The Popcorn Stand: Dilly dilly to the one who came up with Dilly Dilly

The old fuddy duddy tries to keep up with all the latest rad talk and apparently now the fleek way to express one’s approval is to say “Dilly Dilly,” which I’m surprised isn’t already so first week of 2018 since that phrase has constantly been aired in those Bud Light commercials.

Dilly Dilly is actually a pretty cool, catchy phrase but I’m afraid it’s becoming one of those overused cliches like “Wassup!” another Bud Light gem and “Where’s the Beef?” from those Wendy’s ads (Look that one up Millennials).

I hope the person who came up with Dilly Dilly patted himself or herself on the back. There are plenty of idiom-type phrases throughout history that have gone by the wayside. I’m sure some sportswriter around the turn of the (20th) century got tired of writing double play all the time and then came up with the term Twin Killing! And I’m sure that sportswriter patted himself on the back and he should have.

But who uses twin killing any more. Over time it just became an overused cliche. And I can tell you if I ever edited a story on a baseball game that used the term twin killing, I would switch it to double play.

And as I’ve written about many other things before when it comes to how the human mind works, I’m really impressed with the person who came up with Dilly, Dilly because never in my mind would I have ever thought of Dilly Dilly.

I mean I can imagine all these ad copy types who received their direction from Bud Light to come up with a new way to express approval and one of them shouts out, “I’ve got it, Dilly, Dilly.”

So Dilly Dilly to the person who came up with Dilly Dilly.

— Charles Whisnand