# Geico commercial, what is the gecko saying? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659 "2012-05-02T17:05:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/1 "2012-05-02T17:05:43Z")
Can’t link to it right now but there’s a fairly new Geico commercial featuring the gecko. He’s talking in his typical British accent and then he says that he’ll try to talk more ordinary. Then he goes into his insurance spiel in a very exaggerated Southern accent. After that he makes this weird noise that sounds like “Daaah! Bears!” What is he trying to say at the end? I can’t make out anything but Daaah! Bears! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/2 "2012-05-02T17:15:50Z")
“The Bears.” He is imitating a Chicago accent, and praising the Chicago Bears football team. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/3 "2012-05-02T17:17:43Z")
\*Southern \*accent? You’re kidding, right? Just in case… he’s in Chicago, as he says at the beginning of the commercial, and he’s doing a spoof on a Chicago accent. He says: “Swichin’ ta Geico could save ya hunnertsa’ dallers on car insurance. Da Bears!” “Da Bears” means “The [Chicago] Bears”, and is a reference to an extremely long-running [SNL skit](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msSB5ev41Sk). ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/4 "2012-05-02T17:17:50Z")
It’s a Chicago-aimed commercial with a very exaggerated local accent (probably Bridgeport neighborhood, like the former Mayor Daley) rather like the “Superfans” sketches from Saturday Night Live. And he is saying “Da Bears!” “Da” being “the”, and naturally referring to the football team here. Edit: Damn you faster typists - no one had posted when I started! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/5 "2012-05-02T17:20:04Z")
I don’t remember what he says in the commercial, but he’s using an exaggerated _Chicago_ accent. Which I suppose to most people outside of Illinois is probably incoherent… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/6 "2012-05-02T17:25:42Z")
In the commercial, he even _says_ he’s been practicing a Chicago accent. Why would you think it’s a southern accent? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/7 "2012-05-02T17:36:56Z")
I don’t know, I just assumed it was Southern. When I think of “American accent”, I always think South, because its so distinctive I guess. It didn’t even occur to me that Chicago had accents. I know Boston has an accent. NY has one, but its just like Boston’s right? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/8 "2012-05-02T17:40:17Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I don’t know, I just assumed it was Southern. When I think of “American accent”, I always think South, because its so distinctive I guess. It didn’t even occur to me that Chicago had accents. I know Boston has an accent. NY has one, but its just like Boston’s right? Boston and New York accents are very different. New York and Chicago have multiple accents, as well; I’ve visited Boston a lot but don’t know whether there are different native accents (more like stronger and weaker, to my ears). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/9 "2012-05-02T18:22:10Z")
New York: “I saw a boid on toity-toid street” (think: Fran Dresher). Boston: “I had to pay a quahter to pahk my cah.” (think: Click and Clack from Car Talk). ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/10 "2012-05-02T18:48:36Z")
BTW it’s pronounced cahr tahk. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/11 "2012-05-02T19:14:33Z")
My wife, a South Side Polack but with only the barest trace of an accent, had to affect a Southern accent so customers in Memphis could understand her. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/12 "2012-05-02T20:23:26Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > BTW it’s pronounced cahr tahk. 😃 There’s no ‘r’ in cah. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/13 "2012-05-02T21:18:20Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I don’t know, I just assumed it was Southern. When I think of “American accent”, I always think South, because its so distinctive I guess. It didn’t even occur to me that Chicago had accents. I know Boston has an accent. NY has one, but its just like Boston’s right? Remember that the continental U.S. is 2,500 miles from east to west and 2,000 miles from north to south. It was settled by waves of immigrants from various countries over a stretch of three centuries. I can’t say for sure that the U.S. has the largest assortment of accents of any monolingual nation, but it’s right up there. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-commercial-what-is-the-gecko-saying/620659/14 "2012-05-02T21:53:43Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > There’s no ‘r’ in cah. There is the way Ray says it. That’s how I was able initially to learn which voice was which. Ray says cahr, Tom says cah.