This And That - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): This Or That

There was a young woman named Pat,

Who offered to do this or that.

When speaking of "this,"

She meant more than a kiss,

So imagine her meaning of "that!"

Rough English translation of "sorekore" (それこれ), a Japanese euphemism for sexual activity. Approximate equivalent of the English expression "doing you-know-what."

Along the same lines, sexual intercourse is sometimes referred to as "doing that thing." Of course, given that Japanese is what linguists call a pro-drop language (meaning they can drop pronouns and still have what's considered a grammatically-correct sentence), "that thing" could also refer to just about anything else.

For examples of other euphemisms for sex, see Intercourse With You.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Washuu announces to the world at large that Ryoko wants to do "this and that" with Tenchi in Tenchi Muyo. In another episode, Ayeka worries about Ryoko "doing this and doing that" with Tenchi.
The student council in Mai-HiME briefly discusses a curfew-breaking female student who may have been doing "this or that" with a boy in one episode; one of the council members is apparently unfamiliar with the usage and takes a while to piece together just what the others are talking about.
In Mai-Otome, a schoolgirl envisioning the lascivious things an older girl could order a classmate to do squeals about "this or that".
In episode 8 of the new TV version of Ah My Goddess, Urd (on a videotaped "instruction guide for the lovelorn") promises to explain how to do "this and that" with a girl. In episode 12, Sayoko accuses Mara of doing "this and that" to her on waking up next to her.
Gokujou Seitokai uses a variant, in the Unusual Euphemism paya-paya, which sounds just lascivious enough almost no one actually understands what it means.
Haru threatens to do 'this, and a little bit of this, and maybe even some of that' to Tohru in Fruits Basket in order to get Kyo mad enough to fight him all out.
In Nodame Cantabile, Stresemann offers to take the naive titular character to a hotel, where he can show her 'this and that'. When she asks what 'this and that' is, he replies 'Something you probably don't know about yet, Nodame-chan.' Chiaki, still within earshot, gets it and intervenes before Nodame can agree.
In the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga, Lucia is giving one of several love confessions gone wrong, and Kaito jokes about "this and that", causing Lucia to yell at him while he laughs it off. It's a major turning point in the relationship, where Lucia is able to finally blink, look at him and start laughing too, where before she'd continue to take Kaito's perverted jokes personally.
- Elsewhere in the series, it's Covert Pervert Hanon's favourite saying when she wants to tease Lucia about her relationship.
In FLCL, Naota's father uses Fooly Cooly (the title/Arc Words of the series) as an Unusual Euphemism for an ill-defined perverted sexual activity.
In Inu Yasha, when Miroku and Sango go off alone to investigate a mountain, Shippo expresses concerns over "this and that and this".
In the manga version of Pretear, Yayoi muses about "doing this and that" after Himeno says that she can't sleep because the Leafe Knights stay in her room at night to guard her. Himeno tells her they don't; what really happens is actually far less romantic...
Midori dreams about being Seiji's wife and ends it with "Then we'd do this and that"...
FAKE has Dee imagining what he and Ryo could do together on Christmas eve. "We could have done this... and this... and maybe some of that..."
Tsuyuri from Doujin Work suggests that Najimi and Houshi might have done "this and that... and this ... and maybe that" in a love hotel, only to watch Justice squirm in despair.
A lot of "this" and a lot of "that" are exactly what Aizen Teppa from Grenadier tries to get. He's apparently quite successful too (Episodes 11 and 12 show that he's quite popular among the ladies of the town)...except when it comes to his good friend, Rushuna.
The H-Game of Da Capo has summaries of the individual scenes in the game. For the H scenes, the summary is sometimes pretty straightforward - "We had sex" - but other times it's rather more coy, "We did this and that".
Mutsumi asks if Naru and Keitaro are going to do "This and That" during Volume 10 of the Love Hina manga.
In the Yami No Matsuei manga, Watari convinces Tsuzuki to try one of his prototype gender-changing potions by telling him that if he were female, he could do this and that and it'd all be okay.
CLANNAD (game): Kyou is talking to Tomoya about giving a love letter from the soccer captain to Ryou: "If she becomes his girlfriend and since you're a guy, you wouldn't be able to do this and that to her." Not following you there, Kyou...
Gintama has ninja Ayame Sarutobi (Sa-chan) frequently referring to "this-and-that" in her deluded fantasies over her 'relationship' with Gintoki, and the term's also used by several other characters.
Junjou Romantica has Usagi-san using this euphemism when talking about what he and Misaki get up to when they're together.
Used in the second One Piece movie, where the mooks that are about to kidnap Nami so the Big Bad can forcibly marry her say out loud that they hope they'll be able to watch their boss do "this" and "that" to her. The horrified looks on the crew's faces when they hear them are priceless.