Misused: Precision F-Strike

This trope was originally "a character who rarely or never swears, uses a harsh swear word like "shit" or "fuck" to convey how serious the situation is."

However its getting grossly misused in and around the site, being literally potholed to any instance of a character saying any swear word, whether or not that swear is even harsh enough for or regardless of if the character already swears like a sailor as is. Even if the sentence itself or whatever the moment is isn't really that serious. I think its quite silly how this trope is almost immediately potholed to whenever someone transcribes a swear.

I'm opening this one to move it to Short-term Projects (although it may turn-out to be a long-term Project, we'll see.). There's nothing wrong with the page or the name, it just needs a wick clean-up. That's not something that needs TRS.

edited 30th Apr '14 4:59:41 AM by Madrugada

Ah alright. Yeah I forgot about that. Thanks for giving this a look BTW.

I've seen examples of this trope that were cut, but really fit the style and the purpose of the trope in every way, except for not actually using a curse word. For example, this deleted example from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:

Fluttershy from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of all ponies had one in Putting Your Hoof Down, during her increasingly rage-filled tirade against Pinkie Pie and Rarity. It's not exact, but the word used is an obvious substitution and probably constitutes a real curse word in-universe: —> Rarity: Now, stop right there! Let's not let things descend into petty insults.
Fluttershy: Why not? I thought "petty" was what you're all about, Rarity, with your petty concerns about fashion.
Pinkie Pie: Hey, leave her alone; fashion is her passion!
Fluttershy: Oh, and what are you passionate about? Birthday cake? Party hats? I can't believe that the two most frivolous ponies in Ponyville are trying to tell New!Fluttershy how to live her life, when they are throwing their own lives away on pointless pursuits that nopony else gives a flying feather about!

So, yeah, she doesn't actually say "fuck," (they'd never get away with that) but the way she says it really provides the same impact and tone that this trope was intended for. So, I'm wondering about this. Should this example count?

edited 18th May '14 4:12:39 PM by Rethkir

Its not even a swear to start with so its kinda reaching but I suppose?

No, it's not a swear, but it's treated as if it is, and in this context, it carries the same weight. The character saying it is going though a case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business, as the way she acts in this scene is very different from her normal personality, which is quiet and sweet. And she puts extra emphasis on the word: feather.

I'd say that quite a good example, personally. Given the nature of the show, there's never going to be any real profanity, but it seems to fit very well with this part of the definition: "The Precision F Strike is when swearing is used to effectively to add weight to the sentence, and the larger situation at hand. The most common way of doing this is when a normally sweet-natured character swears,... 'Seemingly equivalent words may be used similarly, but without the impact of an actual expletive "

edited 18th May '14 5:23:56 PM by Madrugada

Yeah. you got a point there. Yeah it works actually.

My issue is people using it on characters that are not really THAT sweet natured, who already swear enough as it is (With the very weak justification that "They don't normally say the f word so its totally okay") or even say the F word a lot anyway in rare circumstances.

Thanks for the clarification. I put the example back with a little bit of tweaking to the description.

The trope isn't about using swear words. It's about using strong language decisively when it's not the norm of the person using it.

edited 19th May '14 1:56:57 AM by AnotherDuck

Yes I get that. My problem is when applying it to people for whom it is the norm to use strong language. Particularly IF they use the eponymous F word on an often basis.

This is way, WAY too misused; I see it potholed every time the word fuck is used on the whole damn wiki.

Its also worrying used on a lot of characters who's nature it is to swear or speak informally and harshly anyway with the weak excuse that "They don't use the F word so is totally okay!"

Sorry for the old double post but I've been informed that I forgot to include specific examples of this trope being misused. Here's what I found after trawling the wiki search function:

• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/PrecisionFStrike/VideoGames For example, many examples on the Video Game page of PFS count characters who say the F word even if they swear a lot anyway, which is misuse.
• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/EmilieAutumn Potholing "frickin'" to this trope. "Fricking" isn't even that serious a word and this is basically incredibly reaching for an excuse to shove it in anyway.
• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival The use of the word "shit" written in the troper POV. I'm sure that's not how you're meant to use the trope, we don't know how a troper normally speaks, whether its actually proper usage or if swearing is the norm for tropers.

I'm sure there's other examples I've missed, feel free to add examples of misuse that you find around the place.

^ The "frickin'" thing could be an example if it happened in-universe. But as it's the troper who says so, it's not an example. As you said, we don't know how the troper usually talks, so they can't serve as an example of this trope.

This should not be a troper pothole. At all. Unless it's a character who uses it in-universe who has the proper manner of speech for the trope, it should be gone. In my opinion.

Had to nix another example in regards to Joel of Vinesauce fame. He says the F word a lot anyway but naturally people slap this trope on him for his Rollercoaster Tycoon video. So really him using "fuck" is not that serious. I guess Atomic F-Bomb?

In fact, guys I'm just gonna come right out and say it: At best, this trope just needs serious tweaking or cleaning up, at worst, its the new I Am Not Making This Up.

IANMTA was phrased as a handy quote so it was a misuse magnet. This one has potential to be a normal trope, but it needs some serious cleaning and policing.

edited 25th Aug '15 8:42:16 AM by Rjinswand

True. Some considerable policing and cleaning.

That's an example of neither. He swears way too much casually and just typing it in caps is kind of underwhelming. Or was there something else in that video I missed?

Nah, I think you were on the nose there.

EDIT: Nixed another example on the Streets Of Rage Saga page's CMOA sub-page. Was Sinkholed onto Blaze Fielding's line when she kills the villain for good: ("Go to hell, motherfucker!")

I'm not joking when I say that Blaze says the F word so much its practically her catchphrase throughout that entire saga. Her calling the villain a motherf—-er pre-kill isn't really that special or deserving of the trope slapping-on even if its aparticularly impressive moment. Once again, missing the point of the trope.

edited 26th Aug '15 10:02:48 AM by MightyKombat

Part of the problem is the description. Literally the first sentence on the trope page is this:

That describes approximately every single time anyone swears ever.

I think that's just awkward phrasing. It needs to be rephrased to make it more clear.

I think the original purpose behind the trope was "Person who almost or never swears let's out a swear word in order to emphasize how serious the situation is." The original caption was Data from Star Trek uttering "shit." Given that he's an android who's mostly about logic and I guess professionalism, it fit perfectly since he never seemed to swear either.

Another, weirder example, is Spike Witwicky shouting "Shit!" in the 80s Transformers movie.

That is exactly what the intent is. The trope description does a poor job of communicating that, though, especially since some people never read past the first paragraph before they start adding examples. The first paragraph is the most important part of the description and sets the stage for how people perceive the trope.

Precision F-Strike's first paragraph is

This language is too soft. It implies that any instance of swearing is a Precision F-Strike and that examples from characters in which it's OOC are merely a suggested place to start looking. Especially that pothole at the end; while Precision F-Strike is a form of O.O.C. Is Serious Business, that pothole suggests that swearing where it's abnormal is that trope instead of this one, and that's patently false.

edited 10th Sep '15 12:20:26 PM by TobiasDrake