Sound-Effect Bleep - TV Tropes

Noel: Miss Kokonoe, what were you going to do with Mr. Ragna the Bloodedge after you had put him to sleep?
Kokonoe: Ah yes, well, no reason not to tell you. First, I intended to take his [INFERNO DIVIDER!] and put it in a [CARNAGE SCISSORS!] Maybe a little [GAUNTLET HADES!] too? Heh, my goodness, I can only imagine what his [HELL'S FANG!] will [DEAD SPIKE!]

• During the Diamond and Pearl arc of Pokémon Adventures, Lady Berlitz's given name was always obscured with someone's speech bubble, more than likely her own as she shouts something right as her name is said. This was because she was to be named after the inevitable Updated Re-release of the corresponding video game, so they wanted to keep their options open. Once the game came out, the manga quit dodging the issue and officially named her "Platinum".
• In the [adult swim] broadcast of Samurai Champloo, some of Mugen's profanity was bleeped with scratching sound effects in accordance with the show's hip-hop tone.
  • As was the time Jin called a minor noble "an unimportant piece of [scratching]". This was in fact the first thing censored in the series.
• Spoofed mercilessly in a The Prince of Tennis OAV, set in an Alternate Universe where the heroes play beach volleyball instead of tennis. When Inui figures out what's going on, he tries to tell the others but reality itself bleeps him every time he says the word "tennis". At one point, Ryoma says "What are you going on about? I don't understand all those beeps."
• Overused in Kodomo no Jikan to the point where it sounds like Rin has learned to speak in bird chirps.
• The Un-Reveal variety is used in Code Geass to prevent the viewers from learning C.C.'s real name. In something of a subversion, the sound effect is actually reasonable - the sound of water dripping off the ceiling of the cave she and Lelouch are in.
  • Then what about the shot where the water ISN'T dripping, and Lelouch says her name again? In the dub, that was pulled off with a mute, but Fridge Logic dictates that at that point, The Un-Reveal is just getting pretentious.
  • Before C.C.'s true origins were revealed later in the series, some people believed that the sound actually was her real name. The concept of the Geass originated in Celtic mythology, where it was typically placed on mortals by members of The Fair Folk. Since these are often a type of nature spirit, it actually makes a bit of sense for a fairy's true name to be a natural sound like that of a water droplet falling on stone.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • After Haruhi blackmails the computer club president with contrived photos of him sexually abusing Mikuru, the club president protests that all club members are witnesses of the blackmailing, to which Haruhi counters:

    Haruhi: Then I'll tell everyone at school that all you geeks ganged up on her and fucked her!

  • Also, the name of the computer club president is bleeped out with Shamisen (the cat) making noises.
• A sex scene near the end of the original Lupin III manga series had various words bleeped out. The scene was interrupted by a fan letter saying, "What the bleep is up with all the bleeps?", with a similarly censored reply.
• Lucky Star:
  • The discussion between Konata and her dad about the Gund*m franchise is filled with these, likely due to copyright reasons. Soujirou's monologue uses this even on non Gund*m words.
  • Every time something copyrighted comes up in Lucky Star, that isn't owned by the anime company, is bleeped out.
• In Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, the swear words in Sousuke's hilarious Drill Sergeant Nasty rugby training routine are bleeped with what sound like sped-up loon calls. It's a complete non sequitur, but it made the scene that much funnier.
• In Hayate the Combat Butler, there's one scene where Nagi realizes she's alone with Hayate in her bedroom and thinks, "What if he does BLEEP and BLEEP and ... no! Anything but BLEEP!" (Of course, he doesn't do anything inappropriate, which irks her.) Also, instead of a visual for what she was imagining, the artist substituted a scene of a cruise ship: "Due to content restrictions, this footage has been replaced."
• In the preview for the next episode at the end of one of an episode of To Love Ru, Lala wonders why Rito is training his body, then excitedly comes to the conclusion that he 'wants to *beep* with me!'.
  • An episode of the Show Within a Show Magical Kyoko in the manga portrayed Kyoko telling a fellow that in thanks for something nice he'd done, she'd "have XXX with you!" (He responded in shock, "Is that alright? This is a kid's show!")
• The [adult swim] broadcast of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig has one in the first episode when Bato says "Thanks to you and all you [BEEP] we're this close to being put out of commission." It definitely makes the scene a lot funnier, especially since there weren't any other times the dub had bad enough language to need it.
  • Note however in the episode Nuclear Power, they air Bato saying "shit" unbleeped.
• In an episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers, the Roman Empire is chatting with Germany:

  "Huh!? You've never even *CHUU* before?? Not even a little *MEEEEP* on the beach!?....are you a saint?

  • France gets this in an episode of World Series when describing to Italy what "intercourse" is. Certain words are censored with *oh*, *WOW* (in a feminine voice), and another *WOW* (with a much deeper voice), before ending the speech with one long *BEEEEEEEEP*.
  • America also demonstrates this trope in an early strip/episode. During a meeting, he is talking while eating a hamburger. It's subverted in that he's not saying anything perverse, but his speech is still muttered by his chewing.
• In B Gata H Kei, anything related to sex (the word sex itself, condoms, virginity, etc.) gets censored out by chirping birds. Considering the kind of show this is, you're gonna be hearing those birdies a lot.
• In Mitsudomoe, Mitsuba gets called an [OINK] pig.
• In the [DARLING!] dub outtakes for the [DARLING!] Urusei Yatsura movies, [DARLING!] profanity gets [DARLING!] censored by a [DARLING!] soundbite of Lum yelling, "DARLING!" A different [DARLING!] soundbite of the same [DARLING!] yell is used for [DARLING!] censorship purposes in the [DARLING!] outtakes for Remember My Love.
• Used in episode 10 of Ojisan And Marshmallow when Wakayabashi curses out Mioko.
• In the Anpanman edutainment OVA "Promises 2" when Yokanmadamu was teaching about manners, she showcases a scenario where Anpanman was a butler giving Baikinman some food. Unlike most examples, the censor bleep was to block out the answer so the characters (and the viewers) can figure out the answer.
• In the episode HELP! We are Angels in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Panty saying the word "fuck" is completely censored and bleeped out due to parodying MTV, in spite of the show having a lot of rapid fire uses of the word "fuck".

• In Season 7 episode 10 of Happy Friends, the Supermen observe that Ambassador Wang and Ambassador Miao are having a fight that has escalated to the point that their yelling has multiple censor bleeps peppered in them - a fact that Smart S. lampshades. (Being a children's show, Happy Heroes doesn't use censor bleeps officially. This is meant as a one-off joke.)

• A radio spot for Hewlett-Packard which revolved around a parody of automated call centers featured this trope: "Your call is very important to us. If you believe this, please stay on the line, or press 1 if you think we don't give a *beep*"
• Played with during an Aflac commercial that takes place in an auto mechanic’s shop. Every time the duck mascot tried to give the company's name, he was invariably drowned out by an air tool, a truck horn, etc.
• There was a commercial for Knorr instant dinners where the word frozen is bleeped out so it sounds like they are dropping the f-bomb a lot for no reason. And then the announcer says "Frozen doesn't have to be a bad word."
• This Bud Light commercial features a "swear jar" encouraging the use of profanity, getting out of hand to such an extent that you can almost only hear bleeping in one speech at the end.
• A 2008 Macintosh commercial has PC explaining that Microsoft is no longer using the term "Vista", and pressing a Big Red Button to attempt to bleep Mac whenever he says the word, with little success.
• The commercials for "Powermat" has the sound that the Powermat makes when it starts charging something to censor the actors' cursing.
  • They actually double the use of this trope in that the actors are saying "beep" instead of cursing.
• This '90s commercial for Designer Imposters, with Ali Larter. "And spray it on your *beep*".
• Rockwell tools shows a guy complaining because he can't use his [beep sound effect] tool (from some other company). The white-coated scientist comes in and says, "At Rockwell, we have a whole department so you don't end up with bleeping tools you can't use."
• This WSIB PSA uses it for comedy at the end.

  "Workplace injuries and deaths are preventable. If there is a random zombie attack, run like a m(BEEEEEEEEEEEEP)."

• At the end of the Virgin Voyages commercial about kids not happy about the adults-only voyages, a girl ends her comments with "...but the fact that we can't go with you is total bulls..." cue the ship's horn.
• Microsoft Office XP ads:
  • An annoyed office worker calls Clippy a "little metallic [bleep]" in "Clippy Gets Clipped".
  • A conversation between two men about Office XP in "Clippy Goes Undercover" features the line "...and it doesn't have that [bleep]-ing paperclip".

    Clippy: But I kinda like that [bleep]-ing paperclip!

• A radio ad for Secret Whole Body Deodorant uses a spraying noise to censor the names of the body parts that the deodorant is said to be used on.

• In Don't Say, "Dannit", Lynn Sr. says, "Dang it", which he thinks is profanity, and hopes his horn blocked it out so that baby Lily didn't hear.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero Fujiwara is interrupted this by a car horn when calling Tachibana a bi-[HONK].
• The "Fluttery Tate" short of PONIES The Anthology II uses Fluttershy's soft "Yay" from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Sonic Rainboom.''
• Used, lampshaded and Played for Laughs in the Harry Potter/Naruto crossover Uzumaki Harry by Shadow Chrystal Mage.
• Ash and Serena's Atomic Odyssey: The Pokémon Speech Translator device has this as a built-in feature, shown when they tried it on Ash's Dunsparce.

• This video shows how different youtubers censor Tankman's swearing in Friday Night Funkin', substituting it with fart sounds, high-pitched bleeps, or cutting the cursewords altogether.

• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lee Jordan calls a player on the opposing team a "filthy, cheating bastard", but in print, only the "b" part is heard, as Professor McGonagall's own shouting at the player drowns it out. For once she didn't pay attention to Jordan's language (or favoritism, or any other junk Jordan pulls regularly while commentating). Although “bastard” is used twice in the seventh book, once by Aberforth Dumbledore and once by Ron.
  • Used oddly in Chamber of Secrets. The teachers are patrolling the corridors at night due to the monster attacks, but Team Harry has to sneak out to do something so they drape Harry's Invisibility Cloak over themselves. As they pass Snape, Ron stubs his toe and swears. Luckily, Snape sneezes at the same time. Given the context, it's likely the word that was covered up was "shit".
• In the Artemis Fowl series, particularly the eighth book, The Last Guardian, "bleep" itself seems to be an actual Gnommish profanity. At least one character shouts "What the bleep?!" in confusion.
• In the Xanth series novel Yon Ill Wind, The Adult Conspiracy magically censors swearwords so that children will not hear them. If children do swear, the word is bleeped. This appears to be an upgrade from the original Conspiracy. The previous book, Roc and a Hard Place, centered around the issue of speaking a profanity in the presence of a minor and referred to events from The Color of Her Panties, where the Conspiracy and swear words were also significant points. And note the novels have always used Symbol Swearing in print.
• Tough Magic has outtakes in the back of the books, one of which has the Author's attempt to curse beeped out.
• Used in L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth "dekalogy" to (bleep) out any word more objectionable than "damn" or "hell," which includes (bleep)tch and (bleep)ard. This is to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of the robots supposedly translating this story so it can be published on Earth, who oddly enough don't censor all the murder, rape, murder-then-rape, torture, underage sex, etc. that happens in the story. Also, several racial slurs make it through without incident.
• Played with in Night Watch, where Archchancellor Ridcully's swearing is drowned out by the tolling of the bell in the University's clock tower — which, being a magical bell in a magical University, makes silence instead of noise, giving the effect of a less diagetic kind of censorship.

  Ridcully: Now, will     care to tell m    at the      is going on?

• In-Universe in the Known Space series, where "Bleep" and "Censor" have BECOME swear words due to language drift. Lucas Garner is extremely smug about actually remembering why.

• Medieval Madness: One of Lord Howard Hurtz's introductory clips is "I'm Howard Hurtz, who the [BEEP] are you?" An operator control allowed the unbleeped version instead.
• If "Adult Mode" is turned off for Metallica, the game's numerous profanities are bleeped out.

• In The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show, The Adventures of Basil the Cylinder is supposedly a children's series. Therefore Nigel the Parallelogram's swearing is censored that way.
• In RFG (Radio For Gamers) words are censored with the tones that make up 9-1-1.

• During a 2001 feud with Test, The Rock sings a parody of "The 12 Days of Christmas", with the last line being "an ass-kicking all over New Orleans". The word "ass" is censored with the sound of sleigh bells.

• The BBC Radio 4 spoof quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue includes a round called "Censored Songs" in which the teams sing well-known songs while bleeping out innocent words to create a Double Entendre effect.
  • Particularly egregious example: [beep] rabbit, [beep] rabbit/[beep], [beep], [beep]/Here comes the farmer with his [beep], [beep],[beep],[beep]....
  • And "I Whistle A Happy Tune" - "Whenever I feel a[buzz] / I hold my [buzz] erect / And whistle a happy tune / so no one will suspect / I'm a[buzz]". Not to mention "All Through The Night", in which they bleeped out every single word except "...all through the night"!
• Radio 1 also did a spoof quiz called 'Badly Bleeped TV' in which sections from tv shows, news broadcasts, etc. were played with some of their (completely innocent) dialogue bleeped out; listeners had to guess what the words were. The bleeped-out sound clips end up sounding... well, just listen.
• When late Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy had a nationally syndicated talk show from 1992 to 2012, he played with this trope by consistently having the word "Post" in the title of The Washington Post bleeped, explaining it by facetiously claiming that the FCC had determined that the newspaper's title was a profanity.
• Similarly, radios will often censor popular songs by replacing curse words with humorous sound effects. The result of this, ironically, often makes the effect much naughtier than the original. Example: The Gwen Stefani song "Hollaback Girl" replaces the word "shit" with a sexual moan. This "sexual moan" is bananas?!
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), one of the new radio series. The book Life, the Universe and Everything on which it was based featured an award for "The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word Fuck in a Serious Screenplay"; since it was scheduled to be broadcast at 6.30 pm the word was still uttered by the actor but completely masked by the sound of a starship engine.
• An I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again episode did the censored song thing to Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat", and a medley of other works by the same artist.
  • This was in fact a running gag on the show, which was done with the Julie Andrews songbook, the Rolf Harris songbook, etc. As a BBC censor played by Graeme Garden commented on one episode, "In this way, we can change songs which are mildly suggestive at first and make them sound positively filthy."
  • Also, one episode had Jo Kendall read the rules of broadcasting to the rest of the cast.

  Jo: There are to be no swearwords.

  Bill: Damn!

  Tim: Bugger!

  David: Knickers!

  Jo: Such words will be obliterated by this noise. [honk-honk] Is that [honk-honk] well clear?

• In The Castle, a parody of TV chef Gordon Ramsey has a "bleeper" who follows him around in public so he doesn't offend anyone.
• Marcus Brigstocke on The Now Show, complaining about the Media Watchdogs:

  [imitating vox pop] "I think there is too much swearing in the media." Surely that depends on what's happening in the world? I mean, sometimes there clearly isn't enough swearing, is there? Peter Mandelson's back in government. How THIS SECTION WAS REMOVED FOR COMPLIANCE PURPOSES. on a spring!

• On NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me the host and guests censor themselves (usually when reading news quotes) by yelling "BLEEP!" loudly during the sentence.
• The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show presents what is claimed to be William Shakespeare's "long-lost children's play" Cardenio, which includes a sex scene covered up by copious and varied use of Sound Effect Bleeps.

  Thank God we had these sound effects
  To cover up the sound of sex.

• This was mocked in a Royal Canadian Air Farce parody of the ING Direct commercials. Walking along the street, the dude selling the bank says, "What can you expect from the [car honk]ing Bank? Well..."
• Unexpectedly used, or at least implied, in Adventures in Odyssey. Jason struggles to get an uncooperative answering machine to work...

  Jason: Operate! Operate, you worthless hunk of- [BEEEP!]

• During the late 70s and early 80s, WBZ Radio in Boston used a rather... unique... bleep noise that sounded something like someone trying to hypnotize a Rubik's Cube... It Makes Sense in Context.
• Used in the Hudson & Landry skit, "Obscene Phone Bust". A variety of sound effects are used to censor the Badmouth's insults to the cops, what exactly he said to women on the phone, and also his name and how it is spelled.

  Officer: Now just a minute! What's your name, badmouth?

  Badmouth: My name is George [squeak honk].

  Officer: Did you say [squeak honk]?

  Badmouth: Yeah, I said [squeak honk].

  Officer: Spelled [xylophone]-T?

  Badmouth: Yes, spelled "[xylophone]-T.

  Officer: Just like it sounds.

• Similarly on Jim Backus' "Dirty Old Man," where the codger uses vulgarities (covered by Hanna-Barbera sound effects) and making dirty malapropisms of women's names.

  Sir: (going through the phone book) Oh, here's a good one...Melanie (horn)!

  Gwendolyn: No, I believe that's Tate, sir.

  Sir: What the (various sounds) is the difference?

  Gwendolyn: Shall I dial it for you sir?

  Sir: Was Geronimo an Indian?

  Gwendolyn: As far as I know, sir.

  Sir: (sarcastically) "As far as I know, sir..." you're a pain in the (tweet)! (Gwendolyn dials the number)

  Voice on phone: (elderly) Hello?

  Sir: How do you do. How's your (jalopy horn)?

  Voice: I beg your pardon?

  Sir: Is this Melanie (whistle)?

  Voice: That's Tate.

  Sir: That's tough! You're too (whistle, trumpet) old for me!

• The Doctor Who Big Finish audio episode ...ish features the eponymous syllable as its Monster of the Week (it's complicated). In order to protect Peri from the Ish, the Doctor uses Applied Phlebotinum to bleep the syllable out whenever she says it. The effect on her dialogue is ... interesting. (Hilariously, they don't bleep out any of her actual swearing.)
• Averted with Eric Idle's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio", which they don't play on the radio, as the words are too strong.
• François Pérusse's Les 2 Minutes du Peuple uses this in some of his skits (who aren't usually ashamed of being subtly graphic), the most notable one being the skit "Chanson Grivoise" in which a Georges Brassens expy sings about the porn movie he saw last night. It becomes comically inverted in the last verse, in which the overwhelmed censor bleeps everything except the sex words. There is an official animation of this skit which can be watched here.

• "Conversation Piece" from the musical Wonderful Town:

  Chick: Boy, it's hot! Reminds me of that time in Panama... I was down there on a story... I was in this, well, dive, and there was this broad there... What was her name?... Marquita?... Maroota?... Ah, what's the difference what her name was? That dame was built like a brick sh—
  (Sudden cymbal crash and discordant outburst, followed by frantic ensemble repeating refrain "Nice people, nice talk")

• In The Complete History Of America Abridged, when the male and female voices announcing the Civil War slideshow get into an argument with each other, several epithets are censored by the same beep sound used for slide transitions. (The slides are lost, by the way.)
• In an example of Painting the Medium, Hamilton bleeps out the line "Sit down, John, you fat motherfuckstick!" This line occurs during the Adams administration, who supported the Alien and Sedition Acts, which criminalized criticizing the government. Elsewhere in the play, use of "fuck" is uncensored.

• The picture above comes from Gunnerkrigg Court.
  • Curiously averted earlier in the same chapter when this girl used the phrase "Goddam it!" without being censored.
  • There's also this.
• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, both time the Doctor tries to say "Motherf-", he gets interrupted by someone shouting "He said a bad word!"
  • Later on, each time someone tries to swear, the actual bad word is covered by a black box with a silly replacement word.

    "You have got to be [Flarking] [Pooping] me! [Flarking] [Pooping] me!"

  • One comic censors fingers (ineffectively) with little black boxes saying things like "[How] [Rude!]"
• This Adventurers! strip.
• 8-Bit Theater also has at least one.
  • Or two.
• Schlock Mercenary used a bleep-concealing box on several occasions, often to hilarious effect.
• Ozy and Millie had a one-off joke in which Avery was shown using Beep noises every other word, having mistaken the beeps as actual swears, and brushed Ozy off when he tried to correct him.
• 'Sluggy Freelance has an alternate dimension, the Dimension of Lame, where absolutely nothing evil or nasty exists in any way. As such, when a character tries to say "hell", it gets covered by a bleep, meaning that it actually says says a bleep.
• This DM of the Rings, where Gimli rolls a 1 on his diplomacy check with the Rohirrim.
• Dominic Deegan uses this on a regular basis, though usually by another character interrupting and covering the word or something happens where the art can cover the word.
• In Erfworld, the universe literally *boops* out any profanities, even written ones.
  • It's a rather important plot point when this stops happening.
• Played with in strip of "Tempts Fate," the fund-raising spinoff from Goblins.
• In The 10 K Commotion, after experimenting with a few variations to deal with the occasional (or in the case of Pict, not so occasional) swear-word, the author eventually settled on censor bars with cleaner alternatives, such as "Don't this *music* make a *nice guy* wanna jump?" or "Crimony!"
• In this strip, when the victim discovers that her date might be involved with another man- exactly as he arrives to take her on a date. (Un)luckily, Not What It Looks Like.
• Not shown directly, but in Grrl Power when Sydney is interviewed on national television she doesn't tone down her language, and eventually the person in charge of real-time censoring pleads with her to stop via the news crawl.
• In Freefall, Florence added the word "Gardener" to the robots' automatic profanity filter as part of her stopgag against Gardener in the Dark, which made the robots hear the censored word as such a sound effect.

• Also creatively used by the BBC News in 1960 (from BBC TV From AP):

  When News & Newsreel started in 1954, being run by News Division from radio, it was decreed that nothing was to be added that hadn't actually happened on the news story. So no music, no sound effects, etc. Just the bare bones, which meant that often it was largely just still pictures with a Voice Over, 'Frozen Radio' as someone called it.
  But eventually they did get over this drawback, and one day around 1960, when we were dubbing a news story about aircraft, and it contained an interview with a Group-Captain Chester (or similar name), it was discovered that in editing, part of the man's title had been cut off the sound, reducing him to 'plop' Captain Chester..... Well, what to do about it, the Group-Captain would probably object..... 'Can't we "hide" it somehow?' someone said, and I found a disc of a jet fly-past, to spin in just at that crucial moment.
  And they used to say that the News shouldn't be 'fixed'...

• An unusual example was done by an audience at a wrestling promotion. At the previous show, the general manager complained about the language used by the audience. At the next show, the chant "Holy Shit" was verbally beeped out—by the word "Beep". ; the chant became "Holy Beep". The general manager found it HILARIOUS.
• The infamous tapes by Richard Nixon were censored by Nixon himself. As documented by the film Nixon:

  Nixon: Have you lost your mind? Look, Al! Nixon can't say this! "Niggers". Niggers?! It can't say that! We could delete it... Would you have us black it out, sir? We could write "expletive deleted." Cut all these 'goddamns' and 'Jesus Christs' out.

  President's Lawyer: Jesus. Mr. President. Don't you see that all these deletion marks in the transcripts make it look as though you... you do nothing but swear?

• According to rumor, the Chinese government tested censoring Chinese swear words with the "BEEEEP" sound. Unfortunately and hilariously, the common Chinese insult "stupid bitch" is "Sha Bi", pronounced "shah bee". Therefore, censors resulted in "shah beeeeep". Unsurprisingly, the censor was not put into effect.
• John Wilkes Booth waited until the funniest line in the play "Our American Cousin" was delivered to shoot President Lincoln because he had seen the play before and hoped that moment would produce enough laughter to drown out the sound of the gunshot.
• US fitness center chain Planet Fitness does not take kindly to people who grunt while lifting weights or dropping weights. So all of their locations make use of a "lunk alarm", a rotating blue light and air raid siren that is activated briefly to drown out the noise if someone is caught doing it.
• During this TED talk in Vilnius, Lithuania, two guys named Valentinas and Viaceslavas are playing Jew's harps. During their introduction to their performance (about 1:17 in), Viaceslavas puts his harp up to his mouth as Valentinas says:

  Valentinas: In spite of [the fact that the] Jew's harp is quite [a] well-known instrument in the world, I'm sure that there are people who still think, "Hmm. Jew's harp. What the [boing] is that?"

• If you ask the Amazon Alexa to say curse words, they will be beeped out.