# Shave and a haircut....two bits

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/250696>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/250696 "2004-06-16T17:35:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/250696/1 "2004-06-16T17:35:26Z")

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I was told by a Spanish teacher in High School that if one were to knock the cadence to “Shave and a Haircut” in Mexico, it was considered a grave insult. For those of you who don’t know the cadence I’m refering to, it’s the typical cheesey knock that people use when trying to be cute.

It’s a bit like this: -…-.–.-…-…- with the - representing a knock and the . representing a pause.

Any truth to this at all?

Sorry if this has been answered before, but the search function is just dragging for me now.

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/250696/2 "2004-06-16T18:23:54Z")

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A compilation of threadds cab be found [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=174427). It seems to be one of the few questions not to have a definitive answer.