The origin of “That’s What She Said,” the prequel?!?

Did you like the Funny or Die video featuring Megan Mullally and Thomas Lennon exploring the origins of the double-entendre catchphrase, "That's what she said"?

What if I told you someone else had attempted to explore this similar theme for comedy two weeks ago? What. As if you're surprised in parallel thinking on this one. There's another video that made the rounds last week — entirely different subject matter — on a topic that I thought for certain someone else had to have done before (still looking for evidence of such, and will report back to you if/when evidence becomes unlost/found). But I'm not surprised that other comedians thought of a sketch centered around the original "she" in "That's what she said." Actually, what amazes me is that I only found one such example, and furthermore, that these kids from NYC-based sketch group The Basement also happened to upload their video to Funny or Die 16 days ago. I know Seth Morris over at FoD, so my inclination is to not suspect him of anything wrong — especially since The Basement's submission easily could have been overlooked among the many outside submissions on the site and didn't have many views there. Anyhow. Enough preambling.

As The Basement's Beth Appel told me via email today: "I guess it's in the zeitgeist!" She added: "We're fairly new as a group and we're working on videos mostly before we book live shows. Our ultimate goal is to put together a college tour. "That's What She Said" was our debut…
(We all met through the UCB Theater.)" Talk about an auspicious debut. Roll their version of the clip!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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