Symbol Swearing: Difference between revisions
Evil Ernie
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{{quote|''[[Think of the Children|Just in case there might be little ears around]],
''I won't say it, I'll just spell it out:
''I feel like pound sign, question mark, star, exclamation point.''
|'''Kevin Fowler''', "Pound Sign (#?*!)"}}
Over time, people have %&*# come up with various @$#& handy ways to insert $(^& swearing, or at least the @+)^ recognition of ^%*& swearing, without setting off the $)+$ Censor Alarms. One of the oldest and easiest #*%^ ways to do this is by $%&^ inserting random %&$#?@! symbols. This ()%$ method of &%&$ censorship has been seen in @*+^ newspaper comics from the #$%* beginning, making this trope [[Older Than Radio|Older Than #*^$ Radio]].
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More *#&$ common in recent &$*^ times is the &+$# use of f***ing asterisks instead of f$%&ing random symbols, a case of [[T-Word Euphemism]] at work. See #$%@ [[Sound Effect Bleep]] for the )#%^ audio version, and ^%#+ [[Narrative Profanity Filter]] for other #^@$ ways of creatively conveying *+$# foul language.
{{examples|@#$& Examples}}
== £§€$ Advertising ==
* This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1PNlZajtWM Porsche commercial] for the GT2RS. Thoroughly appropriate.
* A series of magazine adverts for Tennants Lager featured a pint of lager in various situations, with a pithy phrase underneath including the red {{color|red|T}} logo. One of them showed the glass smashing onto the floor, with the simple caption "$#!{{color|red|T}}"
== &*#*@ Anime & Manga ==
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* Used in the ''[[Code Geass]]: Lelouch of the Rebellion'' manga to represent Lelouch's infamous [[Screams Like a Little Girl|girly scream]].
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' Chachamaru uses a form of [[Useful Notes/Fonts|Wingding font]] during her [[Immodest Orgasm]] the first time she is wound up by Negi.
== #$%* Comic Books ==
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* This trope is occassionally used in ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]]'' to express a character's anger and they cant show swear words because those two comics are for children.
* A story of [[Iznogoud]] had him asking Dilat Larat for a rope, when he was down a cliff. Dilat dropped the entire length of rope. Iznogoud began cursing, with bombs, bones, axes etc. Then a lot of these items began falling from above, seemingly dropped by Dilat who thought Iznogoud was asking for them.
* A common feature of ''[[Evil-Ernie]]'', which feels out of place considering how much [[Gorn]] adorns the pages.
== @#*£ Comic Strips ==▼
* [[media:hitch-swear.png|This]] ''[http://www.toonopedia.com/hitch.htm Half Hitch]'' strip.▼
* Every Newspaper Comic ever has used these. Comics with adult characters, such as ''[[Dilbert]]'', or aggressive humor, like ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' tend to use these more often than tamer comics such as ''[[Peanuts]]''.▼
* Parodied in ''[[FoxTrot]]'', when Peter stubs his toe and starts ranting the ''words'' "[http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2005/07/17 Asterisk! Dollar sign! Ampersand]" and so forth, later commenting, "[[Medium Awareness|Comic strip curse words leave something to be desired]]."▼
* ''[[Zits]]'':▼
** A Sunday strip involved Jeremy getting scolded for swearing (represented by grawlixes), and commented that he's the only guy he knows who has a less colorful vocabulary than [[Beetle Bailey]].▼
** A daily strip has Jeremy ''saying'' "Star-Asterisk-Fishbone!" when he hurts himself, and when Hector comments on it (apparently it's the equivalent of [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]) he explains that his mother will kill him if he says [string of grawlixes].▼
* Speaking of ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'':▼
** One strip has Beetle correcting Sarge's use of the word ☁ [black cloud], and goes into a lengthy explanation of which other symbol swears should be used in conjunction with it. None of which would make any sense in [[Real Life]], since swearing does not work that way.▼
** Other examples include Sarge being embarrassed over using old-style cussing like # ("No one says # anymore"), and one where a flower is included in the tirade because he "promised the chaplain he'd say something nice today".▼
** Sgt. Snorkel has periodic swearing contests with Sgt. Webbing, often using Franco-Belgian style symbols, with their men in the background cheering them on and placing bets. Sgt. Webbing won at least once, with a simple black cloud with "CENSORED" inside it. They had to carry Sgt. Snorkle off on a stretcher.▼
** At one time, Lt. Sonny Fuzz tried to force Sgt. Snorkel to use substitutes for swearing. In a fit of anger and total frustration, Sgt. Snorkel unleashes a barrage of Symbol Swearing that had inside of the [[Speech Balloon]] the shark from ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', a [[Mushroom Cloud]], and even [[Dracula]]. The end result of it all? One of Lt. Fuzz's medals had MELTED.▼
* One stretch of ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' cartoons has Satchel actually pronounce his Symbol Swearing ("Did you leave this lightning bolt plus sign brick on the floor?").▼
* ''[[The Moomins]]'' have played with this trope in their newspaper comic, though they take things a little further than normal: Swear words are represented by physical, tangible and agressive little creatures who run around and cause havoc. At one point, the Moomins find an entire box of them floating out at sea, mentioning that there must have been some sailor who decided to stop swearing and threw all his swear words overboard. After the swear words have been making nuisances of themselves for a while, the Moomins get rid of them by, as a practical joke, wrapping them up and sending them by mail to an old, prissy aunt.▼
* In the [[Mad Magazine]] parody of ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'', the main character's friends insult each other with typical insults like "butt-head," "armpit" and "nerd," and when the main character uses this kind of swearing, his mother tells him that there will not be any asterixes, dollar signs or ampersands spoken in their house.▼
* Used frequently in ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', sometimes straight, and sometimes as meta humor (Rat using the planet in the line of symbols to replace a missing Saturn from Pig's Solar System model).▼
== Fan &!*@ Works ==
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* ''[[Nobody Dies]]'' has people swearing fairly often, but any instances of "fuck" get replaced with "f___". ''Unless'' that specific instance is meant to be a [[Precision F-Strike]], in which case the word is written out fully.
== $*@^ Film ==
* Subverted in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'', when we see the "[[Swear Jar|swear box]]", it has a sign on it showing the price for each swear word. All the words have at least one letter changed to a symbol, ''[[Bleep, Dammit!|except]]'' for [[Country Matters|"cunt"]], the highest priced word, which is left unaltered.
* Used in 1927 silent film ''[[The Cat and the Canary]]'', when aunt Susan finds Paul hiding under her bed.
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* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'': "Only I didn't say fudge. It was the word! The big one! The queen mother of dirty words! The "F dash dash dash" word!"]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgx1sSfriIA Here.]
* Played with in ''[[In the Loop]]''. "You are a real boring fuck. Sorry, sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing, so I'll sort that out. You are a boring F star star cunt!"
== &%$£!*@ Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** Invoked in ''[[
** Carrot can also pronounce the asterisk in "d*mn," and "'!' said Rincewind" is, if not this trope, something close to it.
* Also invoked in ''[[Xanth]]'' books. A set of repeated single symbols, such as #### is used and corresponds directly to a particular curse word in English, typically revealed by the reaction dialogue of the characters around them. This being Xanth, these words can literally start fires and peel paint.
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* The protagonist of ''The Pigman'' is "asked not to swear" and has two different substitutions, one for regular swears and one for really bad ones, and thinks it's convenient because the reader will likely come up with something far more creative than he ever could.
=== *@£# Print Media ===▼
* One [[Dave Barry]] column was titled ''<nowiki>&*@##%$(!?,.<>+*&'%$!!@@$##%%^&</nowiki>''.▼
== Live-Action %^&* TV ==
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* One ''[[MythBusters]]'' test ''requires'' on-camera swearing. Since digitally blurring out their lips (to counter lipreading) gets expensive, Adam builds a mouth shield with grawlix neatly lettered onto it.
* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Hiro's reaction to discovering that he's [[Time Travel|in medieval Japan]] is [[Fun with Subtitles|subtitled]] "@#$%!"
* The TV series ''[[Shit My Dad Says|$h*! My Dad Says]]'', based on
== !&#@$ Music ==
* As quoted above, [[Country Music]] artist Kevin Fowler has a song called "Pound Sign (#?*!)" which lampshades this trope.
* KMFDM's ''Symbols'' album title is supposedly this. The title appears in one of the songs as a [[Sound Effect Bleep]].
== New %&$@ Media ==
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{{quote|"I'm a black, Scottish cyclops. They got more {{color|deeppink|♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥}} than they got the likes o' me." (NOTE: The hearts correspond to a lengthy [[Sound Effect Bleep]] at the exact same spot in the movie.)}}
▲* [[media:hitch-swear.png|This]] ''[http://www.toonopedia.com/hitch.htm Half Hitch]'' strip.
▲== *@£# Print Media ==
▲* Every Newspaper Comic ever has used these. Comics with adult characters, such as ''[[Dilbert]]'', or aggressive humor, like ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' tend to use these more often than tamer comics such as ''[[Peanuts]]''.
▲* One [[Dave Barry]] column was titled ''<nowiki>&*@##%$(!?,.<>+*&'%$!!@@$##%%^&</nowiki>''.
▲* Parodied in ''[[FoxTrot]]'', when Peter stubs his toe and starts ranting the ''words'' "[http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2005/07/17 Asterisk! Dollar sign! Ampersand]" and so forth, later commenting, "[[Medium Awareness|Comic strip curse words leave something to be desired]]."
▲* ''[[Zits]]'':
▲** A Sunday strip involved Jeremy getting scolded for swearing (represented by grawlixes), and commented that he's the only guy he knows who has a less colorful vocabulary than [[Beetle Bailey]].
▲** A daily strip has Jeremy ''saying'' "Star-Asterisk-Fishbone!" when he hurts himself, and when Hector comments on it (apparently it's the equivalent of [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]) he explains that his mother will kill him if he says [string of grawlixes].
▲* Speaking of ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'':
▲** One strip has Beetle correcting Sarge's use of the word ☁ [black cloud], and goes into a lengthy explanation of which other symbol swears should be used in conjunction with it. None of which would make any sense in [[Real Life]], since swearing does not work that way.
▲** Other examples include Sarge being embarrassed over using old-style cussing like # ("No one says # anymore"), and one where a flower is included in the tirade because he "promised the chaplain he'd say something nice today".
▲** Sgt. Snorkel has periodic swearing contests with Sgt. Webbing, often using Franco-Belgian style symbols, with their men in the background cheering them on and placing bets. Sgt. Webbing won at least once, with a simple black cloud with "CENSORED" inside it. They had to carry Sgt. Snorkle off on a stretcher.
▲** At one time, Lt. Sonny Fuzz tried to force Sgt. Snorkel to use substitutes for swearing. In a fit of anger and total frustration, Sgt. Snorkel unleashes a barrage of Symbol Swearing that had inside of the [[Speech Balloon]] the shark from ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', a [[Mushroom Cloud]], and even [[Dracula]]. The end result of it all? One of Lt. Fuzz's medals had MELTED.
▲* One stretch of ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' cartoons has Satchel actually pronounce his Symbol Swearing ("Did you leave this lightning bolt plus sign brick on the floor?").
▲* ''[[The Moomins]]'' have played with this trope in their newspaper comic, though they take things a little further than normal: Swear words are represented by physical, tangible and agressive little creatures who run around and cause havoc. At one point, the Moomins find an entire box of them floating out at sea, mentioning that there must have been some sailor who decided to stop swearing and threw all his swear words overboard. After the swear words have been making nuisances of themselves for a while, the Moomins get rid of them by, as a practical joke, wrapping them up and sending them by mail to an old, prissy aunt.
▲* In the [[Mad Magazine]] parody of ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
▲* Used frequently in ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', sometimes straight, and sometimes as meta humor (Rat using the planet in the line of symbols to replace a missing Saturn from Pig's Solar System model).
== &+$# Video Games ==
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* In ''[[Crystal Castles (video game)|Crystal Castles]]'', Bentley the bear followed in Q*Bert's footsteps by uttering "#?!" when his last life was lost.
* Subverted in ''[[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun]]'' - a GDI soldier responds to approaching Nod forces by yelling "Oh $#!+". Hardly ambiguous what he was yelling.
== Web *~@^# Animation ==
* One of Sceb's mailbag cartoons on ''[[Fred the Monkey]]'' has a fan threatening to "@$%#^ THE #%^&!@ OUT OF YOU!!!!" Sceb pronounces this as "symbol the symbols out of you."
== Web *?#~! Comics ==
* For webcomic artists, Blambot offers a freeware font called [http://www.blambot.com/font_pottymouth.shtml Potty Mouth].
* [[Lampshaded]] in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130809103646/http://ozyandmillie.org/2003/06/13/ozy-and-millie-1197/ this] 2003 ''[[Ozy and Millie]]'' strip.
* Used by Iron Jane in [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=138013 this episode] of ''[[Everyday Heroes]]''. Subverted on the very next page when she fails to knock out Mr. Mighty, swearing {{spoiler|"Oh, shinola."}}
* Appears in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130922052525/http://www.gastrophobia.com/index.php?date=2009-07-20 this page] of ''[[Gastrophobia]]''. Interestingly, one of the symbols is a hand giving the middle finger. An earlier comic had a character use the word "bullshitting", so the use of this trope is clearly stylistic or [[Rule of Funny]]. Since it's the cover for the story that follows, this is probably to keep actual dialog off it.
* [http://darklegacycomics.com/193.html This episode] of the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' strip ''[[Dark Legacy Comics]]'' has Donald, the resident "not the sharpest banana in the bunch" stub his toe and yell "And dollars at star number!" After repeating it a few times, another character tells him he really needs to turn off his &$@*# profanity filter.
* [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091009 With this case] of [[Agony of the Feet]] in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', the Symbol Swearing gets ''subtitles''. Okay, maybe not absolutely faithful subtitles... it is doubtful Agatha's language stays that refined.
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** In another strip, Persephone, insisting vampires are the epitome of cool, claimed to have "the lowest body temperature and *!¥¢#ingest wardrobe of the lot of you!" A footnote pointed out that adding a superlative suffix to "*!¥¢#" was completely ungrammatical.
* Used periodically in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', usually by Jean, sometimes in a [[The Triple|comedic triple]] such as [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090919.html "Egads... Holy Hackensack... !?$&!!!^&!"]
* Spelling counts in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20141228042645/http://www.urbanjunglecomic.com/?p=1124 Urban Jungle]''.
* Toyed with in ''[http://www.undefined.net/1/0/?strip=493 1/0]''. (Marcus can hear the swearing because he is not [[Genre Savvy]].)
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''
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** And let loose a [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster @#$% Bomb]] in an [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-11-19 earlier comic].
** [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-07 DIE BY THE SHELLS OF YOUR FALLEN COMRADES, YOU @#$! TURTLES!]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140218141836/http://mortifer.smackjeeves.com/ Mortifer] doesn't censor swear words, but it ends up lampshading this trope anyway:
{{quote|'''McRain:''' [[Accidental Innuendo|You sounded like you were #$%&ing in here!]]
'''Valentine:''' What's #$%&?
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* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209183658/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4030 Monique's reaction to hurting her foot] includes this. Also F! and S! without asterisks.
* Played with in [http://www.0x2121.com/7/Lost_in_Translation this !! strip] of ''Lost in Translation'', in which apparently the cusser was actually saying the punctuation?
== *+%$ Web Original ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in a ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'' mission where an Agent actually pronounces grawlix.
* An actual, useful new search engine for programmers, SymbolHound, plays with this: it has the [[Tagline]], "for finding @%$^#&! symbols." That is exactly what it does - allows one to search for those symbols (among others) - but still, it's obvious what they mean, as anyone who's tried to search for symbols using other search engines has probably complained about their lack of *$(%ing support for that.
== *&^%$! Western Animation ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:These Tropes Should Watch Their Language]]
[[Category:Censorship Tropes]]
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[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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