Oh, and of course you can make it a little less bleepy like so:

        (my $bloop = $bad) =~ s/(?<=\w{2})\w/\*/sg;
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...which I think makes it more legible:

"Cr**," said Travis.  But then, Travis was
always something of a po**y-head.  He could
never keep to his da**ed self.  Da** it Travis!
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