GEICO ad

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 4, 2004, at 10:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: GEICO ad
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> "Gimme some skin, man!"

Damn! Y'all cain' git nothin' right! ;-)

>  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.

Y'all crazih. ;-)

-Wilson Gray

> )
>
> JL
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: GEICO ad
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>
> On Oct 4, 2004, at 5:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: Re: GEICO ad
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>>
>> 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
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: GEICO ad
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>>
>> 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
>>
>>
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>
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