We’ve all done it. And we will all do it again.
We are all culprits of the phenomenon that is the “that’s what she said” joke.
And the question we’ve all had cross our minds for however fleeting a second is: when are “that’s what she said” jokes appropriate?
All the time, that’s when.
Whether you are in class and the professor drops the perfect prefix to those four words, or you are cruising in the back seat of your friend’s dad’s mom’s station wagon relentlessly saying those four words after every statement your other friends make – always appropriate.
Some might argue they aren’t actually always appropriate.
For example, if you are at family dinner at your grandmother’s house and the opportunity strikes. Appropriate? I say yes.
Who’s to say Grandma won’t like the joke? Either way, you won’t know until you try it out for her to witness.
Maybe you’ll be surprised and she will suddenly throw out “that’s what she said” after everything to the point that nothing Grandma says makes sense anymore. More entertainment for everyone!
That may be an extreme, but you get the idea.
The cool thing about TWSS jokes is that, while they may have a tendency to steer the mind toward the gutter, they aren’t inherently inappropriate. Those four words could be taken in a number of ways, with only a handful being suggestive in any way.
And once you have said the joke, if someone does take offense, you can always steer it in a different direction that has a small chance of making sense and saving your butt in the process.
And a small chance is all you need for incentive, right?
The key to TWSS jokes, as with any jokes, is the finesse in which you use to execute them.
Kidding. Forget finesse; the key to these jokes is to say the four word sequence every chance you get. Even if it doesn’t really work at that moment or fit in the conversation at all.
If you do this enough, you may even have my luck and start to notice your mom will add “that’s what she said” to conversations. And that is where the “your mom” jokes start and end in this column.
If take away anything from today’s rant, take away this: “That’s what she said” jokes are some of the easiest and most fun one-liners out there to nail, so tell them all time.
Take a page from Michael Scott’s book, and never refrain from a “that’s what she said” joke.
