Sebastian: Well, your objections have been duly noted and summarily overruled. Sarah: Yes, Sir! Sebastian:How come when you say "Yes, Sir" it kinda sounds like "Fuck you"? Sarah: Practice! —Hollow Man

This language trope is most common to family fare: A character's spoken line contains no profanity whatsoever, but the tone and phrasing used by the actor is so obvious that the audience will hear the intended profanity just the same.

This trope does not includemade-up swear words orLast-Second Word Swap. The line is spoken with perfectly mundane words and the actor's inflection, tone and facial expression is what conveys the more intense and profane parenthetical. Super-trope toWitch with a Capital B. Often shows up inBowdlerized or TV-dubbed versions of movies.

CompareStealth Insult,Precision F-Strike. Not to be confused withNarrative Profanity Filter, where a character really does swear - it just doesn't appear directly in the text.

Comic Books

• One issue ofMarvel'sSecret Wars II has Phoenix (the Rachel Summers variety) express sympathy for The Beyonder's hurt feelings, while her face makes it clear she'd kill him if she could. (By the way, the reason his feelings got hurt was that she wouldn't let him manipulate her into destroying the universe.)

Fan Works

• Search the Web for the phrase "made it sound like a curse." It seems to be endemic inFanfic.
  • Considering the sort of books your stereotypicalFanfic author gets into, they probably think it makes their work sound like high literature.

Film

• InThe Empire Strikes Back, we get this exchange. Han's reply is basically a shout.

Han Solo: Afraid I was gonna leave without giving you a goodbye kiss? Princess Leia: I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee. Han Solo: I can arrange that.You could use a good 'kiss'!

• In the 2009Star Trek film, Spock puts a certain amount of inflection and vitriol into the respectful Vulcan salutation, "Live Long And Prosper", so that it sounds like aPrecision F-Strike.
• In the firstSister Act movie, Sister Mary Clarence says "Bless you" in a way that makes it clear the word she would use, if she wasn't in a nun habit and surrounded by nuns, begins with an F.
• Perversion for Profit has the man character say "Come join the fun!" in a way that makes one think he really said "Darn, I just stepped in a huge pile of dog-poo."
• The Princess and the Frog: "Who's been messing with the shadow man?!" sounds a lot like "Who's the dumbass?!". It helps that aCool Old Lady is saying it.

Literature

• In theDiscworld novelThief of Time, Lobsang tries to save his master rather than stop the obliteration of time, leading Susan to say to him "youhero!" in the same tones someone would say "youidiot!"
  • Additionally, inInteresting Times one of the Silver Horde is the subject of Saveloy's attempts to make him stop swearing every single sentence. He manages to make him useUnusual Euphemisms instead, but then it is observed that he could turn the air blue just by saying "socks."
  • InWyrd Sisters, Duke Felmet is described as the sort of personwho gets more polite and restrained the angrier he gets, to the point where he can give the cutting edge of a severe dressing-down to the phrase "Thank you very much."
• The character of Tzetzas inDavid Drake andS. M. Stirling'sThe General series is usually pronounced as if it were a curse.
  • "He gives graft a bad name."
  • There's aRunning Gag that whenever his name is brought up in conversation, Suzette tells the person/people saying it to stop swearing.
• InAnd Another Thing, the seventhHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book (byEoin Colfer), someone is said to say the name "Zaphod" "as if it were a curse;" Justified, perhaps, because it goes on to say that in many languages, it nowis.
• InHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, McGonagall refers to Umbridge as "headmistress", and the author notes that she "pronounced the word with the same look on her face that Aunt Petunia had whenever she was contemplating a particularly stubborn bit of dirt".
• One scene inGreat Expectations has Pip's sister say "Lord bless the boy!" in a way that makes it sound quite the opposite.
• In theStationery Voyagers episode "Essentials of Nativity," Katrina Mantalone is depicted in aBad Future barging into a room full of terrorists and shouting: "Coffins are on DISCOUNT!!!" right before blowing half of them away with her dual pistols. It may seem non-sequitur at first, but her actions reveal that her intended meaning of "Die, m*f*ers!" could hardly be any more obvious.

Live-Action TV

• Penn illustrates this trope in thePenn & Teller: Bullshit! episode on profanity, by insulting a dog in a soft-spoken voice, then angrily screaming at it "I LOVE YOU, DOG!". The point of this exercise is to show the viewers that the dog reacts to the human's tone of voice, not to what actual words he says.

Penn:(reassuringly) No, it's okay. Really, I hate your stinking guts.

• Angel example: There is a moment in the third season where Cordelia is forced to overhear a part of Angel's Epic Rage against the wayThe Powers That Be treats Cordelia. She only hears the part: "She is arich girl from Sunnydale who likes to play Superhero. She doesn't have what ittakes!" Considering Cordelia's reaction, he may as well have said "ASpoiled Bitch..."
• A recent^[when?] episode ofSupernatural has Rufus, one of the boys' allies, mutter, "I'm too old for this."Four guesses as to what everyone heard at the end of the sentence...
  • Plus, he kinda looks likeDanny Glover.
• Babylon 5 has Bester's name treated like this. Anyone who has spent five minutes in the same room as Bester and isnot a telepath would understand completely.
• It's been noted thatProject Runway fashion consultant Tim Gunn can make the word "implausible" sound like a swear word.
• Occasionally used onHave I Got News for You as a way ofGetting Crap Past the Radar: "Perhaps he should go sack himself."
  • Paul Merton likes to refer to people having been "hung up by the Bolsheviks" or "dragged off by the Cherokees" in a way that makes it soundlike a particularly painful form of punishment.
  • "I've devolved some of my functions..." "I'm sorry to hear that."
• Seinfeld: The way Jerry always greets his arch-rival Newman one could easily substitute any swear word in for his name.

Jerry: Hello... Newman.

• The Daily Show played a clip of professional persecution junkie Bill Donohue ranting about how "every Lenten season" Catholics in America have morePolitical Correctness Gone Mad to put up with; Jon noted that "Lenten" really sounds like a swearword when you say it in that tone.
• Emily Prentiss fromCriminal Minds has an uncanny ability to make the phrase "Yes, ma'am" sound like a particularly blunt and vicious "Fuck you sideways and the horse you rode in on too".
• Robin Hood. The episode name andTitle Drop of "Peace? Off!" would sound like a swear to a British person more than an American, although the swear is not unfamiliar to the latter.

Oral Tradition,Folklore, Myths and Legends

• In some translations ofThe Bible, in the book ofJob, Satan dares God to strike Job to take away all that he has and see if he won't "bless" God for it, in which the intended meaning (as pointed out in most other translations) is to "curse" God.

Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy

• From Dane Cook'sVicious Circle special:

I said, "God bless you"... but it kind of sounded like "Cover your fucking mouth." Incognito.

• • PEACE OFF!
• Oddly enoughSam Kinison, who normally had no problembombing the neighborhood, used one when describing his second ex-wife: "God bless 'er!" delivered in a jaw-clenched tone that clearly implies an alternate meaning.

Theatre

• At one point inHair, a character says "Thank you, Sandy"; the stage directions call for it to be intoned as "Fuck you, Sandy."
• One Touch of Venus has this at the end of the title song:

Mix a little bit of goddess, A little bit of damsel, And life is just onegoddessdamsel cinch.

Video Games

• Mass Effect gives us a particularly wonderful line on the subject:

Ashley Williams: Why is it that whenever someone says "with all due respect" they really mean "kiss my ass"?

Web Comics

• "The gnome was muttering to himself, too, in a low, unpleasant manner. He didn't so much curse as deliver each word as if he were cursing, so that 'Butter and bedknobs!' came out sounding like something you'd use to send a demon back to the abyss." - fromLittle Creature and the Redcap byUrsula Vernon.

Web Original

• Atop the Fourth Wall: Five words -- "Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!"
• In theHomestar Runner cartoon "Donut Unto Others", Homestar opens a donut stand near Bubs' Concession Stand. Bubs comes up to Homestar and makes small talk... at the top of his lungs, in a threatening tone, and with his face solid red. Homestar,ever-oblivious, takes a few minutes to realize "Are we in a fight?"

Western Animation

• In one episode ofX-Men, Wolverine infiltrates an anti-mutant hate group, the Friends of Humanity, by posing as a trashy, mutant-hating bigot. He plays the role to the letter, down to growling "mutant" like a swear word.
• InGargoyles, just about any time Goliath says "Xanatos."
• Despite its very family friendly tone,A Charlie Brown Christmas has one.

Charlie Brown: Man's best friend...

• In the pilot movie/first two episodes ofYoung Justice, Kid Flash takes issue with Robin's disappearing act antics and calls him on it: "Way to be a team player, Rob." He comes down hard on the nickname, and it's clear to this troper that it's a placeholder for Robin's real first name, which Kid Flash knows... and which doubles as a pretty vicious curse.
• Adventure Time is full of this.^[context?]

• Trope
• Pages with Examples That Are Not Timeless
• Pages with Examples Needing Context
• Parenthetical Swearing
• Dialogue
• These Tropes Should Watch Their Language