Basic Trope : An episode that involves swearing as a plot, often as An Aesop.
- Straight: On an episode of "Alice and Bob", the titular characters learn a swear word and begin teaching it to almost everyone they know. Eventually, they say the word around their parents, which causes them to get in trouble and learn about why swearing can be inappropriate.
- Exaggerated: "Alice and Bob" is a children's show, but an actual swear word is used in this episode.
- Downplayed: The swear word is something minor, such as "stupid", or is a fictional equivalent of a swear word.
- Justified: The titular characters of "Alice and Bob" are children, and as a result, they're likely to be curious about what swear words are.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob's parents teach them that swear words are cool and they should say them.
- Alice and Bob's parents get mad when they say normal words that aren't swears.
- Subverted: It turns out that Alice and Bob were mispronouncing something as a swear word.
- Double Subverted : ...Until they say the swear word for real at the end of the episode.
- Parodied: The word in question is actually a perfectly polite word that the parents have deluded themselves into thinking is inappropriate.
- Zig Zagged: It keeps going back and forth between whether Alice and Bob are actually saying swear words, or simply sounding as if they are.
- Averted: There is no episode about swearing.
- Enforced: "Alice and Bob" is a children's show that often teaches lessons, so the writers want to teach kids about why swearing can be inappropriate.
- Lampshaded: "You shouldn't say swear words like that!"
- Invoked: Badbutt Charlie teaches Alice and Bob swear words.
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Characters avoid swearing in front of Alice and Bob.
- Alice and Bob's parents don't really put a lot of focus on their kids swearing.
- Discussed: "Alice and Bob learned a swear word... what do we do?"
- Conversed: "I feel like a lot of kids' shows have that one episode where someone learns a swear word. Only, they can't actually swear, so they tend to censor it out or use a made up word instead."
- Deconstructed: Ultimately, the parents are overreacting to relatively minor profanity. When the kids ask why those specific words are banned, they can come up with no response.
- Reconstructed:
- Profanity tends to invoke topics that make others uncomfortable and makes the speaker sound like a barbarian.
- The parents tell the kids that profanity is inappropriate in certain circumstances, but there are some contexts where swearing may be allowed.
- While words like "damn" and "ass" aren't really that bad, racist and homophobic slurs are introduced that are absolutely vile enough to warrant a moral lesson.
Don't swear when you go back to Swear Word Plot.
