1. INNUENDOS
By: Cassandra Kessler

2. What is an “innuendo”?
Innuendos are a rhetorical device used to create a derogatory insinuation of something/someone
It is the use of suggestion to disparage (say something negative about) something/someone
Read slide.
Think of innuendos as “the insinuators”

3. What Constitutes an Innuendo?
The use of neutral (or even positive) phrasing to insinuate
Innuendos rely heavily on unwarranted assumptions
Leaving out important details in order to insinuate about the something/someone
No use of negative wording to get the insinuation across
So how do we know if we have an innuendo on our hands?
You can look for the following sort of “triggers” and you can always ask yourself, “If I make an assumption based on what I have read is it going to be a negative one or a positive one?” “Did they leave out some sort of specific detail in the claim, just so they made it sound negative?” Now let’s take a look at the following examples.

4. Examples Consider the following dialogue Consider this statement
Mom: Is John telling us the truth again?
Dad: Yeah, this time.
Why is this an example of innuendo?
The cities of Springfield, Louisville, and Gretna have assumed the costs of making the Sarpy County Landfill more ecofriendly for the nearby farmers and residents.
Why is this an example of innuendo?
Read dialogue example. How is this an example of innuendo? Because “Dad” is insinuating that John usually does NOT tell the truth and the way he talks, makes it sound like he is unimpressed that he is actually telling the truth this time.
Now, take a look at the second example. How is this a clear example of innuendo? Flip back to previous slide. It left out an important detail and made it seem like the city was in on making the landfill more ecofriendly, when in fact the cities are probably required by law to use tax-payer monies to help it become more ecofriendly.

5. The innuendo Grey Area
Weaselers, Downplayers, Dysphemisms, and Loaded Questions
Weaselers can be twisted into some forms of innuendo by using words/phrases such as “Perhaps”, “Possibly”, “Maybe”, and “May be”
Downplayers are used to “downplay” a situation or about a person/thing as they attempt to make the object look less significant/important
Dysphemisms are like innuendos, but instead of using neutral (or even positive) wording/phrasing, use negative remarks to insinuate derogatorily or are used to tone down the positivity of the remark
Loaded Questions are ONLY considered IF they imply something negative about someone/thing
Read slide. Now lets take a look at the following examples of these devices at work becoming an innuendo.

6. Examples of the Grey Areas
Downplayers
Loaded Questions
Sally “borrowed” Jane’s copy of The Notebook and Jane has not seen her copy of the movie since.
Why is it innuendo?
How did Mozart acquire such a knack for writing classical pieces of music?
Why is it innuendo?
Read down player example. How is it an example of innuendo? In the example, it doesn’t downplay Sally’s “borrowing” of the movie, but rather, insinuates that it probably wasn’t a case of borrowing from Jane.
Read Mozart example.
Is this an example of innuendo?
Why isn’t it?
Flip back to previous slide.
Since there is no implication of negativity in this question, then it is not considered an innuendo.

7. More Examples of the Grey Area
Weaselers
Dysphemisms
How do we know if John is a liar without saying it?
“John may be a liar”
Or “John perhaps is a liar”
This creates innuendo!
Cannot be outwardly negative in their wording to be considered an innuendo, as innuendos do NOT use negative wording to create the derogatory assumptions about the something/someone
Read Weaselers example. How is this so? Look at the trigger words “may be” and “perhaps”. Aren’t they triggers for an innuendo? Yes. These statements made suggestions without actually making a claim that John is actually a liar. This makes it a weaseler as we made the suggestion that he is a liar, but without saying so outright, it is hard to defend that he actually might be a liar!
Read Dysphemism statement.