Bowdlerise/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' got quite a bit of this during its original run on Nickelodeon. Standout examples include the Family Bath in the episode "Big Baby Scam", Powdered Toast Man burning the Bill of Rights, and some of Ren's grislier death threats to Stimpy and Sven in "Sven Hoek".

* The opening song to Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'', ''Arabian Nights'' was changed from "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home" in the original theatrical version to a more acceptable "Where it's flat and immense, and the heat is intense/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home." for the home release. The original version made it to the early pressings of the soundtrack on CD, but later versions used the less racist version. The original version was also reused for the TV series, with no changes.

** ''Also'' thankfully, now that [[Cartoon Network]] recently started airing the shorts again after being absent from the airwaves since 2004, most cartoons are shown uncut and uncensored (some cartoons like "Scaredy Cat" are still shown edited, but done in a less intrusive way, though [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on that).

* Similar to the Looney Tunes, many of the gags deemed racially insensitive in MGM cartoons were edited when shown on [[Cartoon Network]], which made a few shorts, including [[Tex Avery]]'s "Magical Maestro" (which edited out the opera-singing dog turning into a Chinese stereotype and a blackface singer), very disjointed and confusing.

** After the garbage erupts and destroys the town, Ray Patterson is asked to be Sanitation Commissioner again. Patterson refuses, ending his speech with "You're screwed. Thank you, bye." On the UK's Channel Four, the line was shortened to "Thank you, bye," but Mayor Quimby's "We are far from screwed!" was left in.

** Recent UK reruns of "The Cartridge Family" edited the ending where, as Marge is about to throw the gun away, she realizes that she looks better with it and slips it in her purse, making it look like Marge threw the gun away off-screen and walked out like a [[Femme Fatale]] for no reason. Curiously, the BBC never had problem with the scene and Channel 4 has only gained a problem with it recently.

** The season 16 finale ("The Father, The Son, and the Holy Guest Star") was edited in the UK to remove Homer's final line during his reconciliation session with Father Sean ("I've masturbated [[Beyond the Impossible|8 million times]] and I have no intention of stopping"). The American version initially banned the episode (as it was scheduled to air [[Too Soon|around the time that Pope John Paul II passed away]]), but ended up airing it a few months later as the final episode of the season, making the intended finale ("The Girl Who Slept Too Little," in which Lisa confronts her fear of graveyards after one gets moved next to The Simpsons' house) a leftover episode that aired in the early part of season 17.

*** The practice of cutting the setups, but not punchlines, and therefore making the situations ''worse'' seems to be popular, at least in Australia (along with cutting scenes of physical violence). In the season seven finale "Summer of 4'2"", Homer tries to buy some illegal fireworks at a beachside Kwik-E-Mart, but to cover his tracks, he buys a lot of risque personal and sexual items (a porno mag, a large box of condoms, some panty shields, two enema kits, and a bottle of Old Harper). The entire scene with Homer buying the sexual items and the fireworks was cut, but the scene in which Marge picks through the bag and says, "Homer, I don't know what you have planned tonight, but count me out" was ''not'' edited. Whether this is due to bowdlerizers being [[Literal Genie|Literal Genies]] or just stupid is open to debate.

*** Bart's penis showing through a bare space in a hedge during his naked skateboard ride through town was cut entirely on FOX and Global (on FX, the scene was shown, but when it came time for Bart to skate across the hedge with the gap in it, a black [[Censor Box]] that reads "European Version Only" was digitally added to cover the nudity); the "bountiful penis" scene (when Bart slams into the window of the restaurant that Ned and his sons just so happen to be praying at) was cut on all three networks.

*** Homer flipping off the angry mob as he's drowning in the sinkhole had Homer's middle/ring fingers erased, making it look like he's shaking his fists angrily. [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|FX left this part intact]].

*** Otto smoking a bong near the end of the film was cut on FOX and Global.

** The episode "Cape Feare" (a season five episode that was originally a season four leftover) was banned in Germany not only due to the large amount of violence (mostly aimed at a child [i.e., Bart], but also because of the opening joke where Bart and Lisa watch a talk show called "Up Late with McBain," featuring a show announcer known as Obergruppenfuehrer (the SS equivalent rank of lieutenant-general) Wolfcastle, dressed in full SS uniform, complete with swastika armband. In Germany ([[Old Shame|for obvious reasons]]), depicting Nazism and swastikas outside of historical context is considered hideously illegal (which is why the video games ''Castle Wolfenstein'' and ''Doom II'' are [[Banned in China|banned in Germany]]).

** The season 15 finale "Fraudcast News" (in which Mr. Burns tries to take over Springfield's media outlets after a newspaper falsely reports that he died) was edited in reruns in America and the UK. Groundskeeper Willie's line, "I've reviewed the new tractors. They're all shite!" either bleeps out the word "shite" (American syndicated version) or cuts the line down to "I've reviewed the new tractors." (UK version).

** The French dub, although quite good, is a lot more profane than the original American one. Mostly because French censors are a lot more lax with language on TV.

** Oddly used in the episode "You Got F'ed in the A" for the first few airings lead member of the Orange County crew's hat said "Lil' Shit" in all reairings it now reads "Lil' Sheep".

* The [[Cartoon Network]] airing of ''[[Superman Doomsday|Superman: Doomsday]]'' didn't cut out any death, but it downplayed some of the language and skipped past the more violent parts, which is ''very'' noticeable. For example right as [[Lex Luthor]] is about to beat the ever-loving crap out of {{spoiler|his Superman clone}}, it cuts to him already on the ground (creating some massive [[Dub Text]]). Oddly, it shows {{spoiler|Toyman}} falling to his death, cuts out the actual impact, but ''leaves in'' his body sitting on top of the car in the next shot. When the film reran on [[Cartoon Network]], strong edits were still made, mainly to violence. Edits include Doomsday's many murders prior to arriving in Metropolis (the most notable being that of a deer getting its antlers torn off), Doomsday killing the people who woke him up (instead replaced with a gratuitous shot of Lex Luthor watching the aftermath on a computer), Lex Luthor shooting his secretary to death (the flash showing her silhouette falling to the ground was axed), much of the fight between Superman and Doomsday (Doomsday punching Supes so hard blood splattered on Lois Lane's face was clipped, and the blood on Lois' face was changed so it looked like she was moving her hair out of her face, among other edits such as Superman vomiting a large puddle of blood) and all of the profanity. The aforementioned scene of {{spoiler|Toyman}} dead on top of the car had the blood splattered onto the car airbrushed out.

* The direct-to-video movie ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]: [[Batman Beyond Return of the Joker (Animation)|Return of the Joker]]'' was quite Bowdlerized for its television premiere; in particular, the entire flashback sequence in the middle which explained the Joker's final fate was heavily, ''heavily'' edited to remove some of the more gruesome bits. For [[Animation Age Ghetto|the usual reasons]], it was this edited version that was initially released to DVD; fortunately, fan outrage eventually led to a second release for the original, uncut version.

** Sticking with UPA, when the Warren Beatty ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' movie was released in 1990, some stations reran the old UPA shorts. Yes, ''including'' Joe Jitsu and Go-Go Gomez (Mexican stereotype, complete with Mel Blanc's [[Speedy Gonzales]] voice). This was the case for awhile, and then the cartoons were pulled. Only to return, but now mysteriously only having Heap O'Callory and Hemlock Holmes shorts.

*** On RTV (a digital TV network that mostly airs episodes of old shows from the past), these cartoons air as [[Filler]] after the channel's block of [[Filmation]] cartoons, and they have shown several of the Joe & Go-Go shorts.

* The ''[[Batman the Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!" contained a song and dance number from the [[Birds of Prey]] featuring some thinly-veiled references to various superheroes' mediocre sexual prowesses. Due to the attention the clip garnered after leaking online, the episode has never been aired in the U.S., though it is available for legal download from Apple.

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead (Animation)|Beavis and Butthead]]'', post "fire incident." Lampshaded in a later episode, wherein Beavis began chanting "Water! Water!" in a similar manner to his previous "Fire! Fire!" upon viewing a video with a swimming pool in it.

** Hell, they removed an entire episode from syndication because it featured Mrs. Bighead attempting to seduce Rocko.

** And the "Best of" DVDs that are out now also contain heavy censorship, which has prompted Joe Murray (the show's creator) to attempt to negotiate for the rights to rerelease the show himself.

** They actually [[Beyond the Impossible|weaponized Bowdlerisation]] to fight bowdlerisation. They would make a scene that they knew they would get told to remove because the censors never checked the replacement. They only chickened out once on this, when they were going to have the Joker refer to Harley and Ivy as "busy little beavers". It got changed to "bees."

** There was also a proposal for an episode featuring Nocturna that was axed because the censors wouldn't allow blood-drinking to be shown on a cartoon aimed at children. An animation model for Nocturna was even created before the plug was pulled.

* The UK release of ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' was edited to have Lilo climb out under a table covered by a pizza box rather than out of a laundry dryer due to the BBFC's strict policy against showing characters doing imitable acts that could get impressionable viewers [[Beavis and Butthead|hurt, expelled, arrested, and possibly deported]] (one of which includes children climbing into and/or playing around in dangerous appliances that they can easily get into, but can't get out of because of how easily the doors lock, such as dryers and washers).

* In the original ''Den'' storyline in the magazine, ''[[Heavy Metal (Animation)|Heavy Metal]]'', all the major human characters are bare-ass naked and comfortable with it. However, the film version of ''[[Heavy Metal (Animation)|Heavy Metal]]'' has them wearing loincloths with Den himself going "There's no way I'm going around here with my dork hanging out."

* A couple of ''[[Darkwing Duck (Animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' episodes were edited in syndication removing scenes with guns or smoking. One of the most notable examples is in the episode "Time and Punishment" where in a future after Gosalyn had gone missing and Darkwing became a serious violent vigilante, at one point he points a gun at Gosalyn. She says it's his gas gun and he replies that he hasn't used a gas gun in years. The latter part with Darkwing's explanation of the gun was removed.

* Professor Hubert J Farnsworth of ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' had the pleasure of having a notable quotable, "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" (as heard on season two's "The Deep South") edited to "Sweet Zombie..." Also muted was the Professor's "Holy Zombie Jesus!" as heard in the season two episode "Bender Gets Made".