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

{{examples}}

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' has a variant instance, which [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002289.html at least one linguistics blogger] suspects may be the trigger for modern (over-)usage of the phrase:

{{quote|"Look, sorry, are we talking about the little white furry things with the cheese fixation and women standing on tables screaming in early sixties sitcoms?"

{{quote|"My little man, where do you come from? What is this 'where I live,' of which you speak?"}}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', the infamous episode "Spock's Brain":

{{quote|'''Kara:''' "Brain" and "brain"! What is "brain"?}}

* The earliest known Internet example of the phrase can be found in a [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/net.misc/msg/da67fe94b296df17 post] to [[UseNet|net.misc]] on August 24, 1983:

{{quote|There has been a lot of net discussion about "toilet paper" recently. Just what is this "toilet paper" of which you speak? Where can I find it?}}

:It is less the [[Snowclone]], though, than an echo of the older usage.

* [[Samurai]] Miko Miyazaki in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' lampshades the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] from which she comes by asking another character,

{{quote|"What is this 'Japan' you speak of? I have never heard of it before."}}

{{reflist}}