GEICO ad

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Gimme some skin, man!" was the height of white-boy junior hipster coolth when I was in seventh or eighth grade. I don't think it's been found in print before the '40s. (Actually, "slap me five!" may have been even cooler.)

JL
Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: GEICO ad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Oct 4, 2004, at 5:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: GEICO ad
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> HDAS has a number of cites for "dap," n. & v., referring to similar
> gestures from the Vietnam War period.The definition there is prob.
> inadequate, since none of my sources were able to produce the thousand
> words that might equal the GEICO nature footage Wilson refers to.
>
> 1966 is earlier than any printed source I have.
>
> "BAPPING & dapping" is new to me. A fellow student once demonstrated
> an elaborate "trick handshake" to me in the early '70s, but I believe
> he called it a "jive handshake" used by jazz musicians (regrettably, I
> didn't make a note at the time).
>
> Which reminds me, I first heard "high-five" during the baseball season
> of 1982 or '83. (In merry days of yore, players congratulated a
> home-run hitter with a hearty handshake instead. How the world doth
> wag!)
>
> Anything earlier?
>
> JL
>
Unfortunately, I can't say for certain. I'm willing to get down when I
have a clear memory, but, in this case, "maybe" is the best that I can
do. FWIW, I remember "Five on the up high. Now, five on the down low.
Now, five on the black(hand) side," from the middle '70's.

On the other hand, what I tend to regard as the original form, "Give me
some skin, friend!" my mother heard and used when she was in college in
the late '20's and early '30's, if that's of any interest. She also
knows "okey-dokey" from those days.

-Wilson Gray

> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: GEICO ad
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Is anyone else familiar with the GEICO ad in which a squirrel causes a
> driver to run off the road, then joins a fellow squirrel in a
> celebratory round of hand-shaking, palm-slapping, fist-tapping, etc.?
> Such a routine is known as "bapping-and-dapping" in the Los Angeles
> area. I first heard this term used in 1966, at the First Watts
> Festival. A company of black Vietnam vets participating in the festival
> parade performed such a routine as they marched along. After the
> parade, I asked the vets what that routine was called and was told that
> it was called "bapping-and-dapping." Apparently, this term is unknown
> outside of the Los angeles Basin. I've never met anyone from elsewhere
> who was familiar with the term, regardless of that person's race, sex,
> color, creed, sexual orientation, or branch of service.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today!
>


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now.