Editing You Can't Do That on Television (section)

== Water, slime and pies ==
Affectionately called "stage pollution" by the cast and crew, certain [[Keyword (linguistics)|keywords]] resulted in cast members having unpleasant substances poured onto them from above, or thrown at them from off camera.

=== Water ===
When someone said the word "[[wikt:water|water]]", "[[wikt:wash|wash]]" or "[[wikt:wet|wet]]", a large amount of cold [[water]] would fall onto them from above. In the earlier years of the show, cast members (especially Christine) were doused pails of water, but starting in 1981, the water would fall from above. By the 1984 season, only the word "water" led to a dousing, whereas in earlier seasons, the words "wet" and "H2O" also did. On occasion, cast members tried to dodge the water by saying "''agua''" (Spanish), ''"Wasser"'' (German) or "''eau''" (French) instead, only to be soaked anyway. In one episode, characters rehearse a sketch in a made-up foreign language; one of the made-up words is "pingle-ding" which apparently means "water", as the kid who says "pingle-ding" gets drenched (twice).

While the show's green slime changed ingredients and even consistencies, frequently, the water was almost always the same. Occasionally, cast members were doused with variations such as soapy, hot, brown, toilet, or yellow polluted water.

=== Slime ===
When someone said, "I don't know," green [[Gunge|slime]] would pour down on them from above. This type of prank was known as being "slimed," and it became one of the show's most notable elements. As with waterings, the sliming gag was used in almost every episode, especially from 1982 onward. According to writer-director Geoffrey Darby, the slime gave the kids a "comeuppance", so that they wouldn't appear arrogant.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=April 05 |first1=Amy Wilkinson |last2=EDT |first2=2017 at 02:09 PM |title=What They Really Couldn't Do on Nickelodeon's 'You Can't Do That on Television' |url=https://ew.com/tv/2017/04/05/you-cant-do-that-on-television-nickelodeon/ |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref>

Green slime was a fixture of the series from the very beginning, appearing in the show's first episode. In the book ''Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age'', Darby stated that the original slime developed "by accident"; Darby had originally planned for a bucket of food leftovers from the CJOH [[cafeteria]], with water added, to be dumped on Tim, but the production of that first episode was delayed by a week. When the time came to shoot the scene, the contents of the bucket had turned green with mold. Darby authorized the mixture to be dumped on Tim anyway. Roger Price was furious, but the response from the viewing audience was positive, so Darby and Price wrote an entire 1979 show about the slime<ref>Klickstein, Mathew. ''Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age''. Plume, 2013, pp. 55–56.</ref> ("The Green Slime Show") in which Lisa Ruddy is the victim of six slimings (a ''YCDTOTV'' record). With that episode, the use of "I don't know" as the slime's trigger phrase was introduced, and it quickly became the show's trademark gag.

Most of the cast did not like getting slimed (Christine McGlade said it was "gross and challenging"<ref>Klickstein, Mathew. ''Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age''. Plume, 2013, pp. 56.</ref>), and on occasion, they tried to avoid saying "I don't know." This usually backfired, as in the "Computers" episode when McGlade said "insufficient data" instead of "I don't know" and got green slime dumped on her anyway, since, as it was explained by Lisa Ruddy who was with McGlade at the time, the slime for that episode was computer-controlled. Some variations of the magic words also triggered the slime, such as in the "Blame" episode when the entire cast got slimed together after one of them said, "we don't know."

Although the slime was usually green, other colors, such as red, blue, yellow and even black and white, were occasionally used. 1981's "Safety First" episode, which featured white slime as part of a recurring joke in about "wearing white at night," was the first episode known to have used a slime color other than green. Lisa got slimed with white slime after saying "I really don't know". In the 1982 episode "Television," Christine is slimed in green, red, blue, yellow and "stripes" (green, red, blue and yellow at once) while trying to explain about green slime to newcomer Vanessa Lindores. (McGlade had the slime washed out by mentioning to Vanessa that it usually comes out with water, and then got dumped on with water.) This sketch was later seen in the opening to the 1987 thriller film ''[[Fatal Attraction]]''. In one of the show's crueler pranks, Ross (Les Lye) tricks Christine into getting dumped with a thicker, chunkier blue slime. The 1986 "Enemies and Paranoia" episode used the word "freedom" as a trigger phrase for red slime after the studio was taken over by [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Russian]] [[Communism|communists]]. Other instances of slime colors other than green include orange slime in the "Myths" episode, brown slime in the "Cosmetics" episode and black slime in the "Time" episode.

The recipe for green slime originally consisted of rotten food. However, after continued complaints from the cast about the hazardous ingredients, the recipe was changed to a mixture of lime-green [[gelatin dessert|gelatin]] powder, [[oatmeal]] and water.<ref>Klickstein, Mathew. ''Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age''. Plume, 2013, pp. 57.</ref> Eventually [[baby shampoo]] was added so that it the slime would wash out of the actors' hair more easily after several of the female cast members complained. In the "Television" episode, Christine reveals the ingredients as water, gelatin powder, flour and soap. In later years, the recipe consisted simply of green food coloring and cottage cheese, though it spoiled if left too long under hot studio lights.<ref>Klickstein, Mathew. ''Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age''. Plume, 2013, p. 53.</ref>

Especially in the later years of the show, cast members who were slimed frequently looked upward into the slime as it was falling so that it covered their faces (the same was also true of the waterings). To avoid damage to the set from water or slime, a clear tarpaulin was laid on the floor, which can occasionally be seen and/or heard underneath the actors, and the loud splatter sound usually heard during a watering or sliming is that of the liquid hitting the tarpaulin. Actors to be slimed or soaked usually appeared barefoot in the scene, and several cast members who were slimed were reportedly paid extra. Scenes involving slimings were the final ones taped during a recording, allowing the actors to immediately rinse after the scene without causing delays.

Green slime grew to become a trademark image for Nickelodeon, and the network demanded more slimings on the show as the years went on, resulting in episodes such as 1985's "Movies" in which the entire cast (save for Abby Hagyard) is slimed. Nickelodeon later introduced green slime shampoo, which was a frequent parting gift on its game show ''[[Double Dare (1986 game show)|Double Dare]]'', on which slime was heavily used. [[Mattel]] sold Nickelodeon slime and the Gak brand in the 1990s. Slime was also frequently used in the network's advertisements featuring ''YCDTOTV'' cast members as victims of an impromptu sliming. Nickelodeon's former studios in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] had a green slime geyser. The network continues to use green slime during its annual [[Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards|Kids' Choice Awards]] and [[NFL on Nickelodeon|coverage]] of the [[National Football League]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Slime Zone is awesome |url=https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/nickelodeons-slime-zone-bears-saints-broadcast-amazing |access-date=July 30, 2021 |website=[[NBC Sports Chicago]]|date=January 10, 2021 }}</ref>

=== Pies ===
The original slapstick [[Pieing|pie-in-the-face]] gag was also frequently used on ''YCDTOTV'', although pie scenes were most common during the early years of the show. One whole episode, 1981's ''Drugs'', was constructed completely around the pie-in-the-face gag. To avoid the wrath of the censors, the episode showed the cast getting "high" by pieing themselves continuously, comparing the stupidity of hitting oneself with a pie to that of taking drugs. Unlike the slime and water, pies were not usually triggered by any certain word or trigger phrase, although in the earlier years, saying "let me have it" or "give it to me" would frequently result in a pieing.