You Know What That Means

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Whenever one or more characters recognizes something ominous, they apparently feel the need to point it out by saying something like "And You Know What That Means!" or "Do you know what this means?" This will almost always be followed up by an explanation of what it means, either apropos of nothing or because one member of the group really doesn't know what it means. In a rare few cases, it instead leads to a Cryptic Conversation, and the audience doesn't find out what "that" means until later.

Examples of You Know What That Means include:

Literature

  • Used in Lords and Ladies by Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, regarding the crop circles appearing across Lancre. Magrat is the one who doesn't know what it means (that the elves are trying to invade), and the other two don't enlighten her because they think Magrat won't understand that the return of the elves is a bad thing.

Video Games

  • In the first Destroy All Humans!! game, two Majestic agents are surveying the damage done by Crypto during the first level.

Agent #1: Don't be a stiff. You know what it means?
Agent #2: Absolutely... what?

Western Animation

Sam: Do you realize what this means?!
Max: No, but let me guess!

Twilight: Spike, do you know what this means?
Spike: ...No?

    • Later used in "Feeling Pinkie Keen":

Pinkie Pie: It's my tail! It's my tail! It's a-twitchin' twitchin'! And you know what that means!
Twilight Sparkle: Actually, Pinkie, I haven't the slightest idea.