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Reader question: Please explain “tongue-in-cheek” in this passage: George served two years in the Army, part of that time in Europe during the last of World War II. He often said, with tongue-in-cheek, “the allies had fought the war quite a while and Eisenhower was doing a pretty good job, but when I got there, it only took Ike and me thirty-eight days to end that whole ugly thing.” My comments: It took Ike and everybody else, Allied forces and Russia all together years to resist and contain Hitler. When George came onto the scene and joined forces with Ike, however, the Second World War was swiftly ended – in a matter of days, thirty-eight days to be precise. Such was the powers of George. When George told the story, he did it with tongue-in-cheek. That means he meant it as a good joke (and it was). Tongue in cheek, you see, refers to the facial expression people sometimes wear when they want to maintain a straight face to prevent themselves from laughter. Literally, they push their tongue sideways, either left of right, into the cheek. In print, we cannot actually see the bulge in George’s face as he pushes his tongue into the cheek in an attempt to maintain a straight (serious) face while telling the story, but the words tongue-in-cheek gives us the picture. Anyways, if someone says something (usually shocking or astounding and funny) and they do so with “tongue in cheek”, they mean to tell it like a joke. They mean for you to take it light-heartedly and not seriously. | 
