GEICO ad

[George Thompson]

dredged from my scrapheap of useless memories --

I recall that the Scatman Carruthers (-type?) character on the Amos & Andy radio show used invariably to enter the scene crying "slip me some skin so I can grin"

Also: Was there not a film from the mid/late 70s called "Five on the Blackhand Side"?

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
Date: Monday, October 4, 2004 10:56 pm
Subject: Re: GEICO ad

> "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
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
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> >
>
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