Sound Effect Bleep



""Yippi-kay-ay, motherfu-" [gunshot]"

- John McClane, Live Free or Die Hard

When a [DING!] character's [BOING!] words, usually [BAAA!] expletives, are [BOOM!] drowned out by a [ZAP!] artificial BEEEEP, or, more [TSEEEEER!] creatively, by a [BONG!] sound effect (e.g. a [HONK!] car horn or a [AAAIIEEE!] scream). Usually the [BEEEEEP!] words are [TWEET!] completely drowned out, but [SCREEE-BOOM!] sometimes the first [BLAM!] syllable is audible before the [MOOOOO!] sound effect [SLAM!] kicks in.

Normally used when a character is going to say something rude in a programme where the FCC (or other Media Watchdogs) will leap on it. It's the audio equivalent of Scenery Censor.

Strangely enough, the bleep effect often makes the joke funnier than if the swear word had actually been used (thus forming the premise of This Trope Is Bleep comedy). This is particularly true when it's used to cover up a Cluster F Bomb. This is likely because profanity is often a mundane occurrence in real-life conversation, whereas loud incongruous bleeps are not. Unfortunately, it can have the same effect on scenes that are supposed to be serious.

Sometimes used in the service of The Un Reveal, or to Cut a Curse Short.

In television, typically a 1kHz sine wave.

Compare with Symbol Swearing, Narrative Profanity Filter, and T Word Euphemism. Contrast with Seven Minute Lull, or Plot-Based Voice Cancellation. Also compare to Gag Censor, which is the visual equivalent.

[TU-WHIT!] Anime and [TU-WHO!] Manga
"Haruhi: "Then I'll tell everyone at school that all you geeks ganged up on her and fed her!""
 * So far Berlitz's given name in Pokémon Special has always been obscured with someone's speech bubble, more than likely her own as she shouts something right as her name is said.
 * It was revealed recently. it's
 * In the Adult Swim broadcast of Samurai Champloo, some of Mugen's profanity was bleeped with scratching sound effects in accordance with the show's hip-hop tone.
 * As was the time Jin called a minor noble "an unimportant piece of [scratching]". This was in fact the first thing censored in the series.
 * Spoofed mercilessly in a Prince of Tennis OAV, set in an Alternate Universe where the heroes play beach volleyball instead of tennis. When Inui figures out what's going on, he tries to tell the others but reality itself bleeps him every time he says the word "tennis". At one point, Ryoma says "What are you going on about? I don't understand all those beeps."
 * Overused in Kodomo No Jikan to the point where it sounds like Rin has learned to speak in bird chirps.
 * The Un Reveal variety is used in Code Geass to prevent the viewers from learning C.C.'s real name. In something of a subversion, the sound effect is actually reasonable - the sound of water dripping off the ceiling of the cave she and Lelouch are in.
 * Then what about the shot where the water ISN'T dripping, and Lelouch says her name again? In the dub, that was pulled off with a mute, but Fridge Logic dictates that at that point, the Un Reveal is just getting pretentious.
 * Before C.C.'s true origins were revealed later in the series, some people believed that the sound actually was her real name. The concept of the Geass originated in Celtic mythology, where it was typically placed on mortals by members of The Fair Folk. Since these are often a type of nature spirit, it actually makes a bit of sense for a fairy's true name to be a natural sound like that of a water droplet falling on stone.
 * After Haruhi Suzumiya blackmailed the computer club president with contrived photos of him sexually abusing Mikuru, the club president protests that all clubmembers are witnesses of the blackmailing, to which Haruhi counters:

""Huh!? You've never even *CHUU* before?? Not even a little *MEEEEP* on the beach!?....are you a saint?"
 * Also, the name of the computer club president was bleeped out with Shamisen (the cat) making noises.
 * A sex scene near the end of the original Lupin III manga series had various words bleeped out. The scene was interrupted by a fan letter saying, "What the bleep is up with all the bleeps?", with a similarly censored reply.
 * In Lucky Star, the discussion between Konata and her dad about Gund*ms is filled with these. Soujirou's monologue uses this even on non Gund*m words.
 * Everytime something copyrighted comes up in Lucky Star, that isn't owned by the anime company, is bleeped out.
 * In Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, the swear words in Sousuke's hilarious Drill Sergeant Nasty rugby training routine are bleeped with what sound like sped-up loon calls. It's a complete non sequitur, but it made the scene that much funnier.
 * In Hayate the Combat Butler, there's one scene where Nagi realizes she's alone with Hayate in her bedroom and thinks, "What if he does BLEEP and BLEEP and ... no! Anything but BLEEP!" (Of course, he doesn't do anything inappropriate, which irks her.) Also, instead of a visual for what she was imagining, the artist substituted a scene of a cruise ship: "Due to content restrictions, this footage has been replaced."
 * In the preview for the next episode at the end of one of an episode of To Love Ru, Lala wonders why Rito is training his body, then excitedly comes to the conclusion that he 'wants to *beep* with me!'.
 * An episode of the Show Within a Show Magical Kyoko in the manga portrayed Kyoko telling a fellow that in thanks for something nice he'd done, she'd "have XXX with you!" (He responded in shock, "Is that alright? This is a kid's show!")
 * The Adult Swim broadcast of Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig has one in the first episode when Bato says "Thank to you and all you [BEEP] we're this close to being put out of commission." It definitely makes the scene a lot funnier especially since I can't think of any other time the dub had bad enough language to need it.
 * Note however in the episode Nuclear Power, they air Bato saying "shit" unbleeped.
 * In an episode of Axis Powers Hetalia, the Roman Empire is chatting with Germany:


 * France gets this in an episode of World Series, when describing to Italy what "intercourse" is. Certain words are censored with *oh*, *WOW* (in a feminine voice), and another *WOW* (with a much deeper voice), before ending the speech with one long *BEEEEEEEEP*. Here's a clip.
 * America also demonstrates this trope in an early strip/episode. During a meeting, he is talking while eating a hamburger. It's subverted in that he's not saying anything perverse, but his speech is still muttered by his chewing.
 * B Gata H Kei. Full stop. Anything related to sex (the word sex itself, condoms, virginity, etc.) gets censored out by chirping birds. Considering the kind of show this is, you're gonna be hearing those birdies a lot.
 * In Mitsudomoe, Mitsuba gets called an [OINK] pig.

[CRUNCH!] Commercials

 * A radio spot for Hewlett-Packard which revolved around a parody of automated call centers featured this trope: "Your call is very important to us. If you believe this, please stay on the line, or press 1 if you think we don't give a *beep*"
 * Played with during an Aflac commercial that takes place on a construction site. Every time the duck mascot tried to give the company's name, he was invariably drowned out by a jackhammer, a truck horn, etc.
 * There was a commercial for Knorr instant dinners where the word frozen is bleeped out so it sound like they are dropping the f-bomb a lot for no reason. And then the announcer says "Frozen doesn't have to be a bad word."
 * This beer commercial features a "swear jar" encouraging the use of profanity, getting out of hand to such an extent that you can almost only hear bleeping in one speech at the end.
 * A commercial for the TV Land channel: Leave it to Beaver + random bleeps = hilarity
 * A 2008 Macintosh commercial has PC explaining that Microsoft is no longer using the term "Vista", and pressing a Big Red Button to attempt to bleep Mac whenever he says the word, with little success.
 * The commercials for "Powermat" has the sound that the Powermat makes when it starts charging something to censor the actors' cursing.
 * They actually double the use of this trope in that the actors are saying "beep" instead of cursing.
 * This 90s commercial for Designer Imposters, with Ali Larter. "And spray it on your *beep*."

Fan [POW!] Fiction

 * In Kyon Big Damn Hero Fujiwara is interrupted this by a car horn when calling Tachibana a bi- [HONK].

[BA-LUMPH!] Film
"Garth: You know what you can do with your show? You can take a [long sound of an airplane landing, drowning out Garth's voice, interspersed with Wayne's horrified reaction shot; no kidding, it actually takes this long] until the handle breaks off and you have to find a doctor to pull it out again!
 * During Dr. Evil's cover of Hard Knock Life in Austin Powers in Goldmember, a long string of profanity is silenced out, leaving only,"'till then, I'll j on my.....butt.....her brains out......uncalled and splooge in your a-, that's all!". It should also be noted that the soundtrack CD version censors out the words a bit more, so that the silences make the line even less audible.
 * A number of times in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die.
 * The stage play The Front Page ends with the line, "The son-of-a-bitch stole my watch!" The 1931 film version used the line, but punctuated with a precisely timed pounding of Adolphe Menjou's fist on a typewriter.
 * At the end of the classic spaghetti-western The Good the Bad And The Ugly, where Tuco's shout of "You know what you are?! Just a dirty son of a...!" cuts the last word by playing the movie's trademark prairie-dog howl, and transitioning from that into the main theme to accompany the "The End" sequence.
 * In Waynes World, Wayne and Garth get into an argument outside the airport. Eventually Garth snaps and says to Wayne:

'Wayne: Kiss your mother with that mouth? You've gone mental!"

"State Trooper: Look, you can't drive this piece of shit on a public highway.
 * Played with in Blazing Saddles, where Gabby's repeated attempts to yell that the new sheriff is a "ni-" are canceled out by the church bell ringing.
 * Used to humorous effect in Robo Cop, where a man holding up a convenience store with a machine gun unloads on Robocop, clearly swearing for all he's worth, but his own gunfire drowns him out. (The edited-for-TV version, in a change that goes past "irksome" and into "mind-boggling," dubs in the criminal repeating "Why me?" over and over, ruining the gag.)
 * Used to maintain a PG rating in Smokey and the Bandit. Sheriff Buford T. Justice being stopped by a state trooper who looks at his dilapidated police cruiser (result of many incompetent encounters with other police or road objects):

Sheriff Buford T. Justice I'll thank you not to use that sort of language in my presence.

State Trooper: Oh, I'm sorry. (large semi truck is approaching)

Sheriff Buford T. Justice Apology accepted, now (semi truck sounds horn as Buford mouths the words:) Fuck off."

"Justin: I just don't want see you get hurt.
 * In John Waters' film Crybaby, there's a scene that calls for three uses of the word "fuck". However, in order to get a PG-13 rating at the time, the last "fuck" was actually bleeped out in theaters.
 * Played straight in ~She's the Man~.

Viola: Aww. You are so full of--[coach's whistle blows]"

""Smile, you son of a-" (gunshot)"
 * Used in Ocean's 12 when Basher (the explosives expert, now a rapper) is arguing with the sound guy that his song is completely obscured in bleeps, while their own Cluster F Bomb is being covered by a phone. "Where the riiing is that riiinging phone?!"
 * At the end of the original Jaws

""Well you can go and shove that doorbell right up your!" *Door shuts*"
 * Right at the beginning of Shrek, when the title character finishes reading the story. "Like that's ever going to happen. What a load of--" *toilet flush*
 * Done in Shrek the Third as well. Upon being told that Fiona is pregnant, Puss tells Shrek that he's f-*Foghorn Going Off*.
 * Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Charlie's father covers his ears as one of the grandfathers begins to rant (presumably with cursing).
 * Used in Meet the Robinsons, with Spike and Dimitri (although I forget which of them said it).

"I have been barboiled, x-rayed and xenon flashed, I'm telling you, Stone, you can take your Body Analyser and shove it up your... [the door closes on her at this point with a "schloop" and a "thump" closed.]"
 * In Phantom of the Paradise, an offhand "fuck" during Philbin's conversation with Swan is interrupted by a burst of feedback from a nearby microphone.
 * In the 1967 The President's Analyst, peace-loving psychiatrist Sidney Schaefer ends up blasting away at bad guy minions with a machine gun (and growing to enjoy it). He bursts through a cloud of grenade smoke shouting "Take that, you hostile son-of-a-*RATATATATATATAT*!"
 * Done straight in Fat Pizza, considering the movie itself is a crapload of Cluster F Bomb, this makes it hilarious.
 * The TV edit of Demolition Man uses this trick to clever effect: In a future where all swearing is met with a buzzer and a small fine, it compromises by bleeping out anything above a PG rating early. Unfortunately, there are still a few scenes where due to sloppy editing, it seems to go off for no reason at all.
 * In the film adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles The main characters set a trap for the goblins chasing them using tomato juice in an oven, which is like sulfuric acid to goblins. As the goblin leader walks into the room, he notices the trap and screams "OH SHI-" and is promptly cut off by the sound of the oven blowing up, vaporizing the goblins.
 * As the page cut shows, the theatrical edit of Live Free or Die Hard does it to John McClane's Catch Phrase, as he . The unrated version restores the full word.
 * In the 1971 G-Rated The Andromeda Strain, Dr. Leavitt tells team leader Dr. Stone that she is not happy about the disinfecting protocols being used on them, when she now has to be subjected to a device that is going to do an invasive inspection on them:


 * In the Film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim, the often-disgruntled Julie Powers swears freely in the coffee shop scene. The bleeps this time are strange, glitchy 8-bit sound effects, and a censor bar covers her mouth. After repeated instances, Scott finally asks how she's making those sound effects with her mouth, making Julie's language much like Spongebob's "Sailor Swears".
 * Later on in the movie, after Todd is killed, Julie says to Envy "For the record, I am so pissed off for you right now", in which Envy replies to her "Shut the *glitchy beep sound* up Julie".
 * Another, more subtle, example is when Stephen Stills tells Scott he doesn't want his problems with Ramona to "cock-block the rock". The offending part is drowned out by feedback from the bass amp. Strangely, the certification board didn't have a problem with the line "you cocky cock!"
 * According to Edgar Wright, it was either keep Julie's swears, or cut "you cocky cock."
 * The movie Kuffs both uses and subverts this trope in the same scene, when Kuffs' dispatch radio overrides every swear word in a conversation between him and his police chaperon until the end, where he very clearly enunciates the F Bomb here.
 * The movie To Sir With Love features a scene where Barbara Pegg (played by Lulu) calls a classmate a "son of a bitch." It's drowned out by a train going by, but you can clearly see her mouth it.
 * In the film adaptation of The Cat in The Hat, The Cat (as a chef).
 * In Rango, Rango(not known as that at the time) blows a toad's cover from a hawk while running away. As the toad is being swept away, the scene ends with the toad shouting “SON OF A—” but then the eagle's loud ~ CAW! ~ is heard.
 * In Sucker Punch when Blondie kills the dragon: "Take that, you ugly motherf- *machine gun blast*
 * In The A-Team movie on two occasions we have the lines "Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot! Adios Mother F- *explosion*
 * Various construction noises during Pigvomit's tirade over the closing credits of Private Parts.

[KABLOOIE!] Literature

 * " me! A ing wizard! I hate ing wizards!" proclaims a character in the Discworld book Mort, "effortlessly pronouncing a row of dashes". Obviously, the response is, "well, you shouldn't them, then."
 * Similarly, The Truth features a thug who liberally peppers his speech with "-ing". It's stated several times that this isn't censorship, however, and he is actually just saying "Ing" for some reason. It's implied that he really wants to swear, but has a mental block because of a very strict upbringing.
 * Captain Carrot, in his early appearances, has the unusual skill of being able to pronounce "D*mn!"
 * This was sometimes done in 19th-century novels as well. Perhaps in response to this, Patrick O'Brian also -ed out some of the swear words in his Aubrey-Maturin series, resulting in one humorous scene where Diana introduces herself by yelling at her horse, "Get over, you -," which intrigues Jack, who had never heard a woman say - before.
 * Though it hasn't been published, the whatever that is Mundementia One briefly features a Censorship Device that cloaks the characters' profanities from everyone, including onlooking hostile supernatural beings that are strengthened by such things. It is immediately dropped and becomes miscalibrated, censoring words some distance after curses.
 * I remember a sci-fi novel series where all profanity was replaced by bleep. This was explained as being a story translated from an alien language to English by a robot which was programmed as unable to curse.
 * The ten volume Doorstopper Mission Earth allegedly by L Ron Hubbard. And I am so, so sorry I know that.
 * In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lee Jordan calls a player on the opposing team a "filthy, cheating bastard", but in print only the "b" part is heard, as Professor McGonagall's own shouting at the player drowns it out. For once she didn't pay attention to Jordan's language (or favoritism, or any other junk Jordan pulls regularly while commentating).

Live Action [CHOP!] TV
"Hilda: Oh, would everybody just- (bleep blocks her out)
 * Jerry Springer.
 * My Dad's the Prime Minister did this once.
 * Third Watch used siren bleeps from passing police and rescue vehicles to blot out a character's uttering of curse words.
 * Used frequently in the show Arrested Development, sometimes jokingly.
 * The Myth Busters are often censored with animal noises (complete with cartoon animals blocking the speaker's mouth) when describing especially dangerous or illegal procedures. Indeed, you will get a violent reaction if you "add donkey to rooster".
 * When censoring short words or phrases, the Mythbusters also often use various sounds reminiscent of workshop accidents, like a crash, bang, clang, thud, etc.
 * Adam lampshaded this as well once -- after an actual curse which got bleeped out, Adam then said, "Holy bleeping bleepity bleep!"
 * The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: On-air swearing is almost always bleeped with exclamations in varying languages, with the corresponding country's flag taking the place of pixelation. "You mother-OOH LA LA piece of WASSACOMINAGO, stay the ¡ÂY CARAMBA! out of my TUTTSI FRUITSI house, you CRIKEY-DINGO!"
 * Ghost Adventures members Zak, Nick, and Aaron tend to get quite colorful when things get extremely spooky or really, really tense.
 * On Deadliest Catch the profanities are blocked with ship noises (such as horns and the wind). Because you often see people talking from the side or behind, you aren't quite sure if they've cussed or if the ship actually blew its horn. However, during serious or emotional situations, they'll usually revert to the standard "bleep" sound effect.
 * In American Chopper and similar shows we often watch escalating situations between the protagonists which are more or less completely bleeped.
 * In the "World War Three" episode of Doctor Who, a Slitheen utters the first syllable of a word meaning "testicles" before 10 Downing Street is trashed by a missile.
 * In an episode of NCIS ("Bete Noire"), Kate has been taken hostage along with Ducky and Gerald. She makes an aspersion on the terrorist's parenthood. He asks her if she's got anything better to say. She repeats, adding an adjective that you can't say on American TV. As she says the adjective, the shot Gerald screams.
 * One episode of Chef! had Gareth's particularly foul insult of Everton blanked out in this way, ending in "What are you?" and Everton had to repeat the insult back. It was funny.
 * In the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil," there is a scene where Randy is trying to listen to a detective while talking on his cell phone, but every time the detective is saying the most important part of the sentence, he is drowned out by the sound of a passing car.
 * The IT Crowd has one of these, when Jen delivers a Cluster F Bomb to a visiting Japanese delegate who has stood on her foot with massive Doc Martens boots on; it's immediately revealed that the building is installed with a literal 'Profanity Buzzer' that comes in very handy in exactly this situation. Unfortunately, in a neat little subversion, the executive who managed to 'buzz' Jen out isn't quick enough to catch her boss Denholm, who tells her in no uncertain terms what he thinks of her actions before the executive can catch him.
 * Another, when Jen claims she can learn computing skills, and asks Moss what he's doing. His explanation is replaced with static hiss, while Jen nods thoughtfully and replies "I see." Then she admits she's lying.
 * Parodied in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, when the witches are on an episode of The Jerry Springer Show.

Sabrina:(to Jerry) But she's not swearing!

Jerry: I know, but this way it sounds like she is."

"George: Hey! Putz!
 * Monster Garage censors the occasional curse with sounds of metal hitting metal. At one point Jesse made a speech to a slacker and it sounded like someone was dropping a truckful of monkey wrenches on a tin roof.
 * For a great subversion look at this clip about the *BEEP*king penguins.
 * Rescue911: during their reenactments, sensitive information about the cases were covered up with phone ststic or other related sound effects.
 * Used to comic effect in The X Files episode 'Jose Chungs' "From Outer Space"', which features a police detective with a rather... blue vocabulary. However, his scenes are flashbacks that Scully is narrating to the titular Jose Chung, and as she isn't comfortable with the profanity, she 'bleep's him out -- so whenever he appears, his dialogue is peppered with frequent usage of the word 'bleep' which he himself says.
 * Another episode had Mulder and Scully get caught up with the cast of COPS while pursuing a "fear monster" in LA; of course, every obscenity was beeped. Even lampshaded by Mulder: "I don't think we're on live television, Scully, she just said [beep]."
 * Or the one in which Mulder pursues and stakes a guy who turns out to have fake fangs. Mulder's final line before the cut to credits is, "Oh, sh--"
 * In yet another example, Mulder uses the phrase "No shit, Sherlock" on the phone to Scully, with the profanity covered up by phone static.
 * Project Runway and Top Chef do this, but are trying to do it ineffectively. For instance, in one Project Runway show from season two, a contestant crows a two-syllable F-word, and the buzz is hiding the "ing."
 * Top Chef Masters leaves in Ludo Lefebvre's several outbursts of "merde" and "merdeux".
 * One scene that probably confused many a young viewer from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street took place when Oscar had cause to say to Big Bird, "You are, without a doubt, the stupidest [passing subway train suddenly makes his speech incomprehensible, this goes on for some time] bird I ever met."
 * One creative soul on YouTube-- if the attributions on some copies of the video are to be believed, it's Neil Cicierega-- censored every instance of the word "count" used as a verb from The Count Song. As a result, it sounds like Count Von Count is doing some very interesting things to the spiders on the wall... and the cobwebs in the hall... and the candles on the shelf... and when he is alone, he [bleep!] himself.
 * Well, not every instance. He's Count von [BLEEP] rather than [BLEEP] von [BLEEP].
 * Technically, 'Count' in that instance is a noun, not a verb.
 * In a similar vein, there's a YouTube video of the The Little Mermaid song "kiss the girl" with every instance of "kiss" replaced with [BLEEP].
 * One very good example from The Chasers War On Everything occurs during the infamous "Eulogy Song". Andrew Hansen calls various celebrities by increasingly harsh names and whatever he uses for Kerry Packer is covered up with an "Arooona!" sound effect. Quite probably, this is intentional, because it certainly makes the song funnier than if an actual piece of swearing had been used.
 * In the Fox's The George Carlin Show, the episode "George Speaks His Mind" is loaded with LOTS of these, each of them a Precision F Strike.
 * George O'Grady, after dropping off his ex-wife Judy and her husband off, gets a passenger who tells George to go to the South Bronx, who happens to be an inspector for the city's cab companies. A driver cuts George off and...

Other Driver: HEY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!

George: I'm driving! What the hell are YOU doing?!

Other Driver: HEY, [BLEEP-BLEEP] YOU!

George: [BLEEP-BLEEP] YOU, TOO!

Other Driver: HEY, [BLEEP-BLEEP] TWICE!!

George: [BLEEP-BLEEP] ... WITH A BROOMSTICK!!!"

"Sister Larue: Are you [church bell bell rings] kidding me?
 * An interesting variation occurs in Black Books, after Bernard is accidentally locked out of the shop by the new security door and Manny's unhelpful reaction prompt an invective-strewn rant; however, because the security door is soundproof and we're seeing it from Manny's perspective, we don't actually hear what Bernard is saying, only see him hysterically jumping up and down waving his arms about and shrieking what are clearly some very unflattering things about Manny in the process.
 * In the Pushing Daisies episode "Circus, Circus", Ned tells Emerson that a secretary said a clown they're tracking was "A no good lowdown--" only to be interrupted by a loud flame thrower being shot across a scene by a circus performer. Once the flame clears, Emerson stares at his mild-mannered associate and remarks that "I've never heard you use those words before..." This episode also used a Curse Cut Short, a similar trope.
 * Then in the next episode, from a resurrected nun in a convent:

Ned: Shh!

Sister Larue: you shh! I've been putting up with silence for ten [church bell bell rings]--

Ned: Can we just ask you a few questions?

Sister Larue: I've got a question for you? Where's my white light? I knew the afterlife stuff was [church bell bell rings]! where's my [church bell bell rings] diamonds?"

"(Extremely dodgy black slang from a proper news channel on President Obama)
 * On an episode of The Cosby Show from the late '60s (where Cosby played high school gym teacher Chet Kincaid), one of his students constantly swore; his profanity was covered by the Road Runner's "Beep Beep" sound.
 * The Colbert Report Christmas Special featured Jon Stewart describing the "Jewish mistletoe tradition" with what added up to a forty-five second censor bleep. With hand gestures clearly visible throughout.
 * "...with a lamb shank."
 * For more, see, oh, any episode of The Daily Show. For example:

Jon Stewart: "That was f[BLEEP]ed up.""

""Happy Hanukkah, mother-*gunshot*""
 * One edition of Dead Ringers featured 'Ozzy Osbourne' on QVC (a shopping channel) hawking a profanity buzzer which used a new sound effect each time.
 * Which soon ran out of [BEEPS] and had to use a variety of other sounds (including wedding bells) before breaking. There was too much swearing to censor.
 * One episode of Titus had the titular character in jail, with his father laughing at him through the glass window. This particular cell had a switch on it that could cut off the sound. His dad had fun switching it off everytime Titus said a swear word.
 * The Friends episode The One Where Joey Dates Rachel has Phoebe swearing vehemently at the top of her voice at a video game machine just as Ben, Ross's ten-year-old kid enters. But we don't hear anything - Beethoven's Ninth (!) plays over it.
 * One episode of Martin had a situation where Gina became popular on his radio show and became a D.J./announcer for a while. At the end of the episode, a man called the show and started to insult her. Martin was in the studio and grabbed the phone from Gina once he heard the man start to go off on her. This ended up with Martin's boss and co-host having to grab the control for the broadcast(they were live), carefully watching Martin's face and listening to his rant, pressing the 'bleep' button quite often as the credits started to roll.
 * Done very nicely using static on the Subspace Ansible in the final season episode 'The Dogs of War' on Star Trek Deep Space Nine, when Quark is talking to the Grand Nagus. Words static-ed out include 'b*crackle*stard', 'f*scrrrk*ing' and 'sh*sqrk*ging'. Interestingly, the bleeped words were included in the subtitles, though the f-bomb was toned down to 'frigging'.
 * In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glory stomps her foot in anger in already damaged building, causing it to collapse mid-profanity.
 * In the Seinfeld episode "The Pool Guy", Jerry points out that George won't like Elaine's newfound friendship with Susan, prompting Elaine to respond, "I don't really give a sh--", with her profanity cut off by her slamming of the bathroom door.
 * In the episode in which Jerry is dating Miss Rhode Island, Kramer is singing the Miss America theme, and Jerry interrupts him: "Oh, shut the [BEEP!] up!" Seeing as they are riding in the back of a limousine, the noise was an actual car horn.
 * I'm surprised no one else mentioned "The Non-Fat Yogurt", which used plenty of actual bleeps.
 * In the Stargate SG 1 episode 'Heroes' first part, Jack O'Neill, after Senator Kinsey attempted to use a conversation with Jack being caught on camera for political ends. Jack first made absolutely certain that the camera crew were still filming him, then, "You smarmy, self-righteous, opportunistic ass-*intercom and siren*Unscheduled off-world activation. You're nothing but a l-Repeat, unscheduled off-world activation." Judging by mouth movements, situation, character, Kinsey's expression, and the timing of the intercom's interruptions.. the rest was very rude.
 * In another episode, Sam Carter refuses to ask out another female staffer on Jonas Quinn's behalf, telling him, "You are such a chickensh-" before getting cut off by an alarm.
 * The Australian police mini-series Phoenix got quite a few complaints over its use of foul language, so the sequel Phoenix 2 often masked offending words with various background noises.
 * In Father Goose, Walter is about to call Frank "a silly English son of a-" when the last word is cut off by the sound of a boat "accidentally" hitting another boat.
 * In the pilot of The West Wing Mandy is driving aggressively while talking on her cellphone. When she runs a red light, a passing car honks and cuts off her swearing.
 * During a scene of the Andromeda episode "The Warmth of an Invisible Light" where there are mortars falling on them as Dylan, Rommie, and Beka are walking down a hall, Dylan promises the Beka from an alternate reality that if she helps him, she can have his ship. When she asks (not knowing he's talking about one of the most powerful ships in the Universe) "What do I want with some old tug from Starship Habitats?", to which Rommie says "'Old tug' my a..." *mortar explosion*.
 * The Middleman not only bleeps out what would be actual swearing instead of Gosh Dang It to Heck, but Censor Boxes their mouths as well.
 * For the ultimate version of this trope, courtesy of The Two Ronnies, see here.
 * Three characters on That 70s Show had their moment when they flipped out and started yelling profanities, always bleeped out: Red has his in season 1 when he told Hyde to move in with the Formans, Kitty in season 5 when she learned Eric was about to move out, and once again in season 7 at the car show when Red paid no attention to her (this moment however was brief and the only profanity was masked by a honk instead of a bleep), and Bob in season 8 when he finally told off Red after "all those years cutting [him] down, calling [him] dumbass" (but apologized immediately after).
 * A Corner Gas episode has a large rant by Lacy (the least likely character to do so) blocked out by the camera cutting to a very loud passing train, and ends with her putting $20 in the swear jar.
 * In the episode "Face Off," Wanda is announcing at a hockey game and exclaims, "The Dogs score! Holy sh--" Then she accidentally hits the buzzer.
 * Jerri's "Packing a Musket" poem on Strangers With Candy: "When I straddle and squat/To show you my --" (*bell rings*) Of course, you can still clearly see her say it, and it's also worth noting that what we do hear of the poem is undeniably filthy -- it just doesn't contain any actual swearwords.
 * The Travel Channel show Madventures features two insane Finns hitchhiking around the globe into insane situations. Their SFXB is rather low-pitched, so it sounds like the host is saying "FOOK!".
 * The premiere of The Jeff Dunham Show has the following line from Bubba J. when a Jew is on the firing range:

"Guest: Well, there were two [BEEEEP] sitting at a [BEEP], and one of them said [BEEEEEP], and then the other one sniffed and said "That's funny, I just thought I smelled [BEEEEEP].
 * Foul Ups, Bleeps, and Blunders had a segment that used the bleep sound to hilarious effect on a "Question of the Day" where a certain question was asked to random passers by. When one of the presenters (usually Steve Lawrence) says the question the first time, part of it (the main topic of the question) is bleeped out, leaving the audience to wonder what it is and end up laughing at the answers given, before the whole question is eventually revealed by Lawrence, with his co-host Don Rickles sometimes adding sarcastic remarks beginning with "If you were thinking something else..." (for instance: "How often do married couples ?" (one answer involved getting on a motorcycle). The bleeped word was "argue")
 * Survivor has occurrence of contestants swearing. Tribal camp sound effects are used over.
 * Every week Jimmy Kimmel presents a video of "Unneccesary Censorship", with quite some funny results, for example, here.
 * Done with the charcter of Vince in Mongrels who can't get through a sentence without at least three bleeps. Another example of the "bleeps" making it funnier.
 * Hot in Cleveland: As Melanie confronts her ex at the airport, a hapless flier has to keep passing back and forth through a beeping metal detector in time to her profanity. For ironic effect, the rest of the episode thoroughly establishes Melanie as preferring the Unusual Euphemism to actual profanity.
 * There are two episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody wherein a loud noise prevents the audience from hearing Zack and/or Cody being cussed out. The first is sound of a bus horn while Zack's miniature golf date Ella cusses him out for being a poor sport. The second is when the ship's horn drowns out the sound of Carey cussing the boys out for shanghaiing her into doing practically every bit of entertainment on the ship.
 * And Mr. Moseby has had it with these [*SHIP'S HORN*] snakes on the [*SHIP'S HORN*] boat!
 * In one episode of Clean House when Niecy asks the homeowner what her family thinks of the junk on her dining room table. She's promptly sound effect bleeped. The sound effects range from a car horn to a game show buzzer. Niecy immediately afterwards remarks how she "likes how you said that with a smile."
 * In the Swedish version of Come Dine With Me, the narrator asked one of the guests to tell a dirty story -- but asked her to remember that it was a family program. She delivered:

Narrator: ...Well! And you at home, you should be happy you didn't hear that. It would have put you off your appetite.

Later, when she tells the joke to the other guests, the camera cuts away for several seconds until it returns."

"Super Dave: By the way, if anyone ever wanted me to kiss my *bleep*, I just did.
 * In the episodes of Will and Grace that had Sandra Bernhard as a guest star, her cursing was continually overlapped with other noises (workmen drilling, someone making blender drinks...)
 * Dads Army. In "The Two and a Half Feathers", Arthur Lowe plays a foul-mouthed sergeant in the Sudan War, with his swearing censored by disgusting fart-like sounds.
 * When Restrepo, a documentary about a small band of soldiers holding a tiny outpost in Afghanistan, was shown on the National Geographic Channel the language was bleeped only on the closed captions (a few slipped in).
 * Beadle's About was a popular hidden camera prank show on British TV during the 1990s. Any swearing on the show would be replaced with bleeping, and the offender's mouth covered with a cartoon Speech Bubble reading "Bleep" or "Oops." Its presenter Jeremy Beadle admitted that this was done even when someone wasn't swearing, just to make it funnier for the viewer.
 * After one of Super Dave Osborne's daredevil stunts inevitably went horribly wrong, e.g. his car being dumped into a crusher with him still in it, he often threw in a comment along the lines of:

(beat)

Super Dave: I hope they didn't bleep that. There's nothing wrong with kissing your elbow."

"Tessa and Dallas: That son of a...
 * In the According to Jim episode "Bad Word", Gracie learns a swear from Jim which is censored with various noises whenever mentioned.
 * Subverted in the Suburgatory episode "Thanksgiving":

(car horn as both pause)

Both: BITCH!"


 * Used extensively in both The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which uses it to allow for its liberal dropping of the F-bomb.
 * An episode of The Day Today, an English satirical news programme from the 90's, featured an interview with Fur-Q, a pretty spot on spoof of Gangsta Rap and how it is (or at least was) covered on mainstream TV. For the majority of the song, the only word censored is mother[trumpet stab], despite bitch and cock (which are used extensively) remaining. The final verse is just a long stream of swear words, only some of which are bleeped out.
 * Gaki no Tsukai Ya Arahende usually will censor stuff in certain ways with specific sound effects. For example, during the "meetings" in the No Laughing 24 Hour shows, celebrity names are often censored with a gunshot when discussing a potentially embarrassing situation, while references to penises (usually the use of the chinko machine, among other things) is done via a electronic jingle.
 * On Maury, this happens often. It can become disconcerting when someone cusses inaudibly but is still beeped, causing random beeps during what seems like cuss-free conversation.
 * "I'm not perfect, I'm no snitch/ But I can tell you, she's a (door buzzer sounds)!"
 * Used hilariously in an episode of Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions to censor the swear-laden dialog in the first Saints Row video game.

[PLUNK!] Music
"I can see you staring there from across the block
 * "Girl on the Billboard," a 1965 country hit by Del Reeves, uses an electric guitar riff to cover up extreme profanity – quite possibly the f-word – in the line, "The painter said the girl wasn't real, better get the (bleep) on my way!" If indeed the f-word was dropped, the song – despite the censorship – would likely have been the first major hit in any genre to contain that word.
 * In the song 'Dirty Mouth' by New Found Glory side-project International Superheroes of Hardcore, beeps are used to censor out the swear words in the song, promoting the listener to use the replacement words supplied by the band. (Why say f[beep]/when you can say shucks/why say sh[beep], when you can say crud?)
 * The radio edit of Adam Sandler's song "Ode to My Car" uses various automobile/traffic noises to censor the (copious) swearing. Some people think this makes that version funnier than the uncensored album version.
 * Five Iron Frenzy parodied this (and the copious swearing of gangsta rap) in Part 8 of their mock rock opera "These Are Not My Pants": loud BEEP's are applied liberally and completely at random over Micah's improvised rapping.
 * The radio edit of The Bloodhound Gang's "Fire Water Burn": "We don't need no water, let the mother-[HEE-HAW] burn." As with the Adam Sandler example above, some people find this edit funnier than the album version.
 * And the radio edit of "Bad Touch" replaces the words "doggy style" with the sound of a dog barking.
 * Some versions also block out "sex", "pants", and "nuts", as well as "getting horny now".
 * "Beep" by the Pussycat Dolls, where the sound censor was actually the main lick (no pun intended) of the song, and again aimed at making it sound dirtier than it probably was: "I don't give a Keep lookin' at my Cause it don't mean a thing when you're lookin' at the I'm goin' do mah thing while you're playin witchyour ..."
 * Another song that has sound effects in the chorus in the official lyrics is "Paper Planes" by MIA: "All I wanna do is *BANG Bang Bang BANG*/And *KA-CHING*/and take your money". In layman's terms, it's describing a mugging. Oddly enough, the sound effects themselves were evidently too suggestive for some radio stations - one censored version uses entirely different ones.
 * Subverted by the band James for the MTV edit of their song "Laid". The album version of the song (oddly, also used on the radio without edit) features the line "But she only comes when she's on top." The MTV version features the edit "But she only sings when she's on top" - and a close-up of the lead singer's face while he obviously sings the original line.
 * A musical number in Evil Dead The Musical (yep) has a line that goes "And then we'll take that chainsaw and we'll shove it up your-" "Ash!" which is a bit of a moot point, since there's musical numbers titled "Stupid Bitch" and "What the Fuck Was That?"
 * "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'", and other tracks by the Wu-Tang Clan, often used standard Kung Fu sound and voice effects to censor curses in radio and video versions.
 * On a episode of Solid Gold, an 80s music and dance show, host Rick Dees began singing "Eat My Shorts". The words "finger" was censored out by birds chirping, and the "bird" was covered up with cuckoo sounds.
 * The rap song "Super Brooklyn" by Cocoa Brovas (sometimes mis-credited to the Wu-Tang Clan, incidentally) samples the theme from Super Mario Bros for its backbeat. Naturally, in the radio edit, the swear words are covered up with Super Mario sound effects.
 * The Lo-Fidelity All Stars' "Battleflag" contains a bit of a Cluster F Bomb in its uncut album version . The radio edit version covers up the expletives by extending a reverb effect that was already used in the uncut verses. Many listeners didn't even realize it was edited because of this.
 * In Toby Keith's angry post-9/11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue," he famously warns the terrorists that "we'll put a boot in your ass." The radio stations would sometimes replace the word "ass" with an explosion.
 * Weird Al Yankovic uses these occasionally in his polka medleys, most notably in his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer."
 * Eric Idle's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" uses creative bleep sounds in lieu of actual swearing.
 * Martin Mull's "Humming Song" does something similar. In it he claims to have had second thoughts about the language in the song he's just written, such that he's chosen to hum in place of anything that might have been objectionable. The original, it's implied, would have been lurid indeed. It begins "Last night, I took you home, we began to... hmm, hmm hmm...." and proceeds from there.
 * In a particularly bizarre example, the video for the Electric Six's "Gay Bar" bleeps, of all things, 'war' and 'nuclear war' with whip-crack sounds. It came out as a single just after America's invasion of Iraq, so it was most likely a case of Too Soon.
 * In the radio/music video edit, the one curse word in Ween's "Push Th' Little Daisies" gets covered up by a sample of Prince shrieking (taken from the beginning of "Alphabet Street").
 * Huey Lewis and the News' "The Heart of Rock & Roll" substitutes a drum beat for the word "ass".
 * Subverted by Denis Leary's Asshole Song video, which lets all the words go through, but puts a large graphic of horizontal stripes with BLEEP across the center on the screen.
 * The Cascada song "Fever" has the line "Who the f--- is VIP", however, fuck is censored out with a background noise part of the song.
 * It is also used in Lemon Demon's Song Of The Count
 * In Lady Gaga's "Lovegame", the vocalization "huh!" is used frequently throughout the song, mostly as an emphasis on the rhythm. However, in one line it is used for a different purpose; given the unsubtle nature of the rest of the lyrics, Hilarity Ensues:

With a smile on your mouth and your hand on your (huh!)"

"It's quarter two and we get to the front
 * In "Telephone" it's both averted and played straight: Gaga's "motherf**er" isn't beeped out, however, when Beyonce's "boyfriend" is killed, she's calling him a "mother[BEEP]", putting her hand over her mouth, acting all embarrased about her swearing.
 * "Government Hooker" from Born This Way has several swear words bleeped out at the end of the song, however it's pointless as you can still hear her singing them.
 * The radio edit of Lily Allen's "F**k You" is, understandably, in need of a lot of these, and it steps gamely up to the plate with quacks, neighs, spinning plates and a descending note on a swanny whistle.
 * The CD version of Lily Allen's "Friday Night" also utilizes this trope, though from the Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion it's quite clear what belongs there.

Girl on the guest list dressed like a [record ripping noise]"

"Her name is [note note note]
 * The radio edit of "The Fear" censors "fucking fantastic" with a chime that sounds vaguely like a cash register opening - appropriately enough following a line about credit cards.
 * The radio edit of Missy Elliot's "Work It" features a well-placed elephant trumpet: "If you got a big *PHWOO* let me work it"
 * The German singer and comedian Frank Zander used these to parody censorship in music in his song "oh, susi (der zensierte song)". He tells the story of a song he wrote that the record company had censored. He sings the song with the lyrics censored by means of countless sound effects, and it seems like quite some nasty and R-rated stuff has been removed. Afterwards, he sings the uncensored version?which is revealed to be squeaky clean and actually have a different meaning than what one would suppose from the censored version.
 * Messed with in Chiodos's "Is It Progression if a Cannibal Uses a Fork?" A static-ed out part near the beginning of the song ( I wanna know what's going on in the $#^#$#$% little head of yours ) is revealed to just be I wanna know what's going on in the pretty little head of yours
 * When the band Negativland issued "These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit," a retrospective based on the U2 EP, (the band insist it was bootlegged) they closed it with a painstaking edit of the notorious "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Special Edit Radio Mix)" in which every single obscenity (and there was a lot of them) was replaced by the sounds of, among other things, breaking glass, dogs barking, and horns.
 * However, after roughly 8:50 of silence, you hear
 * Bob Rivers has "What if Eminem Did Jingle Bells?" in two versions. One of them covers up the swearing with sound effects and makes for a much more interesting listen than the uncensored version.
 * Eminem himself used a variety of sound effects to mask the dirty language on the clean version of The Eminem Show.
 * Wired All Wrong have several songs where curses are either replaced by static or else chopped up enough to be unrecognizable - the unusual thing is this how the songs appear on the album too: Reportedly this is because Jeff Turzo, as one half of the band, had second thoughts about making an album with lyrics he wouldn't want his young son exposed to.
 * Two Brave Saint Saturn songs, "Enamel" and "Heart Still Beats", had the words "hell" and "pissed" obscured by record scratches and static. This was done on the actual album, and without telling the band beforehand.
 * The radio edit of DMX's song "Party Up" uses various sound effects to cover up the copious cursing and references to murder in the song.
 * Played with in George Jones' "Her Name Is..." where he censors himself so that his lover's husband won't kill him. The sound effect used is notes on a clavinet:

Her eyes are [note]

Her hair is just like [note note]

And she measures [note note note]

But someday I'll fill in the lines

When she and I are free

And we'll walk in the sunshine

[note note note] and me"


 * The Lucky Charms Title of KMFDM's Symbols album also appears in the liner notes for "Down and Out", and is represented by a bleep on the recording. So I guess you could call it "Bleep", as that's a five-letter word. Another common Fan Nickname is "Curse".
 * "Zip" from their first album: "Don't get your [guitar lick] into the zip of your pants".
 * Groove Coverage's "Runaway" has the line "No, I am not your f@$#ing second choice", censored with a standard beep.
 * Addeboy Vs. Cliff's "Beep My Beep", with a chorus that goes "I want you to [beep] my [beep]".
 * "It's Hard to Kiss the Lips At Night (That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long)" by The Notorious Cherry Bombs (translation: a side project by Rodney Crowell's backing band) censored the word "ass" with a spring sound. This even got lampshaded at the end, which features the line "It's all right if we say it / 'Cause the radio won't play it."
 * The radio edit of Tenacious D's "Fuck Her Gently" uses censor sounds that get sillier as the song progresses.
 * Kid Rock's "Cowboy" uses a variety of "standard" censor sounds early in the song, like radio static and a record scratch. Near the end, lampshaded with a female voice stating "radio edit".
 * In "Stand Up" by Love Tribe, the line "asses shaking" was censored with a vocal sample.
 * Monster Magnet's "Space Lord" manages to be relatively radio-friendly (aside from massive innuendo), despite the chorus' only words being a constant repetition of "Space lord, mother-motherfucker". The phrase is faded out every time, so "mother-mother..." is all that's audible. They probably let a few slide. Who'd notice, out of dozens of repetitions?
 * Some radio cuts of Nelly's "Ride With Me" censor the line "If you wanna got and get high with me/Smoking M in the back..." by replacing the word "high" with the sound of someone inhaling and "M" with the sound of exhaling.
 * The clean version of House of Pain's "Jump Around" bleeps out, cuts, or changes many words, including "pops", "I'm smackin' the ho", "bombs", "shotgun", and "death".
 * The music video version of Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" has a lot of comical sound effects to cover up sexual innuendo (for example: "I'm still gettin' in the girls' pants..." has "girls' pants" muted by a car horn honking, which goes well with Humpty grabbing a woman's rear, the line "In a 69, my Humpty nose will tickle your rear" has "69" muted by a record scratch and "rear" muted by a woman's scream, and "I get laid by the ladies..." had "laid" muted with a weird record scratch/car tire screeching noise). Of course, the "Burger King" in the famous line, "I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom" was bleeped with an ordinary bleep.
 * The clean version of Mylo's "Drop The Pressure" changes the Cluster F Bomb to something unintelligible.
 * The Harvard fight song "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard" is perhaps one of the oldest examples of this. Most people know the fourth verse only and some know the dog-Latin first verse ("Illegitinum non carborundum"), but during the instrumental parts the percussion section sings a filthy pseudo-Latin second verse that ends in a raucous English "and save some for me" and a third verse that consists entirely of "la" and "fuck" (these date back to at least the 1940s). The dirty verses are mostly inaudible due to the instruments drowning them out (which is the intent).
 * David Lynch's "Good Day Today" is another example of a song where the sound effects aren't actually covering anything specific up: Part of the second verse is effectively "So tired of [explosion] \ So tired of [machine gun fire]".
 * In "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" by The Offspring, "They're gonna kick his lilly a__" is usually censored with either a bleep or a drum hit.
 * Big & Rich's "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" has "I'm a crazy son of a [bad word] / But I know I'm gonna make it big and rich." Another voice literally says "bad word" over the offending word.
 * Two comedy bits that used this: Jim Backus' "Dirty Old Man" and Hudson & Landry's "Obscene Phone Bust."
 * Tim Wilson: "Darryl Stokes, that dumb sonofa [BLAM], almost shot Santa Claus."

[BZORCH!] Radio
"Jo: There are to be no swearwords.
 * The BBC Radio 4 spoof quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue includes a round called "Censored Songs" in which the teams sing well-known songs while bleeping out innocent words to create a Double Entendre effect.
 * Particularly egregious example: [beep] rabbit, [beep] rabbit/[beep],[beep],[beep]/Here comes the farmer with his [beep], [beep],[beep],[beep]....
 * And "I Whistle A Happy Tune" - "Whenever I feel a[buzz] / I hold my [buzz] erect / And whistle a happy tune / so no one will suspect / I'm a[buzz]". Not to mention "All Through The Night", in which they bleeped out every single word except "...all through the night"!
 * Radio 1 also did a spoof quiz called 'Badly Bleeped TV' in which sections from tv shows, news broadcasts etc. were played with some of their (completely innocent) dialogue bleeped out; listeners had to guess what the words were. The bleeped-out sound clips end up sounding... well, just listen:.
 * Similarly, radios will often censor popular songs by replacing curse words with humorous sound effects. The result of this, ironically, often makes the effect much naughtier than the original. Example: The Gwen Stefani song "Holla Back Girl" replaces the word shit with a sexual moan. This "sexual moan" is bananas?!
 * The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, one of the new radio series. The book Life, The Universe And Everything on which it was based featured an award for "The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word Fuck in a Serious Screenplay"; since it was scheduled to be broadcast at 6.30 pm the word was still uttered by the actor but completely masked by the sound of a starship engine.
 * The American printing of the book changes the award to "The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay", with additional reactions by alien bystanders who consider the bleep-replacement word even worse than the original. Fortunately, it was already established that "Belgium" was the worst swear word ever, so this could be a rare good Bowdlerisation.
 * An I'm Sorry Ill Read That Again episode did the censored song thing to Tom Jones' What's New Kitty Cat, and a medley of other works by the same artist.
 * This was in fact a running gag on the show, which was done with the Julie Andrews songbook, the Rolf Harris songbook, etc. As a BBC censor played by Graeme Garden commented on one episode, "In this way, we can change songs which are mildly suggestive at first and make them sound positively filthy."
 * Also, one episode had Jo Kendall read the rules of broadcasting to the rest of the cast.

Bill: Damn!

Tim: Bugger!

David: Knickers!

Jo: Such words will be obliterated by this noise. [honk-honk] Is that [honk-honk] well clear?"

"[imitating vox pop] "I think there is too much swearing in the media." Surely that depends on what's happening in the world? I mean, sometimes there clearly isn't enough swearing, is there? Peter Mandelson's back in government. How THIS SECTION WAS REMOVED FOR COMPLIANCE PURPOSES.  on a spring!"
 * In The Castle, a parody of TV chef Gordon Ramsey has a "bleeper" who follows him around in public so he doesn't offend anyone.
 * Marcus Brigstocke on The Now Show, complaining about the Media Watchdogs:

"Thank God we had these sound effects
 * On NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me the host and guests censor themselves (usually when reading news quotes) by yelling "BLEEP!" loudly during the sentence.
 * The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show presents what is claimed to be Shakespeare's "long-lost children's play" Cardenio, which includes a sex scene covered up by copious and varied use of Sound Effect Bleeps.

To cover up the sound of sex."

"Jason: Operate! Operate, you worthless hunk of- [BEEEP!]"
 * This was mocked in a Royal Canadian Air Farce parody of the ING Direct commercials. Walking along the street, the dude selling the bank says, "What can you expect from the [car honk]ing Bank? Well..."
 * Unexpectedly used, or at least implied, in Adventures in Odyssey. Jason struggles to get an uncooperative answering machine to work...

"Officer: Now just a minute! What's your name, badmouth?
 * During the late 70s and early 80s, WBZ Radio in Boston used a rather... unique... bleep noise that sounded something like someone trying to hypnotize a Rubik's Cube... It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Used in the Hudson and Landry skit, "Obscene Phone Bust". A variety of sound effects are used to censor the Badmouth's insults to the cops, what exactly he said to women on the phone, and also his name and how it is spelled.

Badmouth: My name is George [squeak honk].

Officer: Did you say [squeak honk]?

Badmouth: Yeah, I said [squeak honk].

Officer: Spelled [xylophone]-T?

Badmouth: Yes, spelled "[xylophone]-T.

Officer: Just like it sounds."

"Sir: (going through the phone book) Oh, here's a good one...Melanie (horn)!
 * Similarly on Jim Backus' "Dirty Old Man," where the codger uses vulgarities (covered by Hanna-Barbera sound effects) and making dirty malapropisms of women's names.

Gwendolyn: No, I believe that's Tate, sir.

Sir: What the (various sounds) is the difference?

Gwendolyn: Shall I dial it for you sir?

Sir: Was Geronimo an Indian?

Gwendolyn: As far as I know, sir.

Sir: (sarcastically) "As far as I know, sir..." you're a pain in the (tweet)! (Gwendolyn dials the number)

Voice on phone: (elderly) Hello?

Sir: How do you do. How's your (jalopy horn)?

Voice: I beg your pardon?

Sir: Is this Melanie (whistle)?

Voice: That's Tate.

Sir: That's tough! You're too (whistle, trumpet) old for me!"


 * The Doctor Who Big Finish audio episode ...ish features the eponymous syllable as its Monster of the Week (it's complicated). In order to protect Peri from the Ish, the Doctor uses Applied Phlebotinum to bleep the syllable out whenever she says it. The effect on her dialogue is ... interesting. (Hilariously, they don't bleep out any of her actual swearing.)

[PHEE-OO-WEET!]Theater
"Chick: Boy, it's hot! Reminds me of that time in Panama... I was down there on a story... I was in this, well, dive, and there was this broad there... What was her name?... Marquita?... Maroota?... Ah, what's the difference what her name was? That dame was built like a brick sh--
 * "Conversation Piece" from the musical Wonderful Town:

(Sudden cymbal crash and discordant outburst, followed by frantic ensemble repeating refrain "Nice people, nice talk")"

Video [YEEOW!] Games
"MALE: "Watch your shot! F[BLEEP]CK!"
 * In Half-Life 2, when the player is about to invade the Citadel, Barney's parting words are partly obscured by a heavy crash caused by Dog, resulting in "If you see Dr. Breen tell him I said fu- *CRASH!* -ou!" The crashing sound isn't part of the audio file for Barney's dialogue though, so the line can be heard in full in the games files.
 * In the Team Fortress 2 promotional video "Meet the Demoman", one of the Demoman's lines is "I'm a black-Scottish cyclops! They got more f[BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP]s than they got the likes o' me." The bleep goes on for quite some time, leading the viewer to believe that the demoman has quite the colorful vocabulary.
 * "Meet the Scout" and "Meet the Spy" do it too, but less as a gag and more to make a point: "If you were from where I was from, you'd be f***in' dead." in the former, "And now he's here to f*** us!" in the latter.
 * This is also present in the Spanish "Meet The Sniper" video. In the English video, there is no such bleep (the English line is "I gotta be honest with ya: My parents...do not care for it").
 * The commando's first mission in Command and Conquer comes through bad interference: "Get in, kkk destroy the kkkkk and get the kkkkk out."
 * Ratchet and Clank
 * The end of Ratchet and Clank Going Commando has Angela yelling "What the *HONK* is going on around here!?" Her mouth was also black barred, so no lip reading, either.
 * The director of the Giant Clank Battle in Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal yells "Kick some monkey---!" when he's overridden by static from his megaphone.
 * Gleeman Vox has an interesting one in the fourth game, "It's time to blow sh-*BEEP*-it up!" The beep is so short it still sounds like one word.
 * He does it again, when berating Ace Hardlight on any lack of public interest in the latter's merchandise. "He's a pompous *BLEEP* with the charisma of Blargian Gnat Cheese!"
 * Starcraft has one where, if you click on a Space Marine unit one too many times, he curses you out with a series of bleeps.
 * And it you click on the Vulture enough times, the driver will say "I don't have time to f*beep* around!".
 * In Starcraft 2, it is replaced with "I don't have time to (VROOOOM!) around!"
 * Leisure Suit Larry 7 features a pirate named Peggy who swears every other word, but each one is bleeped out. They even bleep out the word "stump".
 * Da Capo: Suginami helpfully whispers to Nemu the other meaning to her "I want you to do it both ways", ending with a confused Nemu saying "Please ???? my ????, and take your ???? and put it deep and stir, niisan?"
 * The New York intro in Metal Wolf Chaos, in which Michael's utterance of "you are a sick-" is cut short by more monologue by Richard.
 * In the video game compilation Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (and in subsequent re-released versions, including Midway Arcade Treasures), whenever Eugene Jarvis says a naughty word in the various interview segments, he's bleeped out by the sound effect from Defender (and its sequel) that's heard when a lander kidnaps a human.
 * Sam and Max Season 2 has Timmy Two-Teeth, whose dialogue is mostly bleeped out because he has "terminal Tourettes Syndrome". In the Season Finale, What's New Beelzebub?, you find
 * In the original Dark Forces, when Kyle Katarn confronts a Dark Trooper for the first time, he reacts with "Ah, sh--" *sound of communicator static*
 * Brutal Legend gives the option early on to use bleeps to censor out profanity for the reason of "It's Funnier Bleeped Out".
 * Sounds a lot like what Ozzy Osbourne said about the censoring of The Osbournes. Fitting, seeing as he's in the game.
 * The Play Station version of You Don't Know Jack has backstage chatter among the employees as it opens. One version has one of the staff complaining about something which is responded in kind with "KISS MY- (AIRHORN)" though the offender quickly apologizes.
 * In Clannad, Misae accidentally reveals her age and the game invokes this to censor it from the players for her.
 * Blaz Blue makes use of these on occasion, usually with the sound of the various characters calling out their attacks. In one case this makes for a particularly hilarious scene where Kokonoe suggests ideas of where install a new weapon on the body of Iron Tager, considering his "GIGANTIC TAGER" as an option.
 * There is a two bleeps in Monday Night Combat (which is censored to maintain a Teen rating), and each is a Lampshade Hanging no less. One of the comments announcer Mickey Cantor may make at the start of a Crossfire match may be, "These Pros are ready to tear each other a new [bleep]!" He'll then go on to either ask who said the offending word or just wonder if he's allowed to say the bleeped-out word on the air.
 * Grand Theft Auto III has the original GTA theme song on the LIPS 106 station, but "fucked on crack" is censored with "LIPS" and "don't fuck with me" is censored with "106".
 * The Playstation version of Grand Theft Auto 2 had the song "Taxi Drivers (Must Die!)", by Bula Matari, censored with the sound of car horns.
 * In Combat Arms, when you shoot a friendly, they sometimes say...

FEMALE: "Watch your shot! "AS[BLEEEP]OLE!""

"Stranger: Uh... did you just say *Lengthy series of various beeps*..?"
 * In Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, at one point Stranger has to get a password in order to acess the junkyard where Packrat Palooka is hiding out. Said password comes from someone that Packrat Palooka double-crossed, and they aren't too happy about it, leading to the password being nothing but a long series of beeps.

"Man: "Please, no! I Have a Family!"
 * In one Puyo Puyo game, during this intro, despite the game being in Japanese, Incubus swears 3 times, each swear replaced with sounds such as the bleep.
 * Twisted Metal: Black:

Sweet Tooth: "Shut up and bleed, you mother-"*lightning*"

"Narator: It's a f***in' scream."
 * A Rabbids Facebook launch trailer on had the narator bleeped near the end.

Web [ZIP!] Comics
""You have got to be [Flarking] [Pooping] me! [Flarking] [Pooping] me!""
 * The picture above comes from Gunnerkrigg Court.
 * Curiously averted earlier in the same chapter, when this girl used the phrase "Goddam it!" without being censored.
 * There's also this.
 * In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, both time the Doctor tries to say "Motherf-", he gets interrupted by someone shouting "He said a bad word!"
 * Later on, each time someone tries to swear, the actual bad word is covered by a black box with a silly replacement word.


 * One comic censors fingers (ineffectively) with little black boxes saying things like "[How] [Rude!]"
 * This Adventurers strip.
 * 8-Bit Theater also has at least one.
 * Or two.
 * Schlock Mercenary used a bleep-concealing box on several occasions, often to hilarious effect.
 * Ozy and Millie had a one-off joke in which Avery was shown using Beep noises every other word, having mistaken the beeps as actual swears, and brushed Ozy off when he tried to correct him.
 * 'Sluggy Freelance has an alternate dimension, the Dimension of Lame, where absolutely nothing evil or nasty exists in any way. As such, when a character tries to say "hell", it gets covered by a bleep, meaning that it actually says says a bleep.
 * This DM of the Rings, where Gimli rolls a 1 on his diplomacy check with the Rohirrim.
 * '"Dominic Deegan"' uses this on a regular basis, though usually by another character interrupting and covering the word or something happens where the art can cover the word.
 * In Erfworld, the universe literally *boops* out any profanities, even written ones.
 * Played with in strip of 'Tempts Fate', the fund-raising spinoff from Goblins.
 * In The 10 K Commotion, after experimenting with a few variations to deal with the occasional (or in the case of Pict, not so occasional) swear-word, the author eventually settled on censor bars with cleaner alternatives, such as "Don't this *music* make a *nice guy* wanna jump?" or "Crimony!".
 * In this strip, when the victim discovers that her date might be involved with another man- exactly as he arrives to take her on a date. (Un)luckily, Not What It Looks Like.
 * In this strip, when the victim discovers that her date might be involved with another man- exactly as he arrives to take her on a date. (Un)luckily, Not What It Looks Like.

Web [KABOOM!] Original
"Ellis: "Those CTs have crossed the line! Next time I see one of those BLEEPs I'm gonna BLEEP the BLEEP out of thier rat-BLEEPing hides with a BLEEP that's BLEEP 200 feet long!""
 * Every expletive in EPICMEALTIME is covered by a Crow caw... as is at least one instance of the word "vegetables".
 * Although the Smosh episodes contain bad words, in this video, when Anthany sees that Sonic's shoes are wrong, and tries to swear, it gets bleeped out. Also, some videos have a bleep in it.
 * The SCP Foundation uses [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] whenever someone swears in a report.
 * Used in The Leet World. Usually swear words are covered up with a standard bleep. Played with when the Counter-Terrorists capture Cortez, and Terrorist Ellis starts "inventing new ways to swear."

"Dumbledore:Your mother is a *beep**beep**beep*ing*beep* loremipsum *beep**beep**beep* admiumvenium *beep**beep**beep**beep* dragula *beep**beep**beep**beep**beep**beep* hippopotamus *beep**beep**beep**beep**beep* ing republican *beep**beep* Daniel Radcliffe *beep**beep**beep**beep* with a bucket of *beep**beep**beep**beep* in a castle far away where no one can hear you *beep**beep**beep**beep**beep**beep**beep* soup *beep**beep**beep* with a bucket of *beep**beep* Mickey Mouse *beep**beep* and a stick of dynamite *beeeeeep* magical *beep**beep**beep* alakazam!!!!!!"
 * Potter Puppet Pals. Behold, the elder swear:

"Jeff: Goddamn it, you stupid piece of *BEEP*, I mean you"
 * A Jefferson Brothers episode of the Flash Tub in Something Awful hangs a lampshade on it:

"Narration: A peaceful day in the land of Hyrule...
 * Used in the Apocalypse Lane video Poker Night, with Willy's description of his first and only date with a guy named Frank...a description punctuated with Noodle Implements, increasingly long bleeps, and increasingly horrified stares on the faces of everyone listening to him (one of who immediately vomits afterwards).
 * Extremely *honk*ing popular in Sailor Moon Abridged.
 * The beginning of an episode of LoZ: Four Swords Misadventures:

Green: YOU NO GOOD MOTHERF... *Cucoo Crows*

Priest: ¡Dios Santo! (Good Lord!)"

"Vegeta: "Son of a g f! Why the f does all this f stuff happen to me?! F my life! Always surrounded by miserable fing clods! Like this whole world just likes to bend me over and f me in the A! Like I'm some sort of s! Well as far as I care, these miserable cs can have a f, with a goddamn pig!""
 * Played with in Episode 19 of Dragon Ball Abridged, with Jeice's scouter "acting a bit shonky" right as Vegeta starts an angry rant filled with Unusual Euphemisms.

"Yugi: "Okay Pharaoh, you can thank me later. And remember, no hickies!"
 * Episode 4 of the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Abridged Series Friendship Is Witchcraft has Applebloom's repeated cries of "BUY SOME APPLES!" used to cover up some annoyed outbursts later in the episode.
 * Some other related fan-works, such as the "Epic Cupcake Time" and the "Bronyville" podcast, use Fluttershy's "Yay" or the squeaking noise from "Staremaster".
 * Played with in Naruto the Abridged Series ("Son of a f[Bleep] ca[Bleep] sh[Bleep][Bleep][Bleeeep] baloney!")
 * During a Cluster F Bomb in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series:

Yami: "Huh? YUGI, YOU LITTLE [Beep], YOU SON OF A [Beep] [Beep][Beep]! I'M GOING TO TEAR OFF YOUR [Beep] AND SHOVE THEM RIGHT UP YOUR [Beep][Beepbeep][Beeep], AND THEN [Beeepbeepbeepbeeep][Beep] ON YOUR [Beepbeepbeep][Beeep] WITH [Beeep beep][Beeep]arr IN THE [Beep][Beeepbeeep] AND [Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep] YOU'LL [Beeepbeepbeep] SO THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO [Beep] SIDEWAYS!! [BEEP]!

Tea: "..."

Yami: "Huh? Hi there.""

"Marik: I don't have a [eff!]ing refrigerator! I'm an evil mastermind who lives underground in [eff!]ing Egypt for [eff!]'s sake! Why would I need a refrigerator?"
 * There is one of Tristan's catchphrases, "Holy [bleep] on a [bleep] sandwich! With [bleep] on top! And a side helping of [bleep])!"
 * Marik and Dartz get their own personal bleep, from Perfect Hair Forever.

"Washu: Aww, does dirty ol' Clay fancy little ol' Washu?
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The Abridged Series masks its swear words (including 'bloody', since it's created by Brits) with power drill sounds (quite appropriate) and the voice of Colin Mochrie from Whose Line Is It Anyway going "Meeow."
 * Washu in episode 17 (part 2) of Tenchi Muyo Abridged has her own rant of this type.

Clay: Maybe...

Washu: Oh, you want to do all sorts of thing to my young and beautiful body. You want to [BLEEP] the candle and [BLEEP] it and shove it between my [BLEEP][BLEEP] coating me in hot [BLEEP] wax while you [BLEEP] me in toothpaste for [BLEEP][BLEEP][BLEEP] then [BLEEP][BLEEP] a bike in my a[BLEEP]c[BLEEP] shave my [BLEEP] garden bush [BLEEP][BLEEP] spread my [BLEEP] curtains [BLEEP][BLEEP] a bump [BLEEP] inside my [BLEEP][BLEEP] so inside ready for you to fetch [BLEEP][BLEEP] inside my [BLEEP] fuck it.

Clay: FUCK YEAH!

Washu: Wow, you really don't pick up on sarcasm, do you?"

"Astro: What was that for?
 * Metal Gear Solid the Abridged Snakes uses the alert sound, of course. It's used in the theme song ("America (F(!) Yeah!)") to great effect.
 * Happens in Mario and Luigi's Stupid and Dumb Adventures, in which sometimes, a swear is bleeped out. There was also an episode title for Episode 4 called, WHAT THE F*CK, where Mario says, "PEACH, WHAT THE F*CK." In Episode 5, during the scene when Luigi thinks the cloned Mario (via copier) is the real Mario, and the real Mario is the fake one, Mario and Luigi argue about who is the real Mario, which had bleeps, and then, right before Mario says that the clone is not the real Mario, Luigi says, "Stop saying-" and then the bleep is heard. Later on, Mario once again swears when Luigi gets out a gun, which resulted in a bleep. In Episode 1, the bleep was introduced, when Luigi runs off crying, the bleep is heard.
 * In this project made by Astro947, a bleep is heard in one point of the project.

JJROCKER: This ROLF Cola tastes like-

(Screen goes to Censored Screen. A bleep is heard.)"

"Smugleaf: Have you heard all the fuzz about the new starters? I pity the guys, it's kinda pointless ranting, I mean... "Snake Pokemon? Snakes have no arms, idiot." "That Wotter is ugly as [censored]." [[hottip:*: The original version's line was, "That Wotter is ugly as hell."|undefined"
 * This project has the following quote that Smugleaf said, and he tried to swear, but the bad word got censored. Here is the quote:


 * In the Retsupurae video, What The (CENSORED), The Let's Player, Raven Rage, ends up peppering his entire video with nothing but these, drowning out the rest of his play of Super Mario Brothers 3, leaving slowbeef, Diabeetus and Proteus very confused and wondering if they can find other sounds elsewhere.

Western [CHUKONG!] Animation
"Homer: FFFFFFFFFFFFF-
 * One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures was devoted to a caricature of Foghorn Leghorn named Fowlmouth. This episode plays the bleeps in spades, as it's all about Buster trying to get him to start talking clean: including a torture device (complete with washing the mouth with soap). Ironically, while it works, the cartoon ends with Buster picking up the bad words (and being subjected to the same tortures).
 * Used through an entire episode of Rugrats, "Word of the Day", where Angelica overhears and starts using a (bad) word used backstage by a disgruntled kids' show host. The sound effects became increasingly inventive/desperate. It started with the whirr of a floor polisher, and ended with a testcard tone. She still managed to get it onto national TV and cause the mental breakdown of the disgruntled TV host, so it's all good.
 * The Flintstones also did this once.
 * Both used and subverted by Spongebob SquarePants in the episode "Sailor Mouth". Spongebob learns there are thirteen words a sailor should never use, all of which are covered up by different sound effects (including various horns and sea animal noises). At the end, what seems to be a use of one of them is just the horn from "Old Mister Jenkins' jalopy".
 * Further subverted when it turns out that [dolphin noise] (the actual noise, not something bleeped by a dolphin noise) is just about the worst expletive ever.
 * Some YouTube parody videos censor the perfectly child-safe dialogue, giving the appearance of raunchier words being spoken.
 * There's also the episode where Spongebob censors out the ingredients of the Krabby Patty secret formula in his song.
 * Parodied in an episode of Ka Blam. Henry keeps getting bleeped at least once in every sentence he says, even though he insists that he isn't cursing, and ends up going on a bleep heavy rant. Turns out his co-host June has a device that is supplying the bleeps, and is censoring random words to cheese him off. It is implied that by the end of the sketch he is being bleeped for real.
 * Also parodied in an episode of Futurama. In "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" Leela is put into the a robot chair, where she will be able to testify using series of beeps to convey her testimony. When Zapp Brannigan makes a lewd comment, Leela replies "Go (bleep from the machine) yourself"
 * Constantly skewered in The Simpsons. One recent example had a rooster appear out of nowhere in a living room to do it.
 * Occasionally, the show even censors itself as a joke, as seen when a TV producer, reacting to Homer's sudden appearance on the set of a soap opera starring Moe, blurts out "What the f(BLEEP)dge?"
 * The most iconic example occurs in Who Shot Mr. Burns?, Part One. Homer quietly tells the kids to go outside, stands up, takes a deep breath...

Church bells ring, birds flee into the sky, every person in Springfield freezes in place, eyes wide.

Flanders: Good Lord, that's the loudest profanity I've ever heard!"

"Kyle: Hey you skanky-ass sh! What the  is wrong with you!?! You must be some sort of  to ignore a crying child!
 * Used to the point of exhaustion in South Park. The very first episode has a perfect example when Kyle is cursing out the aliens who are taking his brother, Ike, after they ignore his heartfelt plea. The later seasons have less swearing and bleeping.

Stan: Whoa, dude!

Kyle: You know what you ers like? You like to  and  and  and  and  and !

Stan: Wendy, what's a ?"

"Peter: Lois, you are so full of HONK! What!?! I can't say HONK in my own HONKing house? HONKing great, Lois, just HONKing great! You're lucky you're good at HONKing my HONK or I'd never put up with you. You know what I'm talking about. When you HONK lubed up HONK toothpaste in my HONK and you HONK cherry HONK Episcopalian HONK extension cord HONK wetness HONK with a parking ticket? That is the best!"
 * Notable instance of Painting the Fourth Wall in the episode where they see how many times they can get away with saying "shit." In the B-story, Mr. Garrison is indulging his new ability as a recently de-closeted gay man to say "fag." If anyone who isn't gay attempts to use the word, they are bleeped, and everyone is aware of the bleepage. Later one character (Jimbo) says, "That's not fair! I want to say 'fag' too!" He's not bleeped.
 * It is worth noting that Season 11 and upward episodes that appear on the South Park Studios website usually show without any censor beeps. The newly launched (in the UK) Comedy Central HD channel also airs the episodes from this season upwards unbeeped, whilst the normal Comedy Central channel airs the same episode with beeps. This also counts for Season 8 and upwards, as these episodes have been remastered in High Definition as well and have an uncensored audio track.
 * South Park is incredibly loose with its censoring, generally allowing the characters to throw around insults involving the words 'ass' and 'cock' but usually censoring the likes of 'f*ck' and 'sh!t', and some racial slurs. Usually. In any case most of it is censored when it gets released to DVD too. Mostly.
 * Everything Kenny says is 'censored' by his muffling parka. This helps disguise when he's cursing, or the many times he explains sex acts in detail to the other kids. If he's talking clean, you can usually get the gist of what he's saying on your second viewing, or in some of the subtitles.
 * Profanity in Metalocalypse is bleeped out with guitar licks such as pinch harmonics and whammy bar divebombs. Shortly into the show's first season, swearing on the Adult Swim forums was censored with *guitar riff*, and has been ever since.
 * Another Adult Swim show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, started out with using the standard bleep for censoring, but by around the third or fourth season, censoring was done with just about every conceivable sound effect but the standard bleep.
 * In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, the f-word is alternately bleeped and not bleeped. When it is bleeped, however, it's usually soft enough or short enough that you can still hear the profanity used.
 * In yet another, another Adult Swim show, Perfect Hair Forever, most profanity is bleeped by Coiffio's voice saying "F!", no matter who or what. For some reason, this was picked up by Marik of Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series fame.
 * The Mexican dub of Drawn Together uses this one for Getting Crap Past the Radar; the original version does this to censor Mickey Mouse's name in one episode. The first time, they get the censorship right by bleeping "Mickey" when Princess Clara says, "Oh my God, it's M Mouse!" However, when Captain Hero says his name exactly one line later, they trigger the bleep one word too late and so it comes out as "Mickey ".
 * The first episode of Family Guy had Lois say "What the-", only to be cut off by the horn from Peter's boat. And in that same episode, Peter said that losing that Talent Show was "BULL-", only to then be bleeped out by applause from the audience to the winners.
 * In another, her cookies finish baking just as she says that she's like a hawk: "Mess with my kids and I'll claw your f[Ding!]ing eyes out."
 * In the 4th Season of Family Guy, Peter set up a TV station which was shut down by the FCC. After an offhand remark from Peter, the FCC starts censoring real life, including removing swearwords through the use of an air horn, leading to this memorable quote:

"Lois: (trying to open a bag of chips) Come on, you son of a [HONK]. (Startles, opens bag, spills chips on floor) Ah, [HONK] me...'''"
 * Best of all....

"Lee Unkrich (co-director): Who does the voice of those seagulls, by the way?
 * In another one Lois reads her title on the television screen on Dianne Simmons talkshow which reads "She's probably more of a bitch then she lets on" and she responds "Go [BEEP] yourself Dianne".
 * Seth Macfarlane once said in an interview that back in Family Guy's first two seasons, it was a big deal to even have a swear word bleeped, so they had to use sound effects. However, in the Season 3 premiere, they finally got a standard bleep.
 * The PBS children's show Arthur used this as the basis of an episode, titled "Bleep," where D.W. heard a teenager using a word but didn't know what it meant. She got her whole kindergarten class using it. Her mother finally told her it meant "I want to hurt your feelings."
 * Ironiclly despite the aesop, this episode isn't played very often. Parents pretty much raised a fuss over the constant bleeping. This show is aimed at pre-schoolers and runs on PBS after all.
 * In another episode, Muffy wants to use the jungle gym that was already claimed by The Tough Customers. When Molly yells at Muffy, her speech is cut off by the school bell ringing. Later, the two discuss how Muffy can give the jungle gym back to Molly but their plan is cut off by a gardener mowing the lawn outside.
 * Squidbillies does this often.
 * In an episode of Home Movies, the kitchen catches fire, causing Brendon's mom to say "Son of a --", at which point, the smoke detector goes off, effectively bleeping out the rest of her sentence. Brendon appears amused and impressed by the timing of these events.
 * Another ep, which takes place on Halloween, had Brendon swearing at his dad's girlfriend during her pregnancy when she get fed up with his (rather rude) pestering. She response back in kind which all the words bleeped out.
 * Would you believe the Finding Nemo DVD Commentary contains not one, but two instances of this, once using a slide whistle sound effect? The other one uses a standard beeping sound, but it's still worth mentioning...

Bob Peterson (co-writer): I believe it's Andrew Stanton, director of Finding Nemo! [Please note that it had already been mentioned that Stanton also voiced Crush the turtle] Were you going to let anyone else do voices in this film?

Andrew Stanton: See, I knew it was going to go there...

Peterson: Is that 'cause you haven't won an Oscar, you have to get your voice in everywhere?

Stanton: First of all, this will never make it to the DVD now.

Peterson: Well, in that case, [beep] [beep]!

[all laugh]"

"Dad: Well, my real name is-(Large and extremely noisy truck drives past.)-but everyone just calls me "Dad"."
 * Grodd of Justice League Unlimited was calling Lex Luthor a "sick hominid something" just before having his voice drowned out by the sound of him being shot out an airlock.
 * In another episode, Wonder Woman's "Go to hell!" is cut off by her firing a ridiculously large gun.
 * Used for the Un Reveal in Fairly Oddparents, where the protagonist's parents' names are kept resolutely secret:

- which is then re-done when it is asked who his Mom is. Well, her real name is-(another loud truck)- but everyone calls her mom.


 * An episode of Animaniacs that started with a dramatic, action-packed, and totally bogus Previously On sequence included, as a Running Gag, a guy going "Oh my..." and getting cut off by an explosion from off-screen.
 * Dot at one point had a rant in which the only intelligible words were censor bleeped.
 * In the Pound Puppies episode "Ghost Hounders" after discovering that Katrina Stoneheart was going to have all the puppies shipped to a fur factory, Nose Marie declares that Katrina is "nothing but a...", then a "CENSORED" sign appears and is bleeped out by the "cuckoo clock" sound effect that was often heard in game shows and such. Cooler then tells her to watch her language, to which she responds "Well, pardon my little ol' peaches".
 * In American Dad They briefly parody the famous scene at the end of Jaws with a quote as Hailey's Internet Game Character is about to shoot her arrow at the pressure tank in the monsters mouth. "Smile you son of a--" *arrow woosh*
 * Happened throughout a Powerpuff Girls episode, where the girls learned a curse word without knowing what it meant.
 * In the movie, one of the monkeys seeking to be what Mojo Jojo is trying to be--ruler of Townsville--is Hota Wata, whose self-promoting spiel ends with "I don't give a--" before a dam is exploded and it cuts to Mojo who says "Watch yo' mouth!" The original storyboard had Hota Wata completing the sentence.
 * The Cleveland Show subverted this when Cleveland ducked back underwater before swearing, but then the swear is still audible slightly later in an air bubble.
 * Dresden Files tries this a couple times even when other swearing progresses as normal. Harry was once tasered while swearing (I think the self-narrator was swearing, so there's no reason to cut off, but he did).
 * The Duckman episode "Ebony, Baby" uses an air-horn salesman's display to drown out guest voice-actor Ice-T's profanity-laced rant. He's finally asked to tone it down because the horns are so annoying.
 * The Total Drama series, being a parody of reality shows, occasionally makes use of these. One particular notable example involves Lindsay telling off Heather with an angry tirade composed entirely of one long censor bleep.
 * In the King of the Hill episode "Father of the Bribe" Dale is getting tired of not getting enough viewers for his radio talk show he says "And I can't drum up any new sales because I'm stuck behind this f(beep)ing microphone 24 hours a day".
 * Parodied in Rocko's Modern Life: When Heffer reads a chapter in a home improvement book about things you can say when the hammer slips, random sound effects come out of his mouth. Rocko asks to read the book himself, and finds the exact sounds written down.
 * The Secret Show: Random sounds at the episode where Changed Daily's original name is mentioned prevent the viewers from hearing it.
 * A Cartoon Network bumper had Fred from Scooby Doo going into profanity-laced diatribe (all bleeped, of course) when somebody asked him about his ascot. The rest of Mystery Inc. look at him in stunned silence.

Real [RAT-TAT-TAT!] Life
"''When News & Newsreel started in 1954, being run by News Division from radio, it was decreed that nothing was to be added that hadn't actually happened on the news story. So no music, no sound effects etc. Just the bare bones, which meant that often it was largely just still pictures with a Voice Over, 'Frozen Radio' as someone called it.
 * Also creatively used by the BBC News in 1960 (from BBC TV From AP):

But eventually they did get over this drawback, and one day around 1960, when we were dubbing a news story about aircraft, and it contained an interview with a Group-Captain Chester (or similar name), it was discovered that in editing, part of the man's title had been cut off the sound, reducing him to 'plop' Captain Chester..... Well, what to do about it, the Group-Captain would probably object..... 'Can't we "hide" it somehow?' someone said, and I found a disc of a jet fly-past, to spin in just at that crucial moment.

And they used to say that the News shouldn't be 'fixed'...''"

"Nixon: Have you lost your mind? Look, Al! Nixon can't say this! "Niggers". Niggers?! It can't say that! We could delete it... Would you have us black it out, sir? We could write "expletive deleted." Cut all these 'goddamns' and 'Jesus Christs' out.
 * An unusual example was done by an audience at a wrestling promotion. At the previous show, the general manager complained about the language used by the audience. At the next show, the chant "Holy Shit" was verbally beeped out--by the word "Beep". ; the chant became "Holy Beep". The general manager found it HILARIOUS.
 * The infamous tapes by Richard Nixon were censored by Nixon himself. As documented by the film Nixon:

President's Lawyer: Jesus. Mr. President. Don't you see that all these deletion marks in the transcripts make it look as though you... you do nothing but swear?"