History Main / SurprisinglyLenientCensor

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': Subverted with the scene where [[ADateWithRosiePalms Heffer uses a milking machine]] from "The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby." According to Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, they didn't expect the scene to pass, but described it to Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} censors anyway. The censors only responded by asking them to change the hearts in Heffer's eyes to stars, and the scene was otherwise left alone. However, Nickelodeon eventually removed it in reruns.

* Music/{{Eminem}} stated he was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGcXIwVQqFg amazed that MTV]] let them get away with the shot in the "My Name Is" video of a Monica Lewinsky lookalike getting up from behind Slim-as-Bill-Clinton's podium while wiping her mouth.

* After Creator/TomSka signed a 9-video brand deal with Surfshark VPN, he was surprised to find that they would allow sketches that were slightly edgier than he was expecting, so he started deliberately making darker and darker videos just to see where the limit was. He eventually had to give up without ever finding the limit when they approved a video that was just him torturing and killing people as a punishment for not downloading the VPN.

->''At this point, I am so desperate to find the limit that I am erring into territory that even I am uncomfortable with. Specifically, themes like "Coercive suicide", [...] and still, the script gets approved with no edits.''
-->--'''Creator/TomSka''', ''Dear Surfshark, Please Fire Me''

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': According to Mr. Warburton's blog, he's surprised that the executives had next to no notes about Numbuhs 1 and 2 [[LessDisturbingInContext wearing Cree's bras]] in "Operation: S.U.P.P.O.R.T.".

* After Creator/TomSka signed a 9-video brand deal with Surfshark VPN, he was surprised to find that they would allow sketches that were a slightly edgier than he was expecting, and started deliberately making darker and darker videos just to see where the limit was. He eventually had to give up without ever finding the limit when they approved a video that was just him torturing and killing people as a punishment for not downloading the VPN.

* After Creator/TomSka signed a 9-video brand deal with Surfshark VPN, he was surprised to find that they would allow sketches that were a slightly edgier than he was expecting, and started deliberately making darker and darker videos just to see where the limit was. He eventually had to give up without ever finding the limit when they approved a video that was just him torturing someone as punishment for not downloading the VPN.

* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': Creator/SethRogen and Evan Goldberg have stated that they included overly explicit material in the film so they could cut it to [[CensorDecoy get the rating they wanted]]; they were amazed when the explicit version was approved as-is.

** Likewise, the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E14Raisins Raisins]]" features a joke where Jimmy tells Wendy she's 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 that Creator/ComedyCentral didn't cut it out.

See also CensorDecoy, for when material is censored by the creator's intention (hilarity ensues when this trope happens to the decoy), and GettingCrapPastTheRadar, for when stuff is snuck in.

* The famous Portuguese drink ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licor_Beirao Licor Beirão]]'' ("Liquor from the Beira region"). Its slogan? ''O Beirão 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 [[RefugeInAudacity audacity]]''!

* The late Carl Macek, who was 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!

* During the writing of ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', when Creator/AlanMoore asked if he could have the Joker paralyze Barbara Gordon, the response from the editors was supposedly "Yeah okay, paralyze the bitch". This is considered by many, [[CreatorBacklash including Moore himself]], a case where the editors ''should'' have gotten in the way, since Barbara's paralyzation is a blatant case of StuffedInTheFridge.

[[AC:Comic Strips]]
* The creators of ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues'' 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.

'''Pointy Haired Boss''': I just wanted to poke my head in and say hi.

* 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.
* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': Creator/SethRogen 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.

* 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. Later, after Xander beats up Spike for mistakenly believing he had attacked Anya, Anya makes the classic gesture of making a circle with the fingers of one hand and thrusting a finger of the other hand through it. They exit quickly, stage right. To this day, Joss Whedon is unsure how that got past the censors.
* Creator/MichaelMoore was surprised that his show ''TV Nation'' was never censored during its run on Creator/{{NBC}}. Despite criticizing corporate corruption in a manner that did not exclude General Electric, NBC's corporate owner at the time, he actually had a pretty good relationship with the network.
* 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.

* In the original script of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Harley and Ivy", 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."

** When Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone were told they couldn't subtitle the movie ''All Hell Breaks Loose'' because the word "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 (or otherwise didn't notice) the phallic DoubleEntendre.

** 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 that Creator/ComedyCentral didn't cut it out.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Harley and Ivy", the Joker originally 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."

* WordOfGod from Maxwell Atoms, the creator of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', is that the rampant BlackComedy on the show generally got past unopposed. He attributes this to the censors not really being used to dealing with that style of humor, and instead focusing the usual offenders that are crude sex jokes and language.

[[AC:Comics]]

* 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."
-->'''Alice:''' Tonight I find out how big my bonus will be. After all the work I did on that project, I'm thinking four digits, maybe five.
-->[Later...]
-->'''Dilbert:''' How many digits?
-->'''Alice:''' (visibly upset) [[FlippingTheBird I used one on each hand.]]
** He's also said that this conversation was probably the worst he ever got away with:
-->'''Dilbert''': Ahh... sweet cubicle, I have returned from my trip.
-->'''Dilbert (thinking)''': It's just like being in a womb.
-->'''Pointy Haired Boss''': I just wanted to poke my head in and say hi.

* WordOfGod from Maxwell Atoms, the creator of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', is that the rampant BlackComedy on the show generally got past unopposed. He attributes this to the censors not really being used to dealing with that style of humor, and instead they focused more on clamping down on crude sex jokes and language.

** 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 DoubleEntendre.
** 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 Creator/ComedyCentral didn't cut it.

* Jim Davis submitted a strip where ComicStrip/{{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.]]