# Whereâ€™s the Gieco gecko from? (1 Viewer)



## RoundEye (May 26, 2010)

*Where’s the Gieco gecko from?*

OK, so they peaked my curiosity. During the commercial they say he’s not from Britain or Australia but he talks with an English accent. So where's he from?


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

South part of England,  I'd say.  But I'm sure there are Brits about who can dial it in a little closer.


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## moderan (May 26, 2010)

Geckos come from southern hemisphere tropical islands. New Zealand and Tasmania are home to geckos. They originated on Madagascar iirc.


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

I'm thinking he's from the ad agency, with some fine tweaking by actuarial wonks in the home office.


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## JosephB (May 26, 2010)

Well, it's definitely English. English and Australian accents sound very different to me.


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## moderan (May 26, 2010)

Barbados, maybe. British Virgin Islands?


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

Nah.   If he's not a Londoner, he's definitely a Southerner.   But like I say, ask Baron or somebody for the real goods on this obnoxious little lizard.
I keep waiting for the cave men to cook him and eat him.


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## moderan (May 26, 2010)

The thing is that the commercial said he's not from Britain or Australia. That leaves those southern or Caribbean islands and former possessions like Hong Kong and India. The guy doing the voice sounds posh but that doesn't mean that the ad agency has a clue where the accent's really from.


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

It's a cover up.

But the thing is, talking gekkos aren't real.

He's just a piece of art.




Art gekko


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## moderan (May 26, 2010)

Buddy Gecko? El Gecko?


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## JosephB (May 26, 2010)

Doesn't sound posh to me either. One of these Englishters will chime in at some point and clear things up.

Better provide a sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmiK7cIx-pU&feature=related


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## Like a Fox (May 26, 2010)

Damn it. I can't watch the video at work.

I just looked it up though. 
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2165705/where_is_the_geico_gecko_lizard_from.html
Don't bother, it's annoyingly unhelpful. Haha.


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

He's really just an anglophile from Hoboken


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## The Backward OX (May 26, 2010)

moderan said:


> Geckos come from southern hemisphere tropical islands. New Zealand and Tasmania are home to geckos.


 
Ohmygawd. You should enter the Miss Teen USA contest. You'd be right at home amongst the geographic intellectualism it spawns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww


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## RoundEye (May 26, 2010)

I was just wondering what other places in the world have an English-type accent.


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## Linton Robinson (May 26, 2010)

My house is loaded with geckos, actually.  Right now there are a bunch of baby ones about an inch long blasting around the walls.
They don't have English accents though.

Actually, they talk kind of like rappers.


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## Sigg (May 26, 2010)

> I was just wondering what other places in the world have an English-type accent.


 
places that were occupied by the british, like India


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## The Backward OX (May 26, 2010)

JosephB said:


> Doesn't sound posh to me either. One of these Englishters will chime in at some point and clear things up.
> 
> Better provide a sample:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmiK7cIx-pU&feature=related


 
South London. Ask Olly to put up the link to his YouTube video where he's talking about train passengers and fish markets (I can't find it anymore, and not the toothpaste video, in which he uses a different accent). The accent he puts on (not his true accent, which is Received Pronunciation) is of a South Londoner, and is absolutely identical to this lizard's.


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## Linton Robinson (May 27, 2010)

pie and mash=flash?


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## JosephB (May 27, 2010)

Dick Van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins is the worst in the history film.


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## Baron (May 27, 2010)

JosephB said:


> Dick Van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins is the worst in the history film.


 
I'd say that Marlon Brando's English accent in Mutiny on the Bounty is far worse.


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## Linton Robinson (May 27, 2010)

Ah.  I thought it might have been that cockney rhyming slang.   One of friends here is so south london you can hear the bells anytime he opens his mouth and he's been adding to my collection of cockney slang, which I think is the coolest speech weirdness in the world.

My favorite so far:  Khyber pass


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## JosephB (May 27, 2010)

Baron said:


> I'd say that Marlon Brando's English accent in Mutiny on the Bounty is far worse.



You might have me there. Especially the way it seemed fade in and out. It was also somewhat effeminate, from what I remember. I know I laughed when I first heard it.


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## Baron (May 27, 2010)

JosephB said:


> You might have me there. Especially the way it seemed fade in and out. It was also somewhat effeminate, from what I remember. I know I laughed when I first heard it.


 
The only American actor I've ever known to really get an English accent right is Johnny Depp in From Hell.  That said, Tony Curtis did a pretty convincing impression of Cary Grant in the beach scene of Some Like it Hot.


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## JosephB (May 27, 2010)

I think the worst American accent was Tom Cruise's in _Valkrie. _
*
*


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## The Backward OX (May 27, 2010)

JosephB said:


> You might have me there. Especially the way it seemed fade in and out. It was also somewhat effeminate, from what I remember. I know I laughed when I first heard it.


It might just be me but I thought he _always_ sounded a bit effeminate. But you can't judge a book by its cover. Look at Rock Hudson.


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## Like a Fox (May 27, 2010)

JosephB said:


> I think the worst American accent was Tom Cruise's in _Valkrie. _
> *
> *


Brad Pitt's in Inglourious Basterds was pretty bad.


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## JosephB (May 27, 2010)

I haven't seen _Inglourious Basterds_ yet. But did you see _Valkrie? _All the Germans were English actors, who spoke in their native accents, except Cruise. It seemed really goofy. That aside, he was pretty much outclassed by all of them. The movie wasn't bad, but the true story on which it's based is fascinating and pretty compelling -- so overall, it was a wasted opportunity.


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## Like a Fox (May 27, 2010)

Yeah I did see that one, I quite liked it despite Cruise, which might be why I didn't notice the accent, I tend to blur him out of my memories. 
It reminded me vaguely of the much better German film I saw. Hang on, I'll see if I can find what it was called...

Yes, okay _Der Untergang_ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/ (Or _Downfall_ in english).
From the point of view of Traudl Junge, Hitler's last secretary, mostly set in the bunker at the end of his life... I believe it's based on a book.


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## JosephB (May 27, 2010)

I've been wanting to see that. It's on our list, which is getting impossibly long.

Speaking of German films -- "The Lives of Others" is a must see. And I don't say that lightly.


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## Olly Buckle (May 30, 2010)

I have a friend from Barbados, in his seventies now as a young man he had a speech impediment. His first job was as a projectionist at the local cinema and he taught himself to speak clearly watching Ealing comedies over and over, attaining a cut glass English accent. I guess such exposure might happen to anyone from a former British colony.


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## RoundEye (May 30, 2010)

moderan said:


> Geckos come from southern hemisphere tropical islands. New Zealand and Tasmania are home to geckos. They originated on Madagascar iirc.


 


The Backward OX said:


> Ohmygawd. You should enter the Miss Teen USA contest. You'd be right at home amongst the geographic intellectualism it spawns.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww



I’m sorry moderan but I don’t know what I laughed harder at, his or your reply.


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