Swearing in animation

[The Overlord]

I saw a video on the Council of Geeks YouTube channel about swearing in adult animation ( I am not sure I should post the video here, most of the swears are bleeped out, but it was one uncensored swear at the end).

Anyway, the video expresses the opinion that shows like Harley Quinn and Hazbin Hotel fall into traps around swearing: having the same level of excessive swearing throughout the series, rather than slowly building it up so it's less off-putting, having the excessive swearing make the swear words meaningless and lose any power they could have and just a lack of creativity in how the characters actually use swear words. I think I like Lower Decks just bleeping the swear words. A lot of early anime dubs of more adult-themed anime had issues with excessive swearing. It seems like an attempt to say ''this is not for kids, right off the bat, rather than a good dialogue choice.

How do you think swearing should be handled in animation?

 

[Fone Bone]

Gilda And Meek has almost no swearing to start out with so whenever you hear one for the first time it's kind of a shock and it lands. I like making it count.

 

[[classic swim]]

You don’t want your cartoon or your live action movie or your short or your anything to unironically sound like a MarioTehPlumber video, so yes.

There’s that argument that bleeps are better than the actual swears themselves. And even that can be ridiculously played out if you’re not careful.

One of the tackiest tropes in the book is having a character repeatedly and artificially bleeped on purpose. That’s happened in both children’s and adult media and it’s equally lazy and obnoxious.

A couple creators I like actually have their own rules in place, when really it doesn’t even need a strategic effort. If it’s getting to the point where you’re genuinely self conscious, you’re just doing a sloppy job.

 

[JMTV]

It really depends on how well you utilized it. If you are gonna use swearing in the context of the situation (ie: conflict), then I can understand. However, if you are gonna use swear words just for the sake of being edgy 24/7, then the appeal will worn out very quickly.

Personally, I don't mind swearing in cartoons, as long it works in context and not being obnoxious with it, censored or not.

 

[Golden Geek]

I don't think Harley Quinn or Hazbin Hotel could be criticized for their ineffectiveness or excessiveness any more so than, say, Deadwood. I don't think it's lazy writing to write characters that swear excessively - it is lazy writing if that's all your series has going for it. Some people just swear excessively.

It makes sense for Harley to swear a lot - it's a raunchy comedy series, and the profanity does form part of the plot in season 1 (Dr. Psycho calls Wonder Woman a certain word that gives him ostracized from even the villains).

I understand the criticism that Hazbin Hotel doesn't draw much of a difference between Heaven and Hell by having angels regularly swear, but I would also think that's part of the point Vivziepop is trying to address - what's the difference between Heaven and Hell, anyway? The scene that went around with Adam being excessively vulgar was also clearly trying to establish a point that it couldn't when it was clipped out of context on Twitter.

As a writer, I do consider whether something can be conveyed more effectively with a different word choice if I feel like I've used it too many times - profanity included. My last Hazbin Hotel fic still had fifteen F-bombs in it, but in the process of writing it at work, I wrote some of them as "xxxx" so I could think of a different word to possibly fit there.

If there's any animated series I've seen that felt like it was going too hard, it was Human Resources. I watched a single episode and it felt like they wrote the obscenity first, then came up with the jokes. The Panty and Stocking dub also probably could've benefitted from a thesaurus, as the Japanese version is a lot more playful in its raunchiness, but it's not a bad or ill-fitting dub by any means.

 

[CNNickFan]

Swearing (as in, F-Bombs and such) works in a show like Family Guy lmao, especially back when it was censored by FOX. It just happens so out of the gate, you never expected it.

 

[thisithis]

In the Original animated Transformers TV show, there was no Swearing but In the 1986 animated Transformers: The Movie The character Spike did say the Sword.

 

[Dantheman]

In the Original animated Transformers TV show, there was no Swearing but In the 1986 animated Transformers: The Movie The character Spike did say the Sword.

I remember being more shocked by Ultra Magnus saying "Open, damn it, open!" when he's trying to fiddle with the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, since Spike's line was omitted from the original home video release.

 

[Silverstar]

As a writer, I feel that swearing, in both animation and live-action, should be done for emphasis; it should be used sporadically to great effect, not constantly to no effect. If all your characters swear up and down like sailors on shore leave all the time, then the swears lose all their impact, but that's just my opinion which doesn't carry the weight of sunlight.

 

[thisithis]

I remember being more shocked by Ultra Magnus saying "Open, damn it, open!" when he's trying to fiddle with the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, since Spike's line was omitted from the original home video release.

And then brought back in in newer releases.

 

[90'sKid]

Personally I find swearing for the sake of swearing to be more annoying than funny, it's the peepee-poopoo of adult humor. I think being creative/subversive with your swears is alot funnier than just being outright crass.

Ed Edd n Eddy was really good at this, IMO.

Eddy: "Oh I'd swear, but standards won't let me."

Rolf (after Edd goes on a long diatribe): "You need to eat more fiber, Ed Boy."*

I know that humor is subjective, and everyone has their tastes, but personally I don't find stuff like Hasbin Hotel's "let's say **** every other word" schtick to be humorous. It's like a tween who thinks just saying swears is funny and 2edgy4you. If I ever got to write a show that had a rating that allows a swear, I'd save it for a big moment, a grand climax where a character who has more than earned it lets out a full chested, no holds barred hearty oath.


* In other words, he was saying Edd was full of sh*t