"Stop digging."

[Garson O'Toole]

Victor Steinbok wrote
>  It does not sound like "intermediate"--more likely euphemistic, as
> PBDN was a "polite" paper.

I agree, Victor, that the phrase "trouble up to your neck" might have
been constructed as a euphemistic description of the situation in the
scatological joke.

The 1941 citation given in the Yale Book of Quotations for "Don't make
waves" appears in a nationally distributed newspaper column called
"Baering Down On the News" by Arthur "Bugs" Baer. The 1939 cite I
mentioned above was written by the same columnist, and he may have
been important in popularizing the sanitized scenario and phrase.

Cite: 1941 January 6, The Washington Post Baering Down On the News by
Arthur "Bugs" Baer, [Distributed by International News Service], Page
17, Column 4, Washington, D.C.

I still follow my old formula for not aggravating the inevitable. When
you are in trouble to your neck don't make waves.

Cite: 1939 February 2, Palm Beach Daily News, Baering Down On the News
by Arthur "Bugs" Baer, Page 1, Column 2, Palm Beach, Florida. (Google
News Archive)

Here's a little thing we learned that the boys over there might use.
When you're in trouble up to your neck don't make waves.

Of course, there are also many examples where making waves and making
a splash is depicted positively.
Garson

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