Simon Bar Sinister

Are you wondering where I could possibly be going with a character from the old Underdog cartoon? I should hope so, as I'm about to tell you.

Back when network censorship of TV programs was a real thing, writers and actors would try to get questionable material past the censors. Perhaps it was to make a point, perhaps only for giggles just to see what they could get away with. They certainly got away with something on that beloved kids cartoon. Surely neither kids nor adults caught the joke.

You see, a bar sinister is an imaginary symbol from family crests of medieval times. Apparently Sir Walter Raliegh came up with the term. It supposedly denoted that the person who had it on his crest was an illegitimate child. The developers of Underdog, then, managed to get past the watchful dragons a character called Simon the...well, you know.

It was rather clever, I must admit. The censors would definitely not have allowed it had they caught it.