"Wink wink nudge nudge" followed by "say no more, say no more," is a statement popularized by Eric Idle in his Monty Python days in the early 1970s. The winks and nudges are verbal explications of gestures people make when they want to pass on
something sly (a wink of the eye and an elbow in the other person's side, nudging). The "say no more" extender means, rather
literally, "You
don't have to tell me anything more."
This
buzz term (or terms) was used when Idle played a character (usually opposite fellow Pythoner Terry Jones as a stuffy Brit), who persistently (and wrongly) tried to put a sniggering sexual implication on perfectly ordinary situations:
-- Idle: "Your secretary, she's a bit of a goer, isn't she?"
-- Jones (perplexed): "Umm, perhaps."
-- Idle: "Wink wink nudge nudge. Say no more, say no more."
Within the past 30 years "Wink wink nudge nudge" has also taken on almost its exact opposite meaning, used sarcastically to
mean something along the lines of "I'm sure it's painfully obvious to us both."
.
"Look at her, do you think she runs, do you think she runs?"
"I'm not sure what you
mean."
(Very broadly): "Wink wink nudge nudge say no more, say no more."
* * *
"Did you have any idea that Senator X was closeted and
gay?"
"Oh, wink wink nudge nudge. Anyone
gay, or anyone working in official Washington (D.C.) knew it already."
.
