Said the actress to the bishop - wikipedia Said the actress to the bishop The phrase `` Said the actress to the bishop '' is a colloquial and vulgar British exclamation, offering humour by serving as a punch line that exposes an unintended double entendre. An equivalent phrase in North America is `` that 's what she said ''. Each phrase is an example of a Wellerism, exposing a second meaning of what precedes it. The versatility of such phrases, and their popularity, lead some to consider them clichéd. Contents 1 History and variations 2 That 's what she said ! 3 References 4 External links History and variations The term, or its variant `` as the actress said to the bishop '', may have been used as far back as Edwardian times, and is apparently British in origin. The phrase is frequently used by the fictional character Simon Templar ( alias `` The Saint '' ) in a long - running series of mystery books by Leslie Charteris. The phrase first appears in the inaugural Saint novel Meet the Tiger, published in 1928. The version `` as the girl said to the soldier '' appears in a recorded sound test for Alfred Hitchcock 's 1929 film Blackmail. Kingsley Amis uses the line in his 1954 novel Lucky Jim, where a woman offering relationship advice to Jim Dixon says `` I ca n't show you, as the actress said to the bishop. '' That 's what she said ! By 1973, `` that 's what she said '' had already been characterized as an `` ancient one - liner '' in the United States. In the early 1990s, it was popularized as a recurring joke in the Saturday Night Live sketch `` Wayne 's World ''. In the movie of the same name, the character, Wayne Campbell, uses the phrase after his partner Garth says, `` Hey, are you through yet ? ' Cause I 'm getting tired of holding this '', in regard to a picture he is holding. An 1896 recording by Len Spencer of the song `` All Coons Look Alike to Me '' includes the suggestive line `` That 's what she said, yeah. '' In the original BBC version of The Office, Ricky Gervais 's character David Brent frequently used the phrase `` as the actress said to the bishop '' as an inappropriate joke. When the show was adapted for American audiences, also under the title `` The Office '', the phrase was translated to `` that 's what she said '' for Steve Carell 's character Michael Scott. `` That 's what she said '' ( with an emphasis on the word `` she '' ) became a catchphrase of The Office and was used for the show 's `` That 's What She Said '' Sweepstakes. The phrase `` that 's what she said '' was more often used after his colleagues would make innocent comments such as, `` that 's a mouthful '' and `` that looks hard. '' The title character on the US TV show Archer, after several seasons of using `` phrasing ! '' to draw attention to double entendres, briefly toyed with ``... said Ripley to the android Bishop '', a reference to both this phrase and the 1986 film Aliens. References ^ Jump up to : The British Equivalent of ' That 's What She Said ' Today I Found Out ^ Jump up to : International ' that 's what she said ' day. Newsvine. February 15, 2007. Jump up ^ `` That 's What She Said ? Yeah, Give It A Rest '' The Verge. GQ online Jump up ^ Partridge, Eric ( 1982 ). A Dictionary of Catch Phrases ( 2 ed. ). London : Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 05916 - 9. Jump up ^ Nicholas Graham ( 2010 - 06 - 10 ). `` Hitchcock 's ' That 's What She Said ' Joke Is Its First Known Recording ! ( video ) ''. The Huffington Post. Jump up ^ Addeo, Edmond G. ; Burger, Robert E. ( 1973 ). EgoSpeak : Why No One Listens to You. Chilton Books. ISBN 0801958938. Retrieved 2012 - 09 - 28. The cheapest shot of all, of course, is the ancient one - liner, `` That 's what she said '' This reply can be used after virtually any remark, however innocent, and the speaker can summon up some hint of double - entendre. Jump up ^ https://archive.org/details/LenSpencer-01-10 Jump up ^ The Office Launches ' That 's What She Said ' Sweepstakes. Buddy TV. External links The dictionary definition of as the actress said to the bishop at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of that 's what she said at Wiktionary Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Said_the_actress_to_the_bishop&oldid=808616474 '' Categories : English phrases Quotations from film and television Catchphrases Hidden categories : All articles that may contain original research Articles that may contain original research from October 2015 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk ქართული Edit links This page was last edited on 4 November 2017, at 00 : 19. About Wikipedia

Question: where does the saying said the actress to the bishop come from
Answer: British