Misuse is off the scale!: If You Know What I Mean

"...IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND!"

Well, at 5200+ wicks this shouldn't surprise anyone, but first, a quick review of what this thing actually is — and is not.

Regardless of what we want to call/title this thing, the definition is:

• A character appends some kind of interjection after their statement to imply that it was meant as a Double Entendre.
  • "If you know what I mean" is one particular Stock Phrase used for precisely this purpose.
• An in-universe trope.

The definition is NOT:

• About any old Double Entendre by itself.
• "Everything's Better With Double Entendres"

This got hauled into TRS on previous occasions, except that nobody actually offered any legwork or proof of how this thing gets used in the wiki.

So here's your proof — the following sample covers all classical ptitles in the range of zero thru D.

Correct usage:
An in-universe character appends the Stock Phrase at the end of their statement to imply it was intended as an innuendo.

• (none whatsoever)

Troper Tic:
A wiki editor appends the Stock Phrase to the end of their statement to imply it was intended as an innuendo.

• Ptitleikz3xeb8
• Ptitlenvoh2w2y (first of 2 links)
• Ptitlezn4z2t07
• Ptitleeh9w13xc

Misuse:
The trope is potholed underneath an in-universe statement or reference which is a Double Entendre in and of itself, but the Stock Phrase, and thus the actual trope, is not invoked.

• Ptitleiox1aylo
• Ptitle6tiifl5njuo5
• Another Man's Terror
• Ptitlenvoh2w2y (second of 2 links)
• Ptitle1qxhju8s
• Ptitlehr8d6bdwnwsk
• Ptitlet4rpdlbw
• Ptitle1eleupbqazrw
• Ptitleb1zcb36l
• Ptitle3ox9crrdkerj
• But You Screw One Goat! (Two of 3 links)
• Ptitleg1xlz79n
• Ptitlen4fcro73tb02
• Ptitlepmhattm0
• Ptitlexugzgcg1
• Ptitlepyqbpv1j
• Ptitlebrl75dwevzir (both of 2 links)
• Ptitlek9eb8qja
• Ptitleta1lmhj6
• Ptitle2zyyqezbehpc (all of 3 links)

Everything's Better With Double Entendres:
The trope is potholed underneath a statement made by a wiki editor, for which there appears to be no in-universe innuendo occuring whatsoever; the Double Entendre was created by the editor in question, thus the trope is not invoked.

• Ptitleg25tr1bo (both of 2 links)
• Ptitleklehe55i (both of 2 links)
• Ptitle79y0z50i
• Ptitlewqq2b4mx
• Ptitle87jecoal
• Ptitle73be69nd
• Ptitle5hurh98m
• Baldur's Gate
• Ptitlehrgctnd7
• But You Screw One Goat! (one of 3 links)
• Ptitlexf2uakjk
• Ptitley6cuhkacab7v
• Ptitlezya8i49u
• Ptitlemhtaoe8q
• Ptitle7wmurkq3abiw
• Didn't See That Coming
• Ptitlemr9bxczz

Other misuse:
The trope is potholed underneath a euphemism referring to something other than an actual, sexual innuendo.

• Ptitlefkr4m8sq - Refers to pooping
• Assassin's Creed - Refers to stealth kills
• Ptitle23580fpu - References That's What She Said.

Miscellaneous misuse:

• Ptitleuugjrjxk - Natter
• Ptitle9rfuhqnp4mtr - Describing an Innocent Innuendo

I have no idea how to call these:

• 13
• Ptitled0rvujns
• Ptitle19za7glq

Exempted from analysis:

• Does This Remind You of Anything? (See Also section)
• Don't Explain the Joke (See Also section)

Conclusion:

...

Although a sample of 60 wicks corresponds to only one percent of its total usage, the verdict is... well, quite damning:

I did not find a single link where the trope was being used correctly and in-universe. I did find approximately 8 percent where the trope was applied out-of-universe but otherwise correctly, and some of the remainder are ambiguous ... but regardless of how you evaluate it, the disconnect between definition and usage is over ninety percent across my sample.

(I challenge you to do your own samples and prove me wrong.)

So what do we do? It's obviously been one of the most successful pages as measured by both wikilinks and inbound counts, but for precisely the wrong reasons.

edited 5th May '11 1:56:39 PM by Stratadrake

Fast Eddie tried to fix this problem by embedding it as "Nudge" which I think solved absolutely nothing. Potholing the trope won't even be slowed down, and it makes the few correct uses look ugly as hell.

What might work is to redlink If You Know What I Mean and move the trope over to "Nudge." That's what's generally done to tropers' verbal tics.

Oh, and I opened another TRS for discussing the rename, so one of these needs to get locked. I'd say mine, since Strat did such a big wick check.

Locking this, however informative. Too many threads on the same subject. Let's use the other one.

Other thread locked.

Edit: Ouch, that's awkward. Uhh, Eddie, I'll let you pick which thread stays open.

edited 5th May '11 1:45:20 PM by Ironeye

So I guess we'll use this one.

This is not about a stock phrase. The article itself gives four or five alternative invocations. It is about the character highlighting their own double entendre. The title has to be the name of a thing (an action, in this case), not a line of dialog.

Removing a line-of-dialogue title in favor of a trope name is the main thing, here. If the word 'nudge' does not fit the article text, fix the article. Here is the list of where the bad title was used: related

edited 5th May '11 1:48:34 PM by FastEddie

@Eddie: Hmm, I can definitely see that...

...but it doesn't particularly affect how I did my sampling. The in-universe references are still misuse if the character doesn't add some kind of interjection to highlight said Double Entendre with.

Most of what I found were just editors potholing the Double Entendre itself, which is not what the definition is about at all.

edited 5th May '11 1:57:44 PM by Stratadrake

If you can't find any correct uses whatsoever, I think it would be safe to use a Trope Transplant or just call Trope Decay and tweak the description.

I think I know why it had been misused so often. First, it is a fun phrase. Two, it's less boring easier to spell than Double Etandre Entendre.

EDIT: I hate the name Nudge. When I first saw it, I couldn't tell what it was suppose to mean, and it's bland. Also, there're the {{ }}'s. I thought one-worded trope names were generally frowned upon, unless it is clever and self-explaintory.

edited 5th May '11 2:52:46 PM by chihuahua0

Great, come up with another noun or nominative phrase. One that doesn't sound like dialog and is easy to spell.

I like Nudge. You can see someone being like "If you know what I mean...nudge, nudge."

Nudge Nudge would make sense, but just one "nudge" on its own seems wrong. I'd support a rename to that. Nudge seems to me more "hey, wake up", Nudge. Like someone has fallen asleep during something important and their friend is trying to nudge them awake (what is the trope for that btw?). Also after writing it so many times "nudge" no longer looks like a word.

I would use Narm as a counter-argument, but I see someone punching holes through it already.

Let's do another wicks check. If we can't find a lot of "correct" uses, it would be safe to presume that Trope Decay had happened.

Now that's better. I would also support Wink Wink.

edited 5th May '11 3:20:01 PM by chihuahua0

we could even have them both Nudge Nudge Wink Wink

I could see those being misused the same way the trope currently is.

I know this isn't enough to make a conclusion, but:

• Zone Of The Enders: Pot-holed in description. Misuse.
• Zip Me Up: Can’t find.
• Zettai Karen Children: Can’t find.
• Zero No Tsukaima
• Zero-G Spot: Pot-holed in description. Misuse.
• Zap: Probably a misuse.
• Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged: Misuse.
• Yuyu Hakusho: May be a correct use, but I can’t tell if it was quoted in the scene or not.
• YuYu Hakusho: Misuse.
• Yuri Fan: Misuse.
• Yuria 100 Shiki: Misuse.

Out of eleven wicks, only one might be right, but I doubt it. Also, from my own experience, I almost never seen if used "correctly".

I would call Trope Decay.

Crowner?

edited 5th May '11 4:07:59 PM by chihuahua0

Yeah, those could be misused, but if we redlink If You Know What I Mean, people will get the hint. Just like how when Not Making This Up got redlinked, nobody started using "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer as a replacement.

Not at the end of a sentence, no, but it unfortunately has collected bad potholes. That'd be a topic for another thread, though.

...Geez, even the page's own description overuses the potholes to itself in a lame attempt at troper humor.

I can't even begin to come up with a better title, in part because some of the alternatives are taken for other tropes.

You're right, the article is abusing itself. Not cool. At least description cleanup is easy....

The majority of misuse for If You Know What I Mean boils down to "Unusual Euphemism for sex", right? Isn't that covered by Is That What Theyre Calling It Now?

I think Is That What Theyre Calling It Now is for when another character mistakes something that isn't a euphemism for sex for a euphemism for sex, especially if they do so sarcastically.

edited 7th May '11 9:35:33 AM by Balmung

I'm seeing the same problem that applies to Beyond the Impossible and Up To Eleven. Which one would you prefer to Pot Hole?

"At first, Bob started with with a simple dagger and gun, but later in the series, he started using a doubled-sided machine-gun!

Or:

"At first, Bob started with with a simple dagger and gun, but later in the series, he started using a doubled-sided machine-gun!

Case in point, people find pot-holding IfYouKnowWhatIMean much better than the bland Double Entendre.

EDIT: By the way, I wish you didn't use the custom title system to rename You Know What I Mean to Nudge, for the reasons discussed in Wiki Talk.

EDIT 2: -looks up at edit- I wonder how long it will take them to notice...

edited 7th May '11 10:24:29 AM by chihuahua0

"I Made A Double Entendre" with redirects at "You..." "He..." and "She..."?

That could work, but...Three more redirects...

This. I managed to learn how to spell Enterdre oh, darn.

See?

edited 7th May '11 10:33:39 AM by chihuahua0

I know I can't reliably spell Entendre, so I think that might be part of the problem. If You Know What I Mean is easier to spell, especially since not all tropers speak English as their first language.

EDIT: That wasn't clear. I'm still voting to redlink If You Know What I Mean and rename it to something that doesn't sound like a Stock Phrase; I just don't think it should have "entendre" in there.

edited 7th May '11 10:33:36 AM by Discar

Double Entendre has over 1000 wiks, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Google does correct spelling errors, so it shouldn't be that hard to search for either.

edited 7th May '11 5:30:53 PM by jebuz