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The written text of an example (not the trope names) should at least try to match the tone of the work, especially for works aimed at a young target audience.
There's a huge difference between writing "Patrick Star is a [BLEEP]" and "Eric Cartman is a [BLEEP]" (insert whatever expletives you prefer), because SpongeBob's target audience is much younger than South Park's is.
2025: the year it all ends?As per TV Tropes Customs:
- We aim for "family-friendly" — our mantra is No Lewdness, No Prudishness. We're perfectly willing to discuss all the sex, violence, and naughty language that are prevalent in media, but we ask for just the facts, ma'am. In particular, this is not a place for you to creepily gush about how you, the editor, finds someone (or something) attractive or sexy. At the same time do not censor pages for naughty content if said naughtiness is part of the work itself, nor should you go out of your way to Bowdlerize swearing unless it’s gratuitous.
What I get from that is generally, don't censor profanity if it's part of the work, but otherwise strive to keep it as clean as possible. There really shouldn't be a reason that we as wiki editors "need" to swear if it's not for documentary purposes.
Edited by number9robotic Thanks for playing Kings Quest V!I don't register "asshole" and "dumbass" as swears (we literally have Asshole Victim and Dumbass Has a Point), but I wouldn't put "fuck up" on articles unless it's a quote, a reference, or is literal, because it'd look unprofessional. Grammatically "fuck" is an intensity emphasizer and Word Cruft is against using unnecessary emphasizers unless it's Dath Wiki or Sugar Wiki.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

I know gratuitous profanity in examples is listed as Word Cruft while also being a Bluenose Bowdlerizer is discouraged, but as far as TV Tropes' generally accepted and striven for writing conventions in articles, does using terms like "fucks it up", "being an asshole", or "being his dumbass self" go against any of the Adminstrivia policies when editing articles? I know we have more lenient POV guidelines than Wikipedia or Fandom like allowing the generic "Tropes that apply" or "Visit the unabridged version HERE" being allowed to be written to reflect a quote or theme of the work documented, but I don't know if the same applies to asterisk-preceded examples.
I'm mainly talking about pages on works in any medium rather than Tropes themselves, as those are usually written from a subjective and generalizing standpoint with some humor thrown in at the beginning paragraph and/or folders if it's comedic or imitating the character subject of the trope. But from my experience, examples on a work's page are described more seriously, but I'm not sure what the line is for occasional allowances of language in example descriptions that wouldn't change the meaning/point either way if they were changed into something more informal (-> being an asshole -> being a jerk -> being arrogant/selfish/rude). Even if such a rule were in place or preferred, tropes that already have profanity in the title like Asshole Victim or Bitch in Sheep's Clothing would obviously be exceptions whether following the asterisk or being mentioned in a sentence after the colon of another trope, since Sinkholing is forbidden as a format regardless of the trope name.
I'm also wondering if it depends on the target demographic of the work and/or the subpage the profane descriptions of an applicable trope is used? What may seem like conventional description on a South Park example feels a bit out of place on a SpongeBob one.
Edited by Tacoyogo