Adult Humor

"Well I have to save my ass"

The Shrek movies are made for family audiences, and are meant to entertain adults just as much as children. As such, the movies contain a number of adult-oriented jokes meant to fly over kids' heads. This aspect is arguably what makes the series stand out from other animated films.

Films

Shrek

• The movie, more than its sequels, contains a decent amount of profanity compared to other family animated films. The words "damn", "ass" (as a pun) and "crap" are used on several occasions.
• When Shrek uses the storybook page as toilet paper, he says, "What a load of-" and is interrupted by the sound of the toilet flushing. Presumably he was going to say "What a load of s**t".
• When Seven Dwarfs place Snow White's coffin onto Shrek's table, he yells, "Dead broad off the table!". The word "broad" is an archaic term for a sexually promiscuous woman.
  • Additionally, when the Magic Mirror presents Snow White as a bachelorette to Lord Farquaad, he jokes that "although she lives with seven other men, she's not easy". The joke is that some people might think a single woman living with seven men (the Seven Dwarfs) is promiscuous.
• Lord Farquaad is thought to be a caricature of Michael Eisner, then-CEO of the Walt Disney Company and a subject of DreamWorks' then-CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg's (and the film's) ire due to Eisner's role in Katzenberg being forced out of Disney.
  • Farquaad's name is also believed to be a minced oath of the profane term "f**kwad". The film's producers have, at least officially, denied this, claiming that it is an inside joke about the quadrangles at Notre Dame University (the people nobody liked would be sent to the furthest "quad").
    • That said, Shrek and Fiona's first utterances of the name Farquaad has them having slight pauses before saying it, implying they were struggling to avoid using the similarly-sounding profane term.
  • His height is also thought to be a jab at the significant size difference between Eisner and Katzenberg (although in this case, it's Katzenberg applying his own short height towards Eisner in a subtle reference to Eisner referring to Katzenberg derisively as a midget in a memo).
• When Shrek sees how comically large Duloc Castle is, he asks Donkey, "Do you think maybe he's compensating for something?" Shrek is suggesting that Farquaad's castle is so big in order to make up for his small penis, but younger viewers might think he's making only fun of his height. This could however have double meaning, referring to both his height and genitals.
  • Shrek makes another joke about Farquaad's genitalia. Fiona insults Shrek by saying that he will "never measure up" to Farquaad's greatness, to which Shrek responds, "I'll let you do the 'measuring' when you see him tomorrow".
    • Immediately before this exchange, when Fiona asks what Farquaad looks like, Shrek and Donkey respectively reply, "Men of Farquaad's stature are in short supply" and, "I don't know, Shrek, there are those who think little of him" before laughing. Similar to the Duloc Castle joke, they are suggesting in a mocking manner that he is lacking in penis size.
  • When they see Duloc Castle in the distance, Donkey brings up Shrek's joke from earlier to Fiona. He seems to have figured out the joke and begins to tell her, "Shrek thinks Lord Farquaad's compensating for something, which I think means he has a really..." before Shrek cuts him off by stepping on his hoof. Presumably Donkey was going to say "small penis".
• During the song "Welcome to Duloc", the Duloc Dolls sing, "Please keep off of the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your... face!". During the phrase, the front row of dolls rotate to bend over and show their buttocks, implying that they were going to sing the word "ass" (which rhymes with "grass") instead of "face".
• After winning the tournament, Shrek tells the crowd, "I'm here till Thursday, try the veal." It is an old-timey reference to when nightclubs that comedians performed at would make most of their money from serving food. Thus the comedians would recommend their audience to eat more expensive food (like veal) so that they could get paid more. Later nightclubs became places that primarily serve alcohol, and some comedians would say phrases like "try the veal" ironically, which is what Shrek is doing here.
• Just prior to arriving at the general area of Dragon's Keep, Donkey groans in disgust and says "Shrek, was that you?" before telling him off, accusing him of farting in his direction due to a particular odor. Shrek then turns to Donkey and bluntly tells him that had he actually farted, Donkey would have instantly died from the exposure, before Shrek takes a whiff himself and realizes they were actually smelling Brimstone and they were closing in on the location, with Donkey still not believing him.
• When Shrek and Donkey first see the Dragon's Keep, Shrek says, "Sure it's big enough, but look at the location". He is jokingly treating the castle as if they were house shopping; it's a large piece of property, but it's located in a bad area.
• When rescuing Fiona, Shrek says, "I have to save my ass," with "ass" referring to Donkey. However, the phrase is also a vulgar way of saying "I have to save myself", ostensibly the meaning Fiona took away.
• When Dragon captures Donkey and brings him to the treasure room, he tells her he doesn't want to start an intimate relationship too soon, implying that Dragon wants to have sex with him.
  • When Shrek intends to rescue Donkey from Dragon, Dragon starts sucking on Donkey's tail. The camera angle and the motion of Dragon's head makes it look like she is giving Donkey fellatio.
  • Eventually, Shrek falls on top of Donkey, resulting in Dragon accidentally kissing Shrek's behind.
• While Shrek is sliding down a fallen stone pillar to escape Dragon, he panics when he sees a groove in the pillar up ahead. A snapping sound is heard, Shrek crosses his eyes, and he groans in pain when he reaches the bottom, implying his genitals got caught in the groove on the way down.
• Farquaad lays in bed and orders Mirror to show him the image of Fiona, who does so with an uncomfortable look. Farquaad's bed sheet subtly rises in front of him and he looks down with embarrassment, implying he had an erection.
• When Shrek awakes to see that Fiona is cooking eggs for him and Donkey, Donkey speaks while sleeping. His dialogue hints that he was having a sexual dream. In the Latin Spanish version of the film, during his dreams, he asks his partner to slick his ear and mount on his seat.
• Monsieur Hood sings "I like a little spice on a saucy little maid", followed by the Merrymen singing, "What he's basically saying is he likes to get..." Hood finishes the line with the rhyme "paid", despite the clear intention being "laid".
• Donkey comes back from getting the flowers and finds Fiona on top of Shrek, leading him to think they were planning on having sex. This is further supported by his line "Look, if you wanted to be alone, all you had to do was ask."
• While Shrek is denying his feelings for Fiona to Donkey, Donkey tells Shrek "Oh, come on, Shrek. Wake up and smell the pheromones. Just go on in and tell her how you feel.". The term "pheromones" refers to chemical messaging between animals. But it also refers to sexual attraction.
• When Lord Farquaad announces his plans to marry Fiona tomorrow, Fiona convinces him to marry that same day, to which he says "Oh, anxious are we?" Fiona wants to get married sooner because she doesn't want to reveal her ogre form, while it’s implied that Farquaad thinks it's because she can't wait to have sex with him.
• Shrek calls Donkey a "jackass" while they're fighting. The word means male donkey — which Donkey is — but it's also an insult that means a stupid, annoying individual - which Donkey is aswell.
• Shortly after the Dragon eats Farquaad, Donkey quips "Celebrity marriages, they never last do they?", referencing how marriages to various celebrity figures were notorious for being extremely short-lived, with divorce being something that tends to cause it to fall apart.
• While not in the actual film, the bonus ending, Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party featured a well-edited dirty joke. During Donkey's "Baby Got Back" segment, Dragon swatting Donkey with her tail while otherwise matching with the choreography of the lyrics and it cutting to Thelonius singing "Feelings...". This was because in the original verse for the song, the singer used the word "Sprung", alluding to getting an erection.

Shrek 2

• At the very beginning, as Prince Charming enters the castle, he ends up walking in on the Big Bad Wolf who is reading a magazine called "Pork Illustrated" which is a parody of Sports Illustrated magazines, that shows porn. If you look closely on the cover, you can see a pig in a bikini.
• When Shrek and Fiona are having a picnic at the beach, Fiona discards the chicken leg she intended to eat and jumps on top of Shrek, wanting to have sex with him on the beach, until she was washed ashore due to a mermaid taking her place.
• During the Fairy Godmother's song, she sings "They'll write your name on the bathroom wall / For a happy ever after give Fiona call". This is a reference to prostitutes writing their phone numbers in bathrooms for men to find.
  • Fairy Godmother's chauffeur Kyle lays down on the carriage and cracks his whip suggestively, alluding to a sexual fetish, and also spanks himself.
  • Godmother sings about all the ways that she can help Fiona win over a prince so that, "You and your prince can take a roll in the hay", a euphemism for having sex.
• When Shrek and Donkey fight Puss in Boots during his attempted assassination of them, the latter briefly kicks the former in the crotch in an attempt at hitting Puss. When Donkey asks if he missed, Shrek replies with some effort "No, you got 'em" sarcastically. While the line literally meant he hit Puss ultimately, its actual meaning is a reference to being hit in the groin.
• When Puss stomps on Donkey's hoof to get him to cry a teardrop for the Fairy Godmother's business card, Donkey mutters, "You little, hairy, litter-lickin' sack of...". Presumably, he was going to say the word "s**t".
• When Shrek, Donkey, and Puss enter the potions room of the Fairy Godmother's Cottage, one of the bottles of potions has a label that reads "Viagra", a medication typically used to treat erectile dysfunction.
• The Three Maidens relentlessly flirt with Shrek, now in human form, and offer to be his true love. One of them tells him, "I'll be true...enough", implying that she is promiscuous. Seeing that Shrek's clothes are too big for him, Donkey tells Shrek, "We need to get you out of your clothes". The maidens gasp in delight, as they all want to have sex with him.
• Outside the Poison Apple, two guards watch the Headless Horseman waving his arms around, indicating that he is drunk.
• There are major satirical allusions to corrupt actions from law enforcement during the K.N.I.G.H.T.S. sequence.
  • Shrek is being pepper milled while he is being held down, which is a visual reference to contemporary pepper spray.
  • While Donkey is being arrested by the guards, he accuses them of police brutality. Since Donkey's voice actor, Eddie Murphy, is African-American, this alludes to race-relations between African-Americans and law enforcement in the US- most notoriously with Rodney King.
  • Guards confiscate a dime bag of catnip from Puss' belt, which he denies owning. The situation mimics US police officers arresting someone for possessing marijuana, an illegal substance. Puss' voice actor, Antonio Banderas, being Hispanic, makes this further allude to the infamous spike in arrests of U.S. Hispanic citizens being accused of spearheading illegal drug use by then-president Ronald Reagan. A close inspection of the scene also has the catnip bag on the guard before the guard pins and confiscates the bag- implying that the guard planted it on Puss; a reference to how some arrests by the police were the result of them planting evidence of narcotics usage.
• Gingy reveals that Pinocchio is wearing women's underwear, which he continuously denies, leading to the conclusion that it is his fetish.

Shrek the Third

• When Donkey pulls out the bedspread from Shrek, he becomes scared and tells Shrek that he could consider to buy some pajamas, indicating that Shrek was naked, possibly because he had sex with Fiona last night.
• At the port, before departing in search of Arthur Pendragon, Puss tells a cat that she is the lady of his life, but later says the same to other cats, and many others arrive, until they can be heard shrieking, causing Puss to run away before getting into trouble. This is possibly implying that Puss is a womanizer.
• After Fiona tells Shrek that she is pregnant, Puss says to Shrek that he is now royally fucked, but the ship's horn sounds interrupt Puss.
• After Shrek awakens from his nightmare and asks himself how it all happened, Puss answers that when man has certain feelings for a woman, a powerful urge sweeps over him, to which Shrek says that he knows how it happened, remembering the instance in which he and Fiona had sex and conceived their children.
• At Worcestershire Academy, while Shrek, Donkey and Puss search Arthur Pendragon, two students exit from a carriage filled with smoke. One is holding a church censer, implying that they were using it to smoke.
• While trying to convince some students at Worcestershire Academy that Shrek was simply a guy in a realistic costume, Donkey proceeded to sell the act by kicking Shrek in the crotch- with Shrek saying it would have really hurt had his physical appearance not been a costume.
• Still at Worcestershire Academy, when Donkey emerges from the locker in which he was locked by some students, he is seen to carry on his back a sign saying "I Suck-eth", referencing the phrase "I Suck It", like saying that Donkey gave fellatio.
• When Prince Charming starts his attack with his army of villains at Far Far Away, two dwarfs change the letters of a shop that sold "Bootery", making the sign to say "Hooters". Hooters is a real-life restaurant known for its waitresses with lots of cleavage.
• At the island, when Artie and Shrek try to convince Merlin to send them to Far Far Away, Shrek tries to say that Merlin's robe doesn't cover his testicles, but Merlin interrupts him with his words.
• When arriving back at Far Far Away, Donkey (revealed to be in Puss's body) says, "I haven't been on a trip like that since college", implying he's taken LSD.
• When Fiona and the Princesses try to take the castle back from Prince Charming's clutches, Doris acts as a hooker to attract two guards before knocking them out.

Shrek Forever After

• When Shrek is changing Fergus's diaper, it appears that Fergus is urinating on his face, only to reveal that it was the fish taken out from the fish tank by Fergus who pressed it so that water came out of its mouth.
• Shrek and Fiona blow a raspberry on Fergus's ears, it's a reference to a blowjob, which is done when people have sex.
• In the alternate world, when Pinocchio decides to sign a contract with Rumpelstiltskin, he says that it's time to say goodbye to termites and hello to acne.
• In the alternate world, when Shrek is pinning down Donkey after escaping Rumpel's palace, Donkey screams "Animal cruelty help!!" and, "I'm being ass-napped!"
• After Shrek arranges the "True Love's Kiss" message, Donkey says "You're gonna have to take me to dinner, first." Donkey thinks that Shrek is in a gay relationship with him.
• In the alternate world, when Cookie the Ogre attempts to cook Donkey for dinner, Shrek convinces him to not do so, with Donkey adding that he could enter easily into his mouth, but his exit could be hard.
• In the alternate world, Fiona asks Shrek how he found her and the ogre resistance, so he says that his donkey fell in her waffle hole. This could be seen as a pervy euphemism referencing anal sex.
• In the alternate world, Shrek tries to convince Fiona in her tent after meeting the fat Puss in Boots that the only way to save Far Far Away is kissing him. Before Fiona kicks Shrek out of her tent, Shrek asks if he sees a mistletoe- referencing the tradition to have a man kissing a woman under mistletoe on Christmas.
• In the alternate world, Donkey, at one point, calls Gingerbread Man, "cracker." This alludes to a slur used by black people against white people.

Puss in Boots

• In the opening, Puss wakes up and we see a female cat right next to him in bed. He is also seen putting on his belt upon getting up, suggesting that they had sex the previous night, although this is incorrect as Puss was only sweet talking to the cat as he wouldn't be as low doing that.
• When Raoul is showing off his crude tattoos detailing the legend of the Golden Goose, he prepares to show Puss the "golden eggs." Puss yells at him to not show him right after Raoul prepares to unzip, implying that the eggs are tattooed on his genitals.
• When Puss, Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws find the golden eggs in the Giant's Castle, Humpty rolls down and hits one of the golden eggs. He goes cross-eyed and falls down, indicating he had his groin injured upon contact.
• Puss explains the catnip among his personal effects as being for his glaucoma, a reference to medical marijuana use.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

• Puss refuses to have his temperature taken when the doctor is about to insert the thermometer into the cat's rear end.
• When Death manages to cut Puss' forehead slightly with his sickle, Puss begins to bleed down his forehead.
• Puss asks if he said something salty after his first statement to the rest of Mama Luna’s cats.
• Puss says the word "hell" while talking to Perrito.
• While Perrito is listing down the names that he has been called, one of those names in particular turns out to be "s**t for brains", only the word has been bleeped out.
• While smelling the roses at Pocket Full of Posies, Kitty express her disinterested by saying "All I smell is bull..." but is cut off by Perrito saying, "Shh!" before she got to finish. This is obviously implying that she was going to say "All I smell is bulls**t."
• Perrito is cursing out Goldilocks and the three bears while being captured. All six curses are bleeped for comedic effect.
• When Horner recounts his childhood to the ethical bug, he bemoans that everything he had was "useless crap".
• When Horner grows into a giant, he says "I was worried for a second I would come out naked".
• When Puss beats Death, Death rants something in Spanish. If translated in English, he actually said "Why the hell did I go play with my food?"