The Swear Jar/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character is required to drop money into a jar every time he/she swears.

  • Played Straight: Bob recites a Precision F-Strike and drops a quarter into the jar.
  • Exaggerated: Bob recites a Cluster F-Bomb and drops several dollars into the jar.
    • Bob recites a Cluster F-Bomb and drops his checkbook and several credit cards into the jar.
  • Justified: The swear jar is in place so that Alice and Bob's kids won't be learning cuss words from them.
  • Inverted: Every time Bob swears, he gets to take money out of the jar.
    • If Bob speaks a sentence without swearing, he has to drop money in the jar.
  • Subverted: Bob swears, and since he doesn't have any money on him, doesn't put money into the jar.
  • Double Subverted: But Alice reinforces the rule and demands that Bob pony up later.
  • Parodied: Bob says, "Ah, fudge!" and Alice is holding the jar out.
    • There is so much money in the jar by the end of the first week that Alice and Bob can take a tropical vacation.
      • The swear jar policy is supported by law, used as tax money.
  • Deconstructed: Reward-punishment systems take a while to have any appreciable effect, and in some cases may not work.
  • Reconstructed: Bob finds that he is losing a lot of money to the swear jar and starts censoring his language.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob does a Cluster F-Bomb in fromt of the kids. Thanks to the incident, Alice puts a swear jar. But Bob doesn't pay. Then Alice starts telling Bob to pay up, but he still doesn't. That night, he puts the money in the jar, then he puts the jar in the car, drives to the beach, takes out the jar, and throws the jar into a bonfire.
  • Averted: The Tropers have no Swear Jar policy in effect in their household.
    • Nobody uses such language in that home anyway.
  • Enforced: No cussing; Think of the Children.
  • Lampshaded: "No money...aw $#%@&!..."
  • Invoked: Alice is sick of Bob's swearing and worried about its effect on their kids. She puts a swear jar in the kitchen and explains the new rule to her family.
  • Defied: Bob stops swearing...at least around his family.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Bob is shown repeatedly throwing money in, even though the audience stops hearing him actually swear.
  • Played For Drama: ???

Go back to The Swear Jar trope, dammit!
Bob! That's another dollar!
Shit!
 

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/The_Swear_Jar/Playing_With?oldid=1082143"