Does This Remind You of Anything?

"Hadul: Fire once and you'll be woozy. Fire twice, and you'll be half dead. Gene: So no multiple discharges, huh?

Hadul: Yes! Just like... well, you know."

- Outlaw Star (on the Caster Gun's Deadly Upgrade)

Any situation which is made, sometimes for comic effect, to look like another situation -- not in the sense that it is mistaken for that other situation by any of the characters, just in the sense that we the audience see the resemblance. The characters do not.

This sort of situation can lead to a Three Is Company plot if some other character hears it out of context.

Alternatively it can refer to an ersatz of something more familiar that the audience would immediately recognize in subtext in order to make it look less Anvilicious. Doesn't always succeed in fulfilling the latter. Doesn't always have to mean anything sexual.

If unintentionally done: Looks Like She Is Enjoying It.

If you see "it" everywhere: Freud Was Right

See also Did They or Didn't They?, Erotic Eating, Fantastic Racism, Space Jews, G-Rated Sex, Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?, I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!, If You Know What I Mean, No Blood for Phlebotinum, A Nazi by Any Other Name, Double Entendre and Innocent Innuendo. Not to Be Confused With Ironic Echo, which can easily use this trope's title as a Lampshade Hanging.


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