Double Entendre - Television Tropes & Idioms

"If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

--Benny Hill, Groucho Marx, John Cleese, Black Mage, and many others

"I'd like to double her entendre!"

-- The Todd, Scrubs

"This girl walks into a bar & orders a Double Entendre. So the Bartender gives 'er one!"

One of the fundamental types of verbal gag in comedic television, especially the Sit Com.

A Double Entendre is a word or phrase which can be taken at least two different ways. Archetypically, one meaning is obvious, literal, and innocent. The other is usually sexual.

The Double Entendre's popularity in comedy stems from the fact that if you don't get it, you won't realize something dirty just happened. As a result, clever use of a Double Entendre can keep a show "family-friendly" by allowing children to appreciate the joke on one (non-sexual) level while adults enjoy it on another level.

On the other hand, if the Double Entendre fails to be funny on the obvious level, it can result in a show which is "safe" for broadcast in family time slots but which younger viewers do not enjoy.

British comedy is especially fond of the device, especially when the joke "works" on both levels.

When the viewer is specifically led toward the sexual meaning until The Reveal, this is an Innocent Innuendo. When the non-sexual meaning doesn't make any sense, this can constitute an Unusual Euphemism. When the sexual meaning has been lost due to language change, it's Get Thee To A Nunnery.

Sometimes coupled with a If You Know What I Mean. See also Getting Crap Past The Radar.

The Double Entendre predates television, of course. Shakespeare was very fond of this device as well. "Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters? What, shall I lie my head upon your lap?"

Examples: Too many to count, really.

Live Action TV

Two words: Allo Allo
Are You Being Served featured repeated jokes about Mrs. Slocombe's pussy (cat). The show in fact included an overwhelming number of double entendres, including a mild one right in the title.
Pee Wees Playhouse, which was ostensibly a children's show, thrived on subtle double entendres.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer featured a number of double entendres based around Kendra's pet name for her favorite stake, "Mr. Pointy".
Threes Company enjoyed a healthy dose.
Almost every television series starring Rik Mayall (The Young Ones) featured a number of double entendres every episode; in fact, the original intent of calling one series Bottom was to force double entendre on the viewers: "I saw that 'Bottom' on telly the other night -- no, wait, that's not what I meant." The original title of the show, "Your Bottom", made the double entendre even worse: "I saw Your Bottom on TV yesterday."
- There a bit of this within-show, as well:"Now can we just get our equipment out? I mean, get our tackle out... no, I mean, get our GEAR out! Oh my God, you can't say anything without some dreadful double entendre lurking round the corner!"
- Surprisingly, The New Statesman, for a Mayall series, is relatively free of double entendres, except for the lead character's name, Alan B'Stard. Maybe the rule regarding Mayall should be that he double-entendres himself to death in any role written by either himself or Ben Elton. His double-entendres as the various Lord Flashhearts on Black Adder are barely single entendres, and are the exemplars of this trope. 'Send a car. General Melchett's driver should do. She's used to hanging around with the big nobs so will be fine with a chap like me. Woof!'
Doctor Who, "The Doctor Dances": Dancing is used as a euphemism for sex, showing off the Doctor's problems with intimacy and Captain Jack's flexibility, among other things. In a rare visual double entendre, the Doctor literally slips Jack a banana. This is reused in "The Girl in the Fireplace", when Reinette asks the Doctor to dance with her. Notably, this episode also features the Doctor utilizing a banana. (He visits a really wild party, gets very drunk and may have invented the banana daiquiri.)
- Doctor Who also featured a number of "unintentional double entendres" where neither meaning was sexual. At least once an episode, someone would say, "There is no plot!", "We must act!", or similar phrases.
  - One of these showed up in The Non-Adventures of Wonderella as a kind of Lampshade Hanging. "And you can't let a bunch of talking dogs in space helmets ruin that. Because that just makes no sense."
Benny Hill built a career out of them.
A particularly transparent example from Friends involved a discussion between Chandler and a coworker about the inclusion of information from the "Weekly Estimated Net Usage Statistics" in the "Annual Net Usage Statistics" -- that is, the insertion of the WENUS into the ANUS.
CSI has these from time to time. For example, Sara saying, out of the blue "I've got crabs", with Gil looking at her funny, then she points at a piece of evidence she's examining, which has... crabs. (That was one of the ickiest episodes of all of CSI, which is famous for its levels of squick. Also one of the few with no B or C Corpses.)
In Scrubs, a character named Todd turns nearly everything said to him (or near him) into a double entendre, as in the quote, and another memorable example.
Patient: Doctor, I'm getting a little tired of the sexual innuendo.
Todd: In-your-endo.
Spin City would occasionally spend an entire episode leading up to an extended double entendre. For example, in this one, Carter is making a speech on prostitutes; unfortunately, Mike told him it was about libraries...
Carter: You walk past them every day, and you never even notice them. I say use them. Take advantage of them.
Reporter: Uh, Mr. Heywood, are you saying you've... used one?
Carter: Why yes, I was in one just this morning. In fact, I was having such a good time I found it hard to keep quiet.
Used completely unexpectedly in Brainiac, in an experiment to see which hat would hold up to the most punishment. After describing the hard hat, Vic Reeves turns to the camera and says, with a perfect poker-face, 'If you've ever had a hard on, you'll know it can be rock solid'.
- The "Professor Mayang Lee" (if she's a real professor, then I am very wrong) segments are full. Let's just say that she is rather large in a certain area and it involves fruit.
  - According to five seconds of Google research, she's played by Rachel Grant. So likely not a real professor.
Many questions on Match Game use this trope.
In one Beakmans World segment explaining rotational inertia, Beakman breaks out the Beakman Rotational Aerodynamic Thingies. Commence thingy-twirling jokes, and compound that with the fact that the girl wins...
A Monty Python sketch sees a Dirty Old Man go into a newsagents and interpret all of the adverts on the noticeboard as being adverts for prostitutes, eventually leading him to some truly ludicrous double entredres when he tries to get further details from the newsagent ("I'd like a bit of pram, please!"). Eventually, in frustration he demands the actual prostitute's advert, which is written in a fashion bluntly describing what is on offer (Sexy blonde prostitute, will perform all acts...) - and doesn't understand a word of it.
- Monty Python again, with the Wink Wink Nudge Nudge guy, who turns literally everything said to him into a double entendre, no matter how forced it is, and then tries to force a double entendre into everything he says. In the end, the character admits it's because he's never had sex and wonders what that's like.
The Ambiguously Gay Duo from Saturday Night Live is based on these, from the episode titles (such as "A Hard One to Swallow" and "First Served, First Come") to the dialog to their car.
The British children's TV show Rainbow: Holyshit. No, the episode was never broadcast, it was just a joke among the staff.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 explored this trope when the 'bots asked Joel why the actors in the moves were talking the way they were. Joel explained that by controlling the inflection of your voice you can make *anything* sound sexual. He went on to demonstrate with such phrases as "The Factory is still open, but they are making different stuff" or "Yep, My shoes are a little tight".
Sarah of lonelygirl15 often uses these. An example is her "vote Salinas" routine in "Casting Couch": "Hey, there. I was wondering if you'd be interested in hearing about a man named Edward Salinas. He's the man with the plan and it's a big one. Oh, it surely is! He wants to build a stronger community. The strongest, firmest, hardest community..."
The entire premise of Jack Of All Trades appears to be to string together as many puns and double entendres as possible.
Firefly includes some amusing examples. In the episode "War Stories," Jayne watches Inara kissing a female client--and right after he proclaims he's going to his bunk, Zoe orders him to "grab your weapon" for a potentially dangerous mission.
Seinfeld had almost a ton of these. The contest episode in particular.
Saturday Night Live has this in early Celebrity Jeopardy sketches, in which Sean Connery would turn the categories into these. For example...
Connery: I'll take the Penis Mightier for 400.
Trebek: That's "The Pen Is Mightier".
In The Office (English version) Tim and Dawn amuse themselves with a perfectly innocent conversation about armed combat with Gareth.
Tim: If a military man like you, a soldier, er, could you give a man a lethal blow?
Gareth: If I was forced to, I could. If it was absolutely necessary, if he was attacking me.
Tim: If he was coming, really hard?
Gareth: Yeah, if my life was in danger, yeah.
Tim: And do you imagine always doing it face to face with a bloke, or could you take a man from behind?
Gareth: Either way's easy.
Tim: So you could take a man from behind?
Gareth: Yeah.
Tim: Lovely.
The Thin Blue Line had what has to be one of the most egregious when Grim urges Fowler not to make any mistakes: "'cause you know what'll happen Raymond, don't you? It'll be your cock-up, my arse!"

Anime

Episode 4 of S-CRY-ed introduced George Tatsunami, an agent of HOLY who liked to brag about his Alter, a giant pink revolver called "Big Magnum", with almost every line about it an obvious Double Entendre: "It's big, it's thick, it's hard, and it's coming to get ya!"
FLCL is loaded with Double Entendres of all kinds, both verbal and visual (mainly the latter). You start to wonder if Freud Was Right after a while.
- Being as how FLCL is about adolescence and the Double Entendres drastically increase in quantity when there's a girl that Naota is attracted to around? Take a guess if they were intentional.
Lawrence and Horo tend to speak to eachother in these when they're teasing. Or when they're trying to trick someone.

Comic Books

Somewhat disturbing example: in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2, when Mina Murray learns that Hyde has taken care of the Invisible Man, he is quick to assure her that "I attended to his end. Rest assured, it was... comfortable." Being a proper Victorian lady, Mina takes comfort in this assurance of a painless death, not twigging for a second that this actually means that Hyde brutally sodomized the Invisible Man before beating him to death.
In The Sandman, a caption describes devil-turned-nightclub-owner Lucifer playing a medley of unreleased (fictional) Cole Porter songs that Porter only performed privately for friends, ending with "She Never Went Down on the Titanic." (Someone really needs to write the lyrics to that.)
Though almost certainly unintentional, rereading some old comics can have readers in gales of uncontrollable laughter, due to the slang of the day.
A storyline in Cable and Deadpool involved Deadpool's friend Weasel joining HYDRA under the very inspired name Penetrator (or, rather, Penetraitor). Predictably, this caused some choice dialogue.
Henchman 1: It seems... I don't know... provocative.
Henchman 2: In almost a... gratuitous fashion.
Penetrator: What? We're going to use the Penetrator to penetrate the warm, comfortable walls of mother earth! This machine will ram home our agenda! All will know HYDRA has thrust themselves into the very womb of civilization! What's gratuitous about that...?
- Later:
  Wolverine: ...so I can show the Penetrator here something long and hard -- and cold and sharp!
  Penetrator: Okay, I deserve the silly entendre, since I chose this name, but I really think you don't understand--
- And again:
  Deadpool: The Penetrator is my friend... ...Okay, wait, lemme try that again-- Weasel is my friend-- and he happens to be sheathed in a protective coating that allows him to safely penetrate things... Okay, wait, lemme try that again--
  Wolverine: Shut up!
"Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres" is a strip in Viz in which the title character laughs at various Double Entendre-sounding phrases exchanged between his mother and his neighbour. It always culminates in him realising it's all perfectly innocent, only for the last Double Entendre to actually have the sexual meaning and the strip to end with his mother and the neighbour shagging.

Film

Groucho Marx slipped them in whenever he thought he could get away with them on You Bet Your Life. Animal Crackers also gives him the line "We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren't developed," and has him present Margaret Dumont with a large wooden box. While describing it as "a magnificent chest" he accidentally points at her torso.
A The female cop in Hot Fuzz speaks almost entirely in these, quite intentionally.
Shrek's line "Do you think maybe he's compensating for something?", upon seeing Lord Faarquad's towering castle, could both be interpreted as Faarquad compensating for his height or...something else. Of course, "Lord Faarquad" itself sounds like something else entirely...
In the proud and dirty tradition of British comedy, Wallace And Gromit has some well-hidden but very deliberate double entendres. In ''Curse of the Wererabbit," the object of Wallace's affections steps behind two very large watermelons and sighs as she bemoans, "Victor just doesn't appreciate my produce." In another scene, Wallace finds himself suddenly naked, and quickly dons a cardboard box which reads "May Contain Nuts."
Three words: Bond. James Bond.
The song "Keep it Gay" from the musical remake of The Producers. Sung by the flamboyant director Roger De Bris and his equally flamboyant partner, who never explicitly mention homosexuality in the lyrics.
The song "Let's Duet" from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story turns several innocuous lines into double entendres by virtue of well-(or poorly-)timed pauses. Such as: "In my dreams, you're blowing me... some kisses." and "I just want to beat off... all my demons"
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "She's rich, she's beautiful, she's got huuuuge... tracts of land."

Literature

Nanny Ogg from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett enjoys using these, although according to Carpe Jugulum, hers are usually "single entendres, and proud of it". Then there's this gem:
"'S called the Vieux River."
"Yes?"
"Know what that means?"
"No."
"The Old (Masculine) River," said Nanny.
"Yes?"
"Words have sex in foreign parts," said Nanny hopefully.
Thursday Next villains have these in their names (Jack Schitt even gets lampshaded). As does Daphne Farquitt.

Western Animation

Animaniacs was infamous for this kind of humor, mostly courtesy of Yakko, who would frequently blow a kiss to the audience and go "Goodnight, everybody!" whenever someone else made a Double Entendre.
South Park: For a number of episodes, the main characters got a new teacher whose name was Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "Chokes-on-Dick"). Humorously, none of the otherwise dirty-minded main characters seem to have understood the joke, and have made fun of her by calling her things like "Ms. Choksonrocks" or "Ms. Makes-me-sick".
- The Movie was also called South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. If you don't get the entendre there, think about it for a while.
- Also, Chef's songs.
Rockos Modern Life was famous for the sheer amount of (very thinly veiled) double entendres it has employed. Some examples include the Show Within A Show "All Scottish Show" (as an acrostic), a fast food restaurant called The Chokey Chicken, a board game the characters play called Spank the Monkey, an eye doctor cupping one of Rocko's eyes in his hand and asking him to "cough, please", a ride operator at a carnival reading a magazine called "Playslug", immigrants from a country called "Ballzakk", a toy for dogs called "the Doggy-Style rides", and a banjo-playing coon saying menacingly "We're gonna make you squeal, piggy!" (He then proceeds to pull a pig from behind his back and tickle it with a feather, making it, in fact, squeal). All this from a show intended for elementary school children.
Danny Phantom is known for innocent lines of dialogue that could mean something... else. For example:
Danny: I couldn't sleep with my arch enemy in the guest room next to me.
Sam: My parents sleep in the bedroom next to me. It's not the same, but I can't sleep, either.
(and)
Sam: You'd scream, too, if you were stuck in a sleepover with [Paulina].
Danny: Actually, I kinda doubt that.
- Also from Danny Phantom:
  Sam: [dancing with Danny] Promise me you'll keep your pants up? (Danny's ghost powers had unintentionally made them fall down in front of Paulina.)
  Danny: I'll do my best!
- Also, watch the episode "Eye for an Eye" and just hear any insults between Vlad and Danny. Their words have a very Subtext feel to it and they say it so frequently it just borders on Foe Yay.
Beavis And Butthead have a special talent for finding double entredres in the most innocuous of statements - even if they have to isolate specific syllables within a word in order to do so, and even if the double entredre makes absolutely no sense or has absolutely no relevance to what's going on at all. And yet they sometimes fail to understand plainly spoken or shown sexual references, when that works better.
Van Driessen: ...There's a wonderful world out there when we find we don't need TV to entertain us.
Butt-Head: Huh huh huh. He said "anus."
In the TV cartoon The Flintstones, Wilma is pregnant, and needs to be taken to the hospital. Her husband Fred's neighbor Barney, follows along to help Fred get her into the hospital. Barney is, however, too aggressive moving her out of the car, and as a result, spins the revolving door so fast Fred is spun out, and across the street into a hotel. Arriving at the front desk, Fred, quite calmly states the truth, "I'm looking for my wife, she just came in here with my best friend." The clerk, nonplussed, simply says, "Look, we don't want any trouble here," to which Fred responds, "What kind of a hospital is this?" to which the clerk replies, "This is a hotel; the hospital is across the street."
Very useful in Getting Crap Past The Radar, as seen in this example from Transformers: Beast Wars:
Rattrap: So, where ya been, bird-dog?
Silverbolt: Scout patrol.
Rattrap: Oh, yeah, scouting the enemy. Find any new positions?
- If I recall correctly, that double entendre is acknowledged rather than something the writers tried to slip past, as Silverbolt punches Rattrap in response to that remark.
Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law: Ha ha HA! Phil Ken Sebben.
Ed Edd N Eddy occasionally dabbles in this. Like in the episode "Run For Your Ed", where Rolf is seen carting away a giant sausage and boasting "Rolf's giant wiener will fetch a pretty penny at the market".
The Looney Tunes Speedy Gonzales shorts feature a few of these, when the mice need to get Speedy's help and someone knows how to contact him...
Mouse 1: He know my sister!
Mouse 2: Speedy Gonzales knows eeeeeeeeverybody's sister...
The Spectacular Spider Man uses these for Getting Crap Past The Radar. For example, an approving Liz Allan admires Peter Parker and his Halloween costume by saying:
Liz Allan:"You can web me up anytime, Petey."
One interesting stretch of dialogue in Code Lyoko takes place between Ulrich and Odd as they're getting out of the shower (common bathroom at a boarding school, in case you're wondering), with Odd talking about Heidi, the last girl at Kadic he hasn't dated:
Odd: Hey, speaking of "hot chocolate," I finally got a date with Heidi.
Ulrich: Eh, you gonna give her your croissant?
- The writers were playing with the "croissant" jokes throughout the episode, but there was absolutely no way the hidden meaning of the last one was that well hidden.
Family Guy will usually do the old joke of a string of double entendres, followed by a plain-spoken line that makes it clearer than it ever had to be they weren't accidents. When they don't do this, the double entendres are borderline single anyway. In one episode, specifically about Peter's (heh heh) jealousy of Chris's enormous...Little Chris, he tries several stereotypical methods of compensating, most blatantly a red car with an unreasonably long and phallic hood. He then drives at an overpass saying, "Don't worry, baby, I'll be gentle", stops halfway through, reverses, goes forward again, and repeats. Then he 's met headlong by another vehicle, making his car as short as a Volkswagon. A bus drives by full of beautiful women pointing and giggling. So Yeah.
Avatar The Last Airbender: "Fruit tart" is regarded as something of a secret code, If You Know What I Mean, in Mai/Zuko circles, given the contexts in which they're mentioned.
- Also, when a guard is ordered to protect Mai, she replies with,"I don't need any protection." To which Zuko chuckles and replies, "Believe me she doesn't." Intentional or not, you will never hear that line the same again.
There's this show out there called I Got A Rocket! in which the protagonist, er, got a rocket for his birthday. No, seriously. And it won an Emmy, too. Seriously.

Video Games

Devil May Cry 4: "First, I whip it out!..."
- And from Devil May Cry 3 before that, the Monster Clown calls the Temen-ni-Gru tower a "thick shaft that causes women to shudder".
- Kyrie in Devil May Cry 4 made this troper blink with her "She yearns for your touch!" line to Nero, considering how sweet and chaste she comes off.
The Ace Attorney games feature their share of Double Entendres. In case 3 of Justice for All, a heavy bust of defendant Maximillion Galactica is used as a piece of evidence, which leads to Phoenix using the phrase "Max Galactica's ample bust" in the courtroom.
Ashe in Mega Man ZX Advent: "Now that your appetites are whet for booty..."

Web Comics

The definitive example, courtesy of Order Of The Stick.
Another webcomic example: It's Walky! based a small ARC around this, featuring the local Will They Or Wont They couple. This strip may just be a standing record for "Most Double Entendres in a a Single Strip"...
See Loserz, especially if the... working place of the protagonists is involved. As in this strip.

Music

The AC/DC song "Big Balls" is one unbroken double entendre - as evidenced by the song's name.
Bull Moose Jackson's Big Ten Inch Record (famously covered by Aerosmith) uses verse breaks to create double entendres:
But I really get her going
When I whip out my big 10 inch
...
record of a band that plays the blues...
"Things I'll Never Say" by Avril Lavine kinda plays on this too:
If I could say what I want to say
I'd say I want to blow you--away
and...
If I could say what I want to see
I want to see you go down--on one knee
The Queen song quoted at the top of this page is just one big Double Entendre from start to finish.
Similar to the Dewey Cox example, Bob and Tom have a song that goes "blow me... a kiss as you're leaving".
"Wanna B Ur Lovr" by Weird Al is made entirely of these, with a few just out there compliments thrown in. (Yugoslavian hands?)
Just look at the lyrics to "Today's Lesson" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: http://www.sweetslyrics.com/571027.Nick%20Cave%20-%20Today's%20Lesson%20.html
Songwriter Cole Porter was a master of the Double Entendre (as alluded to in one example above). His songs "Love For Sale" and "But In The Morning, No" were once banned from radio because of their heavy use of Double Entendre.
Rihanna's "Shut Up and Drive."
Chocolate Salty Balls by Chef.
The entire song Polka Dot Undies by Bowser and Blue.
And you probably already think I am full of
Vague innuendos and double-meanin' rhymes.
But I'll tell you that obscenity is all in your
Polka-dot undies!

Insert your double entendre here.

Being on Top really hits the spot.
Hope you don't mind being on the bottom.
In your head, replace any mention of the word sword, wand, pole, or staff in any media with the word penis. It's fun, try it! (spoiler-tagged for those easily offended)
- Changing the last letter of "wand" in quotes from Harry Potter has interesting results.
- Many lines in Star wars become incredibly funny if you replace a word with pants.
Staff Chick. If I didn't do it, someone else would.
After rereading this page, I realised it's gotten longer.
- You all were being very sloppy before I joined in. That being said, I realized some of your foreign ways of doing things aren't necessarily wrong, just different.
  - At least it's not a dirty, sticky mess.
A favourite game of this troper's friends is adding either "in my pants" or "in your pants" to the end of any sentence or song title. It produces minutes of fun (and searching through song lists) before we get bored and move onto some other game. Favourites include "Foreplay/Longtime", "Everytime We Touch", and "Lips of an Angel".
- xkcd plays with a variation on that theme here.
Heh-heh. Insert.
I Love being in the middle.
You're all nuts if you think I should just slide in a very hard, long stretch of innuendo, trying to force in a messy statement that is just hollow and slippery to grasp.
"Just in case my mom's going to be anal I'll see if I can shove my paintbrush in that crack." Yes, I actually said that while painting the fence.
Too tight for me! I'll cover your rear.
Did your teacher ever say to you, "It's the middle of June, David, take off that jacket! Your making me hot just looking at you!"?
- No, but this troper had an elderly old man for a teacher who would just say "jacket off!" heh heh heh
At first I had a hard time editing tropes, but It's not so bad, you just need to get a firm grasp on the material. Find an entry point, and work you're way in from there. Or even approach it from a different angle, sometimes that makes it easier.
This troper remember reading a sports section (The Local High School mascot is the Jackrabbits, the Girls teams are Lady Jacks). "Lady Jacks off to a great finish"
But I HATE being on the bottom!