What Is This X You Speak Of?: Difference between revisions

A [[Stock Phrase]] that today is used in conversation to express a [[Sarcasm Mode|sarcastic dismissal]] of a concept that another person takes for granted, or to imply that the topic of the sentence -- sentence—"X -- is"—is unknown in the context of the discussion. For example:

{{quote|'''Alice:''' Surely the [[NSA]]'s spying program is limited by the Constitution.<br />

Which implies that NSA is ignoring or ignorant of the Constitution and its limits on government power, at least in Bob's opinion.

The origins of this phrase are obscure; it appears to be rooted in a [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|generalized memory of cliched lines]] from bad SF movies from the middle of the 20th Century. The prototypical scene involves [[Aliens Speaking English|aliens who speak English perfectly]], yet still need a handy Earthman to explain ordinary concepts to them -- eventhem—even concepts one would expect would have obvious counterparts in their own culture or biology. It also seems to be related to the archetypal [[Jungle Princess]]'s inquiry, [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|"Kiss? What is 'kiss'?"]] However, examples ofboth thesarcastic and usageserious can be found at least as far back as the 18th Century, making this [[Older Than Radio]], and possibly [[Older Than Steam]].

It is really in this context that All The Tropes is interested in the phrase. Since its explosion into the memesphere as a sarcastic [[Snowclone]] the modern use of the phrase can be found just about anywhere -- weanywhere—we'd really rather see pre-Internet instances of the originalphrase useand ofits thevariants phraseas andexamples, itswhether used straight variantsor as sarcasm. (If you've got a particularly humorousgood example of the modern use that you still want to share, though, put it on the Quotes subpage.)

* ''[[The Monk]]'', by Matthew Lewis, a [[Gothic Horror]] novel written in ''1794'':

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