GEICO ad

[Beverly Flanigan]

The first article I ever read on this and related gestures was by Benjamin
Cooke, in Kochman's _Rappin' and Stylin' Out_ (1972).  Cooke has photos of
"giving and getting skin," with variants for greeting, agreeing,
complimenting, showing intimacy ("five on the sly"), etc.  Eye gaze,
walking styles, even the Black Power handshake are all described and
photographed.  He even cites Harry Edwards, who mentions Lew Alcindor (!).

Assuming this is a valid representation of style "kinemes" (his term), I've
found it useful as an adjunct piece when I teach AAVE.  Invariably, my
undergrads (and most grads) today have no idea the "high five" came from
Black culture.

Beverly Olson Flanigan
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Ohio University
Athens, OH  45701
1-740-593-4568
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/


At 04:24 PM 10/5/2004, you wrote:
>In a message dated Mon, 4 Oct 2004 16:33:43 -0400,  Wilson Gray
><wilson.gray at RCN.COM> writes:
>
> >
> >  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.?
>
>palm-slapping?  Do you mean high-fives?
>
>Both MWCD10 and MWCD11 give 1981 as their date for the term "high five".  The
>gesture, however, has been around much longer.  Specifically, in the 1968
>move _The Producers_, Bialystok and Bloom (played by the white actors Zero
>Mostel
>and Gene Wilder) at one point use a high-five as a congratulatory gesture.
>
>One of the ways in which the high five spread into general usage was via the
>"Fun Bunch", a group of five players on the Washington Redskins football team
>back in the 1970's who after every Washington touchdown would gather in the
>end zone to do a celebration routine that ended in an airborne mass high-five.
>
>This may partially explain why (among white Americans) the high five is
>usually used either in celebration (as by the GEICO squirrels) or at sporting
>events.
>
>Questions:
>1.  What is the significance of the "five"?  Is it because the hand has five
>fingers?
>(I do not think it has anything to do with the fact that the Fun Bunch had
>five members).
>2.  Can the high five be traced back in general (i.e. white) American society
>before 1968?
>3.  Am I correct in assuming that the high five and the handshake are simply
>variations of a basic non-verbal symbology, saying "I welcome you with no
>weapons in my right hand"?
>
>Now for a less than useful datum: the high five was NOT used at the Battle of
>Waterloo.  Instead, according to at least one eye-witness, the handshake was
>used as a celebratory gesture among British soldiers.
>
>     - James A. Landau