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Wednesday, October 28th, 2026

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What is the proper way to handle quotes where the official on-screen quote contains words that are beeped out

A number of television and on-line shows will use mechanical beeps or other sounds to censor/mask swearing or other objectionable words/phrases/language. Given that these beeps are part of the actual on-screen quote, what is the proper way to account for them in the Quotes section? This is not regarding cases where the tv version censors something that the original version didn't, but rather where the original version is censored.

For example: "This chocolate tastes like BEEP."

  • Should I just write "beep" -- "This chocolate tastes like beep."
  • Should the "beep" be differentiated -- "This chocolate tastes like BEEP."
  • Should "beep" be bracketed as if it were a stage direction -- "This chocolate tastes like [beep]."
  • Should the "beep" be represented with asterisks -- "This chocolate tastes like ****."
  • Should there be something else done?
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45 minutes ago

Hi thebluetuna-

Thank you for posting the examples! In these cases, our preference is [censor]. So for example: "This chocolate tastes like [censor]."

Cheers!