Capping a pen with one eye closed: harder than it looks?
Any situation which is made, sometimes for comic effect, to look like another situation — not in the sense that it is
mistaken for that other situation by any of the characters, just in the sense that we the audience see the resemblance. The characters do not.
This sort of situation can lead to a
Three Is Company plot if some other character hears it out of context.
Alternatively it can refer to an
ersatz of something more familiar that the audience would immediately recognize in subtext in order to make it look less
Anvilicious. Doesn't always succeed in fulfilling the latter. Doesn't always have to mean anything sexual.
If unintentionally done:
Looks Like She Is Enjoying It
If you see "it" everywhere:
Freud Was Right
See also
Did They or Didn't They?,
Erotic Eating,
Fantastic Racism,
Space Jews,
G-Rated Sex,
Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?,
I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin,
Lampshaded Double Entendre,
No Blood For Phlebotinum,
A Nazi by Any Other Name,
Double Entendre and
Innocent Innuendo.
Not to Be Confused with Ironic Echo, which can easily use this trope's title as a
Lampshade Hanging.
Examples
