The Swear Jar: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Truth in Television]] in many households, with varying degrees of effectiveness and longevity.

 

Don't expect it to last beyond an episode.

 

== Advertising ==

 

* There's a Canadian Tire commercial for an autohammer where, because of numerous uses of manual hammers in places they clearly weren't designed for, a man's swear jar ends up paying for about half the tool being advertised.

 

== Comic Books ==

* An issue of [[Nightwing]] has [[Servile Snarker|Alfred]] reminding Nightwing not to swear while on the radio with him. Dick responds with how much he owes.

* In ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' at the beginning of ''[[Time Skip|One Year Later]]'' (which took place after ''[[Infinite Crisis]]''), Ravager and Kid Devil are living under the authority of one of these.

'''Ravager:''' Your turn to feed the swear jar. }}

 

 

* Shows up in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'': Each swear is given various rates, while some letters are replaced by [[Symbol Swearing]]. ''Except'' the word with the ''highest'' rate, [[Country Matters|Cunt]]. Nicolas Angel and Andy Wainright have a heated argument, and both turn aside to politely thank their respective [[Those Two Guys|guy]] for paying in. The argument started with Nicholas paying in advance for his first swear.

'''Andy:''' Murder, murder, murder...change the fucking record. *clink* Thank you, Andy. }}

* The Richard Pryor movie ''Moving'' had one. It is shown used normally to punish his daughter for swearing. She then pays in advance at one point so she can cuss him out. Later, when the "move" goes very badly we see Pryor prepare to let loose... instead the movie cuts to the jar totally stuffed with cash. When he ''announces'' the move, his wife calmly gets up from the table, gets her purse, and starts feeding bills into the jar, then tells the youngest children to leave the room.

* Legally enforced in ''[[Demolition Man]]'', as you are fined every time you swear. [[Exploited Trope|Exploited]] by the hero when he finds out there's no toilet paper in future, with people instead using seashells. After getting his first fine, he drops a [[Cluster F-Bomb]] to get the paper he needs.

* In the [[Better Than It Sounds|Australian bowls film]] ''Crackerjack'' a swear jar is implemented at the local bowls club.

'''Mrs. Jenkins:''' ''It's a jar you put money in if you say the word "fuck".'' }}

 

* ''[[New Tricks]]'' has the detectives install one, which eventually allows them to go out for a nice meal on the town. Gerry's a bit aggrieved that he didn't get to chose, since he "put most of the bloody money in."

* On ''[[Friends]]'', the people at Alexandro's Restaurant had initiated a "shouting jar":

* Not for swearing, but an episode of ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' has Lothor demand that every time [[Monster of the Week]] Boxing Bop-A-Roo says a made-up word, he is to put a dollar in a jar. When Bop-A-Roo's vocabulary starts catching on, it extends to the rest of Lothor's minions.

* Once on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' when Cheri Oteri inadvertently said "shit" during the show, at the end, host David Schwimmer made her put a dollar into the SNL swear jar.

* In ''[[Top Gear]]'', when road testing a new Alfa Romeo, presenter James May has a swear box for every time he uses a word like "soul" or "passion". He uses a lot of money. Excerpt [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOv4A_NFswY here].

* In an episode of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', Jake points out that Charlie needs to put a dollar into the jar because he swore earlier. Charlie pulls out a $20 bill: "That oughtta cover me till lunch."

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZK_w1bUpYA Thoroughly explored] by ''[[The Two Ronnies]]''.

* In ''[[Californication]]'', Hank Moody has this arrangement with his daughter - both ways. She gets most of the money.

* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' has an "[[Barack Obama|Obama]] [[Osama Bin Laden|Osama]] Flub Jar".

* Subject of a sketch on ''[[The Two Ronnies]]''.

* In the Australian variety show ''[[Rove]]'' the host, Rove McManus, implemented the "[[Harrison Ford]] Commemorative Swear Jar" in remembrance of an interview with the actor that was mildly profane. Rove himself added fifty dollars after swearing in front of then-twelve year old Freddie Highmore. He later raided this same fifty dollars to get a lap dance from [[Meat Loaf]].

* An episode of ''[[Mr. Show]]'' opens with Bob and David introducing their swear jar:

'''David Cross''': A great '''''*fucking*''''' show tonight! (slips a nickel into jar) }}

'''Dr. X''': Well, we did it! }}

* The guys of ''[[New Girl]]'' have a 'Douchebag Jar'. Whenever one of them (usually Schmidt) does something douchey, they have to put money in the jar.

 

* Gabe from ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' tries something [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/06/24/ similar] to save money.

* ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' has a variation: Psycho Mantis has an [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=58 "I Hate You"] jar - for when anyone ''else'' says it to ''him.''

* The Commander in ''[[Manly Guys Doing Manly Things]]'' keeps several for the words "epic", "win", and "fail".

* In ''[[Panthera]]'', the titular team (who all have the power to turn into [[Panthera Awesome|big cats]]) have a $5 jar for [[Incredibly Lame Pun|cat-related puns]]. It's a big jar and as Onca notes, it's ''very'' full. It says a lot that someone added a sticky note with 'Make that "Pardus opens his mouth jar". [[Visual Pun|:]][[Cat Smile|3]]'

* [http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/101804/end-a-sentence-in-a-preposition.gif Toothpaste for Dinner offers a unique way to combat poor grammar.]

 

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' finds Homer having to deal with one of these while he's building a doghouse for Santa's Little Helper after Flanders' son Todd picks up Homer's foul language. Homer ends up putting money in the jar for accidentally putting a $20 bill in the church collection plate ("[[Curse Cut Short|Da--]]"), cursing out a lone bowling pin after nearly getting a strike ("[[Curse Cut Short|Oh, You Sunnuva--]]"), calling Flanders a "[[Curse Cut Short|dirty bast--]]" after Flanders (who shaved his mustache off in exchange for Homer curbing his foul language) gets checks for starring in commercials, after [[Epic Fail|forgetting to build a door for Santa's Little Helper's doghouse]], and after a beehive falls on him while sleeping on a hammock (and was implied to have been stung by many of them off-screen), and becomes so programmed not to curse that he says, "Oh, fudge!" and "Fiddle-dee-dee" before breaking down into [[Angrish]] as he kicks down the doghouse. The good news is that the money in Homer's swear jar was enough for Marge and Lisa to actually buy a doghouse for SLH (since the one Homer was building was terrible) and some beer for Homer.

** In a later episode, when low-flying planes are causing items to fall to the floor, Marge runs around trying to save them. Then she turns and sees:

* ''[[American Dad]]'': In fact, the family has dozens of jars, one for each word. [[Shout-Out|Including]] [[Dead Like Me|"moist"]].

* ''[[Chowder]]'': [[The Unintelligible|Shnitzel]] is shown to have one that is filled to the brim with money.

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:The Swear Jar]]