Thursday 3 April 2014

You Bet Your Sweet Bippy


This was a catchphrase that is still best-known for being quoted ad infinitum on the long-running US TV madcap comedy series 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'.

I have a copy of a Swingin' Zine called 'teen-in' that was published in the Summer of '69 - right in the heart of the Laugh-In craze - and on the back page there's a full-page ad for 'Nutty Stick on Daisies' complete with hip phrases like 'Bored of Education'.

(It's amazing how counter-cultural underground language slid into such populist entertainment for American kids of that time)

The slogan "GET YOUR BIPPIE" is emblazoned across the top daisies.

Most online dictionaries reckon that 'Bippy' is an old American slang for bum / ass / butt / backside - which was then morphed into a cute and mainstream phrase in c.1968 Burbank, California - home of 'Laugh-In'.

There are no references to the comedy sketch show in the advert, though brightly coloured cut-out flowers were an integral feature of the landscape of 'Laugh-In's' studio sets.

So what exactly was the free Bippie?

Bippie Who?

Teen-In No.3, Summer 1969, Tower Comics

A cracking period cover for this spin-off title of Tower's Tippy Teen character who appears in this otherwise quite pedestrian comic book. The free Bippie ad is on the back....




Good Night, Dick

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