Refuge in Vulgarity: Difference between revisions

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Obviously, identifying when this trope is in play can get ''very'' subjective.
 
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
 
* Shock value is a good thing in Black Comedy: [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|It's funny when people merrily sing about cannibalism.]] [[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law|It's funny when someone is killed off for real when it looks like the writers weren't being serious.]] But as Dean the Adequate pointed out in a review, ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan|Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan]]'' manages this trope with gore just fine, due to sheer repetition.
== Anime ==
* Shock value is a good thing in Black Comedy: [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|It's funny when people merrily sing about cannibalism.]] [[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law|It's funny when someone is killed off for real when it looks like the writers weren't being serious.]] But as Dean the Adequate pointed out in a review, ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan|Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan]]'' manages this trope with gore just fine, due to sheer repetition.
* The dub of episode 18 of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' is essentially one long [[Lampshade Hanging]]/parody of this trope, as the characters attempt to win a comedy contest. Koyuki attempts (and fails) to tell [[The Aristocrats]]. The fact that it was considered to be too smart for the audience should say a lot. As should the fact that Keroro uses a language-modifying switch, on which the [[Cluster F-Bomb]] setting is called "comedian mode".
* ''[[Gintama|Chome chome!]]'' Or, ''Where the hell is your mother from!?''
* ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt]]''. Shit, vomit, [[Gratuitous English|english swearing]], sex, ''pole-dancing'' [[Transformation Sequence|transformation sequences]] and whatever revolting [[Monster of the Week]] GAINAX can think of, with a few [[Mind Fuck|mind fucks]] for colour and tone. All this in what appears to be a [[Magical Girl]] anime.
* In ''[[Hellsing]]'', [[Psycho for Hire]] Jan says things like "We just want to torture you, kill you, maybe skullfuck your corpse, burn the place down and go home and masturbate, OK?" Valentine also enjoys doing this. [[Rule of Funny|And it's hilarious.]]
* The final episode of ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' was [[Trolling Creator|designed to be as offensive as possible]], to the point where it would be impossible to show on TV. It contained lots of gore, nudity, pedophilia played for laughs, [[Too Soon|and jokes about the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing.]] and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|was too long for a standard broadcast slot]]. It succeeded in its goal, though it was still released on DVD.
 
 
== Comic Books ==
* [[Frank Miller]] seems to be doing this with his ''All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder'' series.
* Same with [[Kevin Smith]] and ''Batman: Cacophony'', which includes the Joker talking about his pubic hair and offering to let another character rape him.
** Paul Dini (Of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' Famefame) must be referencing this when Joker states that he misses the old cavity search in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''.
** Smith often does this with his films and comics, most notably in ''[[Jay and Silent Bob]] Strike Back'', though not as often as his detractors like to say.
*** Smith's Twitter feed lives for this trope.
* '''''[[Viz]]'''''. Takes the finest traditions of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120731104124/http://www.saucyseasidepostcards.co.uk/bamforthcards.1.html Bamforth seaside postcard] and runs with it.
* Something [[Garth Ennis]] is often accused of, and he seems to get more blatantly nasty as things go on.
** His Grossout humor series ''Dicks turns'' this [[Up to Eleven]], with characters such as [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"The Wanker"]] and a [[Nausea Fuel|splash page closeup of an anus.]]
* [[Mark Millar]] gets accused of this on occasion, too.
 
 
== Film ==
* This is the whole point of ''[[Pink Flamingos]]'', a movie that is still untoppable in its offensiveness almosta forty yearshalf-century after it was made.
* ''[[Problem Child]] 2'' had a lot of crude humor compared to the first.
* The ''[[Scary Movie]]'' films are often criticized for relying far too heavily on this (the least vulgar is the third, which even tries to do so by focusing more on nonsense and slapstick). ''Date Movie'' (starting [[Seltzer and Friedberg]]'s directorial "careers") is said to be even worse. And then there's ''Epic Movie'', ''Meet The Spartans'', and ''Disaster Movie''...
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* ''[[Your Highness]]'' takes this trope to the extreme. It's a so-called comedy film that doesn't have any actual jokes, just endless vulgarity.
* The [[WCW]] movie ''Ready To Rumble''.
* The entire point of John Roecker's 2006 stop-motion animated ''[[Live Freaky! Die Freaky!]]''. For the fortunate unaware, Roecker, inspired by the prolific number of copies of Charles Manson's ''[[Helter Skelter]]'', crafted a hilarious but utterly, utterly tasteless stop-motion animated musical comedy about the misadventures of the "Hanson cult," as read by a 31st -century post -apocalyptic nomad who believes his discovered copy ifof ''Helter Skelter'' is [[The Bible]]. Relevant examples include multiple ludicrously long scenes of puppet sex, a very pregnant Sharon "Hate" singing a profanity-laden song about how much she hates the environment, and more puppet sex. The Washington Post said that it was like the aforementioned ''[[Pink Flamingos]]'', only more surreal and for an even smaller audience.
* Several critics have described ''[[Semi-Pro]]'' as falling victim to this trope, with some of the funniest moments in the movie also being the ones that could just as easily have gotten by in a PG-13 comedy.
* The ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Transformers (film)|''Transformers'' live action movie]] has been accused of this, to the detriment of the story. Three words: <s> "Sam's Happy Time."</s> "[[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|Were you]]...masturbating?" (thoughThough that particular line may have been more along the lines of [[Cringe Comedy]].)
** The sequel takes this to even higher levels, from Devastator's "wrecking balls" to Wheelie humping Mikaela's leg to [[Fan Disservice|way way more of John Turturo than anyone wanted to see on the big screen]].
** Mostly remedied in the third film, with only one RiV joke of note: Jerry Wang is exposing a conspiracy a la Deep Throat, so he refers to himself as "[[Accidental Pun|Deep Wang.]]"
* ''[[Me, Myself and& Irene]]'' trots this trope out in the guise of Charlie's three "sons"—geniuses who seemingly [[Tourette's Shitcock Syndrome|can't speak a sentence without "muthafuckin'"]] showing up somewhere in it. Subverted in that the humor comes from watching them discuss particle physics or how to hotwire a helicopter while swearing a blue streak a mile wide.
** A further example would be Jim Carrey shitting on his neighbour's lawn, or urinating all over the shower curtains due to morning glory.
** Some of the other Farrelly Bros films can qualify, such as ''[[There's Something About Mary]]'' and ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]''.
* The entirety of ''The Underground Comedy Movie'' directed by [[Vince Offer]].
* Much of the fun in the ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' [[Audience Participation]] routines seems to be in shouting obscene call lines at the screen (and sometimes at other audience members).
** Generally, though, these remarks are clever at the same time as being gratuitous. Audience lines that fall under this trope are often the mark of an inexperienced "participator".
* ''[[The Haunted World of El Superbeasto]]'', '''and how.'''
* Italian tropers have the dubious luck to witness an example of this every year. The famous comedians Cristian DeSica and Massimo Boldi's "Christmas holidays" series is probably one of the grossest examples of this trope, featuring mainly naked women, explicit sex, bad words, farts and belches, and it counts dozens of movies (considered 'family movies'. God knows why). Lately, the duo split. With the result that each one of them makes a movie like this every Christmas, doubling the rate of production.
** This could be applied to 3/4three-quarters of Italian television actually. Vulgarity is so widespread on the mainstream channels that even certain shows or cartoons that aren't particularly vulgar where they were produced (most notably the Simpsons) have numerous sexual innuendos and foul words.
* ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]''. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|The movie's very name should tell you enough.]]
* [[The Movie]] of the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch ''[[MacGruber]]'' practically lives and breaths this trope.
* The [[The Nutty Professor (1996 film)|1996 remake of ''The Nutty Professor remake'']] took quite a bit of refuge in rather crude humor. One example was the constant use of the word "ass" throughout the move, most of it being used during the dinner with the Klumps, as well as Papa Klump loudly farting at the table in response to Mama Klump's suggestion of getting a colonic, and doing it up to six times (with Ernie Jr, their grandson, even managing to mimic his grandpa's farting once), with the sixth time having him leave the table apparently due to soiling his pants.
* ''[[The Hangover]]'' had some... while the sequel is basically fueled by vulgar content (hermaphrodite prostitutes, drug dealing/smoking monkeys, cut fingers).
* The gentlemen's club scene in ''[[Mystery Team]]'', as well as the one immediately following it, qualifies for this.
* The menstruation joke in ''[[Superbad]]''.
* Anything by spoof-director Craig Moss.
 
 
== Literature ==
* Lesser known Spanish book for kids / teens ''[[Los Lagartijos]]'' LOVES this. While the first one is quite vulgar, it's still readable and it eventually stops doing it. The sequel, in the other hand, cranked the vulgarity [[Up to Eleven]] and is outright [[Nausea Fuel]] ''Unleaded''.
* ''[[Pride and Prejudice Andand Zombies]]'' insists on making a double entendre out of the word "balls" EVERY''every TIMEtime ITit'Ss USEDused''. This obviously gets a little wearing after the third or fourth time it occurs.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* [[HBO]] has raised this to an art form.
** Ditto [[Comedy Central]]
* ''[[Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights]]'' - Like all [[Frankie Boyle|Frankie Boyle's]] comedy this show has it in spades.
* ''[[The Whitest Kids 'U' Know]]'' frequently enter into this sort of thing.
* This is the one form of humor ''[[Wonder Showzen]]'' uses.
* ''[[Coming of Age]]'', being a sex-farce on [[BBC 3]] written by a 19 year old, is based entirely on this trope.
* ''[[Mad TV]]'', one of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s many [[Dueling Shows]] in its 35-years-and-counting on the air, revels in this.
** It should be noted that ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' uses Refuge in Vulgarity, too, but not to ''[[Mad TV]]''{{'}}s extremes (at least not since the 1990s when Adam Sandler and Chris Farley were cast members).
* ''[[Jackass]]'' is all about this trope, almost a deconstruction.
* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' sometimes does this.
* ''[[Shit My Dad Says]]'' a lot.
* A number of British comedy panel shows seem to have degenerated into this, offenders including ''[[Mock the Week]]'' (where answering questions seems to involve calling someone various puerile names, e.g. "tosser", "wanker" etc.). Some jokes in [[Drop the Dead Donkey]] merely consisted of juxtaposing politicians' names alongside similar insults.
* ''[[Misfits]]'' often uses this. Particularly when Nathan opens his mouth.
 
 
== Music ==
* Anti-Nowhere League's [[Bawdy Song|"So What?"]].
* EVERY''Every SINGLEsingle HOLIDAYholiday, Aa [[Saturday Night Live|DICKdick INin Aa BOXbox]].''
** Just about every song by [[The Lonely Island]] fits this trope. The punchline of most of the songs is that the first line or title is vulgar: "I just had sex," "Dick in a box," "Jizz in my pants," "I'm on shrooms," or every line of "Natalie's Rap".
* Two Brazilian bands were experts in this, Raimundos (their first hit was a man [[Cargo Envy|expressing desire to become the seat of a bicycle]]; another one, achieved through "found poetry", is named "I Ejaculated On a Lever") and Mamonas Assassinas (who also had a "found poetry" song about what soap does to your pubic hair, and had one song consisting on just dirty "facts" about animals).
** Mamonas Assassinas above-mentioned "Sabao cra cra" basically sings the praises of soap. The lyrics say that (spoilered for, ya know, explicit lyrics) {{spoiler|soap does not do any of the following things to the hair on your balls: it does not make it roll up, it does not make it stand up, it does not make it fall out, it does not make it knot together, and most importantly, it does not make it get tangled up with the hair on your asshole.}}
* [[Passenger of Shit]], and anything associated with him, [[Stealth Parody|probably because it's funny.]]
* [[Flanders& and Swann]] lampooned this tendency back in the 50's50s in "P** P* B**** B** D****** "
* [[Anal Cunt]].
* [[Wesley Willis]] was particularly fond of this, interestingly not only for humorous intent, but also to deal with his [[Funny Schizophrenia|"mean schizophrenic demons"]]. He basically knew he was schizophrenic and wanted to tell his demons to engage in beastiality in hopes that would make them leave him alone.
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* [[Mindless Self Indulgence]]. Songs like "I'm Your Problem Now," "Backmask," and "Panty Shot" are prime examples.
* [[Maximum the Hormone]]. Have a look at their album covers and song titles some time.
 
 
== Professional Wrestling ==
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* Bastion Booger (real name Mike Shaw), who wrestled in WWE in the early 90's was ''meant'' to be this; a fat, disgusting, unwashed, smelly slob. However, he generally came across as pathetic rather than disgusting.
 
== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy ==
* To see this trope in action, go to your local comedy club. Watch stand-up comedians trying to cover up a lack of jokes with vulgarity. Get annoyed by the guy next to you laughing hysterically at every 4Letterfour-letter word used.
** Reality show ''[[Beauty and the Geek]]'' featured this when the geeks were challenged to create a standupstand-up comedy routine. One of them try to pull this off. And ''failed''. ''Miserably''.
** In France, there is exactly ''one'' comedian that does it right.{{context}} Others either stay as far from vulgarity as possible, or try to imitate him and fail.
* [[Eddie Murphy]] mentioned on Raw how offended he was that [[Bill Cosby]], relating to Eddie how his son saw his act, basically thought that this was his whole act. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCTiPkzJUDY See here.]
* The infamous joke known as [[The Aristocrats|"The Aristocrats"]] Joke. A classic tradition with Standstand-up Comedianscomedians is [[Serial Escalation|how inhumanly disgusting you can make the joke]] before ending it. This of course includes [[The Aristocrats (film)|the movie about it]].
* [[Bob Saget|Bob Saget's]] [[Refuge in Audacity]]'s stand-up career is Refuge in Vulgarity. In this case, Refugeit's also refuge from the Squeakysqueaky-clean image he got doing ''[[Full House]]'' and ''[[America's Funniest Home Videos]]''.
* [[Sarah Silverman]]'s entire schtick consists of this trope and [[Refuge in Audacity]].
* [[Dane Cook]] is ''very'' big on this. He'll tell maybe seven or eight jokes through an entire routine, filling in the spaces with energetic swearing.
* Averting this trope is one of the things [[Brian Regan]] is known for, along with being clean in general. He does swear occasionally, but it's never very strong, and always for a [[Precision F-Strike]].
* [[George Carlin]].
* [[Andrew Dice Clay]] combined this with [[Refuge in Audacity]].
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[FATAL]]''. Even the infamous review of FATAL qualifies, and it doesn't even compare to the game. Although in the case of the review, it could be argued that it succeeds.
 
 
== Theater ==
* The musical ''[[Avenue Q]]'' is a [[Subverted Kids Show]] stuffed with sex jokes, some of which have no more than gratuitous shock value.
 
== Web Comics ==
 
* Almost all of ''[[Neurotically Yours]]'', although he has a number of truly funny ones, too.
== Webcomics ==
* Almost all of [[Neurotically Yours]], although he has a number of truly funny ones, too.
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' used to do this occasionally, but it's gotten a lot less like this for the past few years.
** ''[[Shredded Moose]]'' most certainly does. Seriously, how else do you explain the borderline porn and blatant misogyny that's even worse than ''[[Cerebus]]''?
* ''[[VG Cats]]'' does this a lot as well. Apparently the creator, when he can't figure out a good punchline, figures throwing bodily fluids around is the next best thing.
* Obscure webcomicsweb comics on a little nothing forum you've never heard of, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110822002657/http://z11.invisionfree.com/WOAM/index.php?showtopic=496 Garphuck and Oakfable]'', are built on a firm foundation of this, [[Refuge in Audacity]], and [[Stylistic Suck]]. One could say it's a deconstruction of playing vulgarity and audacity for laughs...but it's probably not.
* ''[[Sexy Losers]]''. To quote the article "It was the highest scoring entry on the List Of Potentially Offensive Webcomics, having been awarded six "toilets" out of a possible five (not a typo)."
* ''[[Oglaf]]'' first shoves [[Author Appeal]] in the readers' faces and then leaves those faces glazed with its vulgarity.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
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** One could say it ''revels'' in vulgarity, than takes refuge in it.
*** Also a little different from most examples on this page, as it's generally not criticised for its vulgarity, since it tends to use it to prove a point (especially these days, being a mouthpiece for its two creators to comment on current events)
* ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' and ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' are often stereotyped as being this, even though they both are actually extremely well-written and satirical.
* ''[[Kapitan Bomba]] '', the Polish series with ''South Park''-esque graphics, tells a story of a space crew defending the galaxy from aliens - many of which are genital shaped. Or like sniffing crap to the point that its used as currency. And all the planets have vulgar names. And the only tactic the heroes seem to use is a combination of [[Cluster F-Bomb]] and [[More Dakka]]. And somehow it still manages to be funny for quite a number of people (the others hate it with a passion).
** Another Polish <s> ''[[South Park]]'' ripoff</s> production, ''Włatcy Móch'', relies on very similar humor, though stronger on the [[Cluster F-Bomb]] aspect.
* When the writers of ''[[Popetown]]'' got bored with taking [[Refuge in Audacity]] or [[Crosses the Line Twice|Crossing The Line Twice]], they headed straight for this trope. "I made my own paint!"
* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' delves into this in occasion.
** "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160604020801/http://www.robotchicken.org/index.php?title=The_Emmy_Award_Winning_Robot_Chicken The Emmy wasn't for writing]."
* The revived ''[[Futurama]]'' has brought this trope into play.
** ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]' has as well, to a lesser extent, but it should be noted that it was considered this back in their early days, when the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] was much stronger. To be seeing a television cartoon with "so many" jokes about swearing, sex and drugs was shocking for the audiences back then.
* ''Lupo the Butcher'', a short that helped launch the career of Danny "[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]" Antonucci.
 
 
== Web Original ==
* The [[Accentuate the Negative|extremely cruel]] parody site ''[[Encyclopedia Dramatica]]'' frequently entered in to this, at least before the reboot.
* A lot of [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'s act involves not just [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]], but scatological comments in a mix and match manner. He also tends to visualize things being defecated on.
* ''[[Retarded Animal Babies]]'' veered into this territory in a hurry.
** This was to distinguish itself from ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'', and the more criticism comparing the two, [[Crossing the Line Twice|the more lines it'll find to double-cross]]. So if you don't think it's vulgar enough, simply tell the author how he's ripping off of Happy Tree Friends.
* The Charlie Brown [[Gag Dub]]s on [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|mostoffensivevideo]].com]] take classic ''[[Peanuts]]'' shorts and dub over the cast so they all talk like n-bomb-dropping ghetto stereotypes. They're so offensive it's hilarious or so offensive it's awful, but either way note the constant; [[Not Safe for Work|they are offensive]].
* This is the reason why the parody videos by [[El Bananero]] are so popular and funny. The man trows so much vulgarity, scatologicscatological terminology and the argentinianArgentinian Spanish equivalents of [[Cluster F Bombs]], it became hilarious because of this.
* Nearly every scene in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' featuring Miasma. His superpower? Farts. It's inevitable.
 
 
== Real Life ==
* To see this trope in action, go to your local comedy club. Watch stand-up comedians trying to cover up a lack of jokes with vulgarity. Get annoyed by the guy next to you laughing hysterically at every 4Letter-word used.
** Reality show [[Beauty and the Geek]] featured this when the geeks were challenged to create a standup comedy routine. One of them try to pull this off. And ''failed''. ''Miserably''.
** In France, there is exactly one comedian that does it right. Others either stay as far from vulgarity as possible, or try to imitate him and fail.
* Similar to stand up comedy, poetry slams. Bonus point for combining it with ''incredibly'' simplistic feminism or misogyny (or a combination of the two, not as hard as you'd think) or political opinions that'd flunk a sixth-grade civics class.
* [[Eddie Murphy]] mentioned on Raw how offended he was that [[Bill Cosby]], relating to Eddie how his son saw his act, basically thought that this was his whole act. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCTiPkzJUDY See here.]
* [[The Aristocrats]] Joke. A classic tradition with Stand-up Comedians is [[Serial Escalation|how inhumanly disgusting you can make the joke]] before ending it. This of course includes the movie about it.
* Ask a twelve-year-old, any twelve-year-old. The only thing a twelve-year-old finds funnier than swearing is someone getting the shit beat out of them with a lot of swearing all around.
** And boobs. Big bouncy boobs.
* [[Bob Saget|Bob Saget's]] [[Refuge in Audacity]] stand-up career. In this case, Refuge from the Squeaky-clean image he got doing ''[[Full House]]'' and ''[[America's Funniest Home Videos]]''.
* Sarah Silverman's entire schtick consists of this trope and [[Refuge in Audacity]].
* Dane Cook is ''very'' big on this. He'll tell maybe seven or eight jokes through an entire routine, filling in the spaces with energetic swearing.
* Averting this trope is one of the things [[Brian Regan]] is known for, along with being clean in general. He does swear occasionally, but it's never very strong, and always for a [[Precision F-Strike]].
* [[George Carlin]].
* [[Andrew Dice Clay]] combined this with [[Refuge in Audacity]].
 
{{reflist}}