innuendo

Concern has been expressed that this article or section is missing information about: innuendo in positive use, for example as an element of foreplay. This focuses largely on insults.. This concern has been noted on the talk page where it may be discussed whether or not to include such information.

A sexual innuendo is a remark or question, typically disparaging, that works obliquely by allusion. The intention is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one's words, taken literally, are innocent. Innuendo can make use of, but is by no means restricted to, double entendre (note that doubles entendres can be unintentional, while innuendo is always intentional).

Usage and Perception

Some modern examples of innuendo include sexual references to human body parts. For example, a woman might attempt to purchase some groceries (in this example, watermelons) and a man might say, "Boy, those are some nice melons you have there." This statement factually describes watermelons; although as opposed to a double entendre the man's statement only implies that he was referring to the woman's breasts when the recipient understands.

When innuendo is used in a sentence, it could go completely undetected by someone who was not familiar with the hidden meaning, and he or she would find nothing odd about the sentence. Perhaps because innuendo is not considered offensive to those who do not "get" the hidden implication, it is often used in sitcoms and other comedy which would otherwise be considered unsuitable for children. Children would find this comedy funny, but because most children lack understanding of the hidden implication in innuendo, they would find it funny for a completely different reason from most adult viewers.

Innuendo in Television, Radio and Music

Sitcoms

Sexual innuendo is common in sitcoms, for instance the character “The Todd” from NBC's Scrubs (with the famous "in-your-endo" line). In Are You Being Served?, Mrs. Slocombe makes frequent references to her "pussy", such as "It's a wonder I'm here at all, you know. My pussy got soakin' wet. I had to dry it out in front of the fire before I left." A child might find this statement funny simply because of the references to her pussy cat, whereas an adult would detect the innuendo (pussy is sexual slang for vagina). In the context of Are You Being Served?, this is doubly funny as Mrs. Slocombe is apparently unaware of the innuendo, as well (See British humour). Innuendo is common in many other British sitcoms such as Only Fools and Horses or Allo Allo

Cartoons

Sexual innuendo is common in adult cartoon shows, like The Simpsons (especially in Large Marge), Family Guy, American Dad!, South Park, and Drawn Together. It is also common in certain children's cartoon shows; such shows include Rocko's Modern Life, The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Robot Boy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, and Codename: Kids Next Door.

Radio Comedy

In the comedy radio panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, where there is a strong tradition in which the innuendo would be via the ordering and stressing of words in a sentence. Humphrey Lyttelton often poses these remarks towards the 'lovely scorer Samantha', for example "Samantha spends so much time down at the library researching this round, she's been asked to take over as their new supervisor. Her first job will be to allocate new jobs to the nice old archivists. They say that when she's finished her assessment, she'll give them a presentation in the conference room, and then hand jobs out in the office."

Music

Pop singer Madonna recorded an innuendo-laden track entitled 'Where Life Begins' on her 1992-album Erotica. On a superficial level, the song would appear to describe a cosy romantic dinner date. However, it soon becomes apparent that the song is instead an homage to oral sex. The songs lyrics include 'can you make a fire without using wood?', 'you can eat all you want and you don't get fat'. It concludes with 'aren't you glad you came?' During the recording sessions the track was known as 'Eating Out'. It is not known why the title was changed. The Bloodhound Gang uses sexual innuendos in many of their songs, such as "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" and the more popular "Bad Touch". Queen published an album called Innuendo. Classic rock band AC/DC are known for extensive use of sexual innuendos, some examples being the songs Big Balls, Givin' the Dog a Bone and Let Me Put My Love into You.

Video Games

Video games like Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas, Ar tonelico, etc. has minor innuendos.

Innuendo History

Perhaps one of the most adroit manipulations of the inherent suppleness of language can be found in the ever-honeyed realm of Romantic Poetry. Many writers find innuendo to be an incredibly pleasurable experience, and their urges to create innuendo-laced pages build up until finally they gush forth a stream of innuendo which impregnates the text with naughtiness. Some authors have said they favor innuendo because it fills a void in their literature, and their readers often comment on how uplifting the innuendos are. Although different writers have their own, unique and often exotic techniques for engaging subtle sexual overtones (often heavily swayed by the peccadilloes of their cultures), the undisputed masters of both manual and oral tradition are the Japanese Haiku masters. The tight structure of traditional Haiku is quite restrictive and binding to long, drawn out notions of verbal foreplay, and yet through the delicate insertion of clever natural image, they are able to whet their readers' insatiable appetites for subjects often considered taboo.

Here, we see one of Basho's most spiritually arousing offerings. Pay close attention to the overflowing voluptuousness of the surging bucolic imagery that he employs to convey the delicate spice of his demure affection for his chaste mistress:

I think we would all like to have this sort of beautiful sentiment inside us.

Haiku is not the only form of poetic expression so deeply soaked with sexual innuendo, list poetry can make even the most suggestive literature turn flaccid in fright.

Because of this poem's double-ended simplicity, it manages to slide itself into a niche of warm, phallic, poetic mastery.

Certain shaggy dog stories also mount the plateau of high-brow innuendo, although they seem to last for long periods of time before coming to a conclusion, making them comparatively impotent, when put side-by-side with the fast, rocking undulations, and sudden thrusts of classical poetry.

Gershon Legman's Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor (New York: Grove Press, 1968) describes the whole thing as a stunt thought up by bored reporters. [1]

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