"That Thing You Do" - what is the 'thing' being referred to in the song

No joint "Taking a humongous dump/Something 'sexual'" option no credibility, it's as Tom Hansk would want it

I read "Breaking my heart into a million pieces" and "Doing that thing you do" as parallel clauses which modify the initial "You", rather than "Breaking my heart" being an elaboration on "that thing."

it's literally in the second lyric of the song

... In other words, there exists no essential connection between the thing done and the breaking heart, except in the subjective world of the speaker who is recording this perceptual gestalt: There's you, and you're doing that thing you do, while my heart breaks.

(xp to self)

Humongous dump? That's where I'm a viking!

The "thing" (John Carpenter/Chris Nolan theory, feel free to disagree):

Stacy's mother realized the singer is obsessed with her instead of the more age-appropriate Stacy so she begins spawning identical Stacys in an effort to dissuade the singer from further developing feelings from her but...

it backfires making the singer even more attracted to her.

looking at the lyrica, did rivers cuomo write this? icm

actually the bass player for Fountains of Wayne did!

icm = ick

thanks i thought you were referring to intercontinental ballistics missiles

TS: The "thing" being referred to in "That Thing You Do" vs. The "that" being referred to in "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" vs The "That" in "I Want It That Way."

I'm not sure why I'd take any of this seriously, but it's how I roll.

The 'thing' is unspecified. Based on my reading of the text, the breaking of his heart is not the 'thing' itself, but rather the effect it has on him. First she does the 'thing', then it breaks his heart. He understands she is unaware of the effect the 'thing' has on him, so the effect is incidental rather than intended.

While the specific 'thing' is left to the imagination of the audience, the set of realistic interpretations will cluster around her being cute, lovable and mildly flirtatious, without seriously considering the narrator as suitable for an amorous relationship. It is the first of these attributes of the 'thing' that make it hard to forget her, but it is the last of these attributes that causes him heartbreak/heartache, which is why he singles it out as the required remedy for his heartbreak in the later stanzas.

All of the foregoing amply proves that a careful dissection of the rhetorical constructs of this lyric is overblown silliness.

singles it out eliminating it as the required remedy

which brings us back to the dump

That Thing You Doo

That Thing You Deuce

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Okay now let's poll a tie-breaker

That poop you fling

Mysterious sexual humongous dump, you say?

and if I know you you're doing that 'thing' you do
ew

I wouldn't have placed the opening riff as from the pixies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU_jqWVofcU