Dexter's Lab Episode "Rude Removal" (Unaired 1997 Episode)

"Rude Removal" is a once-lost short that was set to air on "Dexter's Laboratory" but was promptly pulled by Cartoon Network due to its content. It was produced in 1997, and there are reports of people who had seen the short at conventions back in 1998.

The episode involves Dexter inventing a device to remove the rudeness from people, but it backfires when it splits Dexter and Dee-Dee into both rude and nice versions of themselves. The rude versions swore in the short, and even though it was censored, Cartoon Network believed it was still too inappropriate.

The short's validity was questioned for a while, until Craig McCracken reported online that he had storyboarded the episode, and that it did indeed exist. This was re-confirmed by Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of the show), who, in a 2012 Reddit IAmA, stated that the short indeed does exist in its complete form, and that he would bring it to his next public appearance. When asked if the short might find its way online, he replied "it might".

After Tartakovsky's Reddit AMA, Adult Swim aired bumps regarding the episode, stating that they had plans to try and get it on the air. Months passed, until November 30th, when Adult Swim sent out a tweet asking if there was still interest in the the episode, to which many have replied favourably, indicating that Adult Swim did have intentions to air the episode at some point. They then confirmed, through a bump, that they did indeed have the episode, and that they would put it online "in the next week or so". 6 weeks passed, and many believed Adult Swim to have been lying about ever having the episode at all. However...

On the 21st of January, 2013, Adult Swim posted the title card for the episode on their Twitter account, along with a statement saying that Rude Removal would be uploaded the following day, sometime in the afternoon. At around 1PM (Atlanta time) on January 22nd, Adult Swim sent out a final tweet that simply stated "With love, from Adult Swim" and contained a YouTube link to the episode (and there was much rejoicing).

UPDATE 10 Feb: The YouTube link has been made private for some reason. You can still watch Rude Removal here.