforced:
- Swear Word Plot; in these cases, the "swear word" is more likely to be a fictional equivalent if it's a show aimed at children.
- Rule of Funny. Can overlap with From the Mouths of Babes.
- Lampshaded: "Charlie! Where did you learn that word?!"
- Invoked: Someone teaches Charlie swear words without telling him what they mean.
- Exploited: Someone teaches Charlie swear words just to cause trouble.
- Defied: Charlie's parents, Alice and Bob, always wait until Charlie is out of earshot before swearing.
- Discussed: "Why is Charlie saying a swear word? Did he learn that from television or something?"
- Conversed: "Don't swear in front of Charlie or you'll make him learn that word."
- Deconstructed: Charlie gets in trouble for swearing.
- Reconstructed: Charlie's parents learn that he didn't know what he meant, and explain why he shouldn't say those words instead of letting him stay in trouble.
Back to Innocent Swearing
