This and That

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

There was a young woman named Pat,
Who offered to do "this or that."
When speaking of "this,"
She meant more than a kiss,
So imagine her meaning of "that!"

"We're getting married in the autumn. We've already done 'this' and 'that' and all 'other' kinds of things!"
Otae, lying about her relationship with Gintoki, Gintama

Rough English translation of "anna koto ya sonna koto" (あんなことやそんなこと), a Japanese euphemism for sexual activity. Approximate equivalent of the English expression "doing you-know-what."

Along the same lines, sexual intercourse is sometimes referred to as "doing that thing."

If you do This and That properly, your partner will "reach the clouds and rain".

For examples of other euphemisms for sex, see Intercourse with You.

No real life examples, please; this is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.

Examples of This and That include:

Anime and Manga

  • Washuu announces to the world at large that Ryoko wants to do "this and that" with Tenchi in Tenchi Muyo!. In another episode, Ayeka worries about Ryoko "doing this and doing that" with Tenchi.
  • The student council in My-HiME briefly discusses a curfew-breaking female student who may have been doing "this or that" with a boy in one episode; one of the council members is apparently unfamiliar with the usage and takes a while to piece together just what the others are talking about.
  • In Mai-Otome, a schoolgirl envisioning the lascivious things an older girl could order a classmate to do squeals about "this or that".
  • In Nagasarete Airantou, After months of living with Suzu, Ikuto was finally asked by Yukino's mother if he had done "this and that" with her to which Ikuto responds with a massive Nosebleed and refusal of doing said acts.
  • In episode 8 of the new TV version of Ah! My Goddess, Urd (on a videotaped "instruction guide for the lovelorn") promises to explain how to do "this and that" with a girl. In episode 12, Sayoko accuses Mara of doing "this and that" to her on waking up next to her.
  • Best Student Council uses a variant, in the Unusual Euphemism paya-paya, which sounds just lascivious enough almost no one actually understands what it means.
  • In Nodame Cantabile, Stresemann offers to take the naive titular character to a hotel, where he can show her 'this and that'. When she asks what 'this and that' is, he replies 'Something you probably don't know about yet, Nodame-chan.' Chiaki, still within earshot, gets it and intervenes before Nodame can agree.
  • In the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga, Lucia is giving one of several love confessions gone wrong, and Kaito jokes about "this and that", causing Lucia to yell at him while he laughs it off. It's a major turning point in the relationship, where Lucia is able to finally blink, look at him and start laughing too, where before she'd continue to take Kaito's perverted jokes personally.
    • Elsewhere in the series, it's Covert Pervert Hanon's favourite saying when she wants to tease Lucia about her relationship.
  • In FLCL, Naota's father uses Fooly Cooly (the title/ArcWords of the series) as an Unusual Euphemism for an ill-defined perverted sexual activity.
  • In Inuyasha, when Miroku and Sango go off alone to investigate a mountain, Shippo expresses concerns over "this and that and this".
  • In the manga version of Prétear, Yayoi muses about "doing this and that" after Himeno says that she can't sleep because the Leafe Knights stay in her room at night to guard her. Himeno tells her they don't; what really happens is actually far less romantic...
  • Midori dreams about being Seiji's wife and ends it with "Then we'd do this and that"...
  • FAKE has Dee imagining what he and Ryo could do together on Christmas eve. "We could have done this... and this... and maybe some of that..."
  • Tsuyuri from Doujin Work suggests that Najimi and Houshi might have done "this and that... and this ... and maybe that" in a love hotel, only to watch Justice squirm in despair.
  • A lot of "this" and a lot of "that" are exactly what Aizen Teppa from Grenadier tries to get. He's apparently quite successful too (Episodes 11 and 12 show that he's quite popular among the ladies of the town)...except when it comes to his good friend, Rushuna.
  • The H-game of Da Capo has summaries of the individual scenes in the game. For the H scenes, the summary is sometimes pretty straightforward - "We had sex" - but other times it's rather more coy, "We did this and that".
  • Mutsumi asks if Naru and Keitaro are going to do "This and That" during Volume 10 of the Love Hina manga.
  • In the Yami no Matsuei manga, Watari convinces Tsuzuki to try one of his prototype gender-changing potions by telling him that if he were female, he could do this and that and it'd all be okay.
  • Clannad (game): Kyou is talking to Tomoya about giving a love letter from the soccer captain to Ryou: "If she becomes his girlfriend and since you're a guy, you wouldn't be able to do this and that to her." Not following you there, Kyou...
  • Gintama has ninja Ayame Sarutobi (Sa-chan) frequently referring to "this-and-that" in her deluded fantasies over her 'relationship' with Gintoki, and the term's also used by several other characters.
  • Junjou Romantica has Usagi-san using this euphemism when talking about what he and Misaki get up to when they're together.
  • Used in the second One Piece movie, where the mooks that are about to kidnap Nami so the Big Bad can forcibly marry her say out loud that they hope they'll be able to watch their boss do "this" and "that" to her. The horrified looks on the crew's faces when they hear them are priceless.
  • When Sato of Welcome to The NHK finds a Hentai Doujinshi in a shop, Yamazaki cheers "What do you think? Isn't it great seeing your favorite girls doing this and that?"
  • Steel Angel Kurumi has the perverted general, who asks confidentially if Saki can be ordered to do 'this and that'.
  • During their first training in the Shuuren no Mon, Dorothy realizes that Ginta and Snow are paired together and could be doing 'This and that'. She later gets extremely angry when she finds out that their meeting was a kiss.
    • It doesn't help viewers when the next image (after Dorothy gets angry at the pairings) is of Snow being embarrassed and Ginta asking her to show him again. He's fascinated by her summoning of Yuki-chan, her snowman guardian).
  • In Fruits Basket, Kyo is engaged in a martial arts battle with his cousin Hatsuharu's violent Split Personality, "Black Haru", who threatens to do "some of this, and some of that" to Tohru if Kyo loses. This succeeds in making Kyo angry enough to have more of an incentive to fight back, though whether Black Haru actually meant what he said is debatable.
  • Played with/subverted in Fairy Tail. During the Lullabye Arc Lucy is told by Erza to go find Natsu and Gray. She gets lost and frustrated, and decides to stop looking... then Happy looks shocked and says that she must be brave, to defy Erza. He then wonders what will happen when Erza does "this and that" to Lucy, and Lucy freaks out, saying "What is she going to do to me!!??" It's implied, however, that the threat was not sexual in nature, and was more of a 'she'll beat you up, horribly' deal. It never is revealed what Erza really would have done, though...
  • In Azumanga Daioh, Nyamo, of all people, gets blitzed and gives a lecture on "this and that" to the girls, with reactions ranging from horrified to amazed to downright intrigued. And, the morning after, when Chiyo innocently comes to ask her about the things she didn't understand about said lecture... Let's just say it's priceless.

Film

Live-Action TV

  • A slightly different Western example: In an episode of Seinfeld, Jerry and Elaine talk about their relationship, making references to "this," with a forward-and-backward hand motion, implying a conversational, friendly relationship, and "that," with a hand motion towards Jerry's bedroom, implying a sexual relationship. Elaine decides at the end that she wants, "this," "that," and "the other" (love).
    • Then there's "yada yada yada," which George's girlfriend uses to cover up all manner of things when telling stories, which it turns out includes sex.
  • Obligatory Buffy example. In a bid to make up with Oz, Willow has him over to watch videos. He finds her in the darkened lounge wearing a slinky red dress, Barry White playing in the background and a bottle of lemonade in an ice bucket, which she'd set up in preparation of wanting to "do that thing."

Music

  • This and That by Michael Penn

Theater

  • The musical A Chorus Line features a song titled "Tits and Ass." Frequently, high school performing-arts programs decide they want to perform this musical, and are forced to change the lyrics to placate the parents' groups. What do they usually change the lyrics to, so as to best match the rhythm and sound of the original words? "This and That." (Which, considering what this trope is usually taken to mean, implies that the Bowdlerized lyrics got even racier.)

Tabletop Games

  • Maid RPG always refers to sex as variations on this throughout the rulebooks. For example, from a replay:

GM: Ahhh. I see how it is. That’s pretty handy. “Doing That Thing”! Heheheh. Vampires do vampiric activities, humans do [censored] activities. OK! OK!

Video Games

  • In RPG/sim hybrid Azure Dreams (PSX version), after teenage-hero Koh finally gets a Relationship Upgrade by turning Girl Next Door, Bokkuko Tsundere Nico, into a Victorious Childhood Friend as part of his personal Tenchi Solution harem, she will fondly reminisce to him how very touchy-feely he already was with her even when they were still young children (I remember that even when you were a little kid, you would get me and we would do this and do that). Koh shamelessly agrees with a straight face (Yes, I did this and that).

Web Comics

  • In Pibgorn, Pibgorn is explaining to a fellow fairy that she is friends with a succubus. When asked what a succubus does, she replies "Oh, this and that, this and that."