Definition-example dissonance?: Unusual Euphemism

->The characters are talking about an embarrassing issue by using a euphemism that the scriptwriters just made up. —>- The introduction to Unusual Euphemism

Recently, one YKTTW of mine was discarded for similarity to this trope, even though I clarified what the difference was supposed to be, because "In practice Unusual Euphemism is used in potholes to mean any weird phrase that seems to be referring to something sexual, regardless of the circumstances" as Noir Grimoir put it.

For one thing, IF this site is going to fight the uphill battle against Incredibly Lame Pun's "misuse" then why shouldn't it do the same for Unusual Euphemism?

Also, there are many tropes related to my YKTTW, such as Freud Was Right, Accidental Innuendo, etc... and in a way they are related to each other. How do we decide what exactly the differences are between them, when the overall themes are very similar?

edited 27th Apr '11 3:33:44 PM by neoYTPism

Pardon My Klingon is another one people seem to get confused over. It's supposedly the sci-fi equivalent; often, examples of the latter are ptholed to the former.

edited 27th Apr '11 8:49:38 AM by halfmillennium

I admit to having no idea what your complain is about just from reading your post. I had to jump between your YKTTW, the Incredibly Lame Pun page, and this thread to get some semblance of an understanding. This is probably because I'm not the brightest guy ever. xD So please, for the sake of a tired troper, clarify and expound upon your reasoning and post your complaint again. :)

OP will be reworded then.

This is a very old trope, but it is true that the name does not get across that it is a made-up word used as an euphemism. (I vaguely remember not being clear on the trope the first time I saw it, and indeed this thread may be the first time I've achieved clarity on that.) That said, the description isn't the clearest it could be either.

I have edited this page, and sorted the Film examples. I have sorted out the examples of Film due to Bowdlerization from the real examples of this trope, and placed them in a different section. I feel very strongly that Bowdlerization for television should go in the Bowdlerization category, and that examples of Unusual Euphemisms listed on the trope page should be confined to euphemisms original to the work. I almost deleted all of them but I decided to be conservative. I will go back and check the other folders for similar examples that are not original to the work but results of censorship after-the-fact.

It doesn't have to be a made-up word. It just has to be a word not normally associated with the euphemism.

"Honey, can you come to the bedroom? I need some...help with the taxes..."

edited 2nd May '11 7:20:50 PM by troacctid

The first line of the OP used to be the entire description. Unless we made a conscious decision to broaden it at some point, I smell Trope Decay.

Bumping to clear out the TRS backlog.

That wayback link makes it look to me like this has never been kept straight — there are examples on the page even then that clearly seem to belong to Pardon My Klingon and Bowdlerise. (The second example on the page is "frell" from Farscape, which is pretty much the type specimen of Pardon My Klingon.)

I don't know that there's any historical justification for this, but the distinction that looks natural to me is:

• Bowdlerise: After-the-fact censorship of any kind.
• Unusual Euphemism: Things that are euphemistic In-Universe (whether made up or not), and hence are probably unique to a single character or situation.
• Pardon My Klingon: Words or phrases that the characters find obscene for world-building reasons that we don't share, and hence are probably used consistently throughout the work.

"Help with the taxes" is certainly an example of a euphemism that was just made up. It may not contain made up words, but it meets both the name and description (including the original description) of the trope.

(Mentioning this because I'm not quite sure whether the last couple of comments were arguing for or against that particular example.)

Stale?

Clocking.

I agree with Xtifr: It's only an Unusual Euphemism if they had to think it up impromptu — stock euphemisms (i.e: "birds and the bees") never count.

(College classmate of mine once told a joke where she needed to borrow her husband's Leatherman pliers, so she asked if she could borrow his "manly tool". Hilarity Ensued.)

edited 29th Sep '11 8:01:58 AM by Stratadrake

I think Micah's set of distinctions is good. This should be about in-universe euphemisms. The mention of the scriptwriters should be removed from the intro. Things that aren't euphemisms in-universe should be moved to one of the other two tropes. Then I think we can call this done.

Bump. Anything else need doing here?

edited 20th Oct '11 1:13:36 PM by Twentington

I'm taking that as a "no, nothing else to do here"?