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Bowdlerise
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This page has been deemed Too Inappropriate by the Moral Guardians, so they have set up a Family Friendly Substitute. To BowdlerisePronunciation"Bow" (as in "port bow" or "cow" minus c) plus "dler" (as in Schindler's List) plus "ise" (pronounced like eyes). Alternatively, those who know IPA: /ˈbaÊŠd.lÉ™.ˌɹaɪz/. means to alter existing programs, plays, etc. so they are less rude and/or offensive. Commonly, this takes the form of swapping "curse" words for euphemisms. The term is used in a negative sense, by those who think the alterations are often done with a ridiculously high fear of lawsuits and/or need for political correctness. Sometimes it's understandable — different countries have different standards, so if a distributor wants to keep the same age rating, some of the more sexual or violent content may need to be removed before the Moral Guardians catch wind of it. Or maybe someone noticed that all it takes to change a show from something for teens to suitable for kids is the removal of a few swear words, darn it. Others are fairly reasonable for broadcast, such as toning down violence since Children Are Tender-Hearted. Such modifications are also understandable when the work is being adapted into a play that will be performed by kids, not just watched by them. But true Bowdlerizing starts when you actually lower the quality of the art or story in some way in the editing, sometimes as little as spoiling jokes or perhaps making villains not look quite as evil, but escalating to damaging the plot, making dialogue confusing, and making heroes look pure and shiny. And at its very "best", it can make a situation less acceptable. In many cases (such as the airing of R- and NC-17-rated films on broadcast television or the release of sexual, violent, or edgy material in countries where such things are known to be forbidden), the viewer/listener/reader is often left wondering why a release in such a venue was even attempted. Censorship starts at editing out blood splatter and profanity. But it escalates pretty quickly. Beer may become water even when it's adults drinking — even villainous adults. Cigarettes and cigars might be removed even though it's a bad guy smoking. A six-round revolver can become a water gun or slingshot.note Like what happened to the gun emoji. Then they start warping entire characters to the entire show so that a character is Ambiguously Bi, as if a good guy being gay might encourage kids to be gay — when ironically a good guy being bi might just encourage a kid to experiment. Then when a situation presents itself where death should be a given, it's always avoided or explained away, removing the idea of consequences stemming from dangerous activities. A girl hits a boy because he got her dirty, instead of because he might be groping her. A scene of a parent hitting their child is completely removed, making it look like they are running away over nothing. If they really can't remove a death, they might try to remove emotional depth from it, so somebody doesn't seem to grieve that much over their best friend/lover dying — so now you're encouraged to stifle your emotions. Other emotional conversations may be edited, so characters seem to be friends rather than in love. Vital discussions might be removed because they take place in a bar, leaving plotholes. And at its most extreme, there may be the removal of entire episodes, and you might never even get to see the final season of your show because it's Darker and Edgier. Named after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who first did it on The Bible and William Shakespeare's plays; for instance, changing Ophelia's drowning from suicide to accident. It's worth noting that Bowdler himself created his "Family Shakespeare" versions as a way to introduce Shakespeare's plays to audiences who would otherwise be barred from experiencing them at all, and actively encouraged people to seek out the originals. Sadly, this cannot be said of most modern Bowdlerisers. Before him, the French Duke of Montausier published "ad usum Delphini" versions of works for the Dauphin (heir apparent) of France. "Ad usum Delphini" is now a synonym of this trope. Cultural Translation can often contain elements of Bowdlerization, especially due to Values Dissonance. See T-Word Euphemism for a mild form of bowdlerization. See also Dub-Induced Plotline Change (which specifically refers to Bowdlerization in translated works and refers more to the final product than the process) and Disneyfication (which generally goes further, in not only removing content but adding new, "kid-friendly" content). See Bluenose Bowdlerizer for when it happens here on the wiki. The inverse of this trope is American Kirby Is Hardcore. Yet another related trope is Self-Censored Release, where a creator self-censors his work to appeal to a broader audience. There is also a Censored Title, for when a work seems to be Bowdlerized, but only the title is for marketing purposes. If the censoring is done In-Universe, that's Narrative Profanity Filter. See also Culturally Sensitive Adaptation. Tropes that often or always arise from Bowdlerisation include: Abridged for Children: If works are edited to remove material unsuitable for kids, though it's just one reason why that trope may occur. Adaptational Modesty: Making a character's general dress sense more modest in an adaptation, and/or cutting incidents that had them naked or in underwear. Adaptational Weapon Swap: When certain weapons are considered risqué or psychologically toxic for children (like brass knuckles or nunchucks), adaptations or reboots will trade those weapons for something parents will "approve" of. Black Blood and Made of Bologna: Covering up extreme gore and blood through digital editing or redrawing the carnage so it's less shocking. Bloodless Carnage: Removing blood and gore altogether from battles and otherwise violent scenes, even if they would do serious damage to living entities involved if they were to occur in real life. The Body Parts That Must Not Be Named: Resorting to euphemisms to avoid any of the common words for, uh, the bathing suit area. Censored for Comedy: Parodies of Bowdlerism, often showing how poor censorship can make something seem even dirtier. Clean Dub Name: A name is changed overseas because it accidentally sounds obscene in a certain language. Curse of The Ancients: Replacing curse words with old-timey slang such as "consarn it!" or "dagnabbit!" Digital Bikini: Using digital editing to add clothes to naked people or to make someone's clothes less revealing. Can be used in conjunction with Family-Friendly Stripper, though it has also been used in conjunction with bath and shower scenes (at least when Cartoon Network aired anime), hot springs episodes, or any scene of half-naked characters in a locker room-type setting (both animated and live-action). Distanced from Current Events: Editing, delaying, or banning something (mostly TV shows and movies) due to the plot being similar to a real-life current event that may be considered to be done in poor taste. Harsher in Hindsight is similar, but only applies to past media that somehow "predicts" future bad events. Edited for Syndication: Most of the bowdlerization does occur after a TV show is put into syndication or makes its rounds on the international market. Family-Friendly Firearms: Replacing realistic weapons with more fantastic or less lethal ones. Family-Friendly Stripper: Strip clubs and other sex establishments have the workers in relatively "innocent" skimpy clothes (usually a bikini) rather than being naked, topless, or in some kind of overt fetish costume. Flawless Token: The villain or Butt-Monkey can't belong to a race, ethnic group, religion, or social class that has historically been persecuted. Even when the group the hated character represents hasn't been persecuted, this trope may still come into play if the group the character represents wields a lot of power in society and threatens a boycott of the work. (However, if a character becomes a villain because of persecution, that's usually okay to show.) Frothy Mugs of Water: Replacing alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks (usually juice, soda, or water) and hand-waving the drunken behavior as "acting crazy" or "being a jerk". Get Back in the Closet: Gay stuff is treated harsher than straight stuff. George Lucas Altered Version: The creator of a work making excessive revisions to it since its original release, usually to update and upgrade special effects, but sometimes to bowdlerise too. Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Replacing sensitive words with their "safer" variants ("damn" to "darn", "hell" to "heck", "ass" to "butt" or "rear", etc). Witch with a Capital "B" is the same thing, only it focuses on toning down the word "bitch". Hide Your Lesbians: Homosexuals with Plausible Deniability. Never Say "Die": Characters can't mention anything about death and the afterlife because it may be too upsetting; even ghosts might be seen as too creepy for kids. In many cases, the word "kill" can never be used, even if it's in a comedic context. No Smoking: Characters can't enjoy a cigarette (be it tobacco — or, in more extreme cases, cannabis, crack cocaine or meth), lest more impressionable viewers imitate what they see. No Swastikas: Removing offensive imagery (usually swastikas or anything having to do with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime). Orwellian Retcon: When a Retcon is performed by going back and changing the original work, so that subsequent printings of "the same" work are actually different. Pacified Adaptation: When an adaptation is less violent than other iterations. Scunthorpe Problem: Trying so hard to block dirty words that your software censors the same strings of letters when they appear in perfectly innocent contexts, due to lazy programming ***umptions. She's a Man in Japan: When a transgender character is changed to cisgender, or one character in a same-sex relationship is changed to the opposite sex (though this can also be for different reasons, such as the producers making a mistake or for language translation reasons). Tamer and Chaster: Sex scenes and Fanservice are toned down or outright omitted in adaptations and sequels in order to pull in a family audience. Technical Euphemism: Technical vernacular used to avoid saying something rude or unsettling. Translation with an Agenda Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: Sanitizing a work created in a foreign country of any and all references to its country of origin, with references to the destination country shoehorned into their place. Video Game Perversity Prevention: Video games have censorship systems to stop players using editing options or crafting systems in offensive ways. |
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Played for Laughs | |
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This gets parodied mercilessly in the "radio edit" of the Yogscast Christmas song "Carrot For a Cock". The song is renamed "Carrot For a Nose", with the word "cock" being badly replaced by Simon Lane singing "nose" over it, even if the offending word is sung by Sparkles*, who has a different voice and is a better singer. None of the rhymes of the song change to match the censorship, no other bad words such as "dong" or "bellend" are removed, and the rest of the lyrics are exactly the same, meaning that Simon was aiming for the snowman's face and missed, hitting his waist, yet he somehow has a nose anyway. | |
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Physical Pinball Tables | |
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The home versionnote a home Physical Pinball Table, not a video game port of Bally's Capt. Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy replaces the racy artwork of the original with a family-friendly quasi-psychedelic depiction of Elton John and the Cowboy. | |
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Satan | |
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When Scott Adams was told he could not have Satan as a character in one of his Dilbert strips, he introduced "Phil the Prince of Insufficient Light", who wielded a large spoon and would temporarily "darn" people to "heck" over relatively minor offenses. Adams does admit that this character ended up being funnier than what he had planned for Satan. (And given that it allows for any number of "spooning" jokes, is it really better?) When Adams did a story about a police officer shooting a criminal in the leg, he was told he couldn't use guns, so instead the officer shoots the crook with his donut, which makes it funnier. |
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A commercial for Air Action Vigorsol gums released in early 2007 showed a squirrel eating the gum and extinguishing a fire in the woods with a freezing fart. After complaints, the commercial was altered so that the squirrel gets ice breath instead, and the final shot (which had the "R" in the Vigorsol logo lifting a leg to let a small fart out) had the fart sound bleeped out. Curiously, they later made a sequel commercial where the squirrel brings some gums to a couple of penguins so that they can escape from the melting ice float they're on with a rocket-boosted fart, which wasn't censored at all. | |
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The original version of the game software included completely uncensored dialogue (the game's highest setting otherwise is "PG-13", which still bleeps out harsher cursing), as well as a removed Video Mode that involved Cartman and Stan trying to be lesbians by engaging in a literal carpet-eating contest. Comedy Central demanded these changes soon after the game's release. | |
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Adjustable Censorship | |
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The "G"-rated Adjustable Censorship option changes the software in various ways - all mentions of farting are altered (Terrence and Phillip's "Super Fart Bumpers" become "Super Pop Bumpers", while the Match Sequence changes from them farting numbers to burping them instead), while the famous "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" exchange is cut down to "They killed Kenny!" "Rats!" Furthermore, the game also came with decals to cover up potentially offensive playfield art, such as Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo. | |
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