What He Said

A Stock Phrase used in comedic situations. One person will speak at length, often intelligently and involving either an excellent explanation of what's going on and why, or a highly practical solution to the current problem. Other characters, upon being consulted, will reply with "What He Said".

This is especially true when the one speaking is a temporary or new authority figure, and the one saying 'what he said' is the previous one or a more well-known and respected authority, proving that the new guy does know what he's talking about.

Especially funny when the previous or 'true' authority figure demands to have the last say, and that he be recognized as the ultimate authority... and then simply repeats the ideas presented by the upstart, often with these same words.

Does not actually require Exposition on the part of the first speaker, only a statement agreed with by the second person with the words "What he said".

Very common on internet forums, where "Me Too" is one of the archetypal Online Personas. This has, in turn, given rise to the acronym QFT, "Quoted For Truth".

Not to be confused with "That's What She Said".

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Examples:

Comic Books

• In Issue 12 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Boom! Studios), we have Billy and Tommy stranded in an alternate Earth, on the run from an evil future version of Tommy, and looking to Saba for some answers. What follows is this:
  Billy: We don't really know anything about you, this Falconzord, or even this Earth. We appreciate what you did, saving us from...well, uh, Evil Tommy, for lack of a better term, but I think we need a better understanding of what exactly we've stumbled into here before we do anything else.
  Tommy: Yeah. What he said.

Film — Live-Action

• Blazing Saddles: Mongo has just ridden into town.
  Sheriff Bart: Who is this Mongo, anyway?
  Waco Kid: Well, Mongo ain't exactly a "who". He's more of a "what".
  Van Johnson: What he said.
• At the end of Bruce Almighty, Bruce is seen next to a homeless man carrying a sign that reads "The end is nigh". Bruce's sign reads "What he said".
• In Hot Fuzz, one of the cops has two of these when confronted with a crimescene, where he asks Sergeant Angel what to do, Angel gives a detailed description, which gets a 'What he said'. In the final fight, that same cop suddenly comes up with a detailed, comprehensive plan to assault the supermarket, which causes all the others to stare in surprise until Angel also replies with a 'What he said'.
• Invoked in My Cousin Vinny. Vinny's girlfriend gives a highly technical explanation of why the boys' car could not have left the tire marks found at the crime scene. Vinny then recalls an expert witness who had testified earlier and asks simply "in your expert opinion, do you agree with everything she just said?" He answers in the affirmative.

Live-Action TV

• Angel episode "Damage"
  Angel: Let's go over it again, just in case you left out any details.
  Spike: What he said, but with a bit more of a threat at the end.
• Dark Angel
  Logan Cale: In case you haven't caught on by now, this girl's gonna do what she's gonna do no matter what you or anyone else says, so you've got two choices: back off or pitch in.
  Max Guevara: What he said.
• Dead Like Me episode "Death Defying". Mason and Ray are playing pool.
  Guy: Hey. We got next.
  Ray Summers: Take a walk, Junior. There's plenty of tables available.
  Mason: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What he said.
• Doctor Who:
  • "Boom Town" combines this with Still the Leader. After Jack lays out the plan for capturing Margaret the Slitheen…
    The Doctor: Excuse me, who's in charge?
    Jack: Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir.
    The Doctor: [looks straight ahead, goes all commanding] Right, here's the plan! [grins] Like he said. Nice plan.
  • The Doctor gets off a rare dramatic version in "A Town Called Mercy". Having been confronted with what Kahler Jex did, he is listening with little interest to Amy, Rory and Isaac debating what to do with Jex. When Amy asks the Doctor for his opinion, he responds with "Yes. No. Whatever Amy said."
  • In "The Day of the Doctor", the Eleventh Doctor tries to scare off some Elizabethan soldiers by claiming a time portal is "witchcraft". He asks Clara (on the other side of the portal) to tell the "prattling mortals" to go away.
    Clara: [utterly bored] What... he said.
    The Doctor: Yes, tiny bit more colour?
• Gotham
  Lucius Fox: People? Surely we should have a backup strategy, given the strong possibilities of failure?
  Oswald Cobblepot: Au contraire, Mr. Fox. Failure is not an option!
  James Gordon: What he said.
• M*A*S*H: In "Big Mac," when General Macarthur is scheduled to visit the camp, Frank threatens to clean the Swamp if Hawkeye and Trapper don't.
  Hawkeye: You touch one dirty sock, you remove one layer of crud, you kill one cockroach, Frank, and I will personally grind you into a fine powder and sprinkle you on Macarthur's oatmeal!
  Trapper: ...What he said!
• On Monty Python's Flying Circus, there is a sketch with an American film producer meeting with a bunch of craven yes men. After one gets kicked out for criticizing his idea, and another gets kicked out for agreeing with it, and a third one gets kicked out for being indecisive, a fourth one, in a fit of panic, says, "splunge". When the producer asks what "splunge" means, the yes man says, "It means it's a good idea, but perhaps not, and I'm not being indecisive." The producer appears to approve of this answer, so when he asks each of the other yes men what they think, they each say "splunge", too, with the last one saying, "Yeah, yeah, splunge for me, too!"
• Psych episode "Extradition: British Columbia".
  Shawn Spencer: [having a "vision"] I see a man... net. I see the painter... John Manet.
  Burton 'Gus' Guster: Edouard.
  Spencer: Where in town might one find a...
  Guster: Édouard Manet?
  Spencer: What he said.
• Supernatural episode "Free to Be You and Me"
  Raphael: I'm warning you. Do not leave me here. I will find you.
  Castiel: Maybe one day. But today you're my little bitch.
  Dean Winchester: What he said!
• In an episode of To Tell the Truth where the real person had a difficult to pronounce name (Peter Agababi-Palangin), one of the fakers just introduced himself as "my name is the same as his."
• One game of "Greatest Hits" on Whose Line Is It Anyway? had Chip Esten end one of the songs like this. It's that kind of show.
• In Wizards of Waverly Place there is a variation, Alex waves her wand and casts the same spell as Justin by saying "What he did."

Professional Wrestling

• TNA wrestlers Taylor Wilde and Sarita once went through a phase of, during interviews, Sarita reeling off a string of Spanish and Wilde finishing off the interview with "What she said!" They did the EXACT same thing with Matt Morgan & Hernandez. And at the same tine too, although it was never acknowledged.

Video Games

• Dragon Age: Inquisition: If Sera (who's terrified of magic and demons) ends up in the Fade, she starts having panic attacks and lets out a string of profanities. The Iron Bull, not fond of demons himself, adds "What she said."
• Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
  Willard: Ooh! Ooh! I got it this time! Here's a...! Here's a...!
  Gordy: A Power Cell!
  Willard: Yeah... yeah... what he said.

Webcomics

• Used in Orbit when Mercury is trying to confirm his minions' loyalty.
  Asteroid: I guess I'm pretty loyal...
  Ceres: I was blind and you opened my eyes to the truth! Now I live my life to serve your purpose. My allegiance is ironclad, my lord.
  Asteroid: Actually, you know what? The ironclad thing goes for me too. Cuz that's what I meant.

Web Original

• The week before PAX East 2015, Chuggaaconroy uploaded a video letting his subscribers know about The Runaway Guys Thrown Controllers panel that would be taking place there. Chugga didn't even finish his intro before ProtonJon came in and gave a quick, hefty, over-the-top explanation. Chugga's only response is "What he said". (See here.)

Western Animation

• Animaniacs
  Yakko: If we have unearned luck, Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue
  Dot: [translating for the audience] What he said.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers:
  Fat Cat: Now, wish them to their doom!
  Mole: But my candy-! [Fat Cat bares his claws in Mole's face] Uh... what he said.
• The Hair Bear Bunch: In "(Whatever Happened to) Goldilocks and the Three Bears," Peevly and Botch find the bears at a movie studio where a movie about the fairy take is being made. Hair Bear talks the director into casting Peevly as the film's evil prince.
  Peevly: The evil prince?
  Botch: Ooh...ooh...what he said!
• Justice League Unlimited, "Divided We Fall"
  Flash: Hate to interrupt this special live performance of The Thing With Two Heads, but it's time to go to jail now.
  Amanda Waller: What he said. [Shoots Lex Luthor/Braniac. It does bupkis.]
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Stare Master"
  Scootaloo: We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!
  Apple Bloom: And we wanna crusade for our cutie marks!
  Sweetie Belle: And we... um... yeah, what they said!

Real Life

• It is quite common in case write-ups for one judge to talk at length about their reasons for coming to a certain decision, at times going on for dozens of pages, only for a later judge to only write a couple of lines that basically amount to this. Often they'll add a short extra reason as well, but it's definitely not unheard of for their entire judgment to be easily paraphrased as 'yeah, what ____ J said'.
• Back in the early days of email, you might get a lengthy missive, showing several good points and find out that the originator simply added "me too."
• Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle were brought before the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee in 1958. Stengel, notorious for being a touch on the odd side, provided a long and somewhat obtuse testimony that nonetheless proved to be surprisingly cunning on his part. Stengel had no problems going on for 45 minutes regarding baseball's exemption from antitrust laws. When Mantle was asked to offer his testimony after Stengel had gone on for all that time, he didn't seem to want to testify...and unexpectedly brought the house down with a One-Liner instead.
  Senator Kefauver: Mr. Mantle, do you have any observations with reference to the applicability of the antitrust laws to baseball?
  Mr. Mantle: My views are about the same as Casey's.

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