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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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What the heck is a bippy?
Guest
1
2008/03/13 - 9:56pm

I have bet a lot of them in my time, I have even encouraged others to do so. And sometimes those have even been of the sweet variety. However I have no idea what they are and would like to make sure I can cover my bets...

Guest
2
2008/03/14 - 2:14pm

“Bippy” can mean the posterior (to put it in polite terms). But, I don't see how that sense could apply here unless someone says something like “You bet your bippy!”

Guest
3
2008/03/14 - 8:34pm

OK, I'm guessing you were both born after 1970. Sock it to me!

Guest
4
2008/03/14 - 9:00pm

cdevine said:
OK, I'm guessing you were both born after 1970. Sock it to me!

Explain, please.

Guest
5
2008/03/15 - 10:48am

Is that a chicken joke?

Wordsmith said:

cdevine said:
OK, I'm guessing you were both born after 1970. Sock it to me!

Explain, please.


I WAS born after 1970, but I could watch Nick at Night!
http://www.timvp.com/laughin.html

Guest
6
2008/03/15 - 1:25pm

So, it was used on Laugh-In?

cdevine, if you can offer an explanation, please do!

Guest
7
2008/03/15 - 5:58pm

"You bet your sweet bippy" was Dick Martin's catchphrase on Laugh-In. "Sock it to me" was another repeated phrase (and the one that Richard Nixon, of all non-funny people, actually said on the show).

So was the "Is that a chicken joke?" line that felixblackcat used.

Guest
8
2008/03/15 - 6:50pm

My parents watched Laugh-In. I remember the Nixon “Sockittummeeee?” thing. Weird show; one might say “insegrevious”…

Guest
9
2008/03/20 - 7:31pm

I remember it from Laugh-In but wanted to know where it originated. I would be surprised to learn that it originated on that show and didn't have some earlier origin.

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
(Offline)
10
2008/03/20 - 9:22pm

Well, the Oxford English Dictionary cites Laugh-In as its earliest known source:

"Origin unknown. Popularized by use as a nonsense word with an air of general innuendo, but intentionally vague meaning, on the U.S. television programme Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968-72 )"

I think that "air of general innuendo" is about right. Thanks for bringing back some fond memories, flashart! My whole family used to watch that show together...

Guest
11
2008/03/22 - 2:17pm

Also, sometimes on interviews on TV when someone says, for example, “You bet your ass!” it would be bleeped-out and what the viewer would hear is “You bet your {beep-boop}!” Does that theory make any sense to y'all?

Guest
12
2008/03/25 - 7:56am

"General innuendo" was one of the staples of Laugh-In, and was probably responsible for a lot of its popularity back in the still strongly censored environment of early 70s TV. And not all of the words were invented. How about "Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls" (near and dear to the hearts of the users of this forum, I'm sure)? I had a friend whose parents wouldn't let him watch the show after they heard that one. Incredible!

Guest
13
2008/03/27 - 1:54pm

Ouch! I wonder if it has anything to do with the F-word¹… That is downright spooky²!

————
¹Y'know, f-u-n-k.
²And sad, come to think of it.

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
(Offline)
14
2008/03/29 - 8:30pm

“Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls”

LarryG, good point. I'd forgotten about that, but that's a perfect example, of course.

BT
15
2008/04/01 - 5:30am

Veerryy interstink, but stupit
😀 Thanks for the flashback

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
(Offline)
16
2008/04/02 - 7:16pm

And BT, thank YOU for the flashback! I can't believe what familial memories that conjures up for me, my parents and brother and I all sitting around laughing at that craziness.

Oooo, and: "A poem, by Henry Gibson."

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