History Main / SurprisinglyLenientCensor

So you're writing a popular series, and occasionally butt heads with the censors. You've been pushing the envelope of what's acceptable for a while, and while the [[ExecutiveMeddling higher-ups]] are wary about annoying the {{moral guardians}}, your fans love your edgy style. OK, but surely this time you're going too far. You ''know'' that this joke is going too far, that you'll have to remove it and find some way to sneak it in. But screw it, you have to try! You submit it to the censor, and the reply comes back...

You've just run into the surprisingly lenient censor. As it turns out, [[MediaWatchdog censors and rating boards]] aren't (always) the [[TheFundamentalist fanatical puritans]] we tend to imagine them as. Rating boards understand what the age ratings actually mean, and tend not to see hardcore sex in every innocuous frame. Even company censors are capable of considering context, target audience, and whether children will actually see the work. ActuallyPrettyFunny factors in as well- sometimes even the censor agrees that an off-color moment is amusing enough to let pass.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the Joker said to Harley and Ivy, "haven't you been [[LesYay busy little beavers]]"; Fox actually ''let this through'', but the team chickened out at the last second and changed the word to "bees."

You've just run into the surprisingly lenient censor. As it turns out, [[{{Media Watchdog}} censors and rating boards]] aren't (always) the [[{{The Fundamentalist}} fanatical puritans]] we tend to imagine them as. Rating boards understand what the age ratings actually mean, and tend not to see hardcore sex in every innocuous frame. Even company censors are capable of considering context, target audience, and whether children will actually see the work. ActuallyPrettyFunny factors in as well- sometimes even the censor agrees that an off-color moment is amusing enough to let pass.

See also {{Censor Decoy}}, for when material is censored by the creator's intention (hilarity ensues when this trope happens to the decoy), and {{Getting Crap Past the Radar}}, for when stuff is snuck in.

** Likewise, the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E14Raisins Raisins]]" features a joke where one character tells another they're a "continued source of inspiration", only due to a stutter he ends up repeating only the first syllable, "cont" ([[CountryMatters think about it]]). Again, Parker and Stone were pretty surprised Comedy Central didn't cut it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In "Proposition Infinity," [[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6ka4pd/good_news_redditors_we_are_matt_groening_david_x/djkkggo/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 word of Davix X. Cohen]] is that the censors disallowed Bender saying "I'm our A in the hole!" before debating Farnsworth about robot/human marriage. This was changed to "I'm a master debater!" which the censors allowed despite the StealthPun on "masturbator."

You've just run into the surprisingly lenient censor. As it turns out, [[{{Media Watchdog}} censors and rating boards]] aren't (always) the [[{{The Fundamentalist}} fanatical puritans]] we tend to imagine them as. Rating boards understand what the age ratings actually mean, and tend not to see hardcore sex in every innocuous frame. Even company censors are capable of considering context, target audience, and whether children will actually see the work.

* An unintentional version of this occurred early in ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues.'' The creators had thought of a joke in which dad Daryl asks for milk in his coffee and mom Wanda provides it (offscreen) by squirting her breast milk directly into the cup, accompanied with a shout of "Bullseye!", prompting Daryl to remark he was really going to miss it when she stopped breastfeeding. The comic's creators knew this wouldn't be allowed, but sent it to their editor anyway to give her a laugh. What they didn't realize until it was too late was that their editor wasn't in the office that week and her substitute merely waved the strip on through. Rather predictably, it's one of the most popular strips from the comic.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' had this happen unintentionally as well. Jim Davis submitted a strip where Garfield takes catnip and wakes up the next morning in Atlantic City with a Barbie doll and his editor ''approved'' it. [[DontExplainTheJoke However, most]] ''[[DontExplainTheJoke readers]]'' [[DontExplainTheJoke apparently missed the marijuana/prostitution gag as well, which was probably why Davis felt he had to explain it in his twentieth-anniversary retrospective book in 1998.]]

* The Comicstrip/{{Dilbert}} strip in which [[https://dilbert.com/strip/1997-02-11 Alice gets a bonus]]. [[WordOfGod "It's Not Funny If I Have To Explain It"]] includes the commentary of "I was surprised that this one got published."

** When Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone were told they couldn't subtitle the movie ''All Hell Breaks Loose'' because "hell" is a curse in America, they sarcastically suggested calling it ''[[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut Bigger, Longer, and Uncut]]'', and were surprised that the ratings board had no issue with the phallic {{double entendre}}.

* In ''Film/AnimalHouse'', the age of the girl that Pinto seduces was given as 13, as a CensorDecoy so they could revise the age upwards after the inevitable objection and keep the entire scene. There was no objection.

* The creators of ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' were surprised that the censors allowed a scene at a party of Rick going through a girl's handbag, finding a tampon, and having no idea what it is. It's not that the BBC censors weren't paying attention - they did try to cut Vyvyan showing the girls how many pushups he can do, because they thought it looked like he was having sex with the floor so they wanted to cut it.

* When Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone were told they couldn't subtitle the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' movie ''All Hell Breaks Loose'' because "hell" is a curse in America, they sarcastically suggested calling it ''[[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut Bigger, Longer, and Uncut]]'', and were surprised that the ratings board had no issue with the phallic {{double entendre}}.

** Cartoon Network's censors in general (particularly during the era when the channel's programming consisted of classic cartoon shorts from Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer, and Hanna-Barbera; the "Cartoon Cartoons" as original programming[[note]]and shows like ''Samurai Jack'' and ''Justice League'', which were produced by Cartoon Network, but weren't part of the Cartoon Cartoons[[/note]], and miscellaneous syndicated and foreign imports) were surprisingly lenient, which led to the channel's reputation of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar getting away with more than]] Nickelodeon's programming. Shows like ''Johnny Bravo'', ''Cow and Chicken'', ''Ed, Edd, and Eddy'', and ''Time Squad'' are often cited (particularly on this very site) as being the products of Cartoon Network's very permissive[[note]]or, in [[{{MediaWatchDog}} some people's eyes]], very incompetent[[/note]] Standards and Practices department.

** Cartoon Network's censors in general (particularly during the era when the channel's programming consisted of classic cartoon shorts from Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer, and Hanna-Barbera; the "Cartoon Cartoons" as original programming[[note]]and shows like ''Samurai Jack'' and ''Justice League'', which were produced by Cartoon Network, but weren't part of the Cartoon Cartoons[[/note]], and miscellaneous syndicated and foreign imports) were surprisingly lenient, which led to the channel's reputation of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar getting away with more than]] Nickelodeon's programming. Shows like ''Johnny Bravo'', ''Cow and Chicken'', ''Ed, Edd, and Eddy'', and ''Time Squad'' are often cited (particularly on this very site) as being the products of Cartoon Network's very permissive[[note]]or, in some people's eyes, very incompetent[[/note]] Standards and Practices department.

* The famous Portuguese drink ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licor_Beirao Licor Beirao]]'' ("Liquor from the Beira region"). Its slogan? ''O Beirao de que todos gostam'' ("The one from Beira which everybody loves"). Who was "The one from Beira which not everybody loves"? UsefulNotes/AntonioDeOliveiraSalazar, Portugal's then dictator! Yes, they basically pulled a joke on a dictator and the best of all is that he knew about it, didn't try to censor it and ''complimented on the liquor makers [[SelfDemonstratingArticle audacity]]''!

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]", in which [[NoDialogueEpisode everybody loses their voices]], Buffy makes a gesture to indicate staking the demons responsible, which Xander mistakes for a masturbation gesture. On the DVDCommentary, Creator/JossWhedon says he can't believe they let that one in.

-->-- '''Tom Ruegger:''' I mean, we've obviously put that in, and we just said, "Oh, let the censor have a laugh and call us." [''laughs''] And I guess the censor was away that week, because that's still in there. It's amazing.

See also {{Censor Decoy}}, for when material is censored by the creator's intention, and {{Getting Crap Past the Radar}}, for when stuff is snuck in.

* In the ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'' episode "Hush", in which [[{{No Dialogue Episode}} everybody loses their voices]], Buffy makes a gesture to indicate staking the demons responsible, which Xander mistakes for a masturbation gesture. On the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon says he can't believe they let that one in.

* When Trey Parker and Matt Stone were told they couldn't subtitle the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' movie ''All Hell Breaks Loose'' because "hell" is a curse in America, they sarcastically suggested calling it ''Bigger, Longer, and Uncut'', and were surprised that the ratings board had no issue with the phallic {{double entendre}}.

* Carl Macek, who is known for "[[{{Macekre}} editing]]" anime when it's licensed for the U.S., expressed his shock and amazement in a podcast with Anime News Network concerning his work done when editing ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'' for U.S. television. Mainly, the Mazon-aliens in said show were always naked, and there was even a live childbirth on the show (which Macek left intact), and nobody ever said anything. Even people who watched the show never minded it!

* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have stated that they included explicit CensorDecoy material in the film which they could then cut to get the rating they wanted; they were amazed when the explicit version was approved as-is.

So you're writing a popular series, and occasionally butt heads with the censors. You've been pushing the envelope of what's acceptable for a while, and while the [[{{Meddling Executives}} higher-ups]] are wary about annoying the {{moral guardians}}, your fans love your edgy style. OK, but surely this time you're going too far. You ''know'' that this joke is going too far, that you'll have to remove it and find some way to sneak it in. But screw it, you have to try! You submit it to the censor, and the reply comes back...

* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' said in an interview with WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic that they were surprised the infamous "finger prints" joke was left in.

''This is part of an effort to clean up {{Getting Crap Past the Radar}}''

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