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"Good night, everybody!"
Yakko Warner (telling the censors they screwed up for the umpteenth time), Animaniacs

Thanks to the Western belief that cartoons are meant for a younger demographic, this trope is a favorite in a lot of American animated shows aimed at those audiences (but not limited to them).


Works with their own pages

Shows that don't have their own pages

  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes features several such instances of this — most notably Hawkeye calling the Masters of Evil "tools", and some of Tony's more blatant come-ons.
  • Blazing Dragons:
    • A particular example is the allusions to the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot triangle of Arthurian Legend in the case of Queen Griddle's obvious infatuation towards Loungelot. And then there's Sir Blaze.....
    • On the topic of Sir Blaze, the theme song/title sequence includes the knights extolling their virtues: "We're straight and true and good and kind..." Sir Blaze winks at the camera when he says the word, "straight".
  • Captain Flamingo: In "Under There Underwear", one of Milo's failed solutions to retrieve Owen's orthopedic underwear back after a locker mix-up is by using DNA analyzer to compare his DNA with the skid marks of his underpants by using a DNA sample from Owen's cheek to tell which pair of underwear is his. Lizbeth wants to know what are the skid marks in Owen's underwear are which Milo replies that its a guy thing. Owen tries to explain what it is to her by whispering the information quietly, which disgusts her and is glad that she is a girl.
    Lizbeth: What are skid marks?
    Milo: Uh, well, it's sort of a guy thing.
    Owen: They're like...
    [Owen whispers the rest to Lizbeth's ear inaudibly]
    Lizbeth: Eeeww! So glad that I'm a girl!
  • The first episode of Count Duckula is titled "No Sax Please, We're Egyptian" has the characters singing the "Drunken Sailor" sea shanty. They stop before getting to any of the off-color verses, but suffice it to say, this is not a children's song. The episode title itself refers to a London play called No Sex Please, We're British.
  • In the comic series Cyber Six was based on, Von Reichter was a member of the SS. Of course this isn't mentioned in the animated series, but they got away with having Jose (his cloned "son") goose-step from place to place and wear Hitler Youth clothing.
  • Duck Dodgers features an episode called "K-9 Kaddy" co-starring the Goofy Gophers. They tickle-torture K-9 then begin tickling each other and run offscreen. They return sighing and exclaiming, "Oh! I couldn't tell you the last time I had so much fun with a feather!" There is a list of 37 of these scenes here.
  • Elena of Avalor: The episode "Norberg Peace Prize", when Elena gives hatchets to Abigail and Hector so that they can build a raft and get off the island, Isabel points out that it's probably not a good idea to give sharp tools to two people that hate each other. Yes, we have a murder joke in a Disney Junior show.
  • Ever After High: The Wonderland subplot is one giant metaphor for war refugees. Basically, a group of foreign children with odd customs and their own language are unexpectedly transferred into EAH. It turns out that they're fleeing from the murderous tyrant who nearly conquered their homeland and poisoned it with nucl- magic. The children sought shelter in a different country, but many were forced to leave their families behind.
  • Ewoks: Characters often say "k'vark" in place where humans would use a four-letter word. And in the second season episode Bringing Up Norky, Teebo says He sure is a pain in the..., but Latara finishes his sentence with Mud puddle!.
  • Family Guy has a joke about a "Cleveland Steamer" in "Mr. Saturday Knight". What makes it even funnier is that the original joke used the less-vulgar term "half and half" which the censors wouldn't allow. Seth MacFarlane said it was one of the most vile jokes they'd ever gotten away with, and that was mostly because the censors assumed that the writers had made the term "Cleveland steamer" up and didn't know it was an actual sexual term.
  • Several moments from A Flintstone Family Christmas:
    • Near the beginning, Barney reads about "another drive-by stoning" in the news.
    • When Wilma suggests that they take in caveless delinquent Stony for Christmas, Fred objects by saying "Oh sure, and maybe we can see if Charlie Mansonstone wants to come for New Year's".
    • When Fred and Stony wind up in jail, Stony gives Fred a tip to "never slow-dance with anyone named Bubba".
  • In "Johnny Bravo and the Amazon Women", there are two big ones.
  • The animated adaptation of The Mask was a wacky 1990s cartoon, therefore chock full of Parental Bonus and the occasional risque jokes — but...one episode stands out as the reason why American censorship (at least back in the 1990s) is considered a joke by most: season two's "Flight as a Feather", which, along with the standard Double Entendres (The Mask telling the audience that African violets weren't the only things drooping on Mrs. Peenman), your typical gross-out humor (The Mask showing an irate pizzeria customer his green, pulsating guts, and the customer nearly puking), and Parental Bonus references (the mayor implying that he blew the city budget on a party for beauty contest winners), included two scenes that kids' cartoon writers (not even most Cartoon Network writers) wouldn't dream of putting in:
    • The scene of Cookie BaBoom (the Mayor's suicidal ex-girlfriend who works as an exotic dancernote ) rushing the stage in a trenchcoat and flashing everybody...her bikini made of explosives and holds the Mayor hostage because he broke up with her, followed by The Mask using the explosives on Cookie's body to make a drink known as The Bikini Cocktail. As if that weren't enough, just as Kellaway and Doyle go to arrest The Mask for harassing Mrs. Peenman and a customer at a pizzeria, The Mask uses Cookie's naked body to distract the cops — and it works, even on the hard-assed Kellaway, who can only stammer out "Lady, y-you're under arrest," before sliding to the floor.
      • What really puts that entire part over the top is the implication that this aired live and that old woman in Bavariaville saw everything (yet only freaked out over The Mask harassing the Mayor).
    • The performance artist at the pillow feather factory sounds like a mild, but fairly obvious gay stereotype (he has a lisp and comes off as very effeminate). To make matters worse, he's named after a brand of oil (Crisco), which can be (and often is) used as a lubricant for anal sex.
  • The New Adventures of Flash Gordon has Ming putting Dale in a harem of exotic-looking women (including a lion-woman from Thun's world) and having her dressed in a similar style, clearly intending to make her one of them. Vultan tries to force Aura into marrying him when she is his prisoner. And then there is Bruka, the leader of the Ice Giants, who clearly has an eye for Dale as well and pronounces his intentions to "keep her" for himself. At one point, when she rebuffs his crude come-ons by throwing dishes at him, he comments, "Oh, Bruka likes spirit in his women, but not TOO much." Then he throws himself across a table at her, but misses.
  • The Owl House:
    • In her school's production of Romeo and Juliet, Luz put sausages under her costume to simulate guts when she "stabbed" herself.
    • After slapping a fairy that wanted her skin, Luz wonders if she died and went to the "bad place".
    • Eda's changing screen has a bra hanging from it.
    • In "Lost in Language", King alludes to the myth that witches used to be cannibals. Furthermore it was insensitive of him as he just implied that his partner in crime/land lady was one such child-eater; this is after he was told about the curse.
    • In "The First Day", the Potions teacher looks into the oracle potion and sees a vision of their face melting.
    • During "Wing It Like Witches", there's this line from Amity to Luz (whom Amity recently developed a crush on) which is very eyebrow-raising for a TV-Y7 show:
      Amity: [in response to Luz inviting her to play Grudgby] "Me? On a team with you? Running around in cute uniforms!? SWEATING!? [Blushes immensely] I GOTTA GO!"
    • When fighting with Lilith in "Young Blood, Old Souls", Luz shouts "Talk to the glyph, witch!", the venom in her voice leaving no doubts as to what she meant.
  • The Real Ghostbusters:
    • In one episode, Janine has to go wake the boys for a job, pausing before opening the door to ask "Is everyone decent?"
    • In another, Janine is pushing her way through a crowd to reach the team, stopping as she does and shouting, "HEY, watch your hands, pal!" to a guy behind her.
  • ReBoot:
    • In Season Two, as a Take That! towards the network censors, the words "Fuck you, Broadcast Standards!" are written in Mainframe's skybox in binary.
    • Season 3 features a Game Cube that's obviously based off of the Evil Dead franchise. Yes, an R rated series featuring demonic possession and the undead made its way into a kid's show about computers and video games at the height of parent paranoia about video game media. The creators were surprised it was allowed in.
    • Daemon Rising has Matrix say their enemies better cover their ASCIIs... pronounced "Ass keys". It's as close to Precision F-Strike as allowed in a 90s kid's show.
    • The Made-for-TV Movie My Two Bobs features a game titled "Pantsu Hebi X". Translate it directly and you get "Panty Snake X".
  • In the Robin Hood: Mischief in Sherwood episode "The Five Puppets" to avoid being spotted by the Sheriff's sons, Robin hides under Marian's dress and John and Tuck hide under Scarlett's. After the Sheriff's sons are out of sight and the guys come out of hiding, the guys and the girls exchange awkward looks. On top of that, these versions of the characters are kids.
  • Rocket Monkeys:
    • YAY-OK and his relationship with Slo-Mo in "Princess Nefarious" is loaded with this. YAY-OK falls in Love at First Sight with Slo-Mo, causing tokens to explode from his body. He is noticeably embarrassed by this "malfunction".
      • When the two start to hit it off with each other, YAY-OK tells Gus and Wally he'll be staying here to "uh-alter some files". A few scenes later, YAY-OK and Slo-Mo pop out of a lunar crater, wearing bathrobes.
    • After Gus and Wally ruin his latest scheme in "Ships, Trips and Wormholes", Nefarious starts spouting a furious Cluster Bleep-Bomb.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle: In the Fractured Fairy Tale version of "Sleeping Beauty", the Prince reveals that he's not really a prince (he never joined the union), but he really has a job slapping pigskins. That's right, he's a hog-flogger.
  • Samurai Jack: Part of Jack's disguise to enter the evil rave featured wearing a pacifier. In the raver scene in real life this is a signal the user is partaking in MDMA, a psychoactive drug.
  • Skatoony is one of few shows that does this literally. There's a whole round call Hoo Flung Dung.
  • South Park:
    • Kenny all but exists for this purpose. Kenny's muffled speech due to the parka he wears allows the writers to slip in profanity that keen eared viewers can hear if they listen closely enough that would otherwise be censored for anyone else.
    • That's nothing. In season seven's "Raisins":
      Jimmy: Stan says you're a cont...you're a cont...Stan says you're a cont...cont...cont...
      Wendy: Well, tell Stan to fuck off!
    • Similarly, season four's "Something You Can do With your Finger" has Wendy's song narrowly averting various curse words. In the commentary track, Parker mentions that the line about "contaminated water" got past the Comedy Central censors.
    • The limited art-style is probably the only reason why episodes like "Good Times with Weapons" and "Wieners Out" were allowed to air on TV and not legally be considered child pornography.
    • Additionally, season two's "Summer Sucks" has Officer Barbrady grabbing the Mayor by her pussy.
  • Spliced:
    • In "Two Arms Joe", Peri gives Two Legs Joe his arms for the day, and we get this line:
    Entrée: Have fun, but not too much fun.
    • Episode titles include the likes of "Living Hellp" (and no, that is not a typo).
  • Staines Down Drains: Literally. The show is set in a town's drain system and it isn't shy about toilet humor. In various episodes we've seen Stanley and Mary-Jane imagining coming out of a drain into a toilet, which is blocked by a giant butt. A baby getting changed, with the dirty diaper clearly being shown. Various forms of slime and sludge in the drainlands. But the biggest example comes in the last episode of the season, titled "The Final Flush". In a last ditch effort to destroy the purifying plants, Dr. Drain breaks open a pipe and releases something he calls the brown tide. Even worse, Stanly has to wade through the stuff to reach the switch for an emergency drainage valve.
  • The final season of Star Wars Rebels toyed with the relationship between Kanan and Hera, suggesting parental bonuses of them sleeping together. But then an episode seemingly plays their conversation as if they never got together. Then a curveball is thrown in the finale where we find that Hera gave birth to his son, who was conceived prior to his death.
  • Talkartoons:
    • In the short Any Rags, during Bimbo's junk auction, we see Koko The Clown acting very feminine, which makes Bimbo say "Sold to the man in the red bowtie!" (In case you don't know, red ties were a sort of identification for homosexuals back in the day).
    • The short Minding the Baby has a gag where Bimbo explains why he has to watch his baby brother.
    "I have to stay and watch the brat, 'cause Ma and Pa just had a spat. The ice man still brings ice you see, but out ice box runs with 'tricity."
  • Even Thomas & Friends got something through. According to Jeremy King, "Sodor Fuel", said with a British accent, sounds like "Sod off, you all".
  • In one of the Tom and Jerry movies, Red from the MGM shorts is in the role of a fairy and wears a revealing outfit. During the movie she gets knocked into a bush with only her legs and butt sticking out. Tom grabs a hat and sheepishly covers her rear end with it as she tries to get out.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2012):
    • In "Flight of the Iron Spider", Iron Man is seen discussing something with Nick Fury. We only catch a snippet, but it seems like he's bragging about his sexual conquests.
      Iron Man: ... So that was last night. The night before, it was February's cover of Model Monthly.
      Nick Fury: Are you done bragging about your social life?
    • In "I Am Spider-Man", Trapster suggestively asks Mary Jane when does she graduate.
    • When Spidey makes fun of Iron Man having an old armor with a nose.
    Iron Man: I was in an anatomic phase. You should see the one with-
    Spidey: Another time! Or, never.
    • In "Venom", Flash can be seen drinking water out of something that appears to be a bidet. Bidets are typically used to wash the under areas of the body.
    • Flint "Sandman" Marko is called "beach" several times in "Sandman Returns"—an insult that sounds suspiciously like "bitch", esp. with Batros' comically-overblown French accent.
    • Goblin uttering the word "hell" in the season two finale.
    • "I don't think he's a real 'turn your head and cough' doctor."
    • In "Me Time", Norman Osborn reminds Doctor Octopus that without the tentacles he wouldn't be able to wipe his own...mouth.
    • They imply that Sabretooth is a cannibal.
  • VeggieTales: The first episode has this line from a lab assistant talking about Frankencelery.
    Assistant: "Look how big it is! I didn't notice when it was lying down! It's standing up!"
  • One episode of The Weekenders has Carver want to be C.A.R.P. Which is Cool And Radically Popular. Tino's response is "Good thing you don't want to be Cool, Rich And Popular."
  • X-Men: The Animated Series:
    • "Time Fugitives" features Rogue calling a Friends of Humanity goon a "peckerwood", which not only sounds perverted, but is also a racial slur for a white person (particularly one who is considered "trailer trash" — uneducated, poor, violent and very close-minded when it comes to dealing with minorities and modern women, and obsessed with all that is cheap and tacky).
    • In one episode, Rogue had to administer CPR to an unconscious Cyclops: while giving him kiss-of-life and pumping his chest she cries "Come ON, pretty boy, make a girl feel welcome!" almost like a girl on top trying to have an orgasm...
    • Evil!Morph in Season 2 seems to like impersonating women, and gets away with a lot that he probably shouldn't in a '90s cartoon. Like seducing Gambit (as Rogue) in what's probably the most overtly sexual scene any character in the show gets...
    • In the comics, Katherine Summers (Cyclops's mother) was raped and murdered when she and her husband were captured by the Shi'ar. The cartoon had to bowdlerize this, naturally, but managed to imply most of it anyway, in between using the term "destroyed" (instead of simply "killed" or the like) to describe her fate and having the Shi'ar officers call the captured Katherine an interesting "specimen" as they leer at her in the relevant flashback.

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