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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|
{{quote|''"CRIME BLURS YOUR FACE!"''
|From a ''Cracked Magazine'' parody of ''[[COPS (series)|Cops]]''}}
(Not to be confused with ''[[Pixilation]]'', which is the [[Stop Motion]] animation of live actors.)
Video editors alter a section of the screen by averaging or mildly scrambling the color values of the image across larger areas than the original pixels, producing a blocky effect that obscures detail but retains much of the original hue and contour information.
Used to blur out faces (of criminals, crime victims, and undercover police officers; people who didn't sign releases to allow a show to use their likeness), offensive body parts (mostly breasts on women, [[Flipping the Bird|the middle finger when used as a rude gesture]], and anything below the waist on both
A [[Censor Box|black square]] is still used in some cases. When played for laughs, the censor box or '''pixellation''' instantly becomes a [[Gag Censor
The whole screen is lightly pixellated (or blurred) in some cases, usually for a reconstruction scene in documentaries about battles.
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It's interesting that a movie may have given impetus for another practice: blurring people's lips when they say an obscenity that has been "beeped" over. In the movie ''[[The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas]]'' his deputy tells the sheriff how a local TV station broadcast a tirade the sheriff made when he came in contact with the reporter: "They bleeped you out but my momma read your lips on every 'hell', 'goddam' and 'shit'." So now, a number of programs not only 'bleep' someone's bad word, they also blur the area of their lips so you can't read them.
Large pixels look plain ugly because of the chunkiness, so the pixels may be made
Also note that in Japan, any depiction of genitals in any media must be censored in some way (something [[Barbie Doll Anatomy]] usually takes care of) -- even in pornographic videos <ref>Drawn stills can get away with (very)small censor boxes</ref>
In return, many anime have begun to use it for ''non''-censoring purposes, covering an object or such, and letting the viewers' imaginations run wild deciding what it is. This can also be used as a form of [[Innocent Innuendo]], making something look perverted when it's (later revealed to be) really not.
Compare [[Censor Steam]] and [[Censor Box]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
Not to be confused with [[Pixilation]], which is an animation technique.
== Advertising ==▼
* Used by [[Vitamin Water]] with its XXX flavor. The bottle repeatedly takes on and off the label like a woman flashing her breasts and is censored in a similar fashion. ▼
▲== Advertising ==
▲* Used by [[Vitamin Water]] with its XXX flavor. The bottle repeatedly takes on and off the label like a woman flashing her breasts and is censored in a similar fashion.
== Anime and Manga ==
* In some anime, the pixellated object may not ''actually'' be offensive, but the object is pixellated in order to get the viewers to use their own imaginations as to what the object in question might actually be. ''[[Please Teacher
* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' manga used pixellation as a Penalty Game: a TV producer who threatened to show a video of Yugi getting beaten up (pixellating his face) was made to see everything in pixellation.
* Spoofed, like everything else ever, in ''[[Excel Saga (
** [[Excel Saga (
* Used humorously in the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga: rather extreme and bloody [[Amusing Injuries]] are pixellated. Almost exclusive to Ed as a result of Winry seeing he's busted up his automail again. It's used at one point on Al's body's face when the characters are wondering, horrified, whether Al's body has rotted at all while he's not in it.
* [[.hack]] did this one too in Twilight, with Ouka beating up some skeletons.
* Subverted in the manga version of the sixth episode of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' (and in the [[Better
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' normally use [[Barbie Doll Anatomy]], except when Chisame walks in on [[Rated "M" for Manly|Jack Rakan]] [[Fan Disservice|while he's taking a shower.]]
* In the ''[[Please Teacher
** They're shown in the manga to be
* ''[[Ninin ga Shinobuden]]'' pixelates one of the ninja after Onsokumaru steals his swim trunks.
** Then there's the time Onsokumaru got attacked by a crocodile. The ninjas discuss the possibility of just pixelating the carnage instead of helping him.
* To learn a new spell, Kukuri in ''[[Mahoujin Guru Guru]]'' must watch the Kita Kita dance because the hip movements trace out a [[Geometric Magic|magic circle]] she can use. Unfortunately, the only person around who knows this dance is an old man who wears a grass skirt. Fortunately, when Kukuri forces herself to watch the dance is pixellated for us viewers. Unfortunately, this is the only time this happens and the Old Kita Kita Man becomes a recurring character.
* In episode 22 of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', they put a black stripe over the Keronians' eyes and distort their voices to conceal their identities. However, they're still easily identified by their bright, primary-colored bodies and the fact that they're hanging out with the same people and in the same places they do all the time. In the manga, scenes of extreme violence, or really gross stuff like nasty [[Amusing Injuries]] or Momoka being [[Naughty Tentacles|groped by a space octopus]] giving her the [[Kiss of Life]] would be pixellated out.
* The opening theme of ''[[
* ''[[Kirby:
* In an episode of ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]? Fummoffu!'', the class president tries to explain to Kaname why Sousuke had a reasonable excuse for blowing up the school's shoe lockers when he noticed they'd been tampered with. He asks Kaname to imagine what her reaction would be if she discovered a suspicious package in the mail with a "foul stench" and that's slightly damp. While he's doing this, Kaname has an [[Imagine Spot]] of her coming to the door and discovering the
** In another episode, Kaname is confronted by some thugs and pulls out a whistle, threatening to blow it three times and summon Bonta-kun. One of the thugs says "Just like [[Ambassador Magma|Ambassador *BLEEP*ma]]!", complete with a pixelated image of said character.
* Used several times to cover up especially horrible violence in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
** And the pixellation is removed in the DVD version.
* [[Played for Laughs]] in the [[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* [[
** On one occasion, the characters play a videogame that pixels out someone vomiting, turning the pixelated shapes into [[
* When [[Suzumiya Haruhi|Haruhi]] summons a [[Mobile Suit Gundam|"G**
** Nagato's ero-game is also pixelated in the parody series, [[Haruhi-chan]].
* In the manga ''[[Koe
* In ''[[Clannad (
* A recent strip of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' does this to [[The Stoic|Hong Kong]]'s art, resulting in this little line said by a furiously blushing China:
{{quote|
** Another strip uses it not to pixellate something obscene, but rather something copyrighted. China shows up in a Halloween costume that is pixellated out but heavily implied to be Mickey Mouse. When South Korea complains, China begins ''throwing pieces of the mosaic at him''.
* in ''Mx0'' Lucy get soaked in pixelalation potion and pixellate any people she run into on random places, ''Hilarity Ensues''
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* In the manga ''[[Demon Diary]]'', Eclipse attempts to teach Raenef a spell called "Death Drill" by demonstrating on one of the dragon guards. The aftermath is censored in this way.
* In the [[Rurouni Kenshin]] manga, [[Villainous Crossdresser]] Kamatari [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|flashes Misao]] when she mistakes him for a girl. He is shown from behind, pulling his kimono open and up, and there's some pixellation over his naughty bits.
* [[Toradora
* In an episode of ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Konata and her father discuss ''[[Gundam]]'' (with all the names censored, of course). At one point Konata rattles off the names of several series like ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
* In ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'', one story involves the girls' attempt to kill a cockroach. When they're near to succeeding, Miu states that the appearance of the cockroach "could really use one of those mosaics". In the panel that shows the (finally) dead roach, we see that the mangaka has provided.
==
* In one ''[[
* Parodied by the card "Censorship" from ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'''s joke expansion set ''Unglued''. This card also parodies the [[Censor Box]] (which, in a lot of cases, is used in similar fashion to pixellation <ref>obscuring obscene words, nudity, offensive gestures, and product names that haven't been given permission to be used</ref>.▼
▲* In one [[Mai Hi ME]] Shizuru/Natsuki 4koma, Natsuki wonders what exactly happened in the [[Dude She's Like in A Coma]] incident late in the series, the exact nature of which is under debate in the fandom, but decides she can't ask Shizuru herself because she told her not to worry about it. Yukino, who witnessed the incident, offers her a DVD, then reassures her that she put Mosaic on it, shocking Natsuki.
== Film ==
* DVD releases of ''[[Grease]]'' blur out all Coca-Cola logos in the diner scene. This probably wouldn't have even been noticeable were it not for the fact that there's one part of the scene where two characters are conversing in front of a wall-sized Coke ad...
** Likewise, in a TV edit of ''[[Superman
* An early example of this appeared in 1936's ''[[Charlie Chan
* One cut of ''[[Highlander|Highlander: Endgame]]'' has a distracting example of this during a rooftop fight scene. There's a very obviously blurred-out JVC sign in the background. The sign is not censored in the "earlier cut" of the film which comes as a DVD extra.
== Live
* Clothing brands and store names receive this treatment in the Korean Series ''[[You Are Beautiful]]''.
** Korea has recently allowed dramas to show product names, but puts a disclaimer at the start of each episode informing the viewer.
* Korea blurs it out whenever someone uses a knife as a weapon on a television series.
* In an episode of ''[[Seven Days]]'', pixellation was used to cover up the relevant bits during a college streaking event for exactly the opposite of its official purpose. Unfortunately, the pixellation wasn't thorough enough to hide the fact that none of the actors was actually nude.
* ''[[
** This was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Adam: "This ingredient is made of blur. Ha! And this has blur in it too. Blur is very dangerous. You don't wanna mix blur with blur."
** Cranked up to eleven for the MB episodes used in the new Science Channel show [[Head Rush]]. Even the writing on Adam's shirts gets blurred out. But then, the Science Channel is a commercial-free zone. It's probably simpler to blur out anything that might qualify as [[Product Placement]] than risk a lawsuit.
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* In the Discovery Channel program ''Man vs Wild'', host/survival expert Bear Grylls must occasionally be completely nude when drying his clothing to avert hypothermia. For obvious reasons, he is seen blur-clad in these shots.
* The quiz show ''[[Never Mind the Buzzcocks]]'' has a round called ''What Have We Pixelated?'' where they play sections of music videos with a pixelated item which the panel must guess the identity of. A hard round which has included items such as a person, an upside-down table on a ceiling, and a hand in a box.
* In one episode of ''Backpackers'', which takes place in D***** Land,
* British automobile [[Magazine Show]] ''[[Top Gear]]'' often uses pixellation of a person's mouth in conjunction with audio bleeping when presenters or guests let loose with profanities on the show. Very common during the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment, as the celebrity drivers get a bit excited doing the lap around the ''[[Top Gear]]'' test track.
** And their survival instructor in the Arctic episode, an ex-special forces guy, is described as "a man with a pixelated face".
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** One segment about Jason Jones getting a vasectomy included various bizarre pixellated shots of Jason celebrating his times with his genitals, {{spoiler|and is then averted when we see the procedure with a shot of Jones's completely uncensored scrotum (though not his penis).}}
* When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame aired its induction ceremony of 1998 on [[VH-1]], Paul McCartney was joined onstage by his daughter Stella, and her shirt was pixelated. It was hiding an F-bomb on the shirt but, since Stella was a fashion designer, there may have been people wondering if it was hiding something else.
* In one episode of ''[[
* Both pixellation and blurring were part of the game on ''[[Headline Chasers]]''.
* Older episodes of ''Pizza'' pixelated the advertisements on the eponymous pizza place's cars to hide the store's telephone number. Oh, and they censored the frequent nudity.
* There was a MADtv sketch where a man (Will Sasso) goes to his doctor (Aries Spears) with a bad case of pixellation which appears whenever he takes off his pants. The doctor tells the man that pixellation is normal and commonly found on genitals, women's breasts, and middle fingers when shown on network television.
* On most National Geographic documentaries about developing countries, topless women and naked children are censored. Often, they will just censor the nipples of the women.
* Buster's stump on ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. Instead of creating a fake stump for Tony Hale to wear, they just made him hide his clenched fist in his sleeve and pixelated it. In some episodes, you can recognize fingers on Buster's "stump".
* On [[Howard Stern]]'s televised version of his daily radio show on the E! network, pixels were almost always present to cover up the graphic images, acts, and women that had appeared naked on his radio show days before.
* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': Stephen's interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange parodies this; intended to obscure Assange's face and voice, the effects are instead applied to ''Stephen'', while leaving Assange uncensored. Realizing this mistake, he turns to Jimmy, his director:
{{quote|
'''Jimmy''': Yes, they have.
'''Stephen''': Oh, he's a dead man. Go ahead and take it off. Take it off. (pixellation disappears and his voice returns to normal) }}
* Used to interesting effect in some "suprise camera" sections of Japanese variety shows. When the host visits an unsuspecting celebrity at home, all background around their house is pixellated, making it look like they live in [[Homestar Runner|Cubeland]].
* [
* When [[Craig Ferguson]] swears on his show, they cover his mouth with an Italian, Spanish or French flag (pardon my french) and dub over with his own impression of a stereotypical person from that country.
** It'sa cominago!
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* [[The Office]] uses this from time to time, which makes sense given its mockumentary style. But it's quite hilarious in the episode ''Benjamin Franklin'' when a few characters visit an adult bookstore and pretty much the ''entire'' backdrop behind them is pixellated.
* Used once on ''[[Cake Boss]]'', when they had an order for a stripper-themed bachelorette party cake.
* On ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', whenever Oscar smokes a joint it's blurred out. Six years later on ''[[
* In [[
* Some Reno911 skits had the actors who normally played the police officers portray perps. The "perps'" faces would be pixellated much like on ''[[COPS (series)|COPS]]'' when the criminal's or victim's identity must be kept under wraps.
== Music Videos ==
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* Rap videos from the 1990s (and some even now) use pixellation to blur everything from women's asses in thongs (or women's breasts in skimpy or see-through tops) to marijuana leaves (and lit joints) to guns to brand-name logos and products that appear in the video without express written consent from the company.
* One video, which I can't remember the name of, features a man in harlequin makeup wiping his makeup off in a changing room full of exotic dancers. All their bare or occasionally pastied breasts were pixellated. Except in the mirrors which make up the entirety of the background of the shot- attention was even brought up to this by one TV channel showing the video.
* [[Beck (
== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] pixellates its previous logos from when it was the World Wrestling Federation when showing archival footage; this is because of a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund over the use of the initials.
** The WWF also used pixellation as part of one of their storylines, when Ric Flair showed up with a title belt, claiming to be the "Real World Heavyweight Champion". The belt in question was actually the NWA World Championship, which Flair had held at the time he jumped to the WWF, and which the NWA had refused to return his security deposit on, so he decided to keep the belt instead. After Flair was forced by court order to return the belt, the story continued onwards, with Flair using a heavily-pixellated WWF Tag Team Championship belt in place of the NWA belt (a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade was hung]] on this by WWF president Jack Tunney, who claimed he had ordered the pixellation since the WWF did not recognize Flair's belt as an actual championship, and thus will no longer show it on TV).
== Tabletop Games ==
▲* Parodied by the card "Censorship" from ''[[Magic:
== Video Games ==
* ''[[The Sims]]'', both the original and ''The Sims 2''. The game creators felt the need to pixellate the whole bodies (in the original) or just "obscene parts" (in the sequel) of ''The Sims''. All of this despite the fact that Sims use the toilet ''through'' their clothing, and, as anyone who's been able to turn off the censorship pixels knows, a naked Sim is [[Barbie Doll Anatomy|about as naughty as a naked Barbie or Ken doll]]
** However, since you can easily add custom skins, it was literally a matter of days from the release of either game before this "problem" was corrected. And the noninteractivity of "[[Unusual Euphemism|Woohooing]]" [[Hot Coffee Minigame|got changed quickly too.]]
* [[Saints Row]] 2 uses ''huge'' pixellation to cover up anything that isn't covered by a particular choice of clothing, or when naked for the streaking minigame.
** Crotch-pixellation still occurs when the player character is wearing pants or a skirt, but [[Vapor Wear|no underwear]].
* Both ''WWF Wrestlemania 2000'' and ''WWF No Mercy''' for the N64 feature a taunt where the wrestler in question moons their opponent. Their ass is pixellated. As the taunt was created for Billy Gunn, assigning it to a created wrestler with either trousers or a dark skin tone can produce the funny effects of (a) not having the wrestlers trousers move in any way while white pixels suddenly show up around their butt and (b) having a very implied bleached ass compared to the rest of themselves.
* ''[[
* In [[Lethal Chef|Noels]] gag ending in [[
* During a very disturbing level of ''[[Kane and Lynch|Kane and Lynch: Dog Days]]'', the two protagonists are brutally tortured with a box cutter completely naked, and when they escape, are forced to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3kCo4DeiNY fight their way out nude]. (Very, very NSFW) The game pixellates their front sides, but not their backs. Also, anyone shot in the head gets their noggin pixellated.
* In [[My Girlfriend
* In ''zOMG'', ''[[Gaia Online]]'s'' MMORPG, using the Sweetheart ring at full rage covers your avatar in pink pixels, with blush lines where the cheeks would be, and that of the avatar you just hit with it.
* The [[SNES]] implemented pixellation in hardware as a special effect (the "mosaic" effect), and several games used it for transitions, drunkenness effects, and such. Examples of this include ''[[Super Mario World (
* Pixellation is used in ''[[Something]]'' to cover up the indecent act between Luigi and the Head Miko in Something Else.
== Web Animation ==
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== Web Original ==
* Parodied in a recent [[Rooster Teeth Shorts|Rooster Teeth short]], in which everything from tattoos to brand labels are censored ''in real life'', much to the confusion and annoyance of some of the characters.
* Helix from ''[[
* The [[Desu Des Brigade]] uses 'Cover Otter' when naughty bits show up, if they can't be cut around. Especially prevalent in the [[Kekko Kamen]] and [[Bible Black (anime)|Bible Black]] reviews.
== Webcomics ==
* Oddly, used apparently straight in several strips from ''[[VG Cats]]'', for rude body parts. Doesn't affect crude immature scrawling done by the characters, but any show of breasts or penises (or anything that'd resemble them closely) gets pixelated.
* Occasionally, ''[[Bob and George]]'' would censor profanity with pixellation, but a black bar was used just as often. Naturally, this was parodied in [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=041201 this strip], in which an entire dialogue box is censored. Note that it usually [[Cluster F
* Whenever a character is naked in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' (usually Elan), pixellation is used for covering the person's gentials. Even though s/he does not have any, on the basis of being a stick figure.
* Used in ''[[The
* In [http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/ God(tm)] pixellation is used to cover up [http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/GOD01_07a.htm corporate logos] and names of products.
== Western Animation ==
* On ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode where Ned Flander's wife dies ("Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" from season 11), Homer videotapes Flanders showering as part of his dating video. Judging by how long the pixels extend, [[Bigger Is Better in Bed|Flanders has nothing to be ashamed of]]..
** Also used on the season six episode where Marge becomes a cop ("The Springfield Connection"): When Marge goes to investigate a domestic dispute involving Principal Skinner and his mom, Skinner tells the camera man to digitally blur out his face to conceal his identity.
** Another episode had a horrified cameraman exclaim, "There isn't enough pixels in the world!" after seeing Homer's naked ass.
* Parodied in the first episode of ''[[Drawn Together]]'', where Princess Clara couldn't tell that Foxxy was flipping her off because her middle finger was blurred...then realized it when she extended her middle finger and saw that it got blurred
* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]''. The characters are watching a futuristic version of ''[[COPS (series)|Cops]]''. The two cops come to arrest a giant centipede alien and his face is blurred out (much like on the show to protect the identities of the would-be criminals). One of the cops tells the centipede alien to unblur his face, and the centipede alien does just that.
* Played with on ''[[Invader Zim]]''. Dib goes on a paranormal talk show with some footage of an unmasked Zim and GIR. When GIR eventually shows up as a surprise witness, his face is pixellated...even though he makes no other attempt to hide his robotic identity. He moves a lot as he speaks, even occasionally leaving the cover of pixellation.
** He also claims to be a woman named "Stacy" during this appearance.
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' had an episode where prosecutor Tom DuBois had a nightmare about dropping the soap in the prison shower. An inmate calling himself The Health Inspector demands he [[Prison Rape|bend over and pick it up]]. [[Gag Penis|The pixellation went down to floor]]
* Used in the [[Total Drama]] series either to cover up an offensive body part or whenever someone [[Flipping the Bird|flips the bird]], which happens a lot more often [[What Do You Mean
* On ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'', Gumball's crotch is pixellated every time he's naked. On the episode "The Meddler", Gumball and Darwin are in the shower, and Darwin's feet are pixellated, [[Accessory
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Photography and Illustration]]
[[Category:Pixellation]]
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