Poll: A little dab'll do ya'

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Yes, Yes and 42

[tdn]

1. Yes
2. Some sort of hair product for men, but can’t remember which one
3. 47

[The_Devil_s_Grandmother]

answering without looking:

1. Have you heard or used this phrase before? – Yes
2. If yes, do you know, without Googling, where this phrase comes from? – Yes, a tv commerical for … haircream?
3. How old are you? – 42

eta: That’s really odd. I normally have a really good memory for music, and I have no memory of this ad jingle. I can hear a man’s deep announcer voice saying A little dab’ll do ya!, but no song.

[Shodan]

1. Yes
2. Yes They’ll love to run their fingers thru your hair
3. 53 - I used to use the stuff.

Regards,
Shodan

[Paintcharge]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. 38

Now how about “Just a pinch between your cheek and Gum.”

[badbadrubberpiggy]

@Heart_of_Dorkness

At lunch just now, someone asked me to pass them the Tabasco, saying, “I only need a little bit.” I replied, “Yep, a little dab’ll do ya!”

1. Have you heard or used this phrase before?
2. If yes, do you know, without Googling, where this phrase comes from?
3. How old are you?

For me:

1. Obviously
2. Yes
3. 34

1. yes
2. yes
3. 28

ETA: but I have no idea where I actually know it from, because I also know the jingle, though I doubt I’ve ever heard the commercial.

[Drain_Bead]

1. Yes.
2. It’s some sort of hair pomade for men, but I can’t remember the name.
3. 31

[Covered_In_Bees]

@Heart_of_Dorkness

At lunch just now, someone asked me to pass them the Tabasco, saying, “I only need a little bit.” I replied, “Yep, a little dab’ll do ya!”

1. Have you heard or used this phrase before?
2. If yes, do you know, without Googling, where this phrase comes from?
3. How old are you?

For me:

1. Obviously
2. Yes
3. 34

1. I have used this phrase before, when quoting One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

2. The aforementioned movie?

EDIT: I’m the third person in their 20s to answer and I’m the only one who apparently got #2 wrong.

[cjepson]

@Green_Bean

Answering without reading the responses:

Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya.
Brylcreem, you rub it in your hair.
Brylcreem, the girls’ll all pursue ya.
And I don’t remember the last line of the jingle.

Not quite… I believe it’s:

Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya.
Use more only if you dare.
But watch out, the gals’ll all pursue ya,
They’ll love to run their fingers through your hair.

[HeyHomie]

Without looking at any of the other replies:

1. Yes.
2. A Jimmy Buffet song (Pencil-Thin Moustache), where he says “Bryl (sp?) Cream, a little dab’ll do ya…” obviously referencing some hair-care product from back in The Day.

[swampbear]

1. Yes
2. Ye
3. 55. Mom would put it in my hair on Sunday. The rest of the week I was allowed to be my unruly haired self.

[peedin]

Without looking at previous replies,

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. 52–female

[Malleus_Incus_Stapes]

1. Yes
2. Some commercial or other- I think I read somewhere that the slogan influenced Fred Flintstone’s “Yabba dabba do”.
3. 20

[amarinth]

@cjepson

Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya.
Use more only if you dare.
But watch out, the gals’ll all pursue ya,
They’ll love to run their fingers through your hair.

When my mom used to sing it, she sang line 2 as “you’ll look so debonair”

but yes, yes, and 35.

I’ve never actually seen a commercial. But like “Libby’s Libby’s Libby’s,” I know the jingle, through my mom. Come to think of it, my mother sung a lot of commercial jingles for a woman who is relatively anti-materialistic.

[Chefguy]

Yes
Yes
Yes.

But does anybody remember the 70s commercial for this goo that showed a guy before using Brylcream with flat, lank hair, and after Brylcream with that ridiculous 70s perm? It was so universally derided, mocked, and just plain laughed at that they pulled it quickly.

[ToeJam]

@Heart_of_Dorkness

1. Have you heard or used this phrase before?
2. If yes, do you know, without Googling, where this phrase comes from?
3. How old are you?

1. Yes
2. No. My guess? Old people’s Hair Commercials?
3. 24

Nice to see the 20 year olds are the only ones really unsure about the origins. Though my guess was closer than Cuckoo’s nest!

[Freudian_Slit]

1. Yes
2. No
3. 24

Ro0sh, we match!

[dangermom]

Yes
Yes
35

The radio station I listened to as a young teenager played the clip as a funny.

[MentalGuy]

Without reading the thread

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. 45

[spoike]

1. Yes.
2. Yes. My dad sings the jingle around the house, and there was an ancient tube of it in the washroom cupboard when I was a kid.
3. 36