Etymology

say the quiet part loud

Today it means: To willingly express a sentiment that is normally considered embarrassing or disreputable to hold; to reveal an ulterior motive. Full definition →

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The story

Corpus searches seem to confirm that this phrase was absent from widespread usage until after the mid-1990s, when the cartoon character Krusty the Clown used a similar phrase in the episode "A Star Is Burns" of the American animated TV series The Simpsons, saying, "I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet."

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.