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Thank you. Much apreciated.
Calendar enthusiast
While Very Sunshine is working on Disney, I'm going to finish off Radar.Comic Books.
This quote is from a comic that came out years after the Comics Code was officially closed down. It's just a Double Entendre.
DC
- In DC's 52 (not the new 52, but the year-long weekly series that followed Infinite Crisis), a member of Lex Luthor's private super-team was clearly shooting up heroin, but the word heroin was never used. She was always just described as being "on the sharp," and then "off the sharp" when she stopped using. Any readers not familiar with drug slang might very well have missed exactly what was being referenced, although this is a borderline example, since the illustrations clearly showed her shooting up something.
52 was published after DC abandoned the Comics Code. Also, Speedy was explicitly doing heroin again around this time. Not an example. And you don't need to understand drug slang to know what's going on here.
- In an Adventure Comics Sandman story in the 40's during The Golden Age of Comic Books , there is a picture on a wall in the background of a nude woman.
This is before the Comics Code was implemented; indeed, comics doing this sort of thing is why the Code was introduced.
- This
◊ comic strip based off Batman: The Animated Series. Why did Batgirl think they were "friends" when Harley mention "playing"? Notice the fingers.
- That book spun off a DCAU style Harley & Ivy miniseries, in which Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy wash each other's hair in the prison shower and sleep in the same bed once they break out. Word of Gay has said it was exactly what it looked like.
- There is significantly more going on in Harley and Ivy than hair-braiding, but all that need be noted is that Harley alternates between an abusive relationship with the Joker, and a caring and slightly less abusive one with Ivy. Notice Harley's wording too. A "special shot" so they "won't get sick" (Ivy is a Poisonous Person) from 'playing'?
- That is to say nothing of the subtext about Barbara and Kara that makes it clear as water. (You'll notice that Batgirl doesn't actually deny it.)
- Furthermore, there's a part in the first collected edition of the New 52 Harley Quinn ongoing series where, out of the blue, Harley asks Ivy if she wants to see Harley's beaver. Only mildly surprised, Ivy says she does... only to find out that it's an actual stuffed beaver.
OK, this example talks about a whole bunch of different comics that happen to involve Harley Quinn and Poion Ivy. And they all appear to have come out after DC abandoned the Comics Code. It's possible there was some internal policy of No Homosexuals at the time, but we don't know if there was, so this is just not valid.
- There's a short Batman written by Brian K. Vaughn which has the Joker or rather an impersonator breaking into a factory and rearranging the chemicals to spell dirty words. For example, boron, argon, and fluoride become B-Ar-F. Then he mentions he also did copper and niton.
Ugh, I had to navigate the DC fan wiki to try and decipher this one. Screw you, troper, for making me do that. Anyway, I have no idea which story is being referenced here, but the earliest Batman story by Vaughan I can find is Close Before Striking, published in Batman 1:588-590, in 2001. DC had stopped bothering with the Comics Code for their core titles by then, only seeking approval for their licensed comics. They were also perfectly fine with Symbol Swearing and Black Bar Censorship, and I figure that copper nitronite falls under the same umbrella of cursing without actual cursing.
- The Brave and the Bold: Issue #197, "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne", has an image of a shoebox that says "Pedophile", meant as a pun for a foot lover. The artist admitted it was tacky, and it was removed from the collection "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told".
There are a bunch of different comics called The Brave and the Bold. But since the troper is considerate enough to specify iss 197, we know it's the original series; this particular issue was published in 1983 and was approved by the Comics Code. I feel this is borderline, but that is what a pedophile is (as opposed to a paedophile, which is somebody attracted to children). The removal seems to have been more because the artist regretted it than due to any issues with censors. The wiki page also makes no mention at all of this, so I'm not sure what to think.
- In Impulse, thought balloons frequently had pictures representing the character's thoughts. At one point, Max Mercury responded to an unpleasant surprise with a picture of a dam.
- Impulse took this habit with him into Young Justice. Once, when Wonder Girl was nagging him, his thought balloon contained a picture of her as a dog.
- The crossover arc Sins Of Youth had an aged down Aquaman informing Stargirl that he could hold his breath indefinitely. For bonus points consider that while physically Aquaman was a child and Stargirl an adult at the time give or take some magic based confusion mentally the opposite was true.
- Impulse took this habit with him into Young Justice. Once, when Wonder Girl was nagging him, his thought balloon contained a picture of her as a dog.
- This comic was approved by the Comics Code. Borderline, but it's an actual dam, so I think it just passes.
- Again, there are a bunch of Young Justice comics. Assuming the troper meant the original run (and I am not going to read over 100 comics to find one scene), this is probably acceptable, since it's just a picture of a dog and not the word "bitch". Indeed, calling someone a "dog" was at one point a pretty common insult. It was out of fashion by the time this comic was published, but still.
- I... uh... what?
- Harley Quinn (New 52 solo series):
- Invoked in one of the artists' sequences in Issue 0, which Conner shuts down because it wouldn't make it past editorial, and played straight for the title of Issue 7.
- Harley appears to say some serious profanity after her tooth is knocked out by a brutish roller derby opponent. However, it sneaks past since she's taking it out of her mouth while saying it, rendering the profanity as the garbled, "mygluggin'toooph!"
It looks like they're talking about this one, which launched in 2013. This was after the Comics Code was completely shut down, so there was, in fact, no radar.
- Power Girl:
- In a flashback Satanna can be seen wearing a shirt that reads "CU Next Tues".
- Karen says to a potential employee that was playing with her snow globes to "Please, stop messing with my globes." The visual joke is evident◊. To really hammer it in, the next panel has the guy say "sorry, force of habit."
As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a comic called Power Girl, which means that this happens in a comic in which Power Girl happens to appear. Yeah, I'm not going to trawl through decades of comics to find which one this is.
But, based on the artistic techniques in the linked Tumblr post, this looks like something that came out after the demise of the Comics Code, so no radar would apply. Satana wearing a T-shirt with a slogan on it is also likely to be Modern Age, based on fashion and artistic conventions, so the Comics Code would not apply (I searched on both Duck Duck Go and Google, and I couldn't find any reference to which comic this actually appeared in). There might possibly be an internal rule against saying "cunt" at DC, but absent Word of God we can't say anything one way or the other.
- From an issue of Titans in which Dick "Nightwing" Grayson insists the original members have to maintain their secret identities in front of the new kids, which means full costumes and codenames to hang out and watch TV:
Arsenal: Nightwing, you can be such a...
Flash: No real names, remember?
I'm guessing they mean this one, which ran from March 1999 to April 2003 and, based on the cover gallery, actually was approved by the Comics Code. This is another borderline example, since nobody actually says "dick". As such, I would say that's acceptable, and falls under the same class of self-censorship as Symbol Swearing.
- The original Golden Age Wonder Woman comics (Sensation Comics & Wonder Woman (1942)) had Bondage & Domination subtext so blatant and frequent that it would qualify as Refuge in Audacity in modern times. Diana was as big a Sociopathic Hero as her male counterparts of the time, but her psychosis lent itself to tying people up and being tied up in return, bouncing people around until they submitted, and singing the praises of consensual "slavery". It was pure Author Appeal, to be sure, but still...
Pre-Comics Code, so not an example. Indeed, the stuff Wondy got up to was cited by G Gordon Liddy when arguing that there should be a radar system.
- In The Just #1, when Damian Wayne complains that his father and the other past heroes did their jobs too well, Alexis Luthor responds "'This Be the Verse'. Best poem ever." It's a Philip Larkin poem whose famous first line is "They fuck you up, your mum and dad."
This is after the Comics Code was abolished. And referencing a poem that contains the word "fuck" is not the same as saying the word "fuck".
- In a Superman story published within a month after Reign of the Supermen ended, just after rescuing "Clark Kent"note from a rubble-blocked emergency shelter, Superman is nagged by Lex Luthor, Jr.note about Supergirl's absence. Supes politely but firmly reminds him that Supergirl is her own person and what she does is her own business. Under his breath, Luthor calls him a "sanctimonious berk". In Cockney Rhyming Slang, "berk" means, well...
But he doesn't say "cunt", he says "berk". Sure, they might mean the same thing, but one is a curse word and the other is barely profanity. Seriously, the word "berk" is regularly used in G-rated stuff in Britain, where people know what it means. This isn't an example.
Marvel
- This hilariously wrong panel from The Avengers. Lamenting that he screwed up his chance to admit to the Wasp that he likes her, the Black Knight notes that he'll "have to be content with polishing the old Ebony Blade".
I guarantee you that's an Accidental Innuendo.
- For a time in the '70s, Captain America was the target of a smear campaign by the Committee to Regain America's Principles.
Valid, an on the trope page.
- In the series Civil War the Thing takes a sabbatical in Paris, and of course ends up fighting alongside a French superhero team. He celebrates his new allegiance with the warcry "Il est temps de battre!" (Strictly, it should be "C'est l'heure de se battre," but this is Ben Grimm.) In the next fight scene he gets a little confused and yells "Il est temps de foutre!" and the sexy superheroine alongside asks if that was exactly what he meant. Well she may, since the English word would only appear in a comic with stars after the F, and probably not even then.
Not approved by the Comics Code, and we don't know Marvel's internal policies regarding French cursing.
- Marvel didn't publish six issues of Giant-Size Man-Thing by accident. Deadpool actually made a joke about this once.
- Along those same lines, Steve Gerber snuck "Phelch" (the name of a "space turnip") into Howard the Duck. Gerber pretty much made a career out of getting crap past the radar; in Howard the Duck's first issue, Howard says that a large nest "reminds me of where I was first laid" (when reprinted in a Marvel Treasury Edition, the line was changed to "...where I was first hatched"). From all appearances, Gerber may also have been the first writer in mainstream newsstand comics to use "freaking" as a euphemism for "fucking."
"Phelch" is valid, and is on the trope page. "first laid" pushes the envolope, but Howard was indeed laid by his mother (heh). And "freak" is not "fuck", so it's acceptable.
- Marvel Adventures: The Avengers, a kid-oriented line, has some stealthy adult jokes. For instance, during a story where the Avengers just got back from going on lots of dates and have to explain the messy living room:
Luke Cage: We were busy.
Tigra: Doing what?
Hawkeye: (whispering) Say 'Doctor Doom'.
Spider-Man: DOCTOR DOOM! (putting his hand to his face) Oh, dude. Fail.
Marvel Adventures came out after Marvel abandoned the Comics Code. We don't know what the internal policies were, but the goal seems to have been All Ages rather than Young Children. This is the kind of mild joke that was in all probability acceptable.
- The New Avengers are just learning of a new, villainous Avengers team. Carol leans forward to better look at the screen. Bucky... likes what he sees◊.
Another post-Code comic! And seriously, there's nothing going on there.
- In an issue of New Mutants the characters go to Hell and fight demons who speak a seemingly nonsensical language. It is, however, translated at one point. If you follow each letter precisely, you can actually find the demons saying things like, "Fuck nuts" and "Hey dick-breath".
This particular comic came out in 2010, and wouldn't you know it, it was after Marvel abandoned the Comics Code. Also, since it's all in a cipher, even if (as seems to be the case) Marvel has an internal policy against proper cursing, this falls under Symbol Swearing.
- In Runaways, Nico says something about criminals filling the power vacuum left in L.A. when their supervillain parents died, and Chase suggests that "power vacuum" should be Gert's codename. Gert is Chase's girlfriend. Eleven-year-old Molly gets it; apparently, the censors didn't.
Runaways first appeared in 2003, after Marvel abandoned the Comics Code (there's a pattern here). The censors didn't see it because there were no censors. This can go under Double Entendre.
- One of the most impressive examples of this is in The Sensational She-Hulk graphic novel, where in one specific panel where the titular character is wearing a shredded top after getting shot at by several soldiers, and her nipples are clearly visible,◊ barely covered by what's left of the shirt. The inker revealed that he added them in without John Byrne's approval and that deadline crunch was most likely the reason they weren't caught.
I'm assuming this is the one referred to, which does not appear to have been approved by the Comics Code. We'll need a citation if this was against Marvel's internal policies at the time.
- Spider-Man
- In Amazing Spider-Man #598, Spidey infiltrates the Dark Avengers using a special Venom disguise. Unfortunately, he is captured and Bullseye tortures him (with a high tech device meant to simulate drowning) to get the password necessary to remove his mask. After quite a bit of torture, Spidey tells Bullseye that the password is "Bowl...Psi...Isad...Oosh. You say it all together." (In case you didn't get it: "Bullseye is a douche.")
- In the Colleen Coover story in the King-Size Spider-Man Summer Special, the Enchantress calls for her laptop computer. "Why?" asks one of her henchthings. "The usual. To look at ladies." (It's part of a diabolical scheme, but given the givens...)
- People tend to forget it since it was the issue Venom debuted in, but at one point in the story, Mary Jane actually allows Peter to take some nudie pictures of her. As if that weren't enough, the caption for the scene says "Peter's spirits begin to rise." Seen here◊.
- It's from 2009 and not approved by the Comics Code
- It's from 2008 and not approved by the Comics Code. I'm pretty sure Marvel was OK with lesbianism in the 2000s.
- This one was 1988 (I think; the Marvel Wiki's pedantry makes it hard to find actual information). This one is valid, because the 1971 revision of the Comics Code specifically forbade "Suggestive and salacious illustration".
- The Tomb of Dracula character Hannibal King has uttered some lines that suggest that he may be gay or bisexual. When rescuing Blade from death, he said: "He may hate my guts 'cause I'm a stinkin' vampire, but he's dynamite to work with." And after subduing one of Deacon Frost's minions, his threat that the guy complies or else ends with "Understand, sweetie?" One could argue that it was The '70s and there was quite a lot of gender-bending dialogue. Luke Cage also called male and female alike "Sweethart". However, in The '90s TOD followup Nightstalkers, King's response to Blade's empty threats is "Smooches! Love you too, big guy". In a 1998 Blade one shot, Blade explains in narration that he has to go get King "out of the closet". Quite a double entendre, even though we know that King was sleeping in the closet in Blade's hotel room (to avoid the sunlight of day). Interestingly enough, in Blade: Trinity, Ryan Reynolds plays King as quite decidedly camp.
Maybe, but I feel like this is reaching.
- This Wolverine cover. Kurt's obvious nudity aside, note both Wolverine's eyeline and the placement of the beer bottle. And it was intentional too, and to quote Greg Rucka, who once asked artist Esad Ribic about it:
Esad is a big, cheerful, man with a wicked sense of humor. He just looked at me. And then he smiled. And the smile got bigger. And bigger. And he said, “And nobody at Marvel noticed!” And then he couldn’t stop laughing.
Not approved by the Comics Code, but Rucka's statement does suggest they were intentionally trying to get one over on Marvel, so this one is valid.
- In the first issue of Young Avengers Children's Crusade, Billy and Teddy (canon boyfriends) are given a room at the Avengers' mansion which is a bare cell with twin beds. Teddy complains about the twin beds, so Billy uses his magic to redecorate the room to resemble a hotel room, complete with changing the twin beds into a nice queen-sized bed with mints on a pillows! Teddy and Billy then begin to comfort one another and are about to kiss, when they are interrupted by Tommy coming to rescue them. It's clear that had they gone on uninterrupted, they wouldn't have stopped at a kiss...
Once again, this was not approved by the Comics Code. And no sex was actually shown.
- In the original X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga, one of the first hints you have that Phoenix was really getting off from using her enormous power was subtly slipped in by artist John Byrne. During her duel with The White Queen, judging from her chestal region, she was either really turned on or it was really cold in Chicago that night. And since they had already established a few issues earlier she didn't even feel the cold anymore, well...
- In X-Factor, Jean buys a white fur coat to replace her old winter coat. She and Scott are acting frisky, and are making vague, but not subtle comments about how wonderful the coat feels. Also, Jean is sensually petting the fur in one panel, and then has her arms intimately wrapped around Scott the next. These indicate, while still being family friendly, that they might have been planning on making love while Jean wore the coat.
- And while we're on the subject of the X-Men, can we talk about how Chris Claremont somehow managed to get away for years with creating an entire group of major villains whose standard mode of dress consisted entirely of Victorian/Edwardian-inspired leather BDSM costumes, and who named it directly after a real-life secret society notorious for its supposed high-class real-life orgies?
This definitely pushed the envelope, but I suspect it was allowed because they're the villains.
Other titles:
- Though most often booed for their horrible puns, the host-characters of horror comics like Tales from the Crypt or House of Mystery often threw in a Double Entendre during various stories' introductions and denouments. Having previously been driven underground by The Comics Code, graphic writers of horror tend to see Getting Crap Past the Radar as a badge of honor, if not a moral duty.
How can they get crap past the radar if they never enter the radar's detection field?
Pre-Code, and indeed the kind of thing that resulted in the Comics Code being established.
- This◊ panel from an Animaniacs comic book, which is linked from the Very False Advertising page:
Minerva Mink's boss: Miss Yum-Yum, is this year's model more robust?
- The Entire Page sounds like they're describing some new-fangled sex gadget.
Dead link, and this is pretty standard Animaniacs fare.
- Asterix does this a lot, in typically French fashion.
- For instance, in Asterix and Son, Asterix has had a baby abandoned on his doorstep. The Gauls disgustedly remark that it's unusual that someone would leave a baby with an unmarried warrior rather than a temple, and when Asterix asks what that implies, we see the judgemental expressions of every character in the room in separate panels until Asterix insists it isn't like that.
- There was actually more of this added in the (UK) English translation than existed in the original work, thanks to the extremely relaxed British attitude towards Parental Bonus. The translator Anthea Bell says she thought at first she went too far in renaming the druid Panoramix (who supplies magic Super Serum to his fellow villagers) "Getafix", and came up with an alternate explanation for if the publishers or children pressed her about it (the idea that stone circles were used by druids to 'get a fix' on the stars).
- He literally says the phrase 'get a fix on the stars' in Asterix and the Picts, in reference to this.
- "Panoramix" in the original subtly suggests expansion of vision, as of the kind which might be created by certain substances. This is just a gag about psychedelic culture until The Big Fight, which he spends giggling at mundane things, enjoying even horrible music, and using magic to make things change color and float. The Animated Adaptation of this story uses him for some of the most Deranged Animation ever. His reputation is such that his image not uncommonly graces French tabs of acid, much the same as the use of the Pink Elephants from Dumbo.
- The Romans have orgies. Several throwaway gags are made about this, but at one point there is an actual depiction of a Roman orgy which goes on for a page and a half and manages to imply all kinds of decadent sexuality without showing any nudity at all (it's mostly about eating disgusting foods). It does, however, show some pretty explicit clothes-on BDSM play - a Roman woman in the background is riding an old man around, lashing him with a whip and forcing him to eat with his mouth like an animal.
- In Mansions of the Gods there's a short scene where Geriatrix's gorgeous wife shows up wearing Roman fashion for the first time, making the entire male population of the village wonder if adopting Roman culture might actually be a good idea. So we get the idea of just how smoking hot she is, her breasts and nipples are drawn visible through her transparent clothes.
- In one story, Asterix, Obelix, Vitalstatistix, and Impedimenta are returning from a meal, Obelix and Vitalstatistix both drunk. In the streets, they start having a loud argument. Obelix sides with Vitalstatistix, and they run at each other, hugging. At this point a man pokes his head out of a window above and tells them to 'take your girlfriend somewhere else, you decadent lot!'
- In The Laurel Wreath Asterix and Obelix attempt to get themselves sold at a high-class slave market frequented by patricians. The slaves there include an effeminate, skimpy-clothed teenage male character who is obviously supposed to be a delicatus, an androgynous, adolescent Sex Slave kept by wealthy Romans in history.
- Bravura, who had a weird kind of romance with Asterix in her story, imagines in Asterix and Obelix's Birthday him captured by a miniskirted, petite (but still One Head Taller) Gaulish warrior woman who has confiscated his magic potion and is tormenting him with it, his face contorted in sadomasochistic ecstasy.
- Asterix and Obelix's Birthday mentions 'beatnix' who 'get nicely stoned at Nicae'.
I don't believe Asterix was ever subject to censorship.
- In The Beano issue 3421 we see The Bash Street Kids' Headmaster's office. It is full of books with head related titles eg Being the Head, Head Stuff and Heading. We also see another book with it's title which is partially obscured but the words Giving 'ead are clearly visible.
The UK has never had any form of national comics censorship.
- Meebo and Zuky, a cat-and-dog duo with a gruesome twist of guts and bones (and not the doggie type!)
Uh...
- After many years of trying to write realistic language in comics, only to have the editors change words like "dick" to "dork" and to cut references to masturbation entirely, Neil Gaiman finally scored in The Books of Magic. In his original script, John Constantine says "Fucking hell" (and the circumstances fairly justify strong language). The editor refused to accept that, and Gaiman changed it to "Felching heck", which the editor apparently assumed was some kind of bowdlerisation (it's not: it's far stronger than the original phrase) and let it go to print.
Valid, and on the trope page.
- In one of the Blue King City of Heroes comics (specifically the first Dread Carnivale), in the second nightclub scene there's very clearly (if you know where to look) a woman, dancing entirely naked. Possibly an oblique reference to the Game Mod which allowed you to do just that.
Not approved by the Comics Code.
- A lot of the 70s series of Conan the Barbarian featured instances of getting past the comics code. One issue features man-eating flowers (It Makes Sense in Context), and the flowers start out white, but as someone falls into them, they slowly turn red. Another has Red Sonja noting Conan's wall-climbing abilities, and wonders if the other tall tales about Cimmerians are true. As she's looking up at him, and he's basically wearing a loincloth...
So they snuck past the Comics Code by... complying the the Comics Code's rules about violence?
[quoteblock]]
- During CrossGen's first run, Obregon Kaine's Catchphrase in Negation is BOHICA, the literal meaning of which ("Bend Over, Here It Comes Again") he explains upon request. Compared to the rest of the Sigil-verse, where anything stronger than the odd "damn" is heavily censored...
Not approved by the Comics Code.
- Darkwing Duck #2:
Darkwing: Now all those orders I filed for chains and cowboy hats make sense! *muttered* All this time I thought someone had a unique way of enjoying the weekend.
- Don Rosa's Donald Duck comics are known for their innuendos, in particular The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, where the most famous incident between fans is Scrooge and his Love Interest from his prospector days, Goldie, having a heavily implied Destructo-Nookie of all things.
- Another Donald Duck story titled "It's A Dog's Life" have Magica DeSpell catch wind of Scrooge planning on getting a dog to guard his money. Using that as an attempt to steal his no. 1 dime, she transforms herself into a dog and tells the camera: "There! You may call me a bitch now, if you like!"
I guarantee you the actual issue it innocent.
- In one issue of G. I. Joe: Special Missions had a sniper taking out mines that Cobra aircraft were dropping along the course of a tanker that the Joes were escorting. After having quite a bit of difficulty lining up a shot on the final mine, the sniper's next words are "Got you, you son of a-". The following panel has the mine exploding with the sound effect BITCHOOOOM!
There are two GI Joe: Special Misssions comics; a Marvel comic from the 1980s and a Devil's Due comic from the 2000s. This example is valid if it's the Marvel series but not if it's the Devil's Due series.
- Alan Moore pulled a similar trick in Book II of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In it, there's a Martian dialect which, when read in a mirror, is English. Through this, Moore is able to get across a great amount of profanity.
I don't believe LXG was ever submitted for Code approval.
- In the Muppet comics, it was revealed just how adult Floyd and Janice were. In one comic that explored the question "Just what is Gonzo?" Floyd answered with "Man, he can swing any way he wants. That's cool." In the comic spoofing Robin Hood, Janice plays a character named Willa Scarlet who is an expert on herbs.
Accidental Innuendo at worst. Come on, it's the fucking Muppets!
(Aside: It's kind of weird how tropers think that nobody could possibly want to write something for children. No, apparently every writer on Earth wants to write for adults, and when they are specifically hired to write for children, they rebel by sneakily putting things into this children's work which are unsuitable for children. That's a pretty cynical attitude).
- On the map page of Issue #2 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), there's a location known as Gelding Grotto.
"Gelding" is a horse term, nothing against any rules.
- Let's be honest, with their shrunken/dilated irises, erratic behavior and thin, consumed frames is blatantly obvious that the hippie ponies from My Little Pony Micro Series Issue #3 (especially Flax Seed) are higher than the Stars and Stripes on the 4th of July. Word of God on the matter is basically "I can't say that he's high all the time, but he totally is."
- Flax Seed even keeps forgetting what he was going to say and is convinced that Filthy Rich's billboard portrait is always watching him. On top of that, he stares at the sky at random moments and stays like that with a vacant expression.
- The party after Rarity's fashion show included ponies gambling and blatantly drunk (especially Rainbow Dash) plus Sweetcream Scoops is making passes at Big McIntosh while two stallions are trying to seduce (a very uncomfortable) Fluttershy.
- Pinkie Pie is peeking into the stallions dressing room with Rainbow Dash on the first page while Fluttershy watches in something between horror and embarrassment.
There might be something to the top bullet point, but it smacks of Parental Bonus. The others are clearly reaching.
- Pink Chickens by Patrick Alexander doesn't so much sneak crap past the radar as heave shovelfuls of it past and hope it gets hidden in plain sight. Take a look at this comic, panel 3 in particular. This was originally published in a magazine for children, until an irate parent actually read it and complained.
Dead link.
- British comic strip School Belle, which was part of the Buster weekly, had one story where the titular Belle was playing snooker. The boys at the club start taking bets on colours, which Belle takes to be which ball she hits first. Too late, she realises that they're actually waiting for her to bend over so they can see what colour her underwear is.
Underwear is funny.
- Sergio Aragonés likes to sneak penises and bare-breasted women into some of his background scenes, particularly Groo the Wanderer. Given the cartoonish style of his work, it's more comedic than titillating.
Possibly. Groo ran from 1985 to 1995; this sort of thing would have been against the rules under the 1971 Code but just about acceptable under the 1989 revision. We'll need specific issues to say for sure.
- One panel in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Special # 4 depicts a man selling bags of cocaine to barnyard animals, some of which are high.
- In the Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics, Ninjara is with both Future and Young Raphaels:
Ninjara: Just me and my two Raphs. What could be better?Future Raphael: (Thinking) Another Ninjara.Young Raphael: (Thinking) Some whipped cream.
- Unless the cocaine was portrayed positively, this is acceptable.
- Just sounds like romance, not sex.
- Tintin: In 1934 Hergé drew a story named The Blue Lotus in which Tintin travels to China. Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had military occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a Bilingual Bonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: Boycot Japanese products, Abolish unfair treaties and Down with Imperialism. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny and would make Hergé "world-famous".
I don't believe Hergé was actually breaking any rules; rather, he was just thumbing his nose at Japan. The Japanese embassy got pissy, but he wouldn't be subject to actual censorship until the Vichy regime.
- The adult comic Viz had an entire strip built around this. "Sweary Mary"'s appearances in the comic revolved around her efforts to get crap past the radar so she could swear as much as possible without being censored. In her last appearance she finally achieved her life's dream of being allowed to swear on the cover, but lost her voice and was ridiculed by the other characters.
Valid in-universe example
- More than you imagine in Zipi y Zape. Escobar was a language master and included very colourful metaphors that could be easily misinterpreted, usually punctuated by an Aside Glance from someone nearby not involved in the conversation.
- Also, the comics could be dark sometimes. One time Jaimita scolded the twins and they ran away: while she was looking for them, she overheard them saying "Oh, what a world!" "What did you expect? We don't fit on it!" Jaimita fears she was too strict with them and that they could be planning to do something stupid. She barges into the room... only to have a laughing fit when she sees the twins trying to hide in a chest. The Spanish word for "world" is also an antiquated synonym for "chest"
Sounds like a reach. There might be something to any comics published while Franco was in power, but we'll need more specificity.
- The adventures of "Toni Gay" and her sometimes-boyfriend "Butch Dykeman". A late-50's comic that only appeared a few times as part of Archie-comics-style anthology collections. Believe it or not, there's even more innuendos than just their names- link for more info
Definitely suggestive, but Gay is a real surname. Butch is also a boy's name, and the relationship is heterosexual. This is probably acceptable.
Whew. That took a bit longer than I expected, but hey, there are actually a couple of valid examples in there.
Edited by VampireBuddha on Oct 2nd 2021 at 9:31:20 AM
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Showtime!
The Power Girl series in question ran from 2009 to 2011. The panels in question are from earlier in the run, and DC abandoned the code in Jan 2011, but it was pretty loose by that point, so I don;t think these count.
Absolute destiny... apeachalypse?
Just found Radar.Ultraman Geed, and I don't think there's a single valid example on that page:
- Moa's affection for her childhood friend Riku. As if living and bathing with her (#4) as children were not enough, she even mentioned to have sleep under the same bed with Riku (#16). All this made both her and Riku are almost look like married couple, even as children themselves with her way of explaining her past to Laiha mean it like how she did "that" with Riku. Good thing that the boy is completely unaware of this
- Even better: in episode 16, when Pega admits to have been joining Riku and Moa's trip (date). Moa's reaction (of how her childhood is ruined) is somewhat doubtful, especially after Pega admits that it was him who she hugged in a haunted house instead of Riku.
- in #12, Sui Asakura develops the power to perceive anything around Riku and mentions that he knew what did the boy hide under his bed. Some fans guess it to be Porn Stash, with Riku's denial reaction to Sui doesn't help.
Calendar enthusiast
IMDb says it's TV-PG in America and G in Japan.
Those examples are pretty standard shonen tropes. Cut the page.
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I'm going to start taking a look at Radar.Comic Strips; to start, I'll look at the examples on the page itself.
As a general rule, newspaper comics don't have a single radar - they have thousands. Every newspaper has its own standards, and those standards will reflect ever-changing social mores as well as the whims of different editors. Syndicates may also have their own rules.
That established, let's dig in.
- In Calvin and Hobbes, when Calvin becomes terrified after accidentally breaking his father's binoculars, he wonders if he should run away, or commit hara-kiri, with Hobbes quipping that perhaps he should do both. A shockingly dark joke, that would never have been allowed to be published in newspapers, had it not been an obscure term for a suicide method involving disemboweling oneself.
I was under the impression that harakiri was a relatively well-known term. In any case, why would it never have been allowed to be published in "newspapers"? Which newspapers?
- Get Fuzzy:
- The original April 4, 2005, comic strip for has Bucky listing the different animals eaten for different holidays: "Christmas turkey, Thanksgiving turkey, Valentine's Day beaver..." Later reprints changed "beaver" to "marmot".
- Another series in Get Fuzzy featured two ghost hunters showing up at the main characters' apartment; they represent Atlantic Research of Supernatural Entities. If this wasn't clear enough, their initials appear on their shirts and, later, their laptop (in a larger font than any of the dialog lettering).
- Bucky once owed money to the Chipmunkfia (Chipmunk Mafia), and received a note that said "Pay up or we will turn you into a nut sack." Reprints have replaced it with "nut case".
The holiday animals might just be Accidental Innuendo, or perhaps Conley changed it so that more newspapers would be willing to print it. We'll need a citation that it was changed due to an editor realising what they had printed.
The editors bloody well noticed the ARSE.
"Nutsack" definitely wasn't accidental, but again, we'll need some evidence that it was changed due to an editor realising what they printed rather than because Conley wanted more newspapers to publish it.
- In one For Better or for Worse strip, Elly's friend Anne looks at a newspaper filled with personal ads for "swinging couples looking for partners", and says she wouldn't do something like that because it would require her to "lose at least 20 pounds". It was surprising that newspaper editors would let a specific reference to "the lifestyle" on the comics page in 2009, much less when it originally ran in 1980.
Again, which newspapers? Did any of them have a rule against this? And was it not just Refuge in Audacity?
- Soup To Nutz loves to do this. Here's an extremely impressive example.
Dead link.
- Agnes: A groupie joke
That's definitely a groupie joke, in a strip that was published in 2014. Evidence needed that this circumvented any rules.
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Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
Question: For all the radar pages that were cut, were the examples at least moved to Parental Bonus (for example) instead of just getting deleted?
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
Angry babby
Or Demographically Inappropriate Humor, or Accidental Innuendo?
Luckily we preserved a lot in the thread if we need to paste them.
Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 9th 2021 at 11:33:41 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Calendar enthusiast
Where they fit, yes. But the majority of examples were shoehorning, pareidolia, or acceptable given the age ratings, so don't really fall into any tropes.
EDIT: Also, the Radar/ pages were backed up on archive.org.
Edited by VampireBuddha on Oct 9th 2021 at 8:39:29 PM
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More looking at newspaper comics! This is Radar.Big Nate, which launched in 1991.
- The whole point of Femme Fatality's existence is basically this. She's been described as buxom, just over six feet tall, a vampire, and has Absolute Cleavage. No wonder Nate's attracted to her.
- Femme Fatality isn't the only radar-dodging thing in her comics; one comic was titled "Femme Fatality vs. the She-Wolves of Vixenia", and there's also a passing mention of a planet called Buxomia.
- In one strip, after which Nate has lost a student-faculty basketball game to Mrs. Godfrey, in the following newspaper story, he dubs her the "faculty dominatrix."
- In one story arc, Nate is assigned a beautiful girl for his locker partner. This girl's name? Amanda Woodcock.
- In one of Nate's "The Snuggles Family" comic strips, the family goes on a road trip and the kids in the family wave to truck drivers. Punkin wonders why one driver is waving with only one finger.
- Nate's father once fell in love with a YouTube baker, Connie the Cookie Cutie. When he's watching one of her videos, we get a suggestive quote from him:
Connie: Notice my butter is very soft.Dad: I'll say it is.
- Nate's favorite TV weatherman is called Wink Summers. Nate knew it couldn't be his real name, so he once asked what Wink's actual name was. It's Dick Schipp. Nate even says that saying that name on live TV would be risky.
- Nate asks Jenny if she'd like to play tennis. She said that she "wouldn't play tennis with [him] if [they] were the last two people on Earth." Nate then says, "If we were the last two people on Earth, we'd be doing other things, if you know what I mean!"
- When Nate sees Kenny (Ellen's former boyfriend) with a girl other than Ellen, he wonders if the girl is actually Kenny's cousin or sister. Francis then points and says, "Close family." Nate looks and says, "Yow. Okay, bag that theory."
- There's also a similar strip here.
- There's also a similar strip here.
- After Nate gets dumped by Angie, he writes a poem to cope with it. The last lines go:
You seemed to say:"Hey, what the heck!I'll dump Nate WrightFor Dan LaBreque!"
- Francis says, "Thank goodness she didn't dump you for Gregory Koszelichuk." Think about it...
- An early strip had Nate's dad ask Nate why he's so obsessed with violence. Nate's answer? "Because I'm not old enough yet to be obsessed with sex." That's pretty daring.
- When Nate is a yearbook photographer, he uses several photography-related puns to hit on a girl. Among the creepier ones: "How about we step into my dark-room and... see what develops?"
- Thanksgivings in Big Nate are sometimes peppered with Nate's telling of the first Thanksgiving in comic strip form. Only the celebration is... a bit different.
- Nate tries to teach Spitsy to attack cats by showing him Ellen's cat calendar. Spitsy immediately runs off with it and starts drooling over it like Nate's showed him porn.
- Nate's grandma mentions that his dad used to be by himself for hours in his room "doing lord knows what." Nate is understandably a bit squicked out.
- Nate is attempting to write a story for English class, but he has writer's block. So his dad suggests the classic "close your eyes and point to something random in the newspaper" trick, and Nate tries it out. What does he land on? 30% Off All Women's Intimate Apparel. Considering that his story begins with him meeting a "stunningly beautiful sales associate", it's safe to say that his story would almost certainly end up NSFW. His excitement upon picking the topic doesn't help matters.
- "I would love it if you nibbled on my eraser."
- A 2019 strip doesn't so much get past the radar but destroy it. Nate goes to a book-signing, thinking it was a snack line, and the indignant author proclaims herself to be a "writer of erotica". Nate thinks that's a pudding, but the readers know better.
- Another 2019 strip has Dee Dee doing Nate's hair and telling him he looks like a young Adolf Hitler.
I'm going to cover all this with a blanket statement. Every newspaper has its own standards and editors. Simply saying "This happened!" doesn't cut it. Each of these jokes is the whole joke and the entirety of the strip, so the editors bloody well saw them; the fact that they were printed is far more likely because the editors considered the jokes acceptable. A few, like Amanda Woodcock, can probably be placed on Double Entendre.
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And as some fanservice, even.
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
A loyal animal lover
Spitsy drooling over the cat calendar could belong in Poor Man's Porn.
Vampire Buddha, thanks for your suggestions. Your points about the Swedish and Greek ratings agencies are helpful.
I'm going to use the initialism MSM (Mildly Suggestive Moment) because so many of these are a slightly sexual line of dialogue or moment that the censors would have seen. A stretch is something that becomes sexual if you think about it really hard.
I checked the "as the peasants sing "He's generous! So generous!", a woman can be seen putting her hand on another woman's butt!" example. I genuinely can't see anybody doing that.
- Hercules:
- The scene with Nessus is practically made of implications that he wants sex. How would that work? (Nessus was famous in Greek mythology for being killed by Hercules after he tried to rape Herc's third wife, Deianeira.)
- Also, during that scene Hercules checks Nessus's "undercarriage" to see if he should address the centaur as "Sir" or "Madam."
- One of the people Hercules comes across in the big city wants to sell him sundials, although the camera angle briefly makes him look like a flasher.
- The garden scene? It starts with Hercules recapping the offscreen date, which ended with a performance of Oedipus Rex ("I thought I had problems!"). After Meg mentions her weak ankles:
Meg: So, do you have any problems with things like this? (kicks her ankle up by his face)
Hercules: (uncomfortably glances down her leg) Uh…
Meg: (nudges his face away with her foot) Weak ankles, I mean.- Later, when she's practically climbing on him trying to get him to give something away:
Meg: No trick knee… ruptured disks?
Hercules: (gulps and slides the strap of her dress back onto her shoulder)
- Phil's basically introduced with this trope. Herc surprises him while he's peeping through the bushes at some nymphs playing in a lake, and causes them to notice him. They all flee in embarrassment… and one of them disappears in a flash right in front of him, leaving him shocked on the ground with a ring of flowers around his neck. He spends most of the movie (when he's not training Herc) chasing skirts, as satyrs were known to do.
- The Muses' opening narration has one mentioning Hercules, and Thalia the fat muse interjects "Honey, you mean Hunk-ules! I'd like to make some sweet music with him-" before she's interrupted.
- Being bigger on banter than the others, Hades and Megara's conversations are the most likely to be rife with innuendo:
Meg: Looks like your game's over. Wonder Boy's hitting every curve you throw at him.
Hades: (stares at Meg, getting an idea) …Oh, yeah. (chuckles suggestively) …Wonder if maybe I haven't been throwing the right curves at him, (traces the outline of Meg's figure in smoke with his hands) Meg, my sweet?
*later*
Hades: I need someone who can… handle him as a man.
Meg: Hey, I've sworn off "man-handling".
- There is also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene when Hades introduces himself and his proposition to Hercules. It is easy to miss because of Hades' rapid speech, but he slips in a Stealth Insult while he is doing a handstand on the gym equipment.
Hades: Hey Herc! You little W, can I call you Herc?
- The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: After the Star-Crossed Lovers are reunited, Kovu eagerly suggests to Kiara, "Let's get out of here. We'll run away together! And start a pride all our own...", with a motion and a look on his face that suggests he's ready to get started right then and there.
- Mulan:
- A line during the song "A Girl Worth Fighting For". Although it could be taken to be about girls, it also sounds like they're talking about something else, which is even followed by a whistle from Mushu.
"You can guess what we have missed the most since we went off to war…"
- During the song "Honor To Us All", Mulan is briefly seen wearing a white dress just right before two older women make her put on her iconic pink dress for her visit with the Matchmaker.
- The basic premise is that a woman has entered an all-man's encampment. Watch that bath scene again.
Mulan: I never want to see another naked man ever again. (Cue the stampede of naked men)
- When practicing her masculine voice, Mulan says "I see you've got a sword. So have I!"
- Mulan clearly expressing her admiration of Shang's figure after he takes his shirt off.
- After she later expresses her attraction to Shang, Mushu angrily tells Mulan to go to her tent. Which causes Mulan to smile.
- "Your great-granddaughter had to be a CROSS DRESSER!!!"
- "It's only concubines." "Ugly concubines."
- This line from Mushu: "Because MISS MAN decided to take her drag show on the road!"
- Another line from Mushu: "Say that to my face, you limp noodle!"
- The bathing scene, especially. "There's a couple of things I know they're bound to notice!" Featuring strategically-placed objects and camera angles.
- Tarzan:
- A quick scene where Tarzan curiously tries to look up Jane's skirt and presses his face against her chest to listen to her heartbeat. Considering how this was the first time he met a human woman during his adulthood and therefore being rather "innocent", and how the scene as a whole is actually very sweet and romantic, it's possibly one of the least crass examples on this page. This scene was actually in the advertisements for the movie.
- The way Jane said breathlessly: "I was saved… I was saved by a wild man in loin cloth."
Prof. Porter: Loin cloth? Good lord!
- And of course following immediately after, Prof. Porter explains to Clayton that Jane is just probably taking after her mother because Jane's mother use to go and create wild and imaginative stories all the time, "All though she never dreamt up anything about men in loin cloths *nervous chuckle*"
- When Jane goes on to sketch Tarzan on the blackboard and talks about his intense eyes, her father chuckles and asks if he should give her some alone time with the blackboard.
- The "Strangers Like Me" sequence. Particularly the second verse:
Every gesture, every move that she makesMakes me feel like never beforeWhy do I have
- This goes well with the masturbating Tarzan toy◊ that got released.
- This goes well with the masturbating Tarzan toy
- In An Extremely Goofy Movie there's a subtle one, during the scene where Max reveals that his dad's been fired a snickering Bobby says, "you mean his pink slip was showing?"
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire:
- When medical officer Sweet finishes his examination of Milo, he hands Milo two beakers and says "I'm gonna need you to fill these up." Milo spits out the thermometer in his mouth and asks "with what?"
- A scene where Moliere can be seen whispering into a partially-naked woman's ear, and gets punched for his troubles. For an added bonus, he whispers it right after he finds out she understands French. We all know probably the line he used. The subtitles for this part are "Voulez-vous coucher..."
- And when Kida removes her sarong to go swimming Milo gets very bashful and when he jumps in after her his shorts bubble up in the water and he pushes them down looking rather guilty.
- Right before this, Milo had been trying to read an inscription on a wall, but was getting visibly distracted by Kida taking the garment off her legs.
- Treasure Planet:
- Captain Amelia tells Silver that "You can keep that kind of flim-flammery for your spaceport floozies, Silver." Doesn't help that right after, Morph mockingly repeats her words.
- The Greek dub actually uses a word equal to "sluts" for this.
- Dr. Doppler's hilarious Freudian Slip...
Amelia: Actually, Doctor, your astronomical advice was most helpful.Doppler: Well, u-uh, thank you. Thank you very much. Well, I have a lot of help to offer, anatomically--amanamonically -- as...astronomically! *Face Palm*
- Big Hero 6:
- While Baymax analyzes that Hiro is going through puberty, this...interesting dialogue comes up.
Baymax: You should be expecting an increase in body hair. Especially on your face, chest, armpits, and—Hiro: Thank you, that's enough!Baymax: You may also experience strange and powerful new urges—Hiro: Okay, let's get you back into your luggage!
- Earlier on, the movie has Aunt Cass telling Hiro this:
Cass: Mrs. Matsuda's in the café, she's wearing something super inappropriate for an eighty-year-old.
- Earlier on, the movie has Aunt Cass telling Hiro this:
- When Baymax tries to make the group share their feelings, Fred (the chill, stoner archetype) volunteers, and:
Fred: My name is Fred, and it's been 30 days since my last—
Fred: [seconds later, and purely because it's Fred saying it] Am I the only one seeing this?
- When Baymax tries to make the group share their feelings, Fred (the chill, stoner archetype) volunteers, and:
- On Baymax's heating powers, after the heroes get Trapped in a Sinking Car.
Fred: It's like spooning a giant marshmallow!
- On Baymax's heating powers, after the heroes get Trapped in a Sinking Car.
- When Hiro and Baymax sneak into a warehouse to find out where a microbot was leading them, Baymax gets stuck in the warehouse window and decides to activate his auto deflation system. What happens next is a noise that sounds like flatulence, giving the impression that Baymax, who is a robot is passing gas when he technically can't due to being a robot. It's one creative way to sneak in a fart joke, especially in a Disney movie.
- Strange Magic (which was released under Touchstone Pictures) has a scene near the end where Marianne the fairy princess and her new love interest the Bog King who is leader of the goblins have a moment where she walks her fingers up his back and caresses his spine and he is very obviously shaking with pleasure, it is basically foreplay. Word of God said the original scene in the storyboards was even more overtly sexual but the radar caught something for once.
- The Princess and the Frog has a scene where, after Tiana and Naveen managed to escape from the alligators by hiding inside a tree trunk, Naveen suggests that he and Tiana get comfortable in a rather suggestive tone. She, of course, was not amused by this and promptly slaps him.
- Tangled has an argument between Mother Gothel and Rapunzel over Flynn, with Mother Gothel trying to manipulate Rapunzel into leaving Eugene and returning to her, showing Rapunzel the tiara he stole from the castle and telling her he's only staying around her to get it back. But the phrasing, the way Mother Gothel keeps telling Rapunzel once he gets "it", "that's how fast he'll leave you!" and the fact Flynn is established to be a suave con-artist (and it's implied he Really Gets Around), it sounds suspiciously like Mother Gothel is actually talking about Flynn wanting to take Rapunzel's virginity and then dump her.
- At the end of The Aristocats, just before Madame Bonfamille takes a picture of Duchess and the kittens with Thomas O'Malley, Mdm. Bonfamille brings up the fact that Tom and Duchess could end up having more kittens—hearing this, Thomas's eyes shoot open with surprise, but Duchess gives him a rather flirtatious look before nuzzling up against him.
Out of the two folders of material, there are less than five actual examples. There might be more when I get to individual film pages. A few other examples need to be moved, but most of these were "a character says something naughty."
Should I tackle the individual films or clean up the rest of the main page?
Does the new citation requirement circumvent the "going through examples one at a time" thing?
Edited by VerySunshine on Oct 14th 2021 at 5:30:46 AM
Clean as necessary.
Should've posted this during Christmas, but screw it, found it now and not really wanting to keep it around for two months. This was in the Jim Carrey movie where he stole Christmas, back in '00. And many of these items sounds a bit shoehorned?
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Not nearly as many as the second live action film adaptation of a Seuss work, but still some rather noticeable examples:
- The flashback to the baby Grinch being delivered appears to take place at a key party. It could also be a drunk driving joke, which is equally inappropriate. — I don't remember the movie itself having an orgy? If it's implied to be one, that's Parental Bonus.
- Several Who's excitedly putting keys in a bowl. — That's kind of pushing it.
- A female Who hitching a piggyback ride on another Who's back. — Ditto.
- One husband's reaction to their doorstep baby delivery: "Hey, honey! Our baby's here! ...He looks just like your boss." — Parental Bonus.
- The Grinch accidentally crashing into Martha May's cleavage — and she likes it. — Sounds a bit stretched?
- "Now pucker up and kiss it, Whoville!" Said all while hilariously dangling mistletoe over his rear end. And Martha May faints at the sight before all chaos breaks loose. — Toilet Humor, not really Radar.
- The Mayor kissing Max's rear. — Another Toilet Humor shoehorned as Radar.
- In a blink it and you miss it bit of dialogue, when the old ladies dress the Grinch up in his Holiday attire, he says, "Don't touch me there!" — Shoehorn.
- During his angry monologue to the Whos, the Grinch explicitly says "I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas ties" he gets. — Black Comedy aside, not really seeing the Radar here.
- In the extended version, Nogoff, a part of the Whobilation where the Grinch has to guzzle a load of egg nog, which is suspiciously reminiscent of challenges where people are dared to chug down an entire alcoholic beverage in one sitting. — Stretch, someone's reading too deeply into a simple drinking scene.
- Martha May's dazed reaction to the Grinch setting a tree on fire: "oh wow". — "Oh wow", she said. Shoehorn.
- Late in the movie, the Grinch along with Cindy Lou, as they ride down to Whoville to bring everyone's presents back, says this line: — Maybe this one's a keep, since, IIRC, the movie is G-Rated. Not sure one "B-word" in a whole movie counts as Radar though...
Grinch: The sun is bright, and the powder's bitchin'!- A mild, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment: While choosing a Whobilation outfit, The Grinch rips off his 'not a dress' kilt, and he's wearing a lace garter around his thigh. — Freeze-Frame Bonus, and not really a Radar moment.
- The flashback to the baby Grinch being delivered appears to take place at a key party
Calendar enthusiast
The bathing stuff in Mulan sounds like Naked People Are Funny.
Strange Magic is rated PG, so that kind of thing is acceptable; the way the example is written sounds like the radar did pick up on something and ordered the creators to tone it down, so nothing got past.
How the Crinch Stole Christmas is also rated PG, so even if those examples aren't shoehorned, they're the sort of thing that's allowed.
A loyal animal lover
Actually, we have a subtrope for butt-related humor; Joke of the Butt. The "Pucker up and kiss it, Whoville!" line can be put under there, since the scene where the Mayor unknowingly kisses Max's ass is its own trope. Well, anyway, most of those you mentioned can be nuked.
Edited by Segal991 on Oct 16th 2021 at 5:41:17 AM
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Calendar enthusiast
Continuing my look at newspaper comics, let's consider Radar.Dilbert
[citation needed] . I searched, but all the hits I got for Scott Adams had to do with his political views.
- One strip in particular had the distinction of having gotten crap past certain radars: A strip featured Dogbert coming up with a new name for the company by using a computer program that "randomly combines Technology and Astronomy terms". The first result was "Uranus Hertz", and the Pointy-Haired Boss opines "I like it." According to the commented compilation where the strip appears, "this strip was banned from at least one newspaper."
- Tina hates his package.
- Don't make Phil use the spoon.
- In a few strips Alice has a compulsion to grab "things that are not right". Sure, it's innocent enough when she grabs the boss' hair, but when she takes hold of Dilbert's necktie, he tells her that "in an hour I may have to ask you to stop doing that." It gets even worse when you consider that Scott Adams had suggested that Dilbert is "just happy to see you" as a possible explanation for his tie.
- In one strip, Dilbert must convince the VP to give him additional funding for his project. The VP tells Dilbert that denying the funding would make him feel like a big man with his wife that night, and asks Dilbert to top that. Dilbert's reply? "I can try. What's your wife's address?"
- May 23, 2012
- August 13, 2012
- In one early comic, a computer salesman is trying to sell Dilbert a computer that knows what the user is typing by following the user's fingers via little computer chips glued onto the user's fingernails.
Salesman: Of course, some people don't like their computer knowing where their fingers are at all times.Computer: Dave, about last night...
- Another example:
Pointy Haired Boss: This is Rodney. He's in charge of product safety testing. Is our new product safe enough to start selling?Rodney: (his whole face is covered in bandages) $#%@Pointy Haired Boss: (to Dilbert) Did that sound like "ship" to you?
- In one comic Dilbert explains he's joining an organization of engineers who use acronyms to set them apart from everyone else. Dogbert's response is B.F.D. which the comic hastens to explain means Big Furry Deal.
- Scott Adams announced in his newsletter, once upon a time, that if Dilbert ever had sex, his tie would fall down straight. And sure enough, in one strip in 1994, about how Dilbert has gotten suddenly serene, during a period when he had a girlfriend, Liz, it did.
- However, the circumstances are... complicated, as just the previous strip Liz had said that she didn't believe in getting physical until after she got married, and in the strip itself Dogbert reacted to Dilbert's serenity by asking if he'd discovered religion, to which he replied "I think I'm a Unitarian." As Scott Adams told it later, when he originally made the announcement, his female readers were nigh-unanimous in desiring Dilbert to get lucky, but the male readers were split between wanting Dilbert to get lucky and not wanting him to do so until they did, or as he put it, using Dilbert as a barometer of their own success with women. So he wrote the strip in such a way that both sides could interpret it any way they wished.
- He's also said that this conversation was probably the biggest case of Getting Crap Past the Radar in the strip:
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.
- Adams experiments with this trope quite often. He has occasionally wondered at the fact that he's allowed to publish things that suggest off-limit words, weapons, or body parts, even when it's pretty obvious what he's implying.
- The last strip has a...cucumber-shaped executive, and Dogbert tells him he looks like "a giant..."
Executive: Leader?Dogbert: Exactly.
- There's also one notable subversion: the character Phil, 'Prince of Insufficient Light and Ruler of Heck.' Adams initially wanted to put Satan in his strip (presumably so certain comparisons with other pointy-headed characters could be made), and the syndicate said no. Years later in a collection, Adams admitted that Phil had turned out to be "more interesting" than Satan would have been.
- "Can I borrow your scissors?"
- "Ow! Ow! That's not an eyebrow!"
Scott Adams, in "It's Not Funny If I Have To Explain It": It's funny because it's naughty. But you knew that.
- In order to stop Dilbert from being executed, Dogbert has Bob demonstrate a "fur wedgie" on Catbert. Later, Dilbert says that the paperwork ordering his execution was lost, leading Dogbert to remark that it "probably fell into a crack".
- The "Shift Happens," "Poke my head in" and "get a Hummer" strips. The last one was changed, but by accident.
- Oct 11 2010:
Pointy haired Boss: My hunting trip was a huge success. I bagged an elk.Carol: Hmm... That's not like you. There's something missing in this story.Pointy haired Boss: It had a saddle.
- Alice bribes Wally.
- After Alice reprograms the robot with a male personality so it doesn't take over the world it has a suspicious new lump on the bottom of it's body casing.
- "I'm curious where you stick your head to listen to your gut?"
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Many of the examples from the Disney page were already on the pages, so I wiped the section. Now, all I have for that section is the cited example from The Rescuers. I added a note about the cleanup effort too.
There's an example from The Little Mermaid (1989) that I'm confused about. On the packaging of the VHS release, one of the spires in the backgound looked phalic. Disney recalled the packaging and revised the art. To this day, they maintain the spire was unintentional. GCPTR has to be intentional. Does the example fit somewhere else? Should I add a comment to the page when I remove it?
Angry babby
A loyal animal lover
The May 23rd, 2012 strip seems to imply Literal Ass-Kissing.
Calendar enthusiast
Radar.Dilbert has been cutlisted and the tropes reassigned. Time to look at Radar.FoxTrot. Wikipedia tells me this comic launched in 1988 and is still going today. It was daily from 1988 - 2006, and Sundays-only after that.
As with Big Nate and Dilbert, FoxTrot is a syndicated newspaper comic, and so does not have a single censor. Rather, each of the thousands of newspapers in which it is printed have their own standards, and the multiple syndicates that distribute it also have their own internal standards.
Anyway, let's begin.
- Paige once told Peter to "eat spit and die."
She didn't say "shit", she said "split", which is a different word and not a curse.
- In an early strip, Amend got away with someone taking a hit from a bong. Strangely, the phrase "has the hots for me" didn't go over as well.
- That whole series of strips, in fact. Paige and Nicole attended a high-school senior's party, only for the host (drunk and stoned out of his gourd) to try and convince Paige to smoke pot or have sex with him, with the sounds of drunken vomiting in the background. When he tries to convince Paige to "do lines" (snort cocaine) with him, she punches him in the nose and the girls leave.
Drugs are pretty clearly portrayed negatively, so it's fine.
- Similarly, Paige once went to a dance with a boy who she slow danced with, and ending up kicking him for something (we don't see exactly what, only Paige with a wide-eyed look of surprise and then a Death Glare on her face). The boy said that "[his] hand slipped" when trying to defend himself when she kicked him in the shin. (Remember they were slow dancing at the time.)
- After the dance, that same boy (whom Peter had warned her was a sleazeball) drove Paige to a makeout spot and tried to get "physical favors" (Paige's actual words) from her, ignoring her constant pleas that she wanted to go home. Only after Paige threatened to mace him did he get the message.
Again, this is presented as bad behaviour which the strip clearly presents negatively.
- In one strip Jason claimed that Peter likes folk music... because lyrics contain phrases like "folk this" and "folk that." That's pretty daring for a newspaper comic.
Maybe. Depends on the newspaper.
- The Gag Penis strip mentioned on the main article may be the biggest example of Getting Crap Past the Radar in the history of newspaper comics. Amend actually stated that only one newspaper didn't run the strip that day.
- And when you realize a certain part of a certain fandom has an association with these, it gets ten times as worse...
That would be this strip, which was printed in 2000. I feel like newspapers were OK with this kind of humour at that point, but in any case, it depends on the newspaper.
- One strip references Shrek's GCPTR by having Paige try to get Peter to let her sneak into the movie. She acts subtle, describing the movie and its cast ("Shrek and Princess Fiona and Lord..."); when Peter refuses, she shoots him a death glare and finishes ("...Farquaad").
Oh, hey, an example that references an example on a whole other page! Anyway, no. "Farquaad" is a character's name which, sure, sounds like "Fuckwad", but isn't "Fuckwad", so it's OK.
- Peter's pitching in a baseball game and looking at the catcher's signals:
Peter: Two fingers? Shake him off. Three fingers? Shake him off. Two fingers? Shake him off again. Three fingers? Shake him off again. One finger?... Hey, same to you, pal!
Referencing a rude gesture is not the same as showing it.
- This strip from 2002:
Roger: I remember back when we were newlyweds, we used to do it all the time. Practically every night. Sometimes more than once. I can't even remember the last time. [brings out his chess set] Please? Just one game?? I won't do my check dance, I swear!Andy: The honeymoon is over, chess boy.
They're literally talking about chess. I feel like this example isn't Not What It Looks Like, but it is an adjacent trope.
- Andy, flying high on decongestants, channel surfs without turning the TV on first;◊ when one of the kids points this out to her, she says, "I thought Oprah looked extra black". When released in book form, Andy's line is changed to one about Bill O'Reilly seeming unusually calm.
Huh?
- In one strip, Peter was playing Tomb Raider and extolling its greatness to Jason, who refuses to play it because it stars a woman. He eventually says "Lara Croft isn't just any girl, Jason. Check out those twin bazookas". Jason, not getting the innuendo, responds that they are pistols. A later strip, part of an arc where Jason and Marcus recreate video games in the snow after being sent outside, attempt to play Tomb Raider..and the Lara Croft snowman they've made has two large snowballs lying on the ground.
Jason: Dang, they keep falling off.Marcus: I told you we shouldn't play Tomb Raider.
- There's also Jason having an Erotic Dream about Lara, only to spend most of it running away from her. Peter's comments imply that he has wanted one for quite a while.
- Even the family computer, the iFruit, has an erotic dream about "Ms. Tomb Raider" (actual terminology) while in sleep mode.
Lara Croft has huge breasts. Everybody knows that. These strips are making fun of well-known pop culture.
- After receiving an exceptionally stupid Valentine's Day gift, Andy asks Roger if he'd ever wondered why none of their children have birthdays in November.
Maybe. Depends on the newspaper.
Playboy bunnies are well-known pop culture. Including a reference depends on the newspaper, but this is mild.
- In a storyline where Jason attempts to make Boondocks cartoons, he wonders what is the fuss with Aaron McGruder using "N" words,◊ proceeding to write a strip in which every word begins with "N" (specifically, a newscaster announcing, "Ninjas noodled nine nefarious neocons near Norway", to which Huey responds, "Nice!").
That's the joke. Censors bloody well know that it's a reference to the word "nigger"; the joke is that Jason doesn't understand, and uses other words that start with N.
- In a series of strips detailing Peter taking Jason and Marcus to the The X-Files movie, the duo manage to get Peter to drive to the theater quickly by passing the time in the car with Marcus's lecture on "your proposed relationship between Mulder and Krycek." It likely passed under due to the fact that non-fans wouldn't realize that Mulder and Krycek are both men, and Mulder/Krycek shippers at the time were some of the biggest producers of Slash Fic.
Depends on the newspaper, but I'm pretty sure it was socially acceptable to allude to the existence of homosexuality when The X-Files was on.
- One strip mentions "Netflix and chill", and means it. (The gag is Roger the Bumbling Dad having misheard the phrase as "Netflix and chili" and actually being more interested in his misinterpretation than in the correct one, even after the correct one is offered to him.)
This was printed in 2016. As always, it depends on the newspaper, but this is mild enough that it's probably acceptable to most of them.
Edited by VampireBuddha on Oct 22nd 2021 at 7:45:57 PM
Ukrainian Red Cross
As someone who actually worked in newspapers for several years, "the editors bloody well saw them" is not a guarantee these days, if it ever was. First of all, it depends on who you mean by "editors." Generally the people with major decision-making power aren't going to be putting together the comics page. Sometimes the people putting together the comics page don't even work at the paper, since many newspapers have outsourced layout and non-reporting to outside mills. And of course, the people with the real decision-making power are probably in corporate — Mc Clatchy, Gannett, etc. — not the individual editorial staffs.
Even assuming there is a person whose job it is to approve every syndicated comic, newspapers barely have time or staff anymore to review the actual news thoroughly, let alone low-priority content produced elsewhere. The fact that they were printed doesn't necessarily mean the editors found them acceptable — usually it means that the editors didn't check. This is a profession where a long, profane paragraph about a minor beginning with "Dixon sucks donkey dicks" ran in a high school sports article because there was no time to thoroughly read it before the paper went to press.
(That last bit may well be an example, if you consider libel law a radar: https://deadspin.com/the-fallout-from-sportswritings-filthiest-fuck-up-1797691830)
Like I've said before, I feel like that kind of thing is more an indictment of the "trope" itself than anything else. There's nowhere near as defined and consistent a radar as it currently pretends in the first place.
Edited by nrjxll on Oct 23rd 2021 at 1:30:11 PM
Edited by VampireBuddha on Oct 1st 2021 at 7:24:59 PM
Ukrainian Red Cross