Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

The line is a classic example of Mae West–style double entendre: it turns an apparently innocent observation into a sexually charged joke by pivoting on the ambiguity of what might be “in your pocket.” Its humor depends on boldness and role reversal—West’s persona is the pursuer, openly appraising male desire and puncturing polite decorum. The quip also plays with the era’s censorship boundaries: by couching sexual suggestion in a plausible alternative (“a gun”), it smuggles innuendo into a form that can pass as banter. More broadly, it exemplifies West’s cultural impact as a performer who made female sexual agency and comic provocation central to her public voice.