"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."
.
