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Precision F-Strike/Live-Action TV (view source)

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{{trope}}
* The first [[Precision F -Strike]] on live TV is attributed to theatre critic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Tynan Kenneth Tynan], during a BBC TV interview in 1965. As a result, more than [[There Should Be a Law|100 backbenchers called for censure motions]] against Tynan, and [[Moral Guardians|Mary Whitehouse]] called for his 'bottom to be spanked'. Incidentally, it wouldn't have worked anyway, since Tynan was secretly a [[Too Kinky to Torture|sado-masochist]].
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'''s Jon Stewart likes to use this trope a lot, along with [[Sophisticated As Hell]]. Most Triumphant Example: [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-march-4-2009/cnbc-financial-advice this].
* ''[[Firefly]]'', "Jaynestown". Kaylee mentioned that she never heard Simon swear, and Simon admits he only does it "when it's appropriate". Then they arrive in a dirt-poor town to find a statue of [[Heroic Sociopath|Jayne]], the ship crew's [[Token Evil Teammate]].
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** In "The Train Job", after Mal realizes what they just stole from the train (medicine), he lets out a self-loathing "Son of a bitch."
* In ''[[Dexter]]'', the eponymous main character swears very rarely - if he does drop the f bomb, he's either quoting someone "Not fucking good at all, apparently," or things have just gone straight to hell for him. "Oh, fuck."
** Subverted by his sister, who primarily speaks in [[Cluster F -Bomb]]. It's even lampshaded when she does not swear.
** Starting with Season 4, he started to swear at least once in every episode, from cases where he thinks he's really screwed, to... a bit confusion situations, but not that confused to warrant such reactions. This includes "What the ''fuck'' is going on here?" to a strangely emotion-filled human-line which he shouldn't say so easily: " 'the fuck?!"
*** Not necessarily, he's become generally more human as the series progresses. Each season arguably tracks a step in his emotional development.
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* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' Season 3, the Mayor is quite [[Affably Evil]]; acting fairly friendly towards the heroes he's planning on destroying, and generally being an all around nice guy (who wants to turn into a giant snake monster). When Buffy puts Faith in a coma, the Mayor actually [[Papa Wolf|loses his composure and calls her a whore.]]
** Subverted by the season finale, where he rushes into the library in his giant snake demon form...and sees tons of C4. His last words? "Well, gosh!"
*** Mayor Richard Wilkins seems built for this trope; it's only after he pits slayer against slayer, turns into a demon, starts [[I'm a Humanitarian|eating the Scoobies' fellow graduates,]] and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|subjecting them to a boring graduation speech]] that, in the course of goading him into a rage, Buffy calls him "Dick."
** [[Lesbian Vampire|Vampire Willow]] makes excellent use of this trope when she's sent back to her world, the Wishverse, only to emerge in the middle of a massive melee and be immediately impaled on a plank. She has just enough time to get out "Oh fu-".
* The season 3 final of ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' had two, from Claire and Sylar respectively. The show usually shies away from profanity, so Sylar's "The truth. Stings like a bitch." came across especially powerfully.
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'''Charles''': Your career, as we have hitherto understood it, is fucked. }}
* ''[[The Middleman]]'' used this in the first episode, despite the fact the word in question was actually bleeped. The fact that his one and only swear word immediately followed a discussion about how odd it was that he never swears makes it all the funnier, as well as making it clear just how badly wrong things have gone.
** And when in an alternate universe the alternate Middleman drops [[Cluster F -Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]] all the time, the difference is made very clear.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'':
{{quote| '''Murray:''' I'm so angry I feel like ''swearing!''<br />
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'''Murray:''' * long pause* ...Go fuck yourself, Brett! * storms off* }}
** Made perhaps funnier because Rhys Darby (the comedian who plays Murray) swears a LOT in his stand-up routines.
* Red and Kitty Forman of ''[[That 70s Show]]'' don't swear too often (Red's [[Once an Episode]] instances of [[Catch Phrase|calling someone a dumbass aside]]), but when they do, you know they are well and truly pissed. Both of them actually have instances where they dropped a [[Cluster F -Bomb]] that was censored with [[Sound Effect Bleep|beeps]]. There's also one that was alluded to after Red discovered that {{spoiler|Eric and Donna were engaged}}.
{{quote| '''Eric''': ''watching Red from the other side of a patio door'' I'm trying to read Red's lips so I know what he's saying, but I can't make it out that well. He keeps calling me a "stupid duck". * [[Beat Panel|beat]]* Ahhhh.}}
** Kitty is so holy and innocent that she can't even find it in her to tolerate the use of the word "ass", as common and not too offensive as it is. So when Kitty gets pissed and starts with the Red Forman-esque language, it can send shivers down one's spine.
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'''Red''': You said no?<br />
'''Kitty''': DUMBASS! }}
** There was one instance in the Dona and Eric Are Engaged arc where Red commends Eric for sticking to his guns, which drives Kitty to lose all sense of composure or decorum and she ''[[Atomic F -Bomb|screams]]'' at Red, using several [[Sound Effect Bleep|sound effect bleeps]] in the space of about thirty seconds. It was the ''only'' time in the series that Kitty lost her composure like that, and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|it was the funniest]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|coolest]] moment of the series.
* Robert Klein opened the very first HBO comedy special in 1975 by celebrating the fact that he was allowed to drop a consequence-free "fuck" on television.
* The [[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon|live action]] ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' generally had mild or no swearing, but in Makoto's/Sailor Jupiter's debut we got this exchange:
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* Didier Drogba's (somewhat justified) rant into a TV camera after Chelsea were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Barcelona:
{{quote| - "It's a disgrace, it's a fucking disgrace!"}}
* Inverted in ''[[The Thick of It]]'': Malcolm Tucker drops [[Cluster F -Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]] constantly, but when he holds back on the swearing it's a sign that he's ''really'' angry.
{{quote|- "If you don't run and get me some cheese I'll pull your head off and give you a spinedectomy."|"In my quest to try and make you understand the level of my unhappiness, I'm likely to use an awful lot of what we would call 'violent sexual imagery', and I just wanted to check that neither of you would be terribly offended by that."}}
** ''[[In the Loop]]'' features an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] Precision ''C'' Strike in the midst of a [[Cluster F -Bomb]]:
{{quote| - "[[Sarcasm Mode|Sorry, sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing so I'll sort that out.]] You are a boring F-star-star-'''CUNT.'''"}}
* In the season 1 finale of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', O'Neill (two Ls) refers to something just explained to him as "Bullshit." This was when the show was on Showtime, where swearing isn't as taboo, but even then there was very little profanity on the show.
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* ''[[All in The Family]]'' had Edith go through menopause, and shout "Damn it!" during one of her mood swings out of nowhere. The episode is worth watching just for the audience's stunned reaction.
* In [[Star Trek the Next Generation]], Jean Luc Picard is almost always well composed, diplomatic, and well spoken. However, in one episode he let loose with an exasperated "merde," which means "shit" in French (his native language).
* ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' doesn't have a lot of swearing, besides the occasional "Oh hell," but manages to pull the occasional [[Precision F -Strike]]. The two most striking characters to pull this off are Timov, one of Londo's wife: in the middle of some very mild verbal fencing she manages to drop a "Bitch" that leaves everyone speechless. And, of all people, Delenn gets not one, but two. The second one has her barging in the room yelling "Bastards," shocking Sheridan: "Did she just...?". The most memorable however has to be:
{{quote| '''Delenn''': Abso-fraggin-lutely damnit. I have been studying your use of language. Do you approve?}}
** Sheridan has a really nice one in his small altercation with Kosh Naranek. It's not a true f-word. The implication of the words used, and the way they are delivered ([[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|to one of the most powerful entities in the show]]) however, definitely qualifies it as a precision F-Strike.
{{quote| '''Kosh''': Leave. Now.<br />
'''Sheridan''': No!<br />
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{{quote| '''Pootie:''' (Long string of [[The Unintelligible|unintelligible]] words.)<br />
'''Conan: ''' I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? }}
* ''[[Deadwood]]'', of all shows, had a brilliant [[Precision F -Strike]] when upright, straitlaced, intimidatingly classy Alma Garrett urged E. B. Farnum to sell her his hotel: "What is it you males say? 'Shit, or get off the chamberpot'?"
* There is a consistently high level of swearing in [[Skins]] but Katie's Series 4 episode is pretty effective in its "I'm Katie Fucking Fitch. Who the FUCK are you!"
* Fred MacCauley makes use of this in a stand-up comedy routine he performed on [[Mock the Week]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvIkRkOL3tw Watch it here.]
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* ''[[Coupling]]'' has a few examples:
** In the [[Rashomon Style]] episode about Patrick and Sally's first kiss, we see a scene from Sally's memory in which Susan complains about how she's always stuck with calling a taxi for the office drunk. "It's becoming part of my job description." Sally tells her this is "a bit unfair." We then see Patrick's version of events (though he was not present for this exchange), in which Sally is the aforementioned "office drunk", and declares that "That is a ''fucking shame''!
** The final episode has two - one from Sally when she finds the engagement ring in Patrick's cupboard (though this quickly turns into a [[Cluster F -Bomb]]), and one from Susan while in labour: "Steve, ''GET ME A FUCKING EPIDURAL''!"
* There's this Belgian game show, ''Blokken,'' that's been on the air for 18 seasons now. It's trivia combined with [[Tetris]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywMEu_-pic Here's a clip from a celebrity edition.] Most of it's in Dutch, but at about 2:10 in, the guy in the yellow shirt says to his opponent, "Bart... shut fuck up." (Yes, that's exactly how he said it.)
* In ''Sherlock'' episode "A Scandal In Belgravia", John gets one. Since he's so far managed not to swear even on finding a human head in the fridge, it seems pretty serious...
* During the seventh season of ''[[Survivor (TV)|Survivor]]'', there was an episode where two former allies, [[Small Name, Big Ego|Shawn]] and [[Magnificent Bastard|Jon]], were forced to vote against each other by the rest of their tribe. Shawn(when voting for Jon) gives a fairly drawn out and detailed explanation of why he's voting for him, but when it's Jon's turn, he simply looks at the camera and says "Fuck you". Shawn is then voted out 4-1.
* There's a great deal of swearing all over the place in ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'', but it's well into the second season before [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Richard]] [[Shrinking Violet|Harrow]] gets an F-bomb, growling "I don't...fuckin' believe this" upon discovering that {{spoiler|Rothstein has made a business deal with Nucky.}}
* A clip from an ABC master tape of ''The $10,000 [[Pyramid]]'' from 1974 that surfaced on YouTube had Dick Clark asking celebrity guest Tony Randall what one must not do at the Pyramid. Randall brought the house down by simply quipping "You don't say 'shit!'"
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