Said the actress to the bishop  

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"Said the actress to the bishop", or "as the actress said to the bishop" is an informal (and occasionally vulgar) exclamation, usually said for humour after an inadvertent use of a double entendre. For example, if someone says "That's a big one", another could add "...as the actress said to the bishop!"

It is said in the style of a punchline, comically implying that the original double entendre was merely the second-from-last line in a long, rude joke. On occasion, the term is swapped when appropriate to "said the bishop to the actress", or "as the bishop said to the actress".

The phrase is an example of a Wellerism, a literal "turn" of a phrase, changing its meaning.

Whether an original joke existed involving an actress and a bishop is not known.





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Said the actress to the bishop" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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