http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadedDoubleEntendre

aka: If You Know What I Mean

Arthur Nudge, Monty Python's Flying Circus "Your wife. Is she a a goer? Eh? Know what I mean?"

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A character, after delivering a Double Entendre, adds a remark to their statement to ensure that the audience spots the hidden meaning. Alternatively, after hearing somebody else deliver a double entendre, appends it for them to much the same effect.

Typical phrases used for this purpose include:

See also Don't Explain the Joke. If the person didn't mean to make a double entendre but realizes it, they may say That Came Out Wrong. Has a distinct familiarity with Does This Remind You of Anything? and Intercourse with You. If the person being talked to still doesn't get it, see Entendre Failure. Compare Heh Heh, You Said "X".

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NOTE: This trope is about pointing out a Double Entendre. If you find a double entendre sinkholed to this article or one of its former titles, remove the sinkhole.

Use Euphemism Buster for when the Double Entendre is made clear.

heh, sink hole.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

The dark anime Paranoia Agent was not without its humor: Maniwa: For girls like her, who subconsciously act so fragile and sensitive, you have to be patient and treat her gently. Like the way you peel a ripe peach.

Ikari: So you wanna peel her peach?

Maniwa: Ya'know, women hate dirty jokes.

Comedy

George Carlin discussed sex in commercials, both subliminal and open back in the early 70s. He brought up the tagline for Tiparillo cigars: "Should a gentleman offer a lady a Tiparillo?" Carlin: "The big scene in the commercial is a train going into a tunnel. You don't have to be Fellini to figure that one out!"

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Comic Books

Finbarr Saunders of the controversial "adult" comic Viz was a parody of this. He would react to any even marginally suggestive line with spluttered laughs (written "Fnarr fnarr") eyeball rolling, nudges ("Eh? Eh?"), and silly catchphrases ("As the actress said to the bishop"), but would put innocent interpretations on the words of his mother and Mr Gimlet the lodger as they went off to have sex. Mrs. S: How about a little shag, Mr Gimlet?

Mr. G: Righto, Mrs. Saunders, I'll just get me pipe out.

Finbarr assumes she's offering him some tobacco.

Comic Strips

My Cage features a strip were Norm mentions to Rex that even though he wasn't able get a dinner reservation he and Bridget still have "plans" for the night (complete with ribbing and winking) Rex correctly guesses that said "plans" are eating mac and cheese in front of Heroes.

Boner's Ark, a strip with cartoon animals, had Dum-Dum the gorilla dating Priscilla Pig, always standing on the deck holding hands. Panel 1 [Hyena]: "Man, if I was dating Priscilla Pig I wouldn't just hold her hand!" [Dum-Dum]: "Really? What would you do?"

Panel 2 Hyena grins and nudges Dum-Dum in the ribs.

Panel 3 [that evening] Dum-Dum grins and nudges Priscilla in the ribs.

Fan Works

Films — Live-Action

Subverted in BASEketball, in which Baxter Cain repeatedly utters this line, but each time is referring to the purely literal meaning of the Double Entendre, rather than the lewd one. Baxter: My hallway could use a good buffing, if you know what I mean

Yvette: I think I know exactly what you mean

(cut to Yvette struggling to control an electric buffer in a hallway) Or it could be that his intended double entendre went right above Yvette's head. Nobody catching Cain's metaphors is one of the film's running jokes, after all.

The murder-mystery spoof Murder by Death: Twain: No, don't look at each other! Look at me! I?m the greatest! I'm number one!

Sam Diamond: To me, you look like number two. Know what I mean?

Dora Charleston: ... What does he mean, Miss Skeffington?

Miss Skeffington: I'll tell you later. It's disgusting.

In Spider-Man 3 with Eddie Brock/Venom and Mary Jane Venom : Oooh, my spider sense is tingling... if you know what I'm talking about.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Cormac McLaggen asks Ron if he can introduce him to Hermione, stating "I'd like to get to know her on a first name basis, know what I mean?"

In Shelter, Jeanne is concerned because her brother Zach has been surfing with Shaun, who's gay. She talks to Zach about it, saying: "I don't think that he's the best guy to be hanging out with all day half naked, if you know what I mean."

Easy A: Rosemary Penderghast: No, your father is as straight as they come. A little too straight, if you know what I mean, girlfriend. Olive Penderghast: I don't.

RoboCop (1987): "I got a date. Couple "models" comin' to my place. You know what I mean?"

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Scotty's smarmy talk about the Enterprise in Star Trek (2009) qualifies as a Nudge: Scotty: So, the Enterprise has had its maiden voyage, has it? She is one well-endowed lady. I'd like to get my hands on her "ample nacelles," if you pardon the engineering parlance...

Chinatown: Loach: What happened to your nose, Gittes? Somebody slammed a bedroom window on it?

Jake: Nope. Your wife got excited. She crossed her legs a little too quick, you understand what I mean pal?.

Combines with That Came Out Wrong in F/X 2. Brian Dennehy's cop character is explaining to a female character how to use a pistol. His lesson ends with, "And that's how you cock the sucker..." (*he realizes what he's just said*) "...in a manner of speaking."

Played with in the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Lolita. Humbert and Lolita turn up at a hotel and discover There Is Only One Bed. Claire Quilty overhears this and later corners Humbert with a long rambling conversation about his beautiful 'daughter' and how he'd love to have one like her, "you know what I mean". Humbert is unaware that Quilty is also a paedophile and so the conversation just leaves him disturbed and confused.

In Iron Man 2 when Pepper Potts states that Christine Everhart "did quite a spread on Tony", Tony Stark replies that "she wrote a story as well".

In Dr. Strangelove, Ambassador Sadeski gives President Muffley Premier Kissov's phone number when his line at the Kremlin could not be reached: Sadeski: You would never have reached him there, Mr. President. Premier Kissov is a man of the people but he is also a man, if you get my meaning.

Literature

"As the actress said to the bishop" is actually the Catch Phrase of the Gentleman Thief, The Saint. Occasionally he turned it around, using "...as the bishop said to the actress."

Oddly, since the author is American, in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, one character an android Jonas is fond of inserting "as x said to y" comments in his speech, although unlike most examples, they don't always have a bawdy connotation. Justified Trope, in that this habit reveals an important point about his background.

Jonas is fond of inserting "as x said to y" comments in his speech, although unlike most examples, they don't always have a bawdy connotation. Nanny Ogg quite often used double entendres (though, as the books note, hers were single entendres and proud of it.) "Just twist the first thing you can grab", as the High Priest said to the vestal virgin. Nanny Ogg's actions are occasionally described like this. For example, she often likes to sing about how fortunate the hedgehog is compared to an unbelievable number of other animals. While doing humorous gestures

Sam Weller of The Pickwick Papers has a Catch Phrase of "Wellerisms", all of which are of the "As the X said to the Y" type.

Total says this in Max, before walking away with Akila. Total: Gotta go. Timmy's in the well. If you know what I mean.

The Dresden Files: Harry and Thomas both occasionally point out double entendres uttered by themselves or by other people. Thomas: Heh. "Exposed".

American anthropologist Clifford Geertz actually pulled off several academic double entendres in his 1972 book, The Interpretation of Cultures. In chapter 15, which is all about cockfighting in Bali, Geertz makes an obvious double entendre, and lampshades it by saying that the double entendre is entirely intentional in Balinese culture. He then seemingly proceeds to pepper in as many cock-based double entendres as he can. For example, on page 418: But the intimacy of men with their cocks is more than metaphorical. Balinese men ... spend an enormous amount of time with their favorites, grooming them, feeding them, discussing them ... or just gazing at them with a mixture of rapt admiration and dreamy self-absorption.

Live-Action TV

Music

"Physical " by Olivia Newton-John. The music video adds either another layer of entendre (the first verse shows a bunch of built men working out with gym equipment wearing tiny briefs) or funny moments (the bulk of the song shows Olivia as the gym instructor to a group of very overweight guys) or both (Olivia returns to room of the skimpily-dressed muscle men, who all turn out to be gay).

" by Olivia Newton-John. The music video adds either another layer of entendre (the first verse shows a bunch of built men working out with gym equipment wearing tiny briefs) or funny moments (the bulk of the song shows Olivia as the gym instructor to a group of very overweight guys) or both (Olivia returns to room of the skimpily-dressed muscle men, who all turn out to be gay). "Love Sex Magic" by Ciara. "So let me drive my body around you / I bet you know what I mean"

Likewise, "Shut Up And Drive" by Rihanna. "Got you where you wanna go, if you know what I mean

Got a ride that's smoother than a limousine..."

Spinal Tap has a song called "Big Bottom," where a few blindingly obvious Double Entendres are punctuated with "You Know What I Mean!"

Stephen Lynch's song "If I Were Gay". "It's not that I don't care; I do / I just don't see myself in you / Another time, another scene / I'd be right behind you, if you know what I mean!

Peaches, when she bothers with double entendres instead of single ones. "'Cause I wanna take you downtown/Show you my thing..." "Don't you know it's supposed to feel better for boys..."

Right Said Fred, "I'm Too Sexy." "I'm a model, you know what I mean..."

"Oh Yeah" by Yello.

AC/DC: "See me ride out of the sunset, on your colour TV screen. Up for all that I can get, if you know what I mean." -T.N.T

The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There": "Well she was just seventeen / You know what I mean" Reportedly, this was unintentional: Paul McCartney just thought the original ("never a beauty queen") was a Painful Rhyme. And from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" there is this phrase which lead many people to believe that 'handholding' was a metaphor for something... saucier: "Yeah you've got that somethin/ I think you'll understand/ when I say that somethin'/ I wanna hold your hand

Wolfmother's "Woman" "She's a woman, (If)YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!"

"I'd Rather Be Lucky" by Brad Johner: "And your girlfriend can't keep her hands off you / If you know what I mean"

Ingrid Michaelson's "You and I" "Maybe I wanna do what bunnies do with you/ If you know what I mean."

Tone Loc's "Wild Thing": "Took her to the hotel/ She said, 'You're the king?'/ I said, 'Be my queen, if you know what I mean, and let us do the wild thing!'"

Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" "Mississippi queen, if you know what I mean"

"Take a Little Ride" by Jason Aldean: "I hope youre wearing those frayed out cut-offs/ Makes me want to get lost down in the moonlight/ Drop the tailgate down on a turn road/ Watch the corn grow, baby thats a good night/ Anyone from the heartland is gonna understand/ What Im talking about right now"

Legendary Bluesman Robert Johnson muttered a sly:"You know what I'm talkin' about" after the line: "You can squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg". The line was later appropriated by Led Zeppelin in "The Lemon Song"

George Strait's Cajun-flavored "Adalida" has this one: The way that you're lookin', you got me a-cookin' And I ain't talkin' 'bout étouffée

"Downtown " by Lady Antebellum.

" by Lady Antebellum. "Pontoon " by Little Big Town.

" by Little Big Town. "I'll Always Come Back" by K.T Oslin is about her bed buddy as it is revealed in the line "'Cause you've got the touch that turns me into a toy".

From Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley": Mr. Crowley

Won't you ride my white horse?

Mr. Crowley

It's symbolic, of course

Theater

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street contains the following discussion of what to do with a dead body. Note that the script manages to use "if you get it" as a non-sexual double-entendre: Mrs. Lovett: Think of it as thrift, as a gift, if you get my drift!

Todd: No.

Mrs. Lovett: Seems an awful waste... I mean, with the price of meat. What it is, when you get it, if you get it...

Todd: Ahh...

Mrs. Lovett: Good you got it. Think of it as thrift, as a gift, if you get my drift!No.Seems an awful waste... I mean, with the price of meat. What it is, when you get it, if you get it...Ahh...

The introduction to one translation of Aristophanes' plays gives an example of the difficulties a translator faces: jokes were made about people from the island of Salamis, because they had to row to the mainland, and the ancient Greek word for 'row' had a double meaning. Since modern audiences wouldn't pick up on this, the translators had to add a Lampshaded Double Entendre: "She's from Salamis, need I say more?"

Video Games

Web Animation

Homestar Runner: Parodied in the Strong Bad Email "lackey", when Strong Bad makes excessive use of quotation marks when describing, in increasingly explicit terms, why The Cheat is such a diligent lackey. Strong Bad: The Cheat is a good lackey because he "knows what's best" and "doesn't want to get left by the side of the road during a thunderstorm" or "taped to Pom-Pom again." It probably also has to do with the fact that I "treat him like a brother that's not Strong Sad" instead of a "little yellow squeaky thing that some-the-times steals my lady-types."

Red vs. Blue has Tucker and his catchphrase "bow-chika-bow-wow!" He'll say it in response to himself or someone else. Once, this causes him to be caught, when he and Church are spying on Carolina and Washington's conversation. After one too many phrases, Tucker can't help but say his catchphrase and nearly gets shot for his efforts.

YouTube Poop has used Hotel Mario's line "Get the hint?" for various purposes ranging from very subtle to completely blatant.

The G Mod Idiot Box episode 7's "Extenze" scene, with lines from an actual advertisement: Woman: What've you got there, honey?

Man: I ordered a male enhancement product. Called Extenze.

Woman: Male enhancement... You mean like building more muscles?

Man: No! You know, like... [ridiculous look on face] Male enhancement.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation