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alt title(s): Sammys Glass Eye "Suppose you're carefully warned not to mention Bill Fields' nose. You keep repeating that to yourself 'Don't mention the nose.' The words, eventually, fail to make sense. If you met Fields, you'd probably say, quite unconsciously, 'Hello, Mr. Nose.' See?" — Professor Rutherford, Nothing but Gingerbread Left
Now, Mr. Davis, do you take cream and sugar in your eye?
The cast is about to meet an important person with a peculiarity or disability, such as a wooden leg or an extraordinarily large nose. One of the cast who is in a position of authority exhorts the others not to comment on the guest's unusual feature, lest the guest take it as an insult.
When the guest arrives, some member or members of the cast — usually children or ditzes — come close to commenting, but to the relief of the exhorting character they say nothing. But as soon as they are out of sight the character then turns to the guest and blurts a Freudian Slip that delivers the very insult he was afraid the others would give.
This is merely the television version of a much older joke; this writer has seen at least one version dating to the 1930s (if not earlier) casting 19th-century financier J.P. Morgan (and his prominent nose) as the guest, a young Anne Morrow (the future Mrs. Charles Lindbergh) as the exhorted child, and Morrow's mother as the authority figure who embarrasses herself.
The name the trope is given here comes from the first appearance of Sammy Davis, Jr. on All In The Family, in which Archie successfully keeps Edith from saying something stupid to Davis, then promptly does so himself. Compare Freudian Slippery Slope.
Note: If you're looking for the Troper Tales page, it's right eye. Right here!
Examples:
- On The Odd Couple when Felix photographs a family of little people, he develops a complex etiquette for his friends for fear they might offend them. However, when the time comes to take the picture he shouts: "Everybody say 'midget'!"
- On an episode of The Golden Girls, Rose brings her date home and he turns out to be a little person. Blanche and Dorothy are both extremely uncomfortable about this, but decide to conceal that fact out of friendship. Blanche comes out of the kitchen and offers Rose's date a plate of hors d'oeuvres by saying "Shrimp?" then turns tail and walks rapidly right back into the kitchen.
- It doesn't stop there: Shortly thereafter Dorothy announces — very reluctantly — that she is serving "short ribs" for dinner.
- It doesn't always have to be a physical defect. In an episode of Fawlty Towers, Basil exhorts his staff not to "mention the war" (i.e. World War Two) to a group of German guests, and as the stress of the plot (and a concussion suffered earlier in the episode) gets to him, eventually finds it impossible to talk about anything else, climaxing in a memorable Hitler impression. This is so well-known that "Don't mention the war!" is a common phrase in the UK.
German Guest: Vill you stop talking about ze Var? Basil: Well, you started it! German Guest: Ve did not! Basil: Yes you did! You invaded Poland!
- In the "Hollow Pursuits" episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Captain Picard orders the crew to stop referring to the unpopular Lieutenant Barclay as "Broccoli," and further orders Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge to work with Barclay and help raise his self-esteem. Later, after Barclay makes a breakthrough in determining the cause of various shipboard malfunctions, Picard is pleased with his progress and tells him, "I'll look forward to your report, Mr Broccoli."
- In this scene: After Picard realizes what he's said, Jonathan Frakes as Riker does one of his trademark grins, but the look on Patrick Stewart's face is classic. I can't really describe it; you have to see it for yourself.
- Movie example: In Wayne's World 2, Wayne and Garth encounter a man with eyes that are different colors, and struggle to avoid mentioning it ("Yes sir, I'll remember to cross the T's and and dot the... uh... lower-case J's.").
- Sticking with Mike Myers movies, the whole thing with Number Three's mole in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Eventually, Number Three encourages Austin to just get it out of his system.
- The lampshade hanging happens right away, the very first time the gag is used.
Number Three: By the way, I realize that I have a large mole on my face...
Austin: ...where?
Austin: No one... would make that connection.
- Done in an episode of Family Guy, where Brian warns Stewie not to say anything about Tom Tucker's son's facial deformity (It's upside down). While they are talking, Brian inadvertently says "This whole thing has really just turned Chris's life upside-down face."
- Partially subverted when Tom Tucker doesn't take offense at the comment, or even seem to notice. "I 'm sure it would've turned your son's life upside-down face."
- On Gilligan's Island, Gilligan becomes bald for one episode. Everyone decides not to talk about it, but Mrs. Howell then says she'll have a "hard bald egg".
- Happens in one episode of The Adventures Of Lano And Woodley, with neighbour Susannah's lithp. I mean, lisp.
- In Dominic Deegan, Gregory manages to blow Luna's first impression of him by mentioning her tusks this way.
- Though really, that's just the fact that Gregory's a master of the Incredibly Lame Pun and pops them off constantly. In this particular case it was just the wrong subject to pick.
- In South Park the school's Nurse Golem, who has a dead foetus hanging off the side of her head, is invited to a dinner party at the Brofloskis' where this memorable exchange takes place;
Mr Mackey: (Talking about the school's softball team) I don't think they have much of a chance, the Denver team always win m'kay.
Gerald: Maybe so but I think our boys might have the dead foetus to win-HEART!!
Sheila: *Clobbers him* Gerald, keep your damn mouth shut!!
- In Freefall, just after admonishing Tangent about dog references to Florence (a sentient wolf), Niomi promptly sticks her foot solidly in her mouth.
- Happens in Steve Martin's Cyrano De Bergerac remake Roxanne: "Would you like a little wine with your nose?"
- From The Meaning of Liff:
Wigan (n.)
If, when talking to someone you know has only one leg, you're trying to treat then perfectly casually and normally, but find to your horror that your conversation is liberally studded with references to (a) Long John Silver, (b) Hopalong Cassidy, (c) The Hokey Cokey, (d) 'putting your foot in it', (e) 'the last leg of the UEFA competition', you are said to have committed a wigan.
- Done gloriously blatantly in Father Ted when Ted tells Dougal not to call the Bishop by his first name or mention his (illegitimate) son. What does Dougal say on meeting His Grace? "Hello Len, how's the son?"
- Spoofed in Jack Of All Trades, Jack is warned urgently by Croque, not to comment on Napoleon's height. The audience is led to believe that it will lead to this trope, but Jack's tell-it-like-it-is nature turns it, and he comes right out and calls Napoleon shorty.
- Completely ignored, subverted and lampshaded in A Song Of Ice And Fire where if you are a bastard (born out of wedlock), everyone mentions it. If you are crippled, it won't be spoken about with sugar; and resident dwarf Tyrion mentions being short more than anyone else, especially to prove a point about being thin-skinned to said Heroic Bastard. Of course, this is what you might expect from a Crapsack World.
- Done in a Travel commercial forgot what it was for, however. A couple is seen heading towards a door, the wife turns to her husband "...And further more, Aunt (name) is rather sensitive about her mole". Cut shot to doorbell, and the door opening.
'Husband:' Hi Aunt Mole! (cue Oh Crap face))
- Dave Barry once did a version of this joke involving the mark on Mikhail Gorbachev's forehead.
- A Monty Python example, from episode 24.
Interviewer: From the world of the theatre we turn to the world of dental hygiene. No, no, no, no. From the world of the theatre we move to the silver screen. We honour one of the silver screen's outstanding writer-dentists... writer-directors, Martin Curry who is visiting London to have a tooth out, for the pre-molar, er... première of his filling, film next Toothday... Tuesday, at the Dental Theatre... Film Theatre. Martin Curry talking to Matthew Palate... Padget.
Interviewer: Martin Curry, welcome. One of the big teeth... big points that the American critics made about your latest film, 'The Twelve Caesars', was that it was on so all-embracing a topic. What made you undertake so enormous a tusk... task?
<We see the reason for the slips: the interviewee has two gigantic front teeth>
Interviewer: ...well, let's have a look at a clip in which Julius Incisor...Caesar talks to his generals...
- In an episode of According to Jim, Jim and Cheryl accidentally find out that their new neighbors, a man and wife, refer to the man's penis as "Little Winston." The next time they have the couple over for dinner, Jim offers a tray of small sausages and asks if they'd care for — you guessed it — a Little Winston.
- Happens in Uncle Buck, where John Candy, playing the titular uncle, goes to see the principal of his niece's school. He stops all pretense of ignoring the principal's mole when she makes the mistake of insulting his niece: "Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face. Good day to you, madam."
- Truth In Television, according to this article.
- General concensus among the townsfolk in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob seems to be that Molly the Monster is a deformed human. Ms. Hatbrim even addresses her as, "Hi, Bob's Friendly Deformed Niece!" When it's pointed out that she has "claws, fangs, and a tail," the stock response is a polite, "Well we all try not to stare..."
- An old Dilbert strip featured a short engineer named Les, who was defensive about his height. This led to the following conversation.
Dilbert: Hi, Les.
Les: You say that almost mockingly. I've told you a thousand times, my name is French - pronounced "Lez".
Les: Hey! That time you did it on purpose!
- Bill Cosby had a routine in his standup about a conversation with Ray Charles, in which he kept asking Ray why he had all the lights off in his hotel room.
Statler: Ah, Waldorf. Ready for another round of hearing aid?
Waldorf: ...
Statler: Sorry, meant heckling.
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