History Main / CensorDecoy

* The radio edit of Music/LilJon's "Get Low" censored the line "To all skeet skeet motherfucker, to all skeet skeet goddamn!" with a repeated "Skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet". "Skeet" [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a slang term for semen]], and somehow repeating said word multiple times is ''less'' explicit than just two skeets and a PrecisionFStrike.

A form of GettingCrapPastTheRadar (especially if the over-the-top scene is chosen over the toned-down scene, or if the writers often use the Censor Decoy to get whatever they want past the censors and the censors [[WhatAnIdiot keep falling for it]]). Compare CorrectionBait, where you make a glaringly obvious error to get a complainer off your tail, or to be a {{Troll}}. Contrast RefugeInAudacity, which often operates on the premise that some offensive content is ''so'' outrageous that any rational person would have to view it as harmless. Compare {{Surprisingly Lenient Censor}} for occasions when the censors think the edgy stuff is OK.

A form of GettingCrapPastTheRadar (especially if the over-the-top scene is chosen over the toned-down scene, or if the writers often use the Censor Decoy to get whatever they want past the censors and the censors [[WhatAnIdiot keep falling for it]]). Compare CorrectionBait, where you make a glaringly obvious error to get a complainer off your tail, or to be a {{Troll}}. Contrast RefugeInAudacity, which often operates on the premise that some offensive content is ''so'' outrageous that any rational person would have to view it as harmless.

* The 1954 biopic ''Film/DeepInMyHeart'' includes a pas de deux between Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell, set to the song "One Alone", that is obviously a sex scene (it features extremely suggestive partnering moves and concludes with the man in a state of postcoital exhaustion). Charisse, Mitchell, and director Stanley Donen all later admitted to being shocked that the censors failed to realize what was happening; Charisse speculated that they were all too hung up on the high cut of her skirt to notice the actual steps.

* On a meta level, this is one of the ways Yiddish words sneaked into American English. Faced with censorship boards at the studio and local level that would object to certain terminology and phrases in "standard" English, the filmmakers (many were Jewish), would sneak objectionable insults and phrases in via YiddishAsASecondLanguage. The trick only worked until the words caught on, though. Creator/MelBrooks movies all but run on this trope. Another famous example is Spade calling Wilmer a "gunsel" in ''Film/The Maltese Falcon''. Censors at the time assumed it was an odd way of saying gunman, but in Yiddish slang it means a young man kept by an elder one. It's ''still'' under the radar as at least one online dictionary defines the word as "criminal with a gun."

* On a meta level, this is one of the ways Yiddish words sneaked into American English. Faced with censorship boards at the studio and local level that would object to certain terminology and phrases in "standard" English, the filmmakers (many were Jewish), would sneak objectionable insults and phrases in via YiddishAsASecondLanguage. The trick only worked until the words caught on, though. Creator/MelBrooks movies all but run on this trope.

* The original swimsuits worn by Azula and Ty Lee in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' were a lot more revealing. When the censors shot down the original designs. The new designs, which were still risqué, but not as much, were chosen instead.

* It's how Mae West's bawdy one-liners got past UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode in the first place.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Animaniacs}}'' got away with many of their adult jokes by using this tactic, according to [[WordOfGod the creators]] in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's [[http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-animaniacs-tribute-part-2/ Animaniacs Trbute]]. Take UpToEleven with the infamous "fingerprints" bit, which the show's writer admitted was thrown in just to give the censor a laugh but apparently (''somehow'') got through:

* The 1954 biopic ''DeepInMyHeart'' includes a pas de deux between Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell, set to the song "One Alone", that is obviously a sex scene (it features extremely suggestive partnering moves and concludes with the man in a state of postcoital exhaustion). Charisse, Mitchell, and director Stanley Donen all later admitted to being shocked that the censors failed to realize what was happening; Charisse speculated that they were all too hung up on the high cut of her skirt to notice the actual steps.

** In one episode, Joker said to Harley and Ivy, "haven't you been [[LesYay busy little beavers]]"; this actually ''made it in'', but the team chickened out at the last second and changed the word to "bees."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** The episode "Bendin' in the Wind" featured the crew checking out a 1,000-years-old VW hippie van expected to have all kinds of 30th century technology. Farnsworth asks, "Where is the device to speed up or slow down time?" Fry holds up a bong. The commentary track reveals that the script referred to the bong as a "weird bottle" and that they couldn't believe Fox allowed it to stay in.
** The ''Futurama'' writers also use the scene of Fry, Leela, and Amy naked in the same steam room from "Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love" as an example of how the censors let them get away with that scene in comparison to what's being put on the chopping block. Usually, this argument will result in whatever scene the censors want removed to be left in.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon ''An Itch in Time'', about a dog tormented by a flea, one scene has the itching dog scooting across the floor on his backside, then turn to the camera and say "I'd better cut that out, I'm starting to like it!" Reportedly, this was done by Creator/RobertClampett to give UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode something to cut, but they didn't.

Some wily filmmakers realize this and make a simple deduction. If we assume that the censors are going to cut out X amount of scenes no matter what's in the product, then the censors can be distracted by CrossingTheLineTwice, heck, maybe three times. Because that DoubleEntendre about pencils looks pretty darn innocent compared to a ten-minute action-sequence involving [[Film/{{Dogma}} a demon made of crap.]]

* The original swimsuits worn by Azula and Ty Lee in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' were a lot more revealing. When the censors shot down the original designs, the new designs, which were still risqué, but not as much, were chosen instead.

* In Polygon's oral history of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', the character designer Michael Kirkbride got frustrated with Creator/ToddHoward's complaints that stuff he was doing was 'too weird', and started drawing two alternate versions of every design - one that was the one he wanted to be in the game, and one that was "fucking crazy". He would show the extreme design to Howard, who would ask him to tone it down, then present the real version, which Howard would say was perfect.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had an inversion in "Mr. Saturday Knight". The original version had a joke about "half and half", which the censors cracked down on. It was replaced with the ''more'' vulgar "Cleveland steamer", which [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar got past because the writers thought they made the term up]].

* In Polygon's oral history of ''VideoGames/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', the character designer Michael Kirkbride got frustrated with Creator/ToddHoward's complaints that stuff he was doing was 'too weird', and started drawing two alternate versions of every design - one that was the one he wanted to be in the game, and one that was "fucking crazy". He would show the extreme design to Howard, who would ask him to tone it down, then present the real version, which Howard would say was perfect.

* In Polygon's oral history of Morrowind, the character designer Michael Kirkbride got frustrated with Creator/ToddHoward's complaints that stuff he was doing was 'too weird', and started drawing two alternate versions of every design - one that was the one he wanted to be in the game, and one that was "fucking crazy". He would show the extreme design to Howard, who would ask him to tone it down, then present the real version, which Howard would say was perfect.

* InUniverse example in the Literature/{{Xanth}} novel ''Heaven Cent''. Prince Dolph wants to go on a quest with his friend Grundy Golem, but Grundy is a known trouble maker, and he doesn't think his parents will approve. So he comes up with a list of companions he thinks they will find even ''more'' objectionable, so they will acquiesce to Grundy. It backfires, they approve his first suggestion, and he ends up traveling with an animated skeleton.

** A variant was done for the filming of ''Plato's Stepchildren''. The script called for Uhura and Kirk to kiss (commonly and mistakenly referenced as the first scripted, onscreen, interracial kiss on TV at the time), but the network called for the scene to be filmed with and without the kiss, to decide later which to use. William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols deliberately screwed up every take of the non-kiss scene, [[note]]And by "screwed up", we mean that Shatner followed their instructions about "not kissing Uhura" [[BotheringByTheBook to the letter]], by violently shaking her back and forth and bellowing "''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! WON'T KISS! YOU!]] '''[[ChewingTheScenery I! WON'T! KISS! YOU!]]'''''" as [[LargeHam only Shatner can]], reducing the scene to [[{{Narm}} an unusable joke]][[/note]] making the version with the kiss the best option. The producers were prepared for that: someone mentioned that such a risqué (for the time) scene might get cut short, so they modified the script for the scene to take a lot longer than they intended, so even if the censors would object to it, they could suggest to cut down its length as a compromise. In the end, this wasn't even needed.

** A variant was done for the filming of ''Plato's Stepchildren''. The script called for Uhura and Kirk to kiss (the first scripted, onscreen, interracial kiss on TV at the time), but the network called for the scene to be filmed with and without the kiss, to decide later which to use. William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols deliberately screwed up every take of the non-kiss scene, [[note]]And by "screwed up", we mean that Shatner followed their instructions about "not kissing Uhura" [[BotheringByTheBook to the letter]], by violently shaking her back and forth and bellowing "''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! WON'T KISS! YOU!]] '''[[ChewingTheScenery I! WON'T! KISS! YOU!]]'''''" as [[LargeHam only Shatner can]], reducing the scene to [[{{Narm}} an unusable joke]][[/note]] making the version with the kiss the best option. The producers were prepared for that: someone mentioned that such a risqué (for the time) scene might get cut short, so they modified the script for the scene to take a lot longer than they intended, so even if the censors would object to it, they could suggest to cut down its length as a compromise. In the end, this wasn't even needed.

* ''Series/TheGongShow'' regularly offered acts they knew would outrage the censors, so as to get other stuff through. The trick [[SpringtimeForHitler infamously backfired]] when The Popsicle Twins -- two cute girls who sat on stage sucking on popsicles in [[EroticEating the most blatantly suggestive way imaginable]] -- actually made it onto the air. ([[http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/53464/detail/ See it here.]]) The two girls' performance made the live Eastern/Central broadcast, but higher-ups wised up before the Mountain/Pacific showing was due to go on, cutting it from the tape. The incident later made the ''Gong Show Movie.''

* Creator/DavidFincher pulled off something like this with ''Film/FightClub'' (similarly to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone with ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''). A producer ordered him to change the bit from [[Literature/FightClub the book]] in which Marla Singer declares, "I want to have your abortion." Fincher agreed on the condition that the change couldn't be vetoed, and the producer took the bait -- but boy did she regret it. The replacement line? "''Oh my god, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.''" The censor did tell Fincher he could put the old line back in, but he refused.

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'': A variant aimed at book purists. When directing and starring as Literature/HerculePoirot, Creator/KennethBranagh gave himself a [[https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/06/01/15/murderontheorientexpress.jpg frankly ridiculous mustache.]] It was later explained that this was done so that everyone forgot that Poirot was portrayed as blond, graying, tall and fit rather than the book’s rotund, short, HardDyed detective. By all accounts it worked.

* In ''Film/{{Casino}}'', the infamous "head in a vice" scene was added to draw the censor's attention away from the record breaking use of profanity and the other scenes of violence. Apparently, this didn't work, as both the vice scene and the other questionable scenes were left intact. Scorcese tried a similar tactic in ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. This time, only an hour's worth of footage got the ax, though that may have been because of time constraints, not content.