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     Live Action Shows 
  • In the ALF Thanksgiving special, Alf mentions that his planet's equivalent holiday is called Fappiano. Later, when left to eat dinner alone while the Tanner family dines with their neighbors, Alf sits in front of his plate and sings a mournful chorus of "Happy Fappy to me, Happy Fappy to me..."
  • Pushing Daisies manages to get away with making Chuck use 'queer' to mean 'strange'. The narrator uses 'gay to mean 'happy' at one point, too, and that time, it is somewhat giggle-inducing. (The show is set in a Fifties Retro Universe.) The narrator, for extra defiance, uses the word in its modern conception in "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy".
  • There's a scene in an episode of I Love Lucy in which the expression "make love" is used in a non-sexual way; Lucy asks an actor to act out a "love scene" in which he will "make love" to her in order to make Ricky Ricardo jealous.
  • A similar scene exists in The Addams Family, in which Gomez is flirting with a woman as part of a ruse. Later, Morticia (who saw the whole thing) describes him as "making love" to the woman.
  • In The Honeymooners, Norton, trying to get Ralph to do the Hucklebuck to prove to Alice that he can be young, urges him to "get in the groove and be gay!"
  • The Movie of On the Buses has a theme song that features the amusing lyric "There's always gay life on the buses/make sure you leave your bird at home". Just to add to the bizarreness, one of the main characters is perving at a woman right at the moment when this lyric is sung.
  • Ray Kowalski from Due South uses the older, 'strange, odd' meaning of 'queer' a few times.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Original Series:
      • In "The Trouble with Tribbles", Bones refers to the tribbles as "bisexual" - meaning that they're hermaphroditic and can reproduce independently. Though this term can still be used this way by biologists, to most modern viewers it sounds as if he's speculating on the tribbles' sexual preference. This is confusing, to say the least.
      • It's quite amusing to see the first promo for Star Trek, which proclaims it to be an "adult space adventure". They were trying to explain that Star Trek was going to be more a serious show than silly, family-oriented Lost in Space, but using "adult" in that context now sounds like a euphemism for, shall we say, something else.
      • "Where No Man Has Gone Before" includes a bit of dialogue where Piper tells Kirk (who was found lying unconscious next to Spock) that Mitchell and Dehner have left for "that erection," referring to a rock formation.
      • In "This Side Of Paradise", the crew end up infected with Lotus Eater spores. Kirk, the only one who escaped (thanks to his allergy - sneezed out the infectious pollen before it could get to work on him) figures out that strong emotion can bring the infected back to normal, and decides to test the theory on First Officer Spock. Kirk notes that there is some risk, considering Spock is a Vulcan - "aroused, his great strength can kill." He's talking about getting the stoic Vulcan angry. (Of course, Fanon ran with other interpretations...and "Amok Time" makes the phrase even more hilarious.)
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Thot" is a Breen military title equivalent to General or Admiral. By The New '10s, "thot" was a term for a sexually-active woman (an an abbreviation for "that hoe over there").
    • The anthropological term "fetish", for a totemic object associated with a spirit being, also means a sexual fixation (usually for something weird or disgusting). Usually it's obvious which meaning is in use, as fictional depictions of the first meaning usually have real magical powers. However, in "False Prophets", an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Chakotay hears that the people who enter a temple always wear effigies of ears, and notes that "it must be some kind of fetish." (Considering that they're Ferengi ears, maybe it is.)
  • Leaves a bad taste? Modern viewers will be glad to know from the pilot episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show that Lou Grant hates spunk!
  • The song "Lick a Lolly" from The Electric Company (1971) probably didn't raise too many eyebrows in the '70s, but modern viewers tend to hear a... less child-friendly subtext. The fact that the performers are adults in childlike costume doesn't help.
    "I know a boy, his name is Billy! And Billy loves to lick on a great big lolly!"
    "And Solly says "Oh golly!" when he sees a lolly!"
  • In Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Carl Sagan speculates about the type of life that may exist in the clouds of Jupiter. He calls them "sinkers and floaters."
  • All Creatures Great And Small, being about vets and taking place in the late 1930s, regularly uses "bitch" to refer to actual female dogs.
  • An episode of the 1960s Dragnet TV show had a trainer tell Sgt. Joe Friday he found Joe a good candidate for the first drug-sniffing dog, "a German Shepherd bitch."
  • There are people out there who snicker at the title Leave It to Beaver.
    • When you take into account the character's last name, he becomes Beaver Cleaver.
    • On top of that, one episode had the Beav and Wally roped into taking care of a little girl - she promptly starts yelling that she wants "Mary Jane!" which was her term for 'the bathroom'. Got a lot of laughs from an audience of college kids.
  • The Dragnet episode "The LSD Story" featured Joe Friday saying the line, "Marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, LSD is the bomb." Three decades or so, a techno song was released entitled "LSD is the Bomb", including that line - but with a whole new slant (i.e., LSD is "cool," up-to-date).
    • Some baby boomers will tell you that if at any time during the Cold War you had shouted "It's da bomb!" - well, mass panic would have ensued.
    • Inverted in the third The Naked Gun movie, when terrorists plot to blow up an Academy Awards ceremony. When Frank Drebin finds the explosives in the Best Picture envelope, he calls out "It's the bomb!" - and the producers of the lowest-grossing film nominee immediately stand up, assuming they've won.
  • There's a bootleg DVD of Kamen Rider Ryuki that's become famous among the American fan community for having the line, "Don't molest the lawyer!" in its English subtitles. While technically correct (a group of men are pushing said lawyer around and threatening him), the line is still gets giggles. To be fair to the subtitlers, who are from Hong Kong, they're translating Japanese into Chinese, then Chinese into English, while not having much knowledge of either foreign language.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Mercifully avoided in 1963 - a rejected name for the character who would eventually become Susan was "Gay". Gay (as an alternate version of Susan) does make an appearance in the 00s-era Expanded Universe book Campaign.
    • In the 1966 story The Macra Terror, the Doctor's reaction to what we later learn is a mind-controlled Stepford Smiler colony is "Well this is gay!" The best part is his tone could just be stretched to mean gay as the high school synonym for "lame". Not to mention the more obvious meaning.
    • And in the 1967 serial Evil of the Daleks, we hear the line "You seem to know all the queer (peculiar) people."
    • One 1970s annual reminds us that "Q is for Queer Street, where the Doctor and his companions often end up!" (In this case, "Queer Street" is an expression meaning "in serious trouble".)
    • In the 1966 story "The Savages", the Doctor proudly shows off to a scouting party that he has a machine that he calls 'a reacting vibrator'.
    • In the 1966 story "The Smugglers", the Doctor describes Captain Avery as 'a man who prefers the company of gentlemen', and even claims it's because of the way he dresses and talks. From context it's more likely he means that the Captain is a Man of Wealth and Taste who prefers to hang around with other classy blokes, rather than meaning that he fancies men, but it may have been an intentional double entendre (after all, we're dealing with a sailor).
    • The 1968 story "Fury From the Deep" concerns a malevolent alien force called 'the Weed'. Hilarity Ensues if you Watch It Stoned: "One of us is being controlled by the Weed!" "That man being controlled by the Weed, he was wearing a gas mask!" It doesn't help that Patrick Troughton seems to relish in drawing out the word 'weeeeeeeeeed' as extensively as possible.
  • In Petticoat Junction, the town is named Hooterville. Now that "hooters" has inextricably become slang for breasts, a lot of the dialogue ("He's taking the train to Hooterville") can sound like Wacky Frat Boy Hijinx.
  • An episode of Mister Ed used "puss" to refer to the eye.
  • A news report on ABC news after JFK was shot, where a reporter is asked about the trip there:
    Bill Lord: You were here and in the motorcade as it left Love Field. Can you describe to us what happened?
    Bob Clark: Yes, I believe we have some more film coming up of the start of the motorcade from the airport. The rather long journey down into downtown Dallas. This was a gay scene... throughout the entire distance.
  • Fanny Cradock was a famous television chef in Britain during the fifties and sixties. In one programme she taught viewers how to make ring doughnuts. After the programme, the announcer spoke a line still played on clip-shows to this day: "I hope all your doughnuts come out like Fanny's."
  • The phrase "tossed salads" is used twice in the Frasier theme.
  • In Colonel March of Scotland Yard, Colonel March is the head of 'The Department of Queer Complaints'. They investigate seemingly impossible crimes (i.e. 'queer' meaning 'unusual').
  • Tipping the Velvet (2002): The language is consistent with the time period the story is set in. This means that "gay" is routinely used to mean "happy" and "queer" is routinely used to mean "strange."
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Beast of Yucca Flats, Crow names his film destroying group "Film Anti-Preservation Society", or "F.A.P.S." a few years before "fapping" was coined.
  • In one episode of The Honeymooners, Ralph tries to prove to Alice that he can be youthful by doing the Hucklebuck. However, watching his pathetic attempts to dance, his friend and neighbor Ed Norton urges Ralph to step it up by saying, "Get in the groove and be gay!"
  • In Seventeen Moments of Spring, Stierlitz calls Kat "baby" a couple of times in the scene where she first appears. Nowadays, such an address (unless directed at a younger relation of the speaker) would have clear romantic or sexual connotations. However, in the series it is undoubtedly meant as an expression of platonic affection, since: 1) Kat's beloved husband Erwin is right next to them and doesn't bat an eyelid 2) Kat is nine months pregnant with Erwin's child 3) an affair with Kat would be the last thing on Stierlitz's mind anyway since they are all on a super-high-risk espionage mission in Nazi Germany and Erwin and Kat are his radio operators and the only link he has to his high command.
  • Frasier: An early episode has Daphne crowing about how she's displaying the signs of a woman in love, eventually sharing too much information and prompting Martin to tell Frasier "we need to get her a girlfriend". In the context, it just means a friend who is a girl so she won't bother them, but out of context... it sounds like Martin's intention is slightly different.

    Puppet Shows 
  • The Noddy Shop features a gumball machine named Gaylord.
  • Sesame Street
    • In the song "I Love Trash", Oscar The Grouch lists off prized items in his garbage collection, including "a rusty trombone". Since that phrase is now a term for a sex act, that lyric can cause an immature giggle or two. It may or may not help that he holds up the musical instrument in question (though the prop is actually a trumpet) when that line comes up.
    • "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" has this bit where Big Bird describes the eponymous mystery word (actually the entire alphabet) as best as he can think to:
      It starts out like an A word, as anyone can see
      But somewhere in the middle it gets awful queer to me

Intentional:

  • The Eternal Love: Xiao Tan is very annoyed when Tan Er's servants call her "Miss", because in modern Chinese "Miss" can mean a prostitute.
  • Arrested Development:
    • It had repeated jokes about this when Buster was preparing to go off to war.
    • Lampshaded in the episode "Notapusy", which bleeped out the words "fag" and "pussy" even in non-offensive contexts.
    • This is part of Tobias's character, even though he may actually be gay.
  • Parodied in an 'Allo 'Allo! episode where Colonel Strohm and Lieutenant Gruber are dreading the thought of participating in the Invasion of Britain:
    Strohm: What about Manchester? They eat faggots for breakfast!
    Gruber: Such a barbaric place...
  • The ethnic term "Polack", as used in All in the Family, which was one of Archie Bunker's derisive nicknames for Mike Stivic, his Polish-American son-in-law, was formerly used in Shakespeare's time as a relatively inoffensive term for an inhabitant of Poland, as compared to its now archaic, outdated usage in Hamlet:
    Captain [of Prince Fortinbras's army, preparing to invade Poland]: We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath no profit in it but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole a ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
    Hamlet: Why, then the Polack will never defend it.
  • Batwoman (2019) has episode titles based on Lewis Carroll quotes, and an episode with a strong Gay Aesop is titled "How Queer Everything Is Today" (a quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).
  • Megan from Drake & Josh calls her brothers "boobs" at least Once an Episode.
  • The character on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains who was named Boner. No wonder you never see that show in reruns...
    • By the time that was on, only among TV writers was the older definition still prevalent.
    • When new producers took over midway through the first season, one of their first acts was to give Boner the name "Richard Stabone" to provide a non-obscene explanation for his nickname.
      • It makes you wonder why they chose that name, considering the most common nickname for Richard is "Dick..."
  • This is one of the jokes that occurs Once per Episode on Are You Being Served?: Mrs Slocombe uses "pussy" to refer exclusively to a cat — specifically, her own. Everybody else, on the other hand, has the modern meaning firmly in mind when it's said, leading to TMI-type thoughts.
    • David Baddiel did a routine about Grace & Favour (the short-lived 1990s AYBS revival), and how younger people, who only think that "pussy" means "vagina", wouldn't understand the innuendo, and would think that the show was incredibly rude; "Excuse me, but Mollie Sugden has just appeared on my TV and said that her gash is dripping!"
  • Parodied wonderfully in this A Bit of Fry and Laurie sketch, where Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie complain that "gay" used to be such a lovely word, but it's now ruined... then say the same about other words like "poofy", "arse bandit" and even "homosexual".
    Hugh: But now, of course...
    Stephen: Nowadays...
    Hugh: People think you mean homosexual.
    Stephen: Right! And there's another one.
    Hugh: Yeah.
    Stephen: When was the last time you could use the word homosexual in its proper context?
    Hugh: Right, and it's such a lovely word.
    Stephen: Oh, it's one of the great words.
    Hugh: "My word, Jane," I used to say to my wife, "the garden's looking very homosexual this morning."
  • This exchange from Buffy the Vampire Slayer between 16 year old Buffy and 240 year old Angel:
    Buffy: Like that kid in the story, (gestures) the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.
    Angel: Dike.
    Buffy gives him a confused look. Angel smiles.
    Angel: It's another word for dam.
  • Angel:
    • Wesley uses "dicks" to describe the members of Angel Investigations while riding in Angel's car. Gunn finds this offensive, and lampshades television production standards by warning Wesley not to say the word again.
    • Illyria states in one episode that she and Wesley are "no longer having intercourse." She then clarifies a moment later that he has stopped speaking to her (intercourse meaning "conversation").
  • Not surprisingly, Three's Company played with this, given the role Jack was playing with the landlords. A most memorable time was, when asked directly in a court case, "Are you gay?" Jack replies, "Well, sometimes, but I can be sad sometimes too."note 
  • Occurs several times (often intentional) in Dad's Army, usually courtesy of Lance Corporal Jones.
    "And that was the noise he ejaculated while he was being flogged, sir!"
    • Jones's descriptions of fighting the Hun often involved "sticking it right up them!"
  • Used deliberately in Blackadder a few times. Sometimes it's apparently just to sound archaic ("The streets have never been so gay!"), but at least once it is deliberately used as a double entendre:
    Prince George: Marry? Never! I'm a gay bachelor, Blackadder!
    • It's particularly prevalent in the final series, especially with George's lines 'Ready to give the Hun a taste of British spunk' etc.
    • Blackadder Goes Forth has some great fun with old-fashioned phrases which now sound, well, a bit pervy. A terrific moment in "General Hospital" is when Stephen Fry's General Melchett informs Blackadder that after his undercover work, "Captain Darling will pump you thoroughly in the debriefing room!" (to "pump" someone at the time meaning to question them for information); Blackadder (whose mentality was always strangely modern) replies with, "Not while I have my strength, he won't."
      • For his part, Captain Darling reacts with indignation indicating that he understands Blackadder's meaning.
      • Then there's the episode where Melchett falls in love with George in drag. Blackadder is highly amused when he says George "has more spunk than most women."
      • These are certainly not ony deliberate but period-accurate double entendres. Spunk's meaning was already what it is well before the Great War.
  • Used in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. During an interview with a baseball player, another reporter refers to Les Nesman as a "Queer fellow" (meaning "odd"). The baseball player misunderstands, and gets Les banned from the locker room. Les then attempts to kill himself, by jumping off the building, until someone explains the error to the baseball player.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000:
    • The show once featured a 1950s short film called "Out of This World," in which an angel and a devil fight over a bread deliveryman's soul. The devil was named Red, and the angel was named... Whitey. And yes, Crow promptly greeted her with "Hey, WHITEY!!!"
    • Another '50s short ("Using Your Voice", shown during the Earth vs. the Spider episode) has an elderly narrator explaining the importance of enunciating clearly. He tells the viewers that they "must be pleasing" and at one point advises them to "use plenty of lip and tongue action", leading to nervous laughter from Servo.
    • Yet another has the narrator talk about his boyfriend- that is, friend that's a boy. Joel and the bots get a couple good riffs out of it
    • It's bad enough that Winky in Manhunt in Space refers to his little black book and "the gay nightlife", he has to follow it up a few minutes later with "We'd rather ride the rocket". Joel has to tell the bots to shush.
    • Let's just say it comes up a lot. A lot of the features and shorts they riff come are decades older than the show.
  • In The Brady Bunch episode "The Big Sprain", Sam the butcher wants to take Alice to a dance known as the "Meat Cutters Ball". Umm, OK. In that same episode, Alice says she has the "gayest nose in town" when Sam brings her a nosegay.
  • Parodied in Grace Under Fire: Grace's ex-husband Jimmy found out at this father's funeral that he was a closeted homosexual. He asks Grace if he could "turn out to be gay" as well and she messes with him by asking him a series of questions about music taste and the like until she says "Yup, you're as gay as they were in 1890!". To which Jimmy replies "THAT gay?"
  • The episode "Wordplay" of The Twilight Zone (1985) has an interesting twist on this trope, where within a day all words suddenly change their meaning, leaving the main character with a garbled vocabulary, invoking this trope with every word.
  • Used deliberately in the Season 6 live episode of 30 Rock: "I'm Dr. Leo Spaceman. I'm known in the industry as the gay doctor because I always have a smile on my face - because I have so many homosexual lovers."
  • Invoked in Monty Python's Flying Circus, where two characters have different understandings of the word "gay".
    Biggles: Are you gay?
    Algy: I should very well say so, old fruit!
  • M*A*S*H: In "Five O'clock Charlie," Trapper, Hawkeye and Radar make fun of Frank's attempt to establish a squadron to combat the inept titular bomber pilot. When Trapper calls "Count off," there is a pause for a few seconds, then Radar turns to Hawkeye and asks "Are you one?" Hawkeye minces "Yes...are you?"
  • Frasier: In second season episode "Retirement is Murder", Daphne once mentions to Frasier how Martin "knocked her up" that morning. When Frasier seems momentarily alarmed and asks her to repeat that, she clarifies that it means "woke her up."
    Daphne: It's an English expression. What does it mean here?
    Frasier: Oh, something else. You'd definitely be awake for it, though.
    • This portion of dialogue, while amusing, is technically Fridge Logic as "knocked up" is a fairly common slang term in the UK, meaning almost exactly what it does in America (literally "unplanned pregnancy").
    • Still used in its "wake me up in the morning" sense in the North of England, especially around Manchester, so perfectly correct for Daphne; the producers did their homework here.
    • Also, Frasier and Lilith prove how unworldly they are by naming their son Frederick Gaylord Crane. Yes, he'll have an easy time of it at school... nothing to laugh at there.
  • The IT Crowd - When Renholm compliments Jen on her character: 'You've got spunk, and balls, and I like that in a woman.'
  • In The Nanny episode "Pishke Business", Fran Fine has to pretend she's C.C. Babcock, Maxwell Sheffield's business partner, to win over a potential investor, and to prepare Fran, C.C. gives her a big binder with biographical info:
    C.C.: (flipping through pages) Where I grew up, went to prep school, when I came out...
    Fran: You came out?! So what are you always sniffin' around Mr. Sheffield for?
    C.C.: My coming-out party, Miss Fine.
    Fran: I know, I heard you. You know, now you and your special friend can dance together at Disneyland!
    • In the episode where Fran thinks Niles is a serial killer, she has this Imagine Spot.
  • Comedian duo Hale&Pace bring you The Nun's Song. Remember, rubber is simply an eraser...(and so on)
  • Hell on Wheels: Brigham Young uses the term "Jack Mormon" in reference to Eva, who says she'd been raised Mormon but no longer practices the religion. However, this is its modern meaning (an inactive or lapsed Mormon), while in the 1800s the term means someone friendly towards Mormons or Mormonism.
  • In an episode of Designing Women where Suzanne reconnects with an old friend she doesn't realize is a lesbian, her friend comments on none of her other old friends wanting to keep in touch since she came out. After she leaves, Suzanne says, "So what if she's the world's oldest debutante?"
  • In Crank Yankers, featuring crank-calling puppets, after each basket scored on Niles Standish's basketball team, the Las Vegas Showman, they have to cheer, "Hurrah, hurrah, what fine chaps we are. What a gay occasion."
  • An episode of Orange Is the New Black opens with a Girl Scout troop being told to pick the "gayest" color they can for their current project. The viewer is momentarily shocked, and then it becomes clear we're in a flashback to the 1950s.
  • Schmigadoon!: After Mayor Menlove sings a song that's obviously about loving men, Melissa asks him if he's gay. Being an old-timey musical character, he interprets this as her asking if he's happy, so he responds that he tries to be. Furthering the joke, his wife (read: beard) sings a song titled "He's A Queer One, That Man O'Mine" about how feminine and sensitive the Mayor is, unlike the other men in town. Melissa is clearly juggling both the older and modern meanings of 'queer'.
  • In the documentary series Triumph of the Nerds, Cringely and a former IBM executive sing an old company song that uses "gay" in the old sense.
  • In The Muppets (2015), Fozzy talks about online dating and how the headline "Passionate bear looking for love" has been getting him all the wrong responses. He realizes how this sounds and quickly adds, "Well not wrong, but wrong for me!"
  • Parodied in the Elementary episode "The One Percent Solution". Holmes adopts a pair of roosters (Romulus and Remus) and insists on calling them "cocks", and attempts to get Watson to do the same.
    Joan: I don't care which cock I am holding. I just want to know how it got there. [beat] Okay, congratulations. You got me to say it!
    Sherlock: I don't know if you've settled on an epitaph yet, but it does occur to me that would look fantastic on a tombstone.
  • Discussed in an episode of Sleepy Hollow, where Ichabod complains to Abigail about how language has drifted since his time (the American Revolution), when "awful" meant "awe-inspiring" and "intercourse" meant "conversation". She points out that means that "awful intercourse" would actually be a good thing to have on a date.

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