# Unintentional double entendres: speaker or audience's fault? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 20, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714 "2020-01-20T19:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/1 "2020-01-20T19:16:16Z")
I am of the opinion that if an audience or listener is constantly chortling over unintentional sexual double entendres - such as treating “she was coming” as “she was cumming” - that, at a certain point, the fault lies more with the audience than the speaker. Yes, speakers need to be aware of vocabulary and keep up to date on its unintended meanings, but oftentimes, it’s not so much the speaker’s fault as it is that some listeners are deliberately intent on hearing double entendres where nothing sexual or bad was intended. They’re TRYING to hear things in as bad a way as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/2 "2020-01-20T19:20:53Z")
That’s what she said. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/3 "2020-01-20T19:33:25Z")
I think that in many (most?) cases, it’s not that the listeners are deliberately trying to hear the sexual meaning, but out of habit or conditioning or for whatever other reason, that’s the one that their (subconscious?) brain chooses to focus on. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/4 "2020-01-21T17:47:34Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > IYes, speakers need to be aware of vocabulary and keep up to date on its unintended meanings, but oftentimes, it’s not so much the speaker’s fault as it is that some listeners are deliberately intent on hearing double entendres where nothing sexual or bad was intended. They’re TRYING to hear things in as bad a way as possible. Oftentimes? You must live a much different life than me. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation where an “audience” were picking up double entendres at a frequency that was worthy of more than a moment’s irritation. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/5 "2020-01-21T18:13:57Z")
Whose fault is it if the double entendre is due to the fact that the speaker’s language skills are not up to par? In Italian, “Mary does Edna”, means that Mary does Edna’s work. This is not the same meaning in English. Hilarity ensued. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/6 "2020-01-21T18:27:15Z")
And sometimes it’s the speechwriter’s fault [Obama has a big stick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmbsKW0d7c) ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/7 "2020-01-21T21:46:37Z")
Both and neither. On the one hand, the verb “come” is ubiquitous, and probably the best most succinct verb choice for lots of sentences. On the other hand, if I was going to write a speech or presentation, I’d avoid using it. It may not be my “fault” that some percentage of an audience would snicker at hearing “the guests came more quickly than expected, so we had to do some last-minute cleaning,” but it would be my lack of understanding or awareness that lead to it, for sure. I think that the come/cum homonym is common enough that it counts as a writer’s error (or choice) to keep it in certain phrases. I’m sure there are plenty of other homonyms that are less common or obvious, and that I wouldn’t necessarily think the writer was asleep on the job for including. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/8 "2020-01-21T22:32:35Z")
Audience. When I’m speaking I’m just trying to convey a thought. If the naughty version of what I just said is off topic, then that’s not what I meant and you need to grow up. HOWEVER, if I accompany the questionable phrase with a winky sort of look or atypically stressed syllable, maybe a pause, then chances are I’m trying to get you to pick up on the naughty. But I’d be hesitant to call out a double entendre without an obvious clue from the speaker that it was intended. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/9 "2020-01-22T01:06:27Z")
Huh-huh-uh-huh huh huh. You said double ent-ENTER Huh huh-huh huh- huh-huh. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/10 "2020-01-22T04:11:35Z")
There’s a British comic named Jimmy Carr. He does standup and hosts a few different comedy panel shows. His reputation for innuendo and outright sleaze is so bad that the following exchange happened on one of those panel shows. Female panelist: I may be getting a notice from the town council [town government] about having an awful junky garden [yard]. Jimmy Carr, quite seriously: Really? I would have imagined that your garden was quite well kept.\* Audience roars in laughter. I believe he honestly didn’t mean anything by it, but it was his reputation that caused the reaction at least as much as the audience’s proclivity to snicker. So my answer is both, and it depends on the speaker. \*“garden” as metaphor for pubes, just in case anyone didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentional-double-entendres-speaker-or-audiences-fault/846714/11 "2020-01-22T05:23:47Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > I think that the come/cum homonym is common enough that it counts as a writer’s error (or choice) to keep it in certain phrases. I’m sure there are plenty of other homonyms that are less common or obvious, and that I wouldn’t necessarily think the writer was asleep on the job for including. Homonym? That’s the same word; spelling it “cum” makes me imagine the writer had Brian’s Latin teacher. “Is your wife a goer, eh? Know what I mean, know what I mean, nudge nudge, know what I mean, say no more?”