Actually successful examples of the triple entendre

I've long maintained that "12 Inches of Snow" was actually one of the most clever album titles ever, since it can refer to 1) a weather forecast, 2) a 12" record from the rapper Snow, 3) the size of Snow's penis (big!). triple entendres are rarely attempted, and even more rarely successful, in fact off hand I can barely think of any that work? the only other one is Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record, but that's more like a 2 1/2 entendre (unless you think he should be arrested for it). What do you got?

Quadruple if you consider the unlikely interpretation that it's a 12" record of the sound of snow falling.

I thought snow was another slang term for blow or cocaine. Thought that was one interpretation of the similarly title Nick Cave title.

"Trash, go/won't pick it up"

picking litter off the street
proposition trash (sex workers, etc)
you, who are trash, should go faster

Rush's Moving Pictures is another one: 1) reference to films, 2) people emotionally moved by the pictures, 3) pictures being literally moved

I found another one: Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record: 1) the phrase "criminal record", 2) the fact that it's a record about criminals, and 3) the fact that making this should've been considered a crime :)

Black Flag's The Process Of Weeding Out

1. Weeding out fans
2. Weeding out band members
3. Smoking way too much weed

xp already mentioned in the OP

ahahah I was the one who mentioned it!! I forgot I knew about that album already!!

I've always appreciated the layers of meaning in the name of LA Dodgers-themed cafe Cofax, which refers to

1) Sandy Koufax
2) Coffee
3) Fairfax, the street/neighbour where it's located (bonus points because it's a historically jewish area, and sandy koufax is an jewish icon)

The Fall song, "Marquis Cha-Cha" is about a man who, during the Falklands War, broadcasts propaganda for the Argentinian junta. This refers too

1. Lord Haw-Haw (the nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the United Kingdom from Germany during the Second World War).

2. Mark E. Smith himself.

3. The music genre, which the song approximates (and which MES probably thought was close enough to Argentinian music).

Still a double since the full pun is 1 = 2+3

The title of Man On Man's "Take It From Me," about San Francisco in the 80s:

1) trust me, I was there, it was great
2) it's all gone now, rich people ruin everything
3) at least we're fucking

Is "honk if you're horny" a triple entendre?

1. Like a variation on "smile if you're happy", "if you're horny and you know it, honk your horn"

2. You honk a horn. The horn has the innate property of being "horny", so you honk it whenever you feel like hearing a horn - nothing to do with sex

3. The idea that whenever the driver hears a horn, they assume it's because the other driver is sexually frustrated, not frustrated by their bad driving

I think 3 is a stretch

Blood on the Tracks

1. Someone/thing was literally hit by a train
2. These songs are about harrowing shit
3. Heroin reference?

I remember reading an old book about Dylan that talked about how some of his lyrical interpreters had a huge list of supposed coded referents that "proved" that many, many of his songs were about heroin.

I'm not sure if this is an add-on to #2, or a new #4, but I also read it as "tracks" = "songs", he poured his blood and pain all over these songs.

wait, I guess that's what you were saying. nevermind me, read too fast.

Xpost*2 was that A.J.Weberman the 'garbologist'?

Keith Moon - Two Sides of the Moon

1. Near/far sides of the earth's satellite
2. Record has two sides
3. Features Moon singing rather than showcasing his usual talents

Quadruple even!

The record itself was contained in an elaborate reversible inner sleeve that, when flipped, changed the front cover to show Moon's buttocks hanging from the limousine window,[20] forming a pun on his name.

isn't it also a pun on Dark Side of The Moon which was released two years previous?

I'm shocked no one suggested 12 Inches of Snow could have referred to cocaine, for example a 12 inch long rail

Oops I clearly overlooked the third comment. Bedtime!

'air head' is one of the first short films made using #Sora by @OpenAI.

the response so far has left us floating.🎈 pic.twitter.com/bBR6IMZQ8M

— shy kids (@shykids) March 25, 2024

wait did AI come up with that "I had to go to the catcus store" line because that's actually funny

Oops, thought this was the AI thread tab

When an AI makes a successful quadruple entendre then humanity is done for

Redd Foxx's comedy album You Gotta Wash Your Ass

1. You gotta wash your ass (farm animal)
2. You gotta wash your ass (body part)

The above two meanings indicated by the cover photo. But also...

3. A play on the expression "you gotta watch your ass"

Nice

Just wondering if anyone has considered Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record in this light?

Like, "criminal record" (as in a crime), "criminal record" (as in, it's criminal this record exists) and ... ?

I just thought of one....Criminal Record by Rick Wakeman

No one's mentioned it yet, so I will because it's pretty obvious, but Criminal Record by Rick Wakeman kind of works here?

OK you've all asked for this, on your own heads be it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs8ZCTawzuo

Criminal record- The paperwork which records one's criminality
Criminal record- An album which records one's artistic criminality
Criminal record- An actual criminal records an LP (example: Charles Manson's album)

third one is surely "this LP is so bad it's a crime"

or I guess that's kind of the second one

I laugh whenever this thread gets bumped and I see "(big!)" in the first post

Joe Orton / Prick Up Your Ears: (i) phrase meaning pay attention (ii) prick slang for penis (ii) ears anagram of arse.

Surely just a double entendre? (i) and (ii) "Prick up your rears".

The Rick Wakeman album is also a concept album about crime.

it's also an album you could steal, which would be a crime

And Wakeman was charged with drunk driving a few times back in the day...

Could also mean a set of records (files) compiled by a clerk who in his spare time was a notorious jaywalker.

Teenage Fanclub - Thirteen

1. The third Teen LP (their third "proper" album)
2. 13 songs on the record
3. Homage to the best-known song of their biggest influence, Big Star

1 seems a stretch.

4. Thirteen is an unlucky number, just as TFC are unlucky in the music biz

Possibly Elvis Costello, Man out of Time

1, he's literally running out of time
2, he doesn't fit in with the people and ideas of his era
3, "out of time " in the musical sense

It's clever enough to deserve a second mention

(Incidentally, back in the 90s, I once frequented a Toronto used-record shop which had that actual burning-witch painting displayed on the wall)

rush also notable for literal depiction of all three meanings on the cover.

In the spirit of the thread, I'll mention it a third time

Interestingly, the band name Rush may also qualify:

1. Hurrying up
2. A sensation one gets from a substance
3. Mega dittos

I think there's one in the song "Family Snapshot" by Peter Gabriel.

1. The lyrics tell a story from the pov of an assassin with a gun, so "I shoot into the light" is literal

2. There is a photography/film metaphor present throughout, from the title, to "gone in a flash", so I think "I shoot into the light" could be taken in that sense - if you face a camera into the light, what's seen is in silhouette, unclear, it's blinding

3. The song then reveals that the assassin was a neglected child, hiding in the dark, so "I shoot into the light" also means they will finally recieve attention

I have to procure a copy of my "lack of criminal record" record from city hall to show my new employers. I keep guffawing in random places because every time my task comes to mind, so does this thread.

Don't know why you'd think of this thread, afaict that's the first time it's been mentioned

I found another one: Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record: 1) the phrase "criminal record", 2) the fact that it's a record about criminals, and 3) the fact that making this should've been considered a crime :)

― frogbs, Friday, May 26, 2023 3:59 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have to procure a copy of my "lack of criminal record" record

It's difficult but not impossible to publicly proveP one's ignorance of sub-par Wakeman albums

Anyway, the third album by the Mamas and the Papas, Deliver:

- the group is providing their fans with a satisfying new LP
- the pregnant Mamas are preparing to give birth
- foreshadowing of the subsequent removal of John Phillips's liver

Oh man, those three posts add up to a lot of laughter

foreshadowing of the subsequent removal of John Phillips's liver

Oh god, and when posting the above I hadn't even seen this yet

Aerosmith’s album Draw The Line features a caricature line drawing as cover art.

― once beloved, recently troubled (Dan Peterson), Thursday, June 19, 2025

Boy, that ain't the only meaning either behind that one.

― pplains, Thursday, June 19, 2025 9:44 AM

David Bowie - Stage

- Putting on a performance
- the platform he’s using to do so
- the point he’s at in his career, putting a line under what he’s done.

St-st-st-st-stages ....!

David Bowie- David Live

David is doing a live concert
David is commanding himself to stay alive
Bowie is debuting a new persona named “David Live”

I thought I had seen Draw the Line on this thread, but no, that was Done With Mirrors.

So what are the three sides of Honkin' on Bobo then.

cocaine, clowns, masturbation

3. Steven Tyler didn’t know Liv’s name and used to get totally fucked up and park in front of the Rundgren house honking his horn yelling “I wanna see Bobo”

cocaine, clowns, masturbation

See also Brian Wilson's "Honkin' Down the Highway"

Masturbation?! The cover art is a harmonica with lipstick on it.

I thought that was all of their album covers though.

I guess Get A Grip was their masterbation euphemism record then.

Get Your Wings

1. Get high
2. Become a pilot
3. Die and become an angel

4. obtain chicken
5. obtain a recording of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine

6. The red one...

https://scontent.fslc3-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/519484207_122294907140003337_8391456282087290496_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=cy2BUxtmDmgQ7kNvwFXm-8d&_nc_oc=AdklGc0cIR6rMnRY3DRaPEDkj_4bRUeZ3l6aH1hMzDSlczh3-heybYHrudQoTo8aDrmFdt2yLuujnRaUCF12zpZ2&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fslc3-2.fna&_nc_gid=ViKEdmZNulMDuHOyE0mdxQ&oh=00_AfQjqP9KF59Y1c6vnFJXhXxt66yPzCEKxmFGj4mA6KoJZQ&oe=6886F9EB

BDE in the great white north

Listening to Bowie’s incredible swansong “I Can’t Give Everything Away” yesterday:
- I can’t reveal this illness I’ve been battling
- I can’t share everything I have with the people I love before I go
- I can’t leave this wonderful life behind

WARP 100: We Are Reasonable People

1. Quirky acronym for label
2. Parody of "We Are Sexual Perverts" (i.e. W.A.S.P.)
3. Message to people who want to license music for film/tv/ads

The final episode of The Prisoner was called "Fall Out". It deals with the fallout of the previous episode, it ends with the hitherto rigidly stratified society of The Village falling out - after having a fall out with each other - and (this is a stretch) the location footage was all filmed in late 1967, when it was autumn, so for a US audience it was "fall" out. God that's poor.

I'm a fool, not a rat. "Free For All". It deals with an election where Number Six promises freedom for all. The election itself is a free for all. And it ends with a free-for-all in which Mr The Prisoner is beaten up. No, that's poor as well.

Okay, in "A Change of Mind" Number Six undergoes a fake lobotomy which changes his mind, and at the end of the episode he uses drugs to make the inhabitants of the village change their mind about Number Two, and also "Change Your Mind" was a top twenty hit for Sharpe and Numan in 1985. You know, I thought that The Prisoner was deeper than it actually was. Where are those triple entendres, Patrick McGoohan? Where are they? What does it all mean?

"fall out" is also the military command to disassemble a company at attention

Skiing this weekend, on the chairlift, the gondola-like tram w/ 40 person capacity passes over us with a big graphic that says “MOVE UP” plastered across the underside

1. This thing will literally move you up the mountain, you should try it
2. People waiting in the (long, slow) line for the tram: when this passes over you, giving you occasion to read it, it’s just about time to move up in the line
3. Stop freezing your butt off on the chairlift, travel to the top of the mountain in style! (cf. the Jeffersons “Movin’ on Up”)

it's "criminal" no one has mentioned a certain Rick Wakeman album yet

you know who has a criminal record? Most Juggalos.

WARP 100: We Are Reasonable People

1. Quirky acronym for label
2. Parody of "We Are Sexual Perverts" (i.e. W.A.S.P.)
3. Message to people who want to license music for film/tv/ads

― A floating crown, but an extremely small one (President Keyes), Wednesday, October 15, 2025 8:57 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ok wow, serious “things you were shockingly old when you learned” material - I’ve been aware of this title for over twenty years but always wondered what the deal with it was.

aerosmith done with mirrors

ooh, just realized aerosmith had another good one.

rocks! quadruple entendre at least.

1. we are a band that rocks
2. we are a band that is on the rocks
3. cocaine
4. diamonds

also Aerosmith:

Rockin' the Joint

1. Smoking pot
2. Having a really loud musical concert
3. masturbating

only on season two but, Mad Men:
1) Ad execs
2) Angry dudes
3) Lunatics (?)

Fans of Alfred E. Newman

Isn't it also a ref. to Madison Ave?

Yeah I think of one meaning as combining "ad men" with Madison Ave. Then crazy/angry people as another. Maybe double and a half entendre?

According to the pilot episode, the term "Mad men" was coined in the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to themselves, "Mad" being short for "Madison".

Kim Gordon announces new album coming in March, Play Me

literally play this record
play the role of me
dunk on me

and, I would assume, play against me in this game

Maybe she's covering Neil Diamond on it.

not music but i think i accidentally made a triple entendre at TJ's today

my ex-girlfriend was parking and said "i gotta pull in more, i'm long" (meaning her car)
i responded "i used to be long" (meaning my penis)
and after saying it realized that i also said "i used to belong"
which is how i feel about myself sometimes, even though it's not true
(as in i belong now, not that i never belonged)

you used to be long, now you belong and your car be long

Dunnonif it goes here but some years ago I was in a conversation with what may have been a trilingual pun?

Friend 1: what should you call more than one Thermos? Thermi?

Friend 2: No, Thermos is from Greek; the plural would be Thermoi.

Friend 3: actually it's pronounced Ther-mwah.

(Said as if it were moi in French)

Maybe you had to be there

you used to be long, now you belong and your car be long

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Sunday, January 25, 2026 5:11 PM (yesterday)

oh i don't have a car, she does

but other than that, yeah