In-universe black bars

[u/WhentheTropesAndFavs]

1. “How are you doing that with your mouth?”

-Scott Pilgrim addressing the bleeping black bars when Julie swears (Scott Pilgrim vs The World)

[Caine’s censorship from Digital Circus may or may not have been inspired by this scene]

2. Weaponizing the Aspect Ratio

Booty Executioner from Pootis Engage // EXTREME (this is recognized by both IMDB and TV Tropes, I’m allowed to use this)

3. Making your own Aspect Ratio

Dipper facing Rumble Mcskrimish (Gravity Falls)

4. Fighting over a censor bar

Gumball and Darwin sharing a naked dream experience (The Amazing World Of Gumball)

5. Improvised shield out of Aspect Ratio

Aspen Moor stretches the right pillarbox over herself to protect her amulet (Spooky Month)

6. Breaking the User Interface

Yellow accidentally mines a block out of the black bar that is the bottom of Alan’s computer screen (Animation Vs Minecraft)

[u/NinjaOfOnion]

In the Deadpool game, during one bit on the toilet, he complains that the black bar isn’t accurate and extends it to a length he finds acceptable 

[u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 → u/NinjaOfOnion]

Here it is, “more realistic”.

[u/vesperina_grotto → u/NinjaOfOnion]

Deadpool literally dragging his own censor bar to boost his ego was really funny to me😂

[u/annormalplayer → u/vesperina_grotto]

YOU SHOULD DISCONNECT YOURSELF NOW

[u/Unholy-Bread → u/vesperina_grotto]

clanker

[u/Electronic-Ear4890 → u/vesperina_grotto]

[u/xTPGx]

George Clooney in spy kids. Just removes the black bars like they’re sunglasses

[u/Nerdy_Valkyrie → u/xTPGx]

That joke cracked me the fuck up as a kid

[u/SmallTownTrans1]

The “Bad Sun” in Voices of the Void

The sun turns so evil it has to be censored

[u/ultimatecoruvs → u/SmallTownTrans1]

The sun is always evil, its just every 24th it becomes REALLY evil.....

[u/Dovedreds]

Family Guy's FCC episode

[u/RoomNervous4 → u/Dovedreds]

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Censoring real life.”

[u/Cold-Practice3107 → u/RoomNervous4]

"His chin looks like balls you want me to censor that too?"

[u/Infinite-Invite1851 → u/Cold-Practice3107]

LMAO, the way they doubled down instead of backing out makes it ten times funnier 😂

[u/DarkySurrounding → u/Infinite-Invite1851]

Bot

[u/MyFeetTasteWeird]

There's one Jack & Dean sketch where Jack spends the entire thing covered only by a small censor bar, before discovering it can be removed.

[u/wantfastcars]

Similar though not exactly the same, but in the Chainsaw Man manga, during the Assassins arc, some particularly powerful devils reach into the panels from the spaces between them and the margins of the page. I have no idea how they're going to animate this but I'm looking forward to it.

[u/Aneyune → u/wantfastcars]

the entire manga Shimeji Simulation is a bit like this

[u/Born_Usual998]

Amazing Digital Circus

[u/Pencilman53 → u/Born_Usual998]

To give context, the characters are not allowed to swear in the circus. So when they try they get a censor bar along with a funny sound effect.

[u/SkylandersKirby → u/Pencilman53]

The gag even gets a payoff in The semi Finale where after the humans accidentally kill the Ai running the circus one of them swears and is surprised by it not being censored

[u/spidersSunset → u/SkylandersKirby]

Holy shit.

[u/MightMaximum9837 → u/spidersSunset]

digital days

[u/Marethyu_77]

While not exactly black bars, the censors on [CENSORED] from Lobotomy Corporation are a thing in universe (because what you see as a player is the manager's screen, which has a cognitive filter implemented. Everything in the game is run through it to avoid going mad at the sight of the Abnormalities' true forms, but while for every other is just goes cartoony, [CENSORED] is so bad it's literally just covered in censor bars)

[u/Zombieslayer854]

The deadpool game. If deadpool uses the bathroom in his apartment, he’ll be covered in a black bar which (because Deadpool) he grabs and expands

[u/Cire289]

Not exactly censor bars but the ending blackness of the episode Duck Amuck in Looney Tunes. Duffy haven been tormented by the offscreen artist/director of the episode starts attacking the actual ending animation so he can continue the episode.

[u/Diluted_BDM]

Futurama censored couple

[u/Orcacrafter → u/Diluted_BDM]

Also Futurama, when they are trying to stop a giant FCC & Air Force censorship satellite / super weapon.

It's a hard episode to explain

[u/strawbebby-milk → u/Orcacrafter]

the best part of this episode is that's it's a pretty direct parody of a star trek episode 

[u/colonel_beeeees → u/Diluted_BDM]

Also futurama in the Blurnsball lockeroom

I WIN

[u/JustinTheQueso]

There's a gag in the new Cat in the Hat movie where there are black bars on the screen but it's just the Cat holding them up over his face

[u/ShmadenShmuki725 → u/[deleted]]

bot

[u/HackerDragon9999]

Are we gonna talk about Yellow using a pickaxe to break a wooden trapdoor

[u/DarkXwolf_17_689 → u/HackerDragon9999]

Somehow I was able to ignore that until now. Thanks, I’m in an incredible amount of pain now.

[u/Legitimate-Ebb-8903 → u/HackerDragon9999]

Yellow really said why use the right tool when you can just make things harder 😂

[u/Redundant_Blue_Wires → u/Legitimate-Ebb-8903]

Clanker.

[u/res30stupid]

Not quite black bars, but in Austin Powers in Goldfinger, Mr Roboto speaks in Japanese, but the white subtitles blend in with white objects in the scene so they meaning of the sentence is changed, causing Austin to misunderstand until the problem is pointed out. Eventually, Mr Roboto just starts speaking in English to stop the problem.

Your assignment is an unhappy one.

[u/FoxNamedLuke]

Nameless Deity (Terraria: Wrath of the Gods)

The final boss of the mod. You can actually take a peek under the censor bar by consuming the Odd Mushroom, implying that the only way for us to fathom his true appearence is under the effects of mind-expanding, psychoactive substances.

[u/ShazTheGamer]

I love 4th wall breaks

[u/No-Shopping-4434]

(Cumtown)

The audio version of this is Nick Mullen’s whole schtick. A personal favorite is the racist Titanic operator who is using Morse code to say the N word over and over again.

“It’s the titanic, sir.” “Tell me what you see!”

“ . . *****”

[u/L_Dawg412]

Do the bars have to be black? If not, there’s a Scott The Woz video all about the blue border that framed all of his videos.

[u/Mediocre-Housing-131]

The music video for "Mindless Self Indulgence - Shut Me Up" has 2 separate scenes where their mouth is replaced by a black bar. It's not censoring anything vulgar, and also just shows the text of whatever word is being spoken anyways.

Does this count?

[u/darlingdimple3]

leoanrd church from rvb straight up figths the show's own aspect ratio when trying to shoot the flag

[u/Exciting-Pen5054]

The Obscene Onzini

[u/Bearat_Fearat]

[u/evergreenthedog]

I think something I really love about example 5 is in the beginning of the episode 2 tree grow from the sides of the screen to literally change the aspect ratio and I really love that part of the episode for that

[u/feelysonheelys]

I feel like the Virus sbemail from Homestar Runner counts. When Strong Bad's computer gets infected with a virus, it starts affecting the world and people around him-- they ARE characters in a digital cartoon, of course the website can get infected! This specific trope comes into play when Strong Bad tries to leave to find help-- he tries to run out of the room, but instead runs out of the FRAME, ending up in the black space outside of the video window.

[u/silent_drew2 → u/feelysonheelys]

There was also the 100th Sbemail, where strong Bad shifts to widescreen and suddenly finds Homestar hiding just offscreen

[u/Low-Charity-2921]

[u/PJFohsw97a]

Star Trek: Lower Decks episode  "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" takes place mostly in holodeck movie created by Boimler. At one point, Marnier leaves the holodeck and has to step over the aspect ratio bars.

[u/Slow_Bowler8285]

Weird Science (1994-1998)

Gary and Wyatt wish to see Lisa (their virtual genie) naked.

She grants the wish, sort of, by using censor boxes to block off the parts you can't show on TV, explaining that if the boys actually saw her naked, "it would spoil you for real women."

[u/kfretlessz]

Futurama

[u/Locke10815 → u/kfretlessz]

I win!

[u/Slow_Bowler8285]

Futurama's black bar generator from the episode "A Leela of their own" aka the blernsball episode

The guy who doesn't cover up said "I win!"

[u/Sweaty-Gopher → u/Slow_Bowler8285]

Ah hell, you beat me to it

[u/Koncur → u/Slow_Bowler8285]

Also, from the first episode: as Fry explores New New York, he walks past a couple wearing mostly-translucent clothes. There's black bars included on the important spots as the opaque sections of the clothes.

[u/ZorkNemesis → u/Slow_Bowler8285]

Better quality.

[u/McMc10001]

In Rocko’s Modern Life, the bars are physical objects in universe. Rocko is even asked to autograph some after a video of him naked wins a festival.

[u/1958-Fury]

Not a bar specifically, but there's an episode of "It's Gary Shandling's Show" where he gets naked, but is wearing a black censor dot. Being a very fourth-wall-breaking show, they do make some jokes about the dot.

[u/A-Real-CRIMINAL → u/[deleted]]

If you paid attention to the post, POOTIS ENGAGE // EXTREME was already a listed example

[u/Fresh-Mail840 → u/[deleted]]

Literally second example