GEICO ad

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 5, 2004, at 5:24 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: GEICO ad
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> 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
> (!).

Yes, I remember this. Cooke presented a version of it at NWAVE, I can't
remember the year, but it was probably 1973. I also have the book.

-Wilson Gray

>
> 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
>