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''Your wife. Is she a... a goer? Eh? Know what I mean?"

"Now who wants to go swimming in my pool? And by pool, I mean bathtub. And by swimming, I mean SEX!"

Subversion of the Double Entendre. Classically, a Double Entendre is used because the people who shouldn't be exposed to the content won't even notice it's there. If You Know What I Mean is a follow-up to a Double Entendre used to ensure that the audience "gets" that it's there.

This can either be because the writer thinks that the audience is very stupid, or because the character is.

Typical phrases used this way include "That's what she said," (British variant - "...as the actress said to the bishop," apparently the punchline of a joke long since lost to the mists of time), "Hee hee, you said '<insert Double Entendre here>'," and, of course, "If you know what I mean." sometimes plus "-and I think you do." British viewers and Monty Python fans may know this best as "Wink-wink nudge-nudge say no more."

See also Dont Explain The Joke.

If the person being talked to doesn't know what you mean, it becomes Entendre Failure.

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Examples:

• Beavis And Butthead would go into hysterics over any use of the word "wood", "hard", or the like. You can imagine the conversations they had in the movie when they visited the petrified forest.
• Family Guy occasionally features characters wandering completely off subject to point out a double entendre to anyone nearby (such as the fact that the lead character's name is "Peter"). And let's not forget this exchange when Peter and Brian are assembling a crib:
  Brian: Okay, now just insert support rod "A" into slot "B".
  Peter: That's what she s-
  Brian: If you say "that's what she said" again, I'm going to pop you!
  • Or for that matter....
    Quagmire: That is one also sexual.
• 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.
• King Of The Hill once featured a (villainous, as far as the show has villains) character who would insert, "That's what she said" in response to anything that could even remotely be considered a Double Entendre.
• The "Nudge, Nudge" sketch from Monty Python is, as the quote above indicates, one of the most famous examples of this gag.
• The Frantics' "Dirty Words" sketch, in which a man does this with neutral words from newspaper headlines.
  Dirty Words Man: Areas!
  Man Reading Newspaper: That's not a dirty word.
  Dirty Words Man: It is if you say it right.
  • It is if you're a Bowie fan. Then again, that's Area. There can be only one!
• On Friends it was a running gag that when Joey said something raunchy, he'd follow up with an explanation in case the others didn't catch his meaning, which they always did. Once he said, "If you know what I mean," to which Monica replied, "Joey? We always know what you mean."
• Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends: Bloo tells Mac that one of the games going on during a wild house party is "Ring around the Rosey, if you know what I mean". Mac says he doesn't know, Bloo admits that he doesn't either. A conjoined trope with Parental Bonus.
• Subverted in the film 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.
• An entire game on Whose Line Is It Anyway, using the trope name, is devoted to If You Know What I Mean jokes. It features the performers turning every single line into a double entendre by ending every sentence literally with, "If you know what I mean." The game's comedic value comes from the players thinking up ever more elaborate metaphors.
  • Some people do this in real life (cough cough).
    • ...if you know what I mean.
• In an episode of NewsRadio, Bill hastily informs Dave of Lisa's potential sexual endeavors using a euphemism. Dave, who was no longer dating Lisa, doesn't have a strong reaction to the news, which causes Bill and Mr. James to assume he didn't catch the euphemism:
  Bill: You know what that means, don't you?
  Dave: Yes.
  Mr. James: That means sex.
  Dave: I know.
• In Scrubs, Todd, who commonly uses the Double Entendre, will also use more obvious references, such as the classic "That's what she said!" or when a character (usually female) mentions they're looking for something, he'll pop up and say "I got your 'object sought for' right here!" and motion to his crotch. He'll also explain his references from time to time.
• Speaking of "Wink wink nudge nudge say no more" one of the Might and Magic games went just a few steps farther, with a thieves guild saying "wink wink nudge nudge casual looks and glances, need I say more, know what I mean know what I mean?"
• The dark anime Paranoia Agent was not without its humor:
  Maniwa: For women like her, who subconsciously act repressed, you have to have patience and delicacy. Like peeling a ripe apple.
  Ikari : So you wanna peel her apple?
  Maniwa: Ya'know, women hate dirty jokes.
• Yu-Gi-OhTheAbridgedSeries:
  Joey: "Man, that is one girl I'd like to play card games with. And by "play card games" I mean have sex."
  • The "And by X, I mean Y" delivery could be a Clone High homage.
  • This trope was spoofed in The Abridged Movie. Joey's standing in the way of Yugi, who says "Joey, get your ass out of my face!" Joey comes back with "Yeah, that's what she said." Doesn't quite work, does it?
• Michael Scott, of the US version of The Office, frequently adds "that's what she said" to statements. In the episode Dunder Mifflin Infinity, it was revealed that he keeps a list of things he can say just to be able to add those four words.
  Pam: "That job looks hard." "You should put your mouth on that." How can you even use that one naturally?
  Michael: Blowing up balloons, I thought.
• Seen in this xkcd strip.
  • And taken to its logical conclusion here.
  • Inverted here, where she actually said it. "It" being a request for sex.
• Penny Arcade uses this a lot, but in particular exemplified by their recurring newscaster, Randy Pinkwood (whose name in its own right is not so much a Double Entendre as a single one).
  "I don't know whether she was serious [about Communism], but she certainly seized the means of production, if you know what I'm talking about. And I think you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about my penis."
• Pick a Phil Ken Sebben scene in Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law. "Ha ha! Dangly parts!", "Ha ha! Not to Scale!", "Ha ha! Multiple entendre." etc...
• Clone High's JFK provides us with many such examples, in addition to the page quote.
  • "Some of us are trying to nail Catharine the Great. And by great, I mean SO-SO!"
  • "Don't worry, Cleo. I can help you stay up all night long. Notice how I accentuated the words "up" and "long". Now let's bone up for the PXJT test. Guess what the P stands for? PENIS!"
• Many on this wiki alone.
• Sweeney Todd 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 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.

• The webcomic "Stuff Sucks" had this. "I think she wants to be his buddy. (short pause) His sex buddy. (short pause) If you know what I mean."
• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:

  Captain Hammer: [*raises fists*] And these are not The Hammer. [*exits*] [*returns*] The Hammer is my penis.

• 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.

• "As the actress said to the bishop" is actually the Catch Phrase of the Gentleman Thief, The Saint.
• Oddly, since the author is American, in Gene Wolfe's The 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.

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