Snake Knee
Snake knee is a Southernish pop-culture food from The Waterboy. In the film, Mama Boucher is serving Coach Klein a big plate of snake, and the knee is what she gives him.
I keep 'I would say it’s his knee' in my back pocket for whenever I may need it. I keep 'I would say it’s his knee' in my back pocket for whenever I may need it. Pronunciation
/sneɪk niː/
Meaning & Usage
- Humorous nonsense phrase (movie-origin)
That explanation don’t make a lick of sense.I know. It’s like callin’ it a snake knee.Origin
The term "snake knee" comes directly from the 1998 film The Waterboy. When Mama Boucher (played by Kathy Bates) is asked about human anatomy, she gives the line: "Well, basically a snake don’t have parts. But if I had to call it anything, uh, I would say it’s his knee." It’s one of several scenes where she combines superstition, rural reasoning, and homespun logic into deadpan comedy.
The line itself isn’t part of authentic Southern cuisine or speech, but its tone-confident, funny, and overexplained - captures how Hollywood often caricatures Southern mothers as both wise and hilariously wrong at the same time.
Verdict: Southernish. A movie-made phrase that sounds Southern, used today as a humorous reference to backwoods "logic."
Notes
- Used jokingly to describe any far-fetched or made-up explanation.
- Represents Hollywood’s version of Southern storytelling and superstition.
- Often quoted alongside other Waterboy lines like "Foosball is the debil."
- Not an authentic Southern expression or delicacy, though it mimics Southern speech rhythm.
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