I could see Tony and possibly even Clint using it to be an ass. Because they are good at being asses, and while I'm not sure where Clint would've heard it, his saying it wouldn't be shocking in the right (read: dickish) circumstances.

Who doesn't think Pepper is the most awesome thing to ever awesome? This makes me really sad. One of the things I've really liked with Avengers is how the 'canon' relationships are just sort of ignored or gracefully worked around (ie, pepper and tony had to stop dating and instead are back to best friends), rather than bashing.