Heh Heh, You Said "X"

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Josh: I am tired of being number two! Number two stinks!
Drake: (snickering) Number two stinks...
Josh: Grow up!

A situation where one character says a word or phrase in a non-"Double Entendre" (or sometimes not even Innocent Innuendo) manner, but another takes it the wrong way and starts laughing. Bonus points if the first person tells the second to "grow up" or something similar. The amused character saying "That's What She Said!" has the same effect.

Heh heh..."grow..."

Compare That Came Out Wrong (Heh heh... "came") and Accidental Innuendo (Heh heh... in-your-endo) . Contrast Innocent Innuendo (Heh heh...) *slap* Ow! Geez...

And yes, like That's What She Said, this can definitely be Truth in Television, depending on how often you hang out with immature/dumb people.

Heh Heh, You Said "X"amples.

Heh heh, Comic Books

  • In The Dandy comic strip My Own Genie, a giant monkey gets stuck on top of town hall, according to the Mayor, who says "He's done a doodie on top of town hall." Lula responds with, "Ehehehe. Doodie."
  • Non-sexual or scatological version done by Deadpool in an issue of his first series. He meets the zombie controlling villain known as the Black Talon, and cracks up at his costume's resemblance to a chicken. After a few comments even the zombies start to giggle, leading to this exchange:

Black Talon (to zombies): Hey! Not a peep out of you!
Deadpool: The chicken...just...said...peep! Bwahahaha!

Heh heh, Fan Works

Heh heh, Film

  • One subplot in Smile features a trio of boys trying to get pictures of the beauty pageant contestants. One of them, Freddy, continually riffs on the contestants' names (and other things):

Little Bob: (getting out of a car) Keep the motor running.
Freddy: I got my motor running!
Chuck: Aw, geez.
Freddy: Look at that one from Bakersfield! Ah, I got something she can bake in her field.
Chuck: Beat I hate him.

  • In the first Austin Powers movie, Patty O'Brien, Dr Evil's Irish Henchman, complains that Scotland Yard is "always after me lucky charms," much to the amusement of his colleagues. For this scene, see also Don't Explain the Joke.
  • In Life of Brian, Pilate's guards snicker every time he mentions his friend Biggus Dickus.
  • In Transformers, some of Sam's classmates laugh when he says "Sextant" and again when he says "Seamen". Both times, the teacher holds up a sign reading "Quiet", with a resigned look on his face. Sam's class is clearly sophomoric.
  • In Used Cars, the car dealership is doing an illegal broadcast by tapping into a football game and substituting their own commercial for the video feed. One of the car dealers has a deathly fear of red painted cars, and when they cut in the commercial and the flood lights are turned on, he realizes it's not a dark blue car, but a red one, so he says, "What the fuck is this, Rudy, a red car?" One of the technicians that arranged for the illegal tap in turns to Rudy and says, "Did he say 'fuck'? That's an FCC violation!" As if what they're already doing isn't.

Heh heh, Literature

  • Done a couple times by Karrin Murphy in Love Hurts, a short story of The Dresden Files. This is mildly out of character and is one of the reader's first clues that she and Dresden have been, as they say later, "whammied."
  • Interesting Times: "...Social intercourse." "Hur hur... sorry."
  • In one book of Animorphs, Rachel is accidentally split in two (regenerative morphs...long story). Jake deduces that, while her wild-and-bloodthirsty half loves to fight, her kind-but-cowardly half got her sense of duty. Nice Rachel's reaction is basically, "Heh heh, you said 'doody'."
  • In 36 Children, a non-fiction account of a young teacher's year in a poor Harlem school in the mid 60's, one of piece of advice he's given by an older teacher is to skip over Emily Dickinson's poem "There Is No Frigate Like A Book", even though it's in the textbook for the English class. She warns him that he'll lose control over the class as soon as the kids hear the first line.
  • In Remote Man Ned gets this reaction when he brings up his interest in Herpetology with his friend's friends - his internet screen name, Herpman, triggers a string of STD jokes.
  • In the Jorge Luis Borges short story, "The Cult of the Phoenix":

There are no decent words to name it, but it is understood that all words name it or rather inevitably allude to it, and so in a conversation I said anything and the adepts smile or become uncomfortable, because they felt that I had touched the Secret.

Heh heh, Live-Action TV

  • How I Met Your Mother uses this a lot as well, although the humor is not explicitly pointed out—it is only followed up with another character saying "yeah, you did" and is often intentional.
  • The Todd on Scrubs.
    • In another episode, Elliot is able to indirectly identify Turk and JD over the phone because they laugh at a patient saying the word "duty".
    • And in the episode where the viewer hears Turk's thoughts instead of JD's, Turk giggles internally over someone using the word "pianist".
    • Another one in season 8 when JD is telling his friends he's leaving. JD and Turk proceed to giggle about his new bosse's name (Mantoots)
  • Happens to Joey Tribbiani of Friends all the time. Quoth Chandler Bing: "Twenty-nine, Joe. You're twenty-nine."
    • And in a later episode: "Thirty-two Joe. You're Thirty-two."
    • Joey and Rachel both snickered at Ross's mention of Homo erectus.
    • Apparently Joey also can't help invoking this trope whenever someone mentions Rachel's doctor, whose last name is Weiner.
    • Joey also invokes this trope in one episode with Rachel:

Rachel: What's so funny?
Joey: You said number two.
Rachel: I also said number one.
Joey: I know!

    • Then there was the one where Chandler messes up a job interview when the potential employer wants to talk to him about his duties.
  • Done in Hannah Montana where a White House tour-lady is explaining the many duties of the president and the first lady.
    • Variation:

Lilly: Why don't you just ask him out?"
Miley: I'm from Tennessee. We don't do that
Lilly: Well, you're in California now, and we do do that.
Cooper: Heh heh, you said doo-doo.

Michael: We wouldn't have this problem if the lunch ladies could make a decent chicken breast.
(Logan starts snickering)
Zoey: What's so funny?
Chase: Michael said "breast".
Logan: Breast... (snickers)

  • Simon Partridge from an episode of Blackadder II constantly takes what someone says as sounding "a bit rude."

"'Holding my own?' Now that sounds incredibly rude!"

    • Subverted later in the episode:

"'Bum'! That sounds a bit rude! That sounds a bit like... 'bum'..."

    • And, later...

Lady Whiteadder: Wahey! Luck! Sounds almost exactly like fu-" *Credits*

  • In the Wizards of Waverly Place episode "Future Harper", our teenage wizard heroes travel about using a device called the Inter-wizard People Porter. Max (and a oneshot character in Egypt) pick up on the fact that the acronym sounds like "I pee-pee".
  • 3rd Rock from the Sun - Subverted:

Mary: My students are so immature. I was talking about holocene man and they keep giggling whenever I mention Homo Erectus.
[Dick snickers]
Mary: And whenever I mentioned Homo Erectus -
[Dick laughs out loud]
Mary: Okay, what is so funny about Homo Erectus?!
Dick: Homo Erectus was pleistocene man not holocene man!

  • Played with in the US version of Queer as Folk Brian and Lindsay are meeting with the principal for a school where they want Gus to go. Lindsay has told Brian to behave, and while waiting outside the principal's office, Brian says something along the lines of: "...well, there is no predicting... oops, I said dick!"
  • Comes up unexpectedly (hehheh) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when the gang is threatening to fall apart. Xander faces the necessity of joining the Army and says "I bet all that changes when I'm doing situps at Fort Dix!" Giles, quite drunk, chokes on his drink. "'Fort Dix'? PHAWWW!!!"
  • The audience seems to be notorious for this on Whose Line Is It Anyway??
    • Hehe, Drew said 'Sea-men'.
    • Also played straight and subverted in a game of "Scenes from a Hat": Inoffensive words that immature people are prone to snicker at.

Wayne Brady: So you have a selection, white and pumpernickel.
Colin Mochrie: [snickers] ...white...

  • Firefly brings us this one in the episode "Shindig":

Mal: How would you even set up a meet, man won't deal with you?
Badger: Know a place he'll be. Safe place. Using some new tech gun scans. High class, too. Won't let me in there. You might slip in. Of course, you couldn't buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle. I got my hands on a couple.
[Mal and Jayne struggle to not laugh]
Badger: Of invites.

Jake: (snickering) You said Moby Dick.

  • As this clip from That 70's Show shows, even when, initially, only one out of three people finds a word like "penal" to be funny. Repetition of the word will cause the other two to laugh in time.
    • Especially when Hyde points out that Kelso is taking "an oral test on the penal code"
  • In Community episode Comparative Religion Jeff commends Pierce on not reacting to Shirley commenting on the Dean "shoving his PC-ness down my throat." Turns out the only reason was that Pierce didn't get it until Jeff pointed it out.
  • Salem loved doing this on Sabrina the Teenage Witch:

Hilda: Now, obvious fact number one. Willard hasn’t asked you to marry him yet and obvious fact number two...
Salem: Hee hee hee! You said 'number two'!

    • Another example:

Sabrina: Nothing like being embraced in the bosom of your family on the most special day of the year.
Salem: Hee Hee Hee! Bosom! You said 'bosom'! Ha ha ha ha!

  • One of the characters played by Peter Moon in the Australian sketch-comedy Fast Forward was a Jerkass who would break out into laughter when the person he was talking had a suggestive name or said a word with an alternate rude meaning.
    • Actually that was a character played by Michael Veitch, whereas Peter Moon played the russian news presenter who turned most things said into a double entendre.
  • The Big Bang Theory, "The Lunar Excitation" has Leonard giving an overview of their experiment, mentioning that the laser beam on its return would be too weak to be seen by the naked eye. Zack laughs and says, "naked". Penny unenthusiastically laughs with him and immediately drops the smile when she sees how unamused Leonard is. Leonard plays nice and agrees that it's funny.

Heh heh, Music

  • "Pinch Me" by Barenaked Ladies: "I could hide out under there/I just made you say 'underwear'..." In concert, that line often makes the audience throw underwear on stage.
    • Sometimes the audience will throw underwear before the second line. If this happens, Ed sometimes sings "I just made you throw underwear" instead. (emphasis mine)

Heh heh, Newspaper Comics

  • A FoxTrot strip references the Trope Namer when Paige, as a school reporter, asks a couple of students if they think Beavis and Butthead are realistic. Cue them doing the duo's famous laugh, followed by "...heh-heh, she said 'butt'."
  • In Candorville, Lemont's six-year-old lawyer makes a closing argument that repeated too many opposing points for comfort. Lemont shouts, "Get to the 'but' already!" The response is fairly age-appropriate.
  • Zits discusses this in a humorous example with "Tools" (Doubles as Getting Crap Past the Radar)
    • A not-so-serious example was thrown in when one character's mom had breast cancer. He mentions that he's the only person their age who can say "Breast" without giggling.

Heh heh, Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

  • Mentioned by George Carlin in his "Seven Dirty Words" routines ("And the cock crowed three times." "Heeey... it's in the Bible! 'Cock' is in the Bible!").

Heh heh, Video Games

Francis: Hey Zoey. We're passing gas!
Zoey: Heh heh, farting...

Kochamara: Fine, take control of this freaky toad! I don't need him to nab children for me any more. I've got the brain of a little girl-
Raz: *starts laughing uncontrollably*
Kochamara: -Back in my lab that's strong enough to power a whole army of psycho-blaster death tanks... *Notices laughing* What?!
Raz: You've got the brain of a little girl?
Kochamara: I said: "In my lab!"
Raz: I think you've got the muscles of a little girl, too!

Heh heh, Web Comics

Belkar: Heh heh...junk.

Yoda: "Short-staffed we are..."
Windu:
Yoda: "Up. Shut."

  • It's mentioned in Ozy and Millie that you should never say "bottom" around Avery if you don't want him to snicker.

Heh heh, Web Original

  • YouTube Poop uses this a lot, especially in the "this video will be flagged" varieties of it.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series} uses this with Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, two characters who parody Beavis and Butthead.
    • Uhuhuhuhuhuh, "wood".
  • Even The Angry Video Game Nerd did this for "doody/duty". Note that, due to his usual style it's probably one of the more mild words in his vocabulary.
  • One of Foamy's famous rants is about people who do this kind of thing and how they "need to be killed" for twisting people's simple topics of conversation into something perverted.
  • Referenced in this rage comic from Memebase.
  • Used on this wiki; see Number Two for a good example.

Heh heh, Western Animation

Mr. VanDresen: You know, this could be a real positive experience for you guys. There's a wonderful and exciting world out there when we discover that we don't need TV to entertain us.
Butthead: Uhuhuhuhuhuh, he said "anus."
Beavis: Entertain us, "ain-us". Oh, yeah
Mr. VanDresen: Did you boys hear a word I just said?
Butthead: Uhh, yeah. "Anus."

    • Of course, there's a famous scene in the plane during the nose drive when Butthead landed in the cockpit.

Pilot: GET THE HELL OUT OF THE COCKPIT
Butthead: Heh, Heh, You Said...
Pilot: NOW!

    • In another particularly memorable instance, the boys watch the music video for "Detachable Penis", and proceed to snigger nonstop the whole way through, leaving the actual song barely audible.
    • In yet another Beavis and Butthead example, in one episode the school counselor asks Beavis about his plans for the future, discussing his "duties" at work.

Counselor: I see you're currently employed at Burger World, that's great! So which of your duties there do you like the most? *they laugh*
Butthead: Beavis likes all his 'duties'.
Beavis: Hehehe, yeah, yeah. Plop!
Counselor: Well great, Beavis! But what type of duty do you enjoy more than any other?
Beavis: Hmm, let's see, that's a tough one. Well, the ones that take a long time are kinda nice
Counselor: I see, so you really like to get involved?
Beavis:Oh yeah yeah.
Counselor: Get your hands dirty!
Beavis: Well yeah, sometimes.
Counselor: Something you can really sink your teeth into!
Beavis: Wait a minute...
Butthead: Whoa! You're disgusting!

    • "No Laughing" has this in spades.
      • Really, the two could do this with about anything. One music video had them discussing shiny pants, with Beavis eventually saying "But I DO shine my pants!" and then Butt-head pointing out that he said "douche". In one special appearance for the MTV music awards, Beavis says "We're gonna be Emmy winners!", then Butt-head says "You said 'B.M.'" A few early episodes have them laughing at the term "homeowners insurance", presumably at the "homeow".
    • Subverted in their 2011 return, while watching a clip of Jersey Shore. Vinny yells about how much Snooki "loves hot salami", they were unimpressed with this.
    • But played straight in another 2011 episode where they need to pass a standardised test to keep the school from losing its funding. The teachers spend the whole episode cramming as much as possible into their heads, and finally...

Butt-head: Woah! I just got something! Number two pencil!

  • Homer Simpson once did this to himself, noting that he was so bashful he couldn't say "titmouse" without giggling.
    • In another episode, Lisa complains to her friends that the new Malibu Stacy dolls are sexist. They start giggling, and one of them replies "Lisa said a dirty word!"
  • Family Guy examples: In one episode, Chris asks Peter what he'd say about quitting the Boy Scouts. Peter replies, "I'd say, 'Come again?' And then I'd laugh 'cuz I said 'cum'."
    • In another episode, Lois starts, "The big meet is tomorrow and--" Peter stops her, laughing: "Did you say 'big meat?'"
      • To which she replies, "Oh my God, I did. We almost missed that one!" And then they laugh about it together, proving that marriage is a wonderful thing.
    • Also when Peter and Brian are putting together a crib.

Brian: OK, insert tab A into slot B.
Peter: That's what she--
Brian: If you say, 'That's what she said' one more time, I'm gonna pop you.

    • And when Peter is digging a pool in his yard:

Peter: It's my civic duty. Hehehee... doody... HEHEHEHEHE.... diarrhea. Hey Lois!
Lois: What?
Peter: Diarrhea!
Lois: (snorting) Peter, I'm holding ice tea!

      • There's a Call Back to this one in a later episode, too:

Peter: It's my fatherly duty. Heheheheh... I said doody... But no time to laugh about it now!

    • "I've thought long and hard about this..." "Hehehehe...long and hard."
    • Another example of this between Chris and Peter when the Whiterumped Swallow bird is being discussed. Also doubles as Hypocritical Humor:

Chris: Heheheh...rump.
Peter: This isn't funny, Chris! (beat) Heheheh...swallow.

  • "Duty/doody" in an episode of Invader Zim.
  • There's no actual Heh Heh, You Said "X", but in one Venture Brothers episode Dr. Orpheus is talking to Triana, loudly exclaims "This is my duty!", and Triana starts giggling.
    • Hank: "Careful, these things can be booby trapped! ...hehheh, booby."
  • Two examples occur in The Penguins of Madagascar.
    • One is the duty/doody variant between Mort (the one who says "you said 'doody'!") and Maurice in the episode "All King, No Kingdom."
    • The other occurs in "Cat's Cradle," when the penguins rub a stray cat's butt against a tree to leave his scent behind fool an animal control officer. When the penguins and the cat are in hiding, the animal control officer starts making comments involving phrases like "ifs, ands or buts," "the bottom of this," etc. and Private (who is the youngest penguin) starts snickering. He then loses it when their leader, Skipper, remarks that he hasn't seen Private like this since that time they were in Butztown, PA.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Professor Zei mentions the buttresses in the library, at which Aang and Sokka snicker. The professor asks them about this, and they reply, "We just like architecture".
  • The New Zealand cartoon Bro Town uses this almost every time someone says anything near Valea, even if there was a more obvious one in the sentence.
  • In the Dave the Barbarian episode "Rite of Pillage", Dave must pass four tests to become a real barbarian. His second test requires him to cause mayhem and destruction and ruin a few buildings. The name of the test: "Laying Waste"; Dave finds the name hilarious and tries to contain his laughter while the Pillage Master talks.

Pillage Master: The second test is... Laying Waste!
Dave: (snickers) Sorry.
(Dave tries to contain his laughter through the following instructions)
Pillage Master: You must lay waste here! Then you must lay waste over there. Then, when you feel you can no longer lay waste, you- (notices Dave's laughing) Alright, what is so funny?!
Dave: (calms down) ...Nothing.

    • At the end of the episode when Dave passes his "Rite Of Pillage", the Pillage Master realizes the joke:

Pillage Master: Laying waste! I get it! (Laughs at his own joke).

  • In Archer, Archer meets Benoit, whose name keeps reminding him of a sex toy:

Archer: 'Cause, I mean, you know what it sounds like, right?
Benoit: Oui, Monsieur.
Archer: It sounds like "Ben Wa balls," Benoit. Balls. See? I can't even say it without saying "balls." Say your name.
Benoit: (exasperated sigh) Benoit.
Archer: Balls.

Betsy Ross: Your freedom will be shown for what it really is, a farce!
Tuddrussel (snickering): She said farce!

Number 2: Allow me to introduce myself, I am Number 2
Rusty: Ha ha your name means doody!

Fry: YES! I didn't think I'd escape with my doodle intact, but I pulled it out!
Bender: Just like at the movie theater! WHOO!

    • When the crew gets sucked into a four-dimensional vortex in the Season 7 episode "Mobius Dick", Amy and Hermes' dialogue is played back in reverse after being spoken. Fry playfully averts this phenomenon by repeating a palindrome: poop. "Heh, heh, heh, heh! Poop!"
  • Happens in Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, in the form of Getting Crap Past the Radar:

Edd: Yes, well, it's all fun and games, but merry-making nearly cost us this sextant.
(beat)
Eddy: Hehehehe...!... You catch that, Ed? (to Edd) Uh, what was it? I missed that. What's it called?
Edd: It's called a sextant, an astronomical instrument used to--
(Ed and Eddy muffle their laughter)
Eddy: Again, sorry, I missed it. What's it called?
Edd: It's commonly known as a sextant, Eddy--
(Ed and Eddy both laugh loudly)
Ed: SAY IT AGAIN, DOUBLE-D!
(Edd thinks for a moment; cue Luminescent Blush)

Heh heh, Other Media

  • While group-interviewing Mark Hamill, Wayne Knight, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, voice director Andrea Romano recalls how animators often study a VA's body language as reference for animating the character:

Romano: Even though you're not really using your body, you are in fact using your body.
Paulsen: [nudges LaMarche] Actually, many people have used your body.
LaMarche: [fake sobbing] I'm tired of it, I'm sick of it! I'm a human being!

Heh heh, Real Life

  • At least one letter by Cicero makes note of accidentally obscene utterances (such as "illam dicam", literally "I shall say that", but sounds like a particularly obscene word for "clitoris"), making this Older Than Feudalism.
  • This article (on knitting using plant fibers) mentions the taxonomic names of four plants. Apparently the author thinks taxonomic names are scary, because every time, she feels the need to put some variation of "hah, I slipped another one in!"
  • A local radio station in Saint Louis started a contest called First of All on the morning zoo. They read a news article and you have to pick out the innuendo. Example: news story about a robbery where the robber entered through the backdoor...answer: backdoor. So, First of All: backdoor. Has caused a breakdown in normal conversation for those who listen.
    • On one of the shows on the BBC radio station Radio 1, there is even a game called 'innuendo bingo'.
  • Vladimir Nabokov, when describing his book Lolita said it "left [him] with the most pleasurable afterglow. Cue snickers and giggles.
  • A common response by chemistry students when their professors mention the chemical fucitol, or by students learning Spanish when the teacher gets to the verb poner (to put), whose past tense yo puse, tú pusiste, etc. sounds like a certain word for, well, a cat.
  • We had that same wall when doing the classes of reflexive verbs. These are the -erse, -irse....and the -arse verb groups. Never mind that the Spanish for "arse" is el culo and that "arse" means nothing in Spanish, nor that this would only be encountered in the verb infinitive form and never on its own. Spanish really did become a whole load of arse for us that day...
  • Programming is rampant with this. No one doesn't giggle with they first hear that "friends can access private members."
  • In one of many, many, many hilarious moments in the behind-the-scenes footage on the The Lord of the Rings DVDs, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan have this exchange while discussing their characters' adventures in the second film:

Billy: (talking about Fangorn Forest) But within that, they're met by Treebeard, so they go from being prisoners of war to, like, the very bosom of nature, and it kind of helps them become hobbits again.
Dom: Mmm...bosom.
Billy: ...Did I say "bosom"?
Dom: (whispers reverentially) Yeah.

  • Teaching people about certain things or words that have different meaning can sometimes have this. Genre Savvy teachers may say "Okay, get your laughs out now".
    • Sometimes, sheet music will abbreviate Ritardando with "Retard", and sometimes people in band will say "That's retarded" when you play something wrong.
    • "Cleavage" in Geology, and "Cleavage Furrow" in Biology.
    • Foreign languages sometimes have words that sound like this. For example, a common verb in Polish, "być" is pronounced as "Bitch", but it doesn't mean it.
    • Or the time American biologists put together an acronym that resulted in their new protein being called SHAG, and then wondered why the British members of the audience cracked up every time they mentioned it.
    • The Swedish language contains a number of these for English speakers, for instance, we have "fack" (compartment like the ones in banks, for instance), "kant" (edge), and "kock" (chef).
  • Some people can't help giggling when hearing or saying "cockpit".
  • In this troper's grade seven French class, we learned about the past participles—or, as our teacher told us to call them, "le p.p.", which she admitted all of her students said very reluctantly and sometimes while laughing (come to think of it, that's probably why she told us to call it that).
  • In Linguistics 101, trying to avert this with PP (preposition phrase) is doomed to fail at some point.
  • This troper's high school science textbook referred to iguanas as "horny lizards."
  • Uranus is prone to this no matter how it's pronounced. Some people say 'your-anus' and others say 'urine-ous'.

(Heh heh... "hang out")