# Geico gecko's accent **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319 "2005-12-19T18:27:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/1 "2005-12-19T18:27:05Z")
What’s the deal with the new Geico gecko commercial? I haven’t been able to hang around British people as much as I used to, so my accent-recognition is getting rusty. He has a… Liverpudlian accent? Subset of a London accent? Something like that. Since he’s a gecko, shouldn’t he have an Australian accent? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/2 "2005-12-19T18:33:12Z")
Sounded Australian to me… ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/3 "2005-12-19T18:52:07Z")
That gecko would have a Madascan accent, so I think he’s either dubbed or he’s worked with a dialect coach. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/4 "2005-12-19T18:53:23Z")
“Madascan”? :smack: _Madagascan_. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/5 "2005-12-19T18:55:38Z")
I only saw the commercial once, and wasn’t paying too much attention, but the other “geckos” looked suspiciously like anoles. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/6 "2005-12-19T19:16:08Z")
I thought it was some kind of Cockney thing. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/7 "2005-12-19T19:38:13Z")
This thing pisses me off to no end. When the Gecko first came out, he just sort of had an upper-crusty American accent. Then they switched to an upper-crusty British accent. Now he’s a Cockney of some sort. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/8 "2005-12-19T20:36:13Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > This thing pisses me off to no end. When the Gecko first came out, he just sort of had an upper-crusty American accent. Then they switched to an upper-crusty British accent. Now he’s a Cockney of some sort. WTF? I think he’s just trying to grow as an actor. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/9 "2005-12-19T20:37:05Z")
I’m sure it’s deliberate at this point. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/10 "2005-12-19T20:48:12Z")
He’s been watching a lot of Michael Caine films, then. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/11 "2005-12-19T21:23:27Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He’s been watching a lot of Michael Caine films, then. Well, his American accent is 19 times better than Caine’s. So maybe–why didn’t I ever connect the dots before?–Michael Caine probably studies the \*gecko \*for his accent! Now that I think of it, didn’t Meryl Streep once mention that her dialect coach was a lizard? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/12 "2005-12-19T21:46:34Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He’s been watching a lot of Michael Caine films, then. Yeh. He was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off… ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/13 "2005-12-19T21:53:14Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I thought it was some kind of Cockney thing. Sounds like it may be a bad attempt at an Australian accent. To our ears, such attempts often seem like a weird Cockney à la Meryl Streep. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/14 "2005-12-19T22:08:29Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > the other “geckos” looked suspiciously like anoles. On site extras? You’ll notice they don’t speak. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-geckos-accent/336319/15 "2005-12-19T22:37:24Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Sounds like it may be a bad attempt at an Australian accent. To our ears, such attempts often seem like a weird Cockney à la Meryl Streep. No, I don’t think so. The one I’ve seen–the standing gecko lecturing some prostrate geckos (not anoles; \*Phelsuma \*sharse some supreficial traits with _Anolis_, but they’re two different genera)–is a real British accent, not a fake Australian.