Censor Suds

A large blob of foam, which up until that point had been performing sterling service in the cause of the essential decencies, slipped slowly to the floor.
"Well?" he snapped. "Haven't you lot seen a wizard before?" A watchman snapped to attention and saluted.
"Captain Carrot, sir. We've, er, never seen so much of a wizard, sir."

— Night Watch Discworld

Much like Censor Steam, this trope is when a character is taking a bubble bath and seems to have the suds from the bath conveniently covering the private parts of their body when they get out, and also while inside of the bath. In real life this does happen, but not nearly so selectively as this trope might lead you to believe. On top of that, the suds in real life will slide off one's body and it would take a lot (as in, the tub would have to look like a root beer float or a beer that's mostly head) to cover the naughty bits completely.

Since bubble baths originated about the same time as the film industry, it's been suggested that the idea was invented by the film industry, so they could show women in the bath without showing naughty bits.

If they're bathing outdoors, the character's modesty will more likely to be preserved by either Lens Flare Censor, or Scenery Censor.

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Examples

Advertising

• Censor Suds (and a variant, shower lotion suds) are frequently used as a device in advertisements for bath and shower products. Advertising in English-speaking countries such as the USA and Great Britain is constrained by rigorous expectations as to how much bare female flesh can be seen on screen. Censor suds are liberally used in an attempt to square this particular circle - "how do we imply people bathe naked, without actually at any point showing it?" Comparable European adverts, however, suggest Dutch or French or German bath soaps give you a lot less bubble for your euro, and the emphasis here is on cleansing the body.

Anime and Manga

• In episode 49 of Dragon Ball Z, Bulma stands up in her bubble bath and bends over, conveniently covered by soap suds.
• In Soul Eater, Blair, Tsubaki, and others are conveniently (barely) covered in soap suds.
• In the second episode of 009-1, Mylene Hoffman has bubbles conveniently covering her breasts as she gets out of her bubble bath.
• In Inuyasha, there is a rare male example. Inuyasha has convenient bubbles/houseplant/etc. upon him bursting out of the bath.
• Played with in Sailor Moon: Fish-Eye at one point takes a shower, and we see suds covering his chest. Apparently, he got a little too into the part (and before anyone asks, yes, they were there originally).
• Done to Rushuna in the 11th episode of Grenadier when she knocks a guard out with a scrub brush.
• Training with Hinako vol. 3 makes ample use of suds, seeing as Hinako and Hiyoko are naked for pretty much the whole OVA.
• One round in the XY chapter of Pokémon Adventures features an Electrike stealing Y's clothes, so her Froakie uses its frubbles to cover her up. For the English translation, Viz drew in a modest sports bra underneath, making Froakie's foam seem redundant.
• Ranma ½:
  • Sometimes used in the manga on the (few) non-Gender Bender female characters that Takahashi is reluctant to draw naked, such as Akane.
  • Played for Laughs in one instance of the black-and-white manga. Akane seems to be naked in the bath when Ranma, in a ploy by the family to get him to peep on her, barges in. The suds on her chest and hips make it SEEM like she's still naked when she pulls his head around to force him to look at her... but she's actually wearing a one-piece swimsuit. The suds were only disguising the edges.
• At the end of the ice palace episode of Sonic X, Rouge the Bat is seen taking a bath, holding a fake Chaos Emerald in her hand. Bubbles cover everything. Oddly, she's wearing her White Gloves in the bath.
• Subverted in Girl Friends (2006): Mari deliberately applies this to herself when she and Akko are exchanging bath photos with their cell phones. Akko... not so much.
• When Minerva and Mirajane from Fairy Tail are stripped naked and placed in Tartaros' regeneration/demon-creating tube tanks, bubbles cover their nipples and genitals. However, since it isn't an actual bubble bath, but mostly clear water with a few bubbles, everything else is visible.
• Exaggerated in the Galaxy Express 999 episode "The Land of Confession". The Conductor, despite being entirely alone, still hides his entire body in suds while bathing, which also hides his invisibility from the audience at first.

Comic Books

• Harley & Ivy features a scene where Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are using Arkham Asylum's showers, with their breasts and pudendum mostly obscured using Censor Steam and conveniently placed soap bubbles.
• Loki: Agent of Asgard has a male example (well, genderfluid, but usually male) during their opening Shower of Awkward. In fact, it goes one better once Loki's out of the shower — one panel has a very strategically placed speech bubble censor.
• Zatanna: Everyday Magic: During Zatanna's Bathtub Scene the bubbles cover all of her important bits. Even when she stands up in the tub, the bubbles still stay glued to her chest to preserve her modesty.
• Tibbi And Her Time Traveling Psychedelic Mushrooms#1: When Tibbi is tripping inside of her bathtub and travels back to the age of the dinosaurs bubbles cover her chest and puddendum.

Comic Strips

• Despite frequently being seen naked, and the audience getting very clear views of her breasts and bottom, Lynne of George and Lynne always had the censor suds around her nether regions when seen in the shower.

Fan Works

• Invoked by Pearl in Chapter 7 of I've Got Your Back, and for a distinct lack of fanservice. Whenever she has to help an injured Marina bathe, she deliberately overloads the tub with bath bombs to give Marina the security that she won't be seen naked. All this, on the off chance that Pearl's makeshift blindfold^note , a pair of pilot goggles stuffed with clean black socks, were to fail.

Films — Animated

• In The LEGO Movie, when Emmet is showering, he is up to the waist in LEGO suds, Brick #6254.
• In an earlier version of Turning Red, Mei would have tried having a relaxing bath with the suds covering everything but her head, hands and feet.

Films — Live-Action

• Bad Apples: Near the start of the movie, Ella is seen enjoying a relaxing bath. The tub water is covered in bubbles, so all we see is her head and knees.
• Happens in Barb Wire. Kind of pointless, since Barb was shown stripping in the first scene anyway.
• Exit 0: When Lisa is taking a bath on her and Billy's first night in the Doctor's Inn, the surface of the water is completely sovered in suds. As a result, the only parts of her that are visible are her head and legs.
• The script for Futtock's End specifies that General Futtock emerges from the bathroom "clad only in soap-suds, of which, for propriety's sake, there are a great many."
• Gozer the Gozerian seems to be permanently covered in these in Ghostbusters (1984).
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter invokes this trope when Moaning Myrtle appears in the boys' bathroom while he's taking a bath and trying to solve the golden egg mystery.
• In the movie Howard the Duck, though a lady duck was bathing bare in the original version, there was a mountain of suds to cover her bare bosom in the televised version!
• After getting out of the bath in Pretty Cool Too, Brittany has a mixture of these and camera angles, though her boobs are prominently on display.
• In the Australian retraux Lesbo A Go Go (2003). Like the no-budget exploitation films it homages, the bathtub scene uses censor suds to suggest nudity while actually delivering very little.
• Johnny Reno: Some strategically clinging suds protect Nona's modesty when she jumps out of her tub when Johnny walks in on her bathing. She could have sworn she locked that door.
• In Boy Did I Get A Wrong Number, model Didi is thrown in to a bathtub and has her dress ripped off, leaving her naked in the tub. She then flees the set with her only clothing being the suds wrapped around her, until she finds a coat to wear.
• During one scene in 12 Chairs (2016), Ernesta is taking a shower when her electricity turns off. She ventures into her apartment hallway naked, with soap suds barely covering her important parts, and gets caught by a neighbour after her door closes behind her.
• The Ramrodder: When Lucy stands up out of her bath, her breasts are fully exposed but suds clinging to her crotch preserve a modicum of modesty.
• In Call Me Bwana, Luba visits Matt in his tent while he's taking a bath. He invites her in, saying the Jungle Jazz bubble bath will cover everything.
• in Saturday the 14th (1981)'s Bathtub Scene, the suds stick to Debbie's breasts a little TOO well.
• Prehistoric Women: When Queen Kari addresses David from her bath, her modesty is preserved by copious foamy bubbles. Exac tly where a prehistoric queen got access to bubble bath is a question probably best not thought about too much.
• Up Pompeii: A Roman soldier stumbles into a bathroom where Madeleine Smith is in the bath: he begs her not to scream, she responds by standing up (her modesty protected by a few strategically placed bubbles) and says, "I won't if you promise to stay!"
• This was done to comic effect in The Invisible Woman (1983). Because Alexa Hamilton's character was an Invisible Streaker, only her pubis had any soap suds on it when she rose to leave the bathtub.

Literature

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sees Harry go to the Prefects' bath, which is filled with various types of suds and bubbles, to figure out the egg clue for the Second Task. This proves useful when Moaning Myrtle crashes the party. This is done in the film version as well. Myrtle also admits to perving on Cedric Diggory when he was figuring out the clue. He remained long enough for the bubbles to vanish.
• Ridcully has them in Night Watch after a magical explosion sends his bathtub sailing outside, but they slide off and he has to borrow a hat.
• The Starchild Trilogy: In The Reefs of Space, when Steve Ryeland accidentally bursts in on the beautiful daughter of Earth's leader while she's in her bath, the authors quickly mention that the only things poking out of the bubbles are one knee, two arms, and a head.
• Invoked in I, Q by Melony. Despite being an Innocent Fanservice Girl, she creates a dress of sea foam when she finds Q's son.
• The title character of the children's book Nuddy Ned spends the entire book not wearing any clothes, with conveniently located objects covering up his private parts. The first time he's seen in the book, his nudity is covered up by bubble bath suds.
• In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the protagonist is sharing a hotel room with a woman who is not one of his wives. He hands her a drink while she's in the bathtub, but notes "nor had I seen sights; she was shoulder deep in happy suds". (Although Lunar society doesn't have much of a nudity taboo in any event.)
• Hilda and Richie: While taking a bath with Richie, Hilda is covered up by soap suds. Justified as this is a children's book.
• Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Giant Monster has Pretty Bubbles use this as her superhero costume, the bubbles she controls used to cover her body.

Live-Action TV

• Hunter (1984). In the pilot episode, Hunter thinks Dee Dee's life is in danger and bursts in on her to find she's in a bath covered in Censor Suds. Hunter jibes her about wanting a bubble bath in contrast to the tough cop facade she puts up.
• Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye had Sue take a bath in a tub completely piled with soapsuds. The only skin showing was her neck, head, and arms. For some reason, a snippet of this scene made it into the Opening Theme sequence.
• Wings does this with Helen in one episode, and for a good cause since her 'husband' Antonio showed up.
• Duncan's bathtub scene in Highlander: The Series episode "Chivalry".
• Cole's bathtub scene in Tracker (2001). Amusingly enough, Cole is played by the same guy as Duncan from the Highlander example above!
• Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond. Ian Fleming finds his Love Interest using his bathtub. She notes that to fulfill this trope, she's using more than the six inches of bathwater allocated by wartime regulations.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: In the second episode of season 2, Susie takes a bath on the Weissmans' tub, high as a kite, which is filled with suds. Midge's friend Imogene finds her [Susie] there and demands to know who she is, and also observes that Susie used an entire bottle of Rose's pink soap, which Imogene says is overkill.
• The Magician: In "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit", Tony is set up and sent to met a Professional Killer in a hotel room: The assassin turns out to be woman who greets Tony in the bath: her modesty protected by the bubble bath.
• Monarch of the Glen: Used in Archie's bath, until the sassy Lexie pulls the plug out.
• Will & Grace: Used whenever Karen is shown taking a bath. One set of Hilarious Outtakes included a clip of the director asking Megan Mullally to adjust the bubbles to make sure she's properly covered up.

Magazines

• A '60s Playboy cartoon shows a film crew surrounding a pretty person in a bubble bath, from which the director has just pulled the plug: "OK – and now we shoot the European version..."

Professional Wrestling

• Jawsolyn, in this picture from her Instagram.

Theatre

• In Tanz Der Vampire, when Alfred finds Sarah (on whom he has a crush) in the castle, she is bathing. Several productions don't use real bubbles for this, though — she is covered with thick layers of spongy white pillow filling, which are completely opaque.

Toys

• LEGO Minifigures: The Series 19 Shower Guy has nothing on under his towel, but there's a lot of bubbles printed around his nether regions to obscure anything that may be seen.

Video Games

• In the old CD-ROM game Babyz, censor suds will act as an inpromptu diaper after you take the baby out of the bath, and will go away only with the application of a fresh diaper.
• Forget about seeing Censor Suds in Phantasy Star Nova, you can wear them as an outfit! ... After you craft them.
• Geist has your character needing to possess a scientist who is taking a shower at the time you encounter her. Trying to catch a peek at her and her friends has their unmentionables covered in soap suds when they're not covered with towels.
• One of the downloadable costumes in Gal*Gun 2 is this, where the girls are covered with patches of soap, with rings of it around their chests and waists. Exaggerated with the "underwear" of the costume, where the soap is reduced to nothing but small patches over the breasts and crotch.
• In The LEGO Movie Videogame, Emmet's shower variant produces bubble-like particle effects that follow him wherever he goes.
• In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, one substory involves a man who rushes out of a soapland, naked except for a coating of soap bubbles, when he learns that his grandmother has been hospitalized. He can't go to the train station in his current state but he's also been banned from re-entering the soapland, so he can't retrieve his clothes. He begs Ichiban to escort him to the nearest clothing store before the bubbles pop.
• Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitare: Bell's final "costume" is just her naked, with only a few patches of soap suds keeping her modest.

Visual Novels

• NekoMiko: Ayame and Kaede get these when the Player Character bathes them.

Webcomics

• Bernard from Angel Down has some in his Shower Scene.
• This◊ entry from Cat vs. Human.
• Brandi is seen like this in the shower in one Wapsi Square strip.
• Ménage à 3 uses this trope as comedy and the strip's desired not-actually-pornographic rating demand — it's that sort of Sex Comedy. It's most dramatically and impressively demonstrated by Amber in strip #662 (October 23, 2012), which probably has to rate as NSFW, despite the fact that nothing is actually showing; similarly, Maura uses them to implausibly full effect in strip #1183 (June 16, 2016), and Tess does likewise in strip #1325 (July 22, 2017).
• Red's modesty is preserved by suds in Page 9 of this Girls in Space strip.
• A superhero comic by Chimneyspeak's author has a shower gel with "with censorship bubble™ placement technology".

Web Original

• In the Lady Lumps VS Boy Bumps video "Dr. Doom Likes to Watch", everyone whom Doctor Doom watches shower is censored by bubbles.
• Bad Days has bubbles cover The Thing's crotch when Doctor Doom accidentally walks in on him showering.

Western Animation

• At about 1:07 during this series of syndicated local-TV-movie openings.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward runs out of his bubble bath still naked, covered by bubbles, as they slowly pop one by one. Subverted afterwards as it turns out there is nothing to hide under the bubbles.
• In Caillou, one episode shows Caillou's parents bathing him with suds covering his privates.
• Invoked and then defied in the Futurama episode "Near-Death Wish", when Professor Farnsworth insists on giving a piece of backstory from the bath. Leela adds bubble bath so she and Amy can stand to look at him, but then he stands up, giving the audience a full view of his wrinkly behind.
• In the Adventure Time episode "Blood Under the Skin", Finn must run past a series of people taking showers in a swamp, all of whom sport these.
• Invoked the King of the Hill episode "DaleTech." Kahn, refusing to get a privacy hedge in front of his bathroom window, harasses Hank by showering in plain view of him. He makes what he calls a "sud bikini" from his soap, not out of modesty but to mess with him.
• In the first episode of Velma, Daphne and her peers are seen taking a shower in the school gym shower with censored suds covering them.

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