



A British idiom, said the actress to the bishop is a one-line joke, or punchline, which changes whatever has been said before it into an innuendo (i.e., it makes the previous dialogue vulgar or lewd). It is seen as especially funny if the previous dialogue was innocent in character. A variation is as the actress said to the bishop. This variation was used on a popular British television show, The Office. When that show was adapted for American audiences the idiom was changed to that’s what she said. The connection between the two phrases is unclear however, whether they both developed independently or if one influenced the other (of course the British version has been around longer). The






The phrase can be seen as derogatory toward women since there is no masculine version.