Involves entertainment, but I’m looking for a factual answer.
‘Cabana Chat’ was a skit on MADtv featuring a stereotypical type of woman who was overly-tanned and desperately trying to appear younger than her wrinkles declared. The character’s (‘Dixie’) catchphrase was, ‘You like? I like!’ It was funny because people ‘of a certain era’ would actually say ‘You like?’. (‘I like!’ was usually the response from another person, rather than the asker.)
I remember adults saying ‘You like?’ and ‘I like!’ in the early-'70s. I think I remember the phrases from the 1966 film Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN, which featured Nancy Kwan as a South Pacific island girl who spoke pidgin English. Maybe the phrases were spoken in 1963’s Donovan’s Reef and/or 1958’s South Pacific. In any case, the typical way the phrases were used was that an Islander or Asian character speaking pidgin English would ask, ‘You like?’ and the Caucasian character would reply admiringly or enthusiastically, ‘I like!’ The phrases seemed to become a ‘cool catchphrase’ that seemed to pop up with some frequency.
To digress a little… It’s a little weird to think that our parents and grandparents were once in their 30s, and that they absorbed cultural references just as people do now with current movies and television shows.
Anyway, where did the pidgin ‘You like?’ and the response originate? Which movie or show (i.e. play), and what year? Or did it originate somewhere else?
Moving to Cafe Society, where you can still get factual answers, last time I looked. 
samclem Moderator, General Questions
Yeah… No… How’s that working out again? :dubious:
The GQ is this: What is the origin of the ‘You like?’ pidgin phrase that I remember from people in their 30s and 40s in the early-1970s?
Señor Wences. There’s a quick “You like? I like!” at about 0:25.
I was thinking Señor Wences too. But I’m too young to remember anything before that, so take it for what it’s worth.
Perhaps you’re thinking of “All right?” “S’alright!”, from Señor Wences? (at about 2:45 in the clip).
No, it’s not that. The image I have in my head is of a Polynesian or Asian girl who wore a pretty dress or made a meal or something, and she says ‘You like?’ (because she doesn’t speak English well). The American Hero responds, ‘I like!’
In the Señor Wences clip posted by E. Thorp the puppet says, ‘You like?’ and the response is ‘Yes, I like you very much.’ It’s different from what I’m thinking of, both in verbiage and in context.
Yes, I couldn’t find a very representative youtube video, though I do remember “You like? I like!” as a Señor Wences catchphrase.
Could the OP be thinking of “South Pacific”?
Could be. (I mentioned it in the OP, and it predates the Señor Wences clip.) It’s been close to a year since I’ve seen South Pacific, so I don’t know if the exchange was in there. And if it was, it may have appeared earlier. For example, there were South Pacific and Asian themed movies in the '30s.