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 after an inadvertent use of a double entendre, which outlines a sexually ambiguous phrase mentioned by the utterer. The term "said the actress to the bishop" usually shows a seemingly innocent remark, but is noted for the value of comedy. An example is "This is too hard for me to work with (Said the actress to the bishop)".

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.

[edit] History and Background

The term may have been used as far back as Edwardian times, but is rarely used in the USA, deriving from British use. One poster on the Phrases.org.uk website[1] claimed that the phrase was "Certainly in RAF use c. 1944-7, but probably going back to to Edwardian days; only very slightly obsolete by 1975, it is likely to outlive most of us".

The phrase is frequently used (in various contexts) 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! which was published in 1928.