Cluster F-Bomb/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Suite Life On Deck episode "Snakes on a Boat" gives us a particularly funny one from Moseby (although you can't hear him over the boat horns. This is a kids show, after all.)
    • I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE (honk) SNAKES ON MY (honk) BOAT!!!!!!
  • Any HBO show (other than Big Love) could be accused of this.
    • Deadwood is a particularly strange example, as it features characters using modern obscenities in a setting where "God dammit to Hell" was still shockingly profane. The producers were well aware of this and decided to use anachronistic dialogue anyway, reasoning that historically-accurate dialogue would sound too tame. After all, the real Deadwood was home to many a miner, and they weren't known for their restraint as far as language, so the Cluster F Bombs are accurate... from a certain point of view. In the words of Geoffrey Nunberg: "If you have your characters use historically accurate swearwords, they're apt to sound no more offensive than your grandmother in a mild snit."
    • The Wire, which usually uses profanity regularly but not to ridiculous degrees, features a particularly brilliant example: an entire three minutes and thirty seconds of two detectives, Bunk and McNulty examining a crime scene, the only words exchanged being variations on the f-word. It kind of has to be seen to be believed. (Definitely NSFW.)
      • The best part about that particular scene is that it doesn't even seem out of character for a second.
        • A CMOF in that scene has one of them almost say "shit", but it comes out "fuck".
      • The show also subverts the trope with the character Omar, who despite being a total badass who walks around in a duster with a shotgun robbing drug dealers, is very conspicuous by being the only character on the show to never use even mild profanity.
    • The Sopranos uses that four-letter word regularly, too.
    • Rome adored this trope. "I FUCK [the goddess] Concord in her FAT ASS!!" "Juno's CUNT!" And so forth.
    • For an interesting early dropping of the bomb on HBO, see Billy Crystal's "Don't Get Me Started." Crystal's imitation of his father's home movies have him portraying his uncle cursing the air blue at a family barbecue, but the "film" is silent, Crystal only mouths the words for everyone to follow.
    • The 1990s HBO comedy series Hardcore TV featured a Beverly Hills, 90210 takeoff titled "Bensonhurst 11210." In one scene, a girl is relating to a friend a story in which about every other word is a variant form of "fuck," leading to this memorable exchange:

Girl #2: Hey, what the fuck's with all the "fucks?"
Girl #1: Who the fuck are you -- the fucking Fuck Police?

    • In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Susie is infamous for hr short temper and dirty mouth.
      • Amusingly played with in an episode of; after Larry has accidentally left an abusive message intended for someone else on David Schwimmer's father's answering machine, Schwimmer's father calls back to return the favour with interest. After unleashing a barrage of abuse and swear words that would make a sailor blush, he finishes by calling Larry a comparatively tame "Son of a b-" - and the last word is cut off by the end credits before he can finish.
      • Fuck me, you mean to say you mention that fucking episode, but not the one with the chef who has Tourette's Shitcock Syndrome? Tag team Cluster F-Bomb.
    • Boardwalk Empire appears to be following suit, particularly in the case of the fuckin' commodore.
  • On Top Gear, presenter Richard Hammond is one the most likely to throw profanity around like confetti. However, he's also been known to let fly with a choice word, clap a hand to his mouth, and say "Where did that come from?"

Hammond [in his book As You Do]: I was told later that I managed to swear constantly and without repetition for 40 minutes.

Deb: I'm fucking desperate, all right? I got a steaming heap of crap-all on this case and I've gone through every scum-sucking ballsack of a pimp I know, every whacked-out hooker. You are my last-ditch assfucked effort!
Anton: Damn, you got a mouth on you, woman.

    • Deb: I could give a fuck who you fuck. Just don't fuck with my investigation, you fuck!
  • One of the better usages of this was the famous "Gollum acceptance speech" at the MTV Movie Awards, when Gollum won "Best Virtual Performance" for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Andy Serkis steps forward to accept, only to have the trophy swiped by Gollum himself, who delivers a beautifully profane rant (including insulting Dobby's sexuality and calling Peter Jackson a "fucking hack") -- with his alter ego Smeagol apologizing profusely in between outbursts and Serkis looking aghast. Tolkien would've dropped dead of shock. Make sure you're not drinking anything when you click on this.
  • Appears in The IT Crowd, when Jen loudly (and with much use of the Profanity Buzzer) tells a visiting Japanese delegate exactly what she thinks of him after he steps on her foot with heavy Doc Martens boots on. As the delegate cannot speak English, it's helpfully translated for him by the interpreter.
    • Made even funnier afterwards when Jen's boss lets one loose of his own, but his assistant gets to the buzzer a little too late.
  • On Friends, Phoebe, the resident ditz had bought Chandler and Monica a Ms. Pac-Man machine as a wedding gift. Chandler proceeds to own the shit out of it, replacing every highscore with dirty words that spelled longer dirtier words if you read them from top to bottom to boot. Monica gets very upset, considering her nephew Ben is coming to visit. Phoebe, who was the previous highscore keeper, goes on to attempt to defeat the scores to clear the scoreboard. She nearly gets there... and loses right as Ross and Ben come trough the door. Phoebe starts a cascade of swearing, but we don't get to hear it -- Beethoven's Ninth plays over it.
  • The internet/TV series Devvo can go as far as using the word "fuck" before every noun, adjective and verb; "I'm fucking sweared out! But fucking thing is, I fucking found this fucking motor. Fucking Rover, like. Some fuckin (bleeped) left fucking door open. I'll fucking show ya mate, fucking show ya". He also yells random strings of swear words at buses and dead pigeons for no reason.
  • Cutey Honey the Live features Duke Watari, a member of Panther Claw. Usually, a calm and composed gentleman, but if you wrong him, no matter how minor the offense..."SHIT!!!"
  • Penn & Teller: Bullshit! uses this profusely. As they explain in the first episode, "Your statement is a lie" is grounds for slander charges; "Your statement is bullshit", not so much. The "Profanity" episode plays with this -- while the guests do a lot of swearing (the subject being censorship of language), Penn himself doesn't use any foul language for the duration of the episode.
  • MTV Brazil VJ and punk rock singer João Gordo always speaks his mind, so his TV shows feature lots of profanity. When participating in the Brazilian The Moment of Truth, he released at least 10 Cluster F Bombs -- during a Sunday afternoon in a major network.
  • Gordon f***ing Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares contains so much swearing that in Australia there was a parliamentary inquiry into whether it was appropriate to air it at the Watershed-dubious time of 8:30PM.
    • And the Television Without Pity reviews of the show have the "bleep-o-fucking-meter" to keep count. I believe the high for a single episode was around 50.
      • Only 50? A double length episode in the UK got Channel 4 a wristslap from Ofcom, as whilst the Watershed is 9 O'clock, that doesn't mean you can have 115 examples of "the most offensive language" in the first 40 minutes of a show starting at 9pm, it's supposed to be a bit more gradual than that.
    • His confrontation with Secret Garden's Chef Michel is a fine example.
    • Also check out Sebastian.
  • Speaking of Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen is also well-known for its language, as evident here.
  • Slings and Arrows has moments of this, notably when stage manager Maria delivers a drunken, profanity-ridden rant about actors (ending "Well, fuck you all! Fuck off, you fuckers!")
  • French comedic trio "Les Inconnus" ruthlessly parodies this trope (and American action movie trailers in general) in a sketch titled Fuck You -- The Movie. The humor comes mainly from the French subtitles, which considerably downplay the swearing (until the final gag, which is plain untranslatable).
    • To clarify things: "fuck" is mostly translated as "embêter", which means "bother", with a few other very, very mild swear words thrown in...but in the final gag, "phoque" (meaning "seal", the animal, and pronounced almost like "fuck") is rendered in the subtitles by "enculé" - a very strong insult similar to "motherfucker" (though meaning literally "buggered.")
  • A version of this trope appeared in The Young Ones...

Vyvyan: NO! NO! NO! WE ARE NOT WATCHING THE BLOODY GOOD LIFE! BLODDY! BLOODY! BLOODY! I hate it it's so BLOODY nice! Felicity TREACLE Kendal and Richard SUGAR-FLAVOURED-SNOT Briers! What are they doing now? Chocolate BLOODY button ads, that's what! They're nothing but a couple of reactionary stereotypes confirming that everyone in Britain is lovable middle-class eccentric and I HATE THEM!
That was a highly articulate outburst, considering it's Vyvyan

  • The Adam & Joe Show New Sic* : "He was heard to say 'Fuck you, fuck this, fuck fucker'".
  • In a House DVD bonus, a random scene was reshot, with Cameron and Cuddy managing to curse about 30 times in a little more than one minute. When you remind yourself of how the characters behave in the show, this is pure gold.
  • Battlestar Frakking Galactica.
  • The Supernatural episode "Ghostfacers", filmed documentary style, took the opportunity to heavily abuse ability to bleep out swears, implying that if the show were on a different network or standards weren't so rigid, the brothers would have quite the foul mouths. At least, that's how the fanfic writers chose to interpret it...
  • The Thick of It may be the sweariest sitcom ever made. One of the show's writers, Ian Martin, is unofficially known as the writing team's "Swearing Consultant". Peter Capaldi's character Malcolm Tucker is the best known for swearing, but all the characters drop Cluster F Bombs continually.
    • In one famous scene, Tucker answers a knock at the door with "Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off." Malcolm must be the only character capable of getting an extra "fuck" into "fuck off"
      • Still, as far as concise profanity goes, nothing beats Tucker's Law: "If some cunt can fuck something up, that cunt will pick the worst possible time to fucking fuck up, because that cunt's a cunt."
      • Series 3 contained another astonishing outburst from Malcolm: "YOU CANNOT FUCK ME! I AM UNFUCKABLE! I HAVE NEVER BEEN FUCKED! AND IF YOU TRY AND FUCK ME YOU'LL FIND MY FUCKIN' ARSE WILL GROW FUCKIN' FANGS AND FUCKIN' SNAP YOUR FUCKIN' COCK OFF!"
      • This carries over to The Movie, In the Loop, from a telephone conversation that ends "fuckity-bye" to the brilliant:

Malcolm: You are a boring fuck! Oh, I'm sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing, so let's sort that out: You are a boring eff-star-star-cunt."

  • Red Forman from That '70s Show used this when he is convinced to take in Hyde when his mother leaves. Doing a good deed made him very unhappy.
    • Variation: Fez really likes to drop the "son of a BITCH" phrase whenever he can.

Fez (during Trick Or Treat): An apple?! WHERE'S MY CANDY, YOU SON OF A BITCH?!

  • One of Steve Coogan's videos is prefaced with his Paul Calf character explaining that the reason why it is rated 18 is because of the bad language, and going on to explain exactly what words are used and how many times (28 fucks, 29 counting that fuck, fuck it make it 30 etc.). At the end he conceeds that in fact, all the bad language is in his introduction "and the rest of the video is like Bambi."
  • The scripts of Lost indulge in this. ABC says that it makes them "energetic" and fun to read. From the end of Two for the Road, which uses "fuck" almost a hundred times and is not alone in that regard:

And Michael is fucking SHOOTING before he even sees what he's shooting at -- INSTINCT now as he WHIPS AROUND towards the sound of that voice and REVEAL --LIBBY. SHOCKED. HOLDING THE BLANKETS SHE WAS GETTING FOR HER PICNIC WITH HURLEY. A BLACKENED HOLE now permeates in the center of those blankets as Libby's knees fucking BUCKLE -- She hits the ground like a back of rocks. Over. DONE. Oh sweet fucking CHRIST. TIME STOPS. ON MICHAEL. FREAKING OUT. SWEATING. BLINKING. HIS GUN HAND FUCKING TREMBLING. FROZEN.

  • Trailer Park Boys
  • The blooper reels for Firefly and Serenity. Basically, whenever anyone forgets their lines (especially Nathan Fillion or Gina Torres), they drop a Cluster F-Bomb.
    • Even in the fucking show they fucking drop fucking cluster f bombs in fucking Mandarin.
  • The Motherfucking Osbournes.
  • How has Queer as Folk not been fucking mentioned yet?
  • The boys from The Whitest Kids U' Know, with the exception of Darren.
  • The Stargate SG-1 Show Within a Show Wormhole X-Treme! included this blooper clip.
  • CNN's coverage of the Persian Gulf War, which featured live interviews with soldiers on the ground, would sometimes veer into this trope. Presumably the troops who'd casually used such language on camera didn't realize that the real-time satellite feed couldn't be edited to bleep out their F bombs.
  • The myth that Cluster F-Bombs can actually increase your pain tolerance was tested on MythBusters and featured Adam, Grant and Kari unleashing plenty of profanity in the name of science. The best part? MYTH CONFIRMED.
  • Daniel Tosh does this sometimes on Tosh.0, for comedic value of course. mostly to create confusion to the watcher at home where there is an overly-long contionous beep when you don't know what the fuck he's saying.
  • Dog The Bounty Hunter. It seems to be a prerequisite that whenever a criminal is taken down, everyone involved has to yell variations of "FREEZE, MUTHAFUCKER!"
  • Red Dwarf indulges in the futuristic version of this with the word 'smeg'. For example:

"Why don't you smegging well smeg off, you annoying little smeggy smegging smegger?"

Crow: Hi! I'm Crow T. Robot and I'm here to tell you that Mike Nelson is innocent. Mike Nelson is 200 % [bleep]ing not guilty. And if you [bleep]s don't [bleep] find him innocent, then you can just [bleep]ing kiss my fat [bleep]ing [bleep]. And that [bleep]ing goes for your bull[bleep] court system, too! Mike, I'm so [bleep]ing sorry I couldn't [bleep]ing be there for this [bleep]ing [bleep]y really bogus trial, man. But let me [bleep] tell ya something, Nelson. If I was there, I'd [bleep]ing kick everyone's fat stupid [bleep]ing behinds and then cram it up their [bleep]ing [bleep]. Anyway, Mike, buddy, I hope this [bleep] helps. Take care, Mike.

Geraldine: So what did he say?
Hugo: Well, I can't tell you what he actually said because, because you're the vicar. But let's say a certain word is represented by another word that, that sounds a little like that word, like, uh... like... "duck," for instance. (Beat) He asked me what the duck I was playing at. He said he didn't give a flying duck if I ducking loved Alice ducking Tinker, and if I ducking kissed her again, he'd make sure that I was well and truly ducked.
Geraldine: Well, duck me.

  • Weeds: Nancy's reaction to realizing she's been jacked is this, peppered with Heylia's encouragements throughout.

Nancy: Mother...fucking...cock sucking son of a bitch, hillbilly stalker asshole! Shit eating, dickless, granny fucking prick!
Conrad: Granny fucking?

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