History Main / FunWithAutocensors

FunWithAutocensors can take two forms:
* Replacing profanity with [[WordSaladHumor random words]], [[UnusualEuphemism invented nonsense]], [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness pedantic synonyms]], InherentlyFunnyWords, terms relevant to the board subject, or terms with an ironic relation to the swear (such as "[[StockYuck liver and onions]]" for "crap" or "shit").
* Replacing non-profane words (those referring to banned topics, overused memes and slang, or common words selected at random) with ones from the above-mentioned categories, or even with profanity or insults.

!Examples of Type 1:
* Back in the early 90s Penn Jillette in his column for ''[=PC/Computing=]'' recommended that when spellchecking after using profanity, always use the first alternative given because that way it can get published and everyone will still know what you meant. As he put it Computers and editors "don't know [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiite shiite]]."

!Examples of Type 2:

!Examples of both:
* The Freakin' Awesome Network board (formerly the original {{Wrestlecrap}} message board) used both types of word filtering: Type 1 for the usual swear words (e.g., profanity was changed to "[[TheSmurfs Smurf]]" or "[[TheSnorks Snork]]"), and Type 2 for words that their mods don't want to hear (e.g., at one time, Kent Jones, self-proclaimed [=YouTube=] "shooter", was filtered into "Can't Shoot" or "I like tired fads", {{Batista}} was filtered to "Basketball Jones", and "Vintage" became "Vonage"). And in the case of Type 2, the mods will still warn the posters not to type around the filters, even if it's a legit question. Currently, for Type 1, they asterisked the swear words.

* At least one LEGO fan board replaces all swear words with "Megablocks."

* A few years ago The Elder Scrolls Forums used to replace the word "ass" with "spotted owl" and "asshole" with "spotted owl habitat". They had other odd replacements for various swear words, but the "spotted owl" became so popular that people still typed it in when they went to just using [CENSORED] for everything. They even have a spotted owl emoticon.
** Also on said forums, typing "4Chan" will give you a [CENSORED] tag, [[TakeThat typing "In Soviet Russia" will give you "I am not funny"]], and "Oblivion sucks" will turn into "The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is the best game in the universe".

* ''Truth And Beauty Bombs'', formerly the ''DinosaurComics'' forum, had a number of humorous filters. "ladies and gentlemen" became "cats and kittens", "blowjob" became "lingering kiss on a CRAZY part of the body" and "cock" became "rooster OR reproductive organ (context permitting)". And, as a pun on the word 'filter', "saltwater" became "desalinated, potable water".

* The KingdomOfLoathing forum censors the "word" alot. It's smart enough to only censor the word when it's the entire word, but it ''isn't'' smart enough to avoid censoring it when it's part of a url, leading to a Scunthorpe-like problem when people try to link, for instance, [[http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html here]].

Examples of type 1:

Examples of type 2:

Examples of both:
* The former {{Wrestlecrap}} message boards used both types of word filtering: Type 1 for the usual swear words (e.g., profanity was changed to "Smurf" or "Snork"), and Type 2 for words that their mods don't want to hear (e.g., at one time, Kent Jones was filtered into "Can't Shoot" or "I like tired fads", {{Batista}} was filtered to "Basketball Jones", and "Vintage" became "Vonage"). And in the case of Type 2, the mods will still warn the posters not to type around the filters, even if it's a legit question.

** Also on said forums, typing "4Chan" will give you a [CENSORED] tag, and [[TakeThat typing "In Soviet Russia" will give you "I am not funny."]]

* The ''{{Jack}}'' webcomic forums replace "Matt" with "dolphinfucker". Apparently, the wife of one of the admins had a rather unpleasant ex-husband named Matt.
** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint One of the admins is married to a dolphin?]]

* Certain Imageboards do this on purpose and censor words that aren't actually offensive while not censoring the offensive words. This leads to things like turning 7 into Over 9000, Femanon into Cumdumpster, and Peanut Butter into The N-word. For a while Source was wordfiltered to Sauce.

* The former {{Wrestlecrap}} message boards used both types of word filtering: Type 1 for the usual swear words (e.g., profanity was changed to "Smurf" or "Snork"), and Type 2 for words that their mods don't want to hear (e.g., at one time, Kent Jones was filtered into "Can't Shoot" or "I like tired fads", {{Batista}} was filtered to "Basketball Jones", and "Vintage" became "Vonage").

-->The only crypt shop you'll ever need! Dismembered corpses available with squirming maggots! Safe! Legal! Cheap! [[hottip:+:the word "viagra" was also replaced with "fungi" in their url, prompting moderators to leave the whole thing intact since the link was broken.]]

*** The [[CrowningMomentOfFunny funniest]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome best]] example was when TNT decided to do a grand TakeThat at {{Twilight}}, wordfiltering Twilight into MyLittlePony, Stephenie Meyer into [[TheSimpsons Krusty the Clown]], Bella Swann into Clara Chatham, Edward Cullen into Roxton Colchester III, Jacob Black into Jordie, vampire into Xweetok, werewolf into Werelupe, and at least one of the actors from the movie into [[TotallyRadical Nick Neopia]].

** The fact that ''SpongebobSquarepants'' was often said to live in Cardinal Bottom was rather less optimal.

* '{{Neopets}}'': Too bad if your RP character's wearing a bikini -- it'd inevitably get switched to "cardigan".

* In ''BobAndGeorge'', the phrase "There is no {{plot hole}}!" is something of a RunningGag. The forums reflect this by automatically filtering "plot hole" to "spoon". (Because, as ''TheMatrix'' taught us, there is no spoon, either.)

* On one politics messageboard "Republican" was changed to "Elephant" and "Democrat" was changed to "Donkey". Tended to cause some confusion amongst new posters.

* The {{Starflyer 59}} fan messageboard at sf59fans.com copies Jason Martin's set of UnusualEuphemisms: "shit" becomes "shin", "fuck" becomes "eff", "damn" becomes "D", and so on.