Defying the Censors

There is a time when an artist chooses to be subtle and work at Getting Crap Past the Radar to avoid trouble. Sometimes however, there are times when the artist walks up to the Censorship Bureau's face to deliver a metaphorical "Screw You" and present their work regardless.

When the work in question is worth the effort, especially if it is hailed as an artistic masterpiece, or the larger society has changed enough in its values to agree with the artist, then this can be a Moment of Awesome as taboos are shattered and freedom of expression has a victory. Of course it can also backfire and get the author in a lot of trouble.

"Lake Barengo is a body of water whose surface is smooth as glass But getting to Lake Barengo is a genuine pain in the ass."
 * The producers of the classic films, The Pawnbroker and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? when they successfully appealed to the Hays Code board of governors and made them bend to the inclusion of artistically necessary nudity and harsh language respectively, with the excuse of them being "special exceptions"
 * MGM when it outright defied the Hays Code and released Blow Up despite their attempts to stop it to great critical and box office success.
 * Stan Lee when he defied the Comics Code and published his famous Spider-Man anti-drug story without the approval seal and undermined the code's credibility (the code forbade any and all depictions of drugs). This in spite of the fact that the comic was commissioned by the United States government as an anti-drug issue.
 * When The Doors were on The Ed Sullivan show, they were told they couldn't sing the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher". Jim Morrison did anyway, getting them banned from the show from then on. Incident appears in the Biopic as a Moment of Awesome.
 * Allegedly, this was actually because Morrison was extremely nervous and forgot to change the lyric, not because of any rebellious intent.
 * In 2003, the Rascal Flatts got into some controversy for their music video "I Melt" due to some nudity and sensuality. Rather than edit the video in order to fit the sensibilities of the country music channels, they kept their video as it was, saying they were satisfied with it.
 * Also, there's an entry on Histeria!'s Getting Crap Past the Radar section that might fit, where they actually got "Damn the torpedoes!" into the daytime children's cartoon. There's no way the censors overlooked that, so I think it fits much more with this trope.
 * One of the first times (if not the first) the word "ass" was used on US TV was by Jimmy Stewart, in a poem he read on The Tonight Show.


 * After the taping, the NBC Censor called up the producer.

"Censor: I heard that someone said "ass" on the show. You know, that's not allowed. Producer: Before you say "that's not allowed" let me tell you who said it. Jimmy Stewart. Censor: Oh, Jimmy Stewart said it? That's OK then."

"Bart: Hello, Springfield! Now here's a song that your principal Skinner doesn't want us to play. audience boos Skinner: That's not true! This assembly was my idea. I like your brand of inoffensive pop-rock."
 * Bill Amend says that words like "sucks" are a big no-no for newspapers, so it's fun to occasionally make them central to a strip's joke so that the can't be easily edited out.
 * The Simpsons: Invoked by Bart when his boy band has a gig at Springfield Elementary.

"''I checked with an editor, and he said I could say "breast" as long as I used it scientifically, rather than to arouse prurient interest. For example, I could say "breast" as long as I used it scientifically, rather than to arouse prurient interest. For example, I could say "two breasts plus two breasts equals four breasts," but I could not say: "Hey, get a load of that breast.""
 * Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho:From imdb: There is a rumor that the this film was not passed for release because it was claimed that Janet Leigh's nipple was visible during the shower scene. The nipple wasn't in the film at all, but the cinematography and score are so well performed here, it caused the release board originally to think that there was a nipple visible and send the film back for re-editing. The production team went through the shower sequence cut by cut to illustrate that there was not. Alfred Hitchcock made no changes (none were needed), but merely sent it back, assuming that they either wouldn't bother to watch it, or would realize their mistake.
 * Actually, the breasts of Janet Leigh's body double are just about visible, as you can see here. Certainly it's not very obvious, however.
 * Swamp Thing under Alan Moore also had an issue published without the Comics Code seal. I think it was the one where Abby found out that she had been having sex with her uncle in the guise of her husband.
 * Otto Preminger famously in 1953 released The Moon Is Blue without Hays Code approval, and had to do the same with The Man With The Golden Arm. Preminger had to pressure the censors to pass Anatomy of a Murder, whose dialogue on the subject of rape was fairly explicit for its time.
 * Exploited Trope for Marv Wolfman and George Perez in Teen Titans' "Terror of Trigon". The Comics Code did not approve of their on-panel scene of Dick and Kory sharing a bed, but losing the approval meant they could get away with a lot more horror elements than they normally would.
 * In-Universe example: In Echo Bazaar (where you have Victorian-era ideals of decency) a couple mid-level Persuasive storylets involve this, especially notable if you have or want Bohemian connections; you can help a poet friend get his banned work republished and organize readings of banned poetry.
 * Dave Barry had lots of fun in his columns at the censor's expense. When he arrived at the subject of breastfeeding, he had this to say:


 * Producer David O. Selznick insisted that the famous line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" had to be included in the final cut of Gone with the Wind. The censors relented, but not without slapping a $5,000 fine on Selznick.
 * To Love Ru Darkness seems to be written with this goal in mind, upping the Fan Service in response to Moral Guardians protesting such works. It's telling that the recap chapter was six color pages of Fan Service from the previous series.
 * Similarly to Darkness, the animated version of Dororon Enma Kun was recently pushed for by Go Nagai specifically in response to the new draconian anti-Anime laws in Tokyo. Go Nagai being, of course, the "Father of Ecchi," his legendary fighting back against Japan's Comics Code having created the entire Ecchi genre in Japanese manga and anime. The animated version retains the original's high fetish and nudity content, and swaps out the main male lead for a female version just so they can add additional fanservice.