# How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 11, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586 "2017-10-11T18:31:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586/21 "2017-10-14T00:22:00Z")

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The real question is, except to get an answer to this question, has anyone ever scraped their tongue raw in order to eat a Tootsie Pop this way? I say no.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586/22 "2017-10-14T01:00:25Z")

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I thought that the owl/tootsie pop commercial hadn’t been aired in many years, until I watched (well, had on in the background) _Willy Wonka_ on a DirecTV channel today and a shortened version was shown multiple times. (It had only the owl part, not the earlier part with the turtle and whatever else.)

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**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586/23 "2017-10-15T17:58:19Z")

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Late 70’s when I determined it to be 324,  
but that was a sample consisting of 1 test, and am not sure if the criteria means in one place, until a amount is visible are random licking until it appears. The random licking was my method.

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**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop/798586/24 "2017-10-15T18:09:57Z")

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Am I the only one who’s thinking of chrome trailer hitches?

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