# What is the most commonly used phrase in English that came from a movie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies\
**Created:** [December 2, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068 "2024-12-02T16:37:29Z")\
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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/39 "2024-12-02T20:44:53Z")

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Yeah, that’s one of those things where people think the first place they saw a thing is the same as its origin.  
‘That’s what SHE said’ (or equivalent ways of highlighting an innuendo such as ‘said the actress to the bishop’) is a really old joke-form that probably dates back to Victorian music-hall comedy or before.

It’s not tremendously easy to find exact examples of ‘that’s what she said’ going back that far, but it is trivial to prove that it’s not a Michael Scott thing - [here’s](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-phrases-that-sound-dirty-but-have-no-dirty-words/19936/70) someone on the SDMB discussing it several years before _The Office_ first aired in the USA.  
(It’s probably something Ricky Gervaise also said in the original series of _The Office_, but he didn’t invent it either - it’s _old_)

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