Censorship Tropes

"WARNING: The following program is a realish documentary, and may contain language which is is vulgar, offensive, or grammatically awkward. Such language has been censored whenever possible, but for the sake of higher ratings, we may have let a few gratuitous and especially titillating instances slide."

- The opening of the "American Dicks" episode of Duckman

"WARNING: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

- Disclaimer from the webcomic Xkcd

Interesting tropes about ing out things not meant for corrupting sensitive eyes or ears.

Compare These Tropes Should Watch Their Language.

People responsible:
 * Gos Kino
 * Media Watchdog
 * Moral Guardians
 * 4Kids! Entertainment

General discussion:
 * Censorship Bureau
 * Comics Code
 * Hays Code
 * Radar Systems

Visual cover-up techniques:
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy (formerly "Anime Anatomy")
 * Censor Box (can immediately become a gag censor if this trope is Played for Laughs)
 * Censor Shadow
 * Censor Steam (also a Bathing Trope)
 * Censor Suds (also a Bathing Trope)
 * Censorware
 * Digital Bikini (sometimes used in conjunction with a Shower Scene, Bathtub Scene, or a Hot Springs Episode of an anime that has been edited when aired in America)
 * Gag Censors
 * Godiva Hair
 * Hit Flash
 * Lens Flare Censor
 * Magic Pants
 * Magic Skirt
 * Modesty Bedsheet
 * Modesty Towel
 * Pixellation
 * Scenery Censor
 * Speech Bubble Censoring
 * Stop-Motion Lighting

Tropes about censorship:
 * And Some Other Stuff
 * Atomic F-Bomb
 * Banned in China
 * Black Blood
 * Black Screen of Death
 * Bleep, Dammit!
 * Bloodless Carnage
 * Bluenose Bowdlerizer
 * Book Burning
 * Bowdlerise
 * But Not Too Evil
 * Censor Decoy: A vital tool used by daring writers who want to get crap past the radar. Say there's a writer or director with two scenes: one that's too violent or sexual to be shown on TV or in the movies, and another that's a bit more toned down, but has heavy innuendo or inferences to violence. The censors will have to choose between which scene can be suitable for air (usually the first choice will be picked as the sacrifical lamb while the second scene will be put on TV or film, but sometimes there will be a goof-up and the radar will be shattered either way).
 * Censored Title
 * Censorship By Spelling (can also be used as a Comedy Trope)
 * Clumsy Copyright Censorship (often used when TV shows or movies are rerun or put on DVD)
 * Cluster Bleep Bomb
 * Country Matters
 * Culture Police
 * Curse Cut Short (sometimes used as a Comedy Trope)
 * Defying the Censors: Sometimes you just have to stand up to those who would silence you.
 * Dropped Abridged On It
 * Dub Text (only if the dubbers are bored, do it by accident, or want to make a scene more risque than what is originally intended)
 * Family-Friendly Firearms (used in a majority of American-edited anime)
 * Finger On Lips (used mostly in music videos and music performances)
 * Frothy Mugs of Water (used a lot in American-edited anime)
 * Fun With Autocensors (mostly seen on Internet forums)
 * Get Back in The Closet
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Defying the Censors on an underhanded level (leads to Refuge in Audacity if the writers use explicitly racy material and it still gets past or if the writers use this trope repeatedly and the censors either don't notice, don't care, or have fallen for a Censor Decoy one too many times).
 * Hide Your Lesbians
 * I'm Having Soul Pains
 * Informed Obscenity
 * Live but Delayed
 * Narrative Profanity Filter (mostly used in written media, but can also be used on television shows if a narrator is used)
 * Never Say Die
 * Nipple and Dimed
 * Nobody Can Die
 * Nobody Poops
 * No Smoking
 * No Swastikas
 * Pardon My Klingon
 * Precision F-Strike
 * Product Displacement
 * Relax-O-Vision
 * Scunthorpe Problem (mostly seen on Internet forums)
 * Seven Dirty Words
 * Sleeping Single (also a Comedy Trope used in conjunction with Exiled to The Couch or if a work parodies the allegedly "squeaky clean" 1950s sitcoms in which married couples were shown sleeping in separate beds)
 * Sound Effect Bleep
 * Streisand Effect
 * Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion (can be a Comedy Trope or used for non-censorship reasons, such as trying to avoid a lame and predictable rhyme scheme -- i.e., subverting the old "Roses are red, Violets are blue" poem)
 * Symbol Swearing (used primarily in American comic book stories or literature)
 * T-Word Euphemism
 * Think of the Censors: When characters in a fictional work know or realize that their words and/or actions are subject to being censored if actually said or done. Also a form of Breaking the Fourth Wall.
 * Think of the Children: The call to arms for many a Moral Guardian or Media Watchdog group.
 * This Trope Is Bleep (can be used as a Comedy Trope if done in excess or if what's being bleeped isn't offensive at all)
 * Thong of Shielding
 * Too Soon: Sometimes used to censor something in retrospect, as seen in the wave of media that featured The World Trade Center towers or terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.
 * Unacceptable Targets
 * Video Nasties
 * Witch With a Capital B