Chinny chin chin

[undercovers]

In the 80's to stroke ones chin whilst grimacing a bit meant "i don't believe a word of what i'm hearing" - to further enhance feeling behind the movement "jimmy hill" was sometime muttered... Whats that all about then?

[woofgang]

if you go and look here http://www.jimmyhill.co.uk/ you will see that Jimmy has quite a pronounced chin. For years he camouflaged it with a short beard... I have never heard the grimace and chin stroke ascribed any meaning though

[undercovers]

oh right *undercovers strokes chin and grimaces slightly* I'm sure this occured the length and breadth of the country (if you were a kid in the early 80's)... forget why it means what it means but does anyone else even know what i'm talking about???

[Quizmonster]

In body-language terms, stroking the chin is generally believed to represent doubt or decision-making. Accompanied by a grimace, it presumably meant: "I have my doubts about what you're saying!"

Re the 'Jimmy Hill', I wonder whether this might just have been a British version of the American phrase, 'Sam Hill', as in 'What in the Sam Hill are you talking about?" There, clearly, it is a euphemisn for 'hell'. So, might the chin-stroking grimacer have meant "The hell you did!", as it were?

[IndieSinger]

Did anyone else used to go "Ooh, itchy beeeaaard..."?

[j2buttonsw]

We used to do the Jimmy Hill and say "reccckkon" (a sarcastic reckon) at school during the 80s.

[stoo_pid]

we used to do Jimmy Hill, chinny reck-on, not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, tutankahmun (pronounced toot-un-car-moooooooooon) & moochy-moochy (no idea where we got that one from though). I always thought it was because of the body-language explanation provided by Quizmonster and the Jimmy Hill thing started simply cos of the size of his chin.

[undercovers]

well I'm glad there are others who remember the "itchy chin" response to an argument. QM thanks for the post once again you are the light of reason shining on the distorted recollections of phrases and saying passed and present... oh and thanks stoo_pid for reminding me of all the alterations on a theme (i might start a one man campaign to bring this back into use again)

[rinkytink]

Yeah I remember this. We used to say....oh yeah chin wag ! (at the same time as stroking one's chin)

I always though it had something to do with old dears 'chin-wagging' (as in gossiping). The idea being that gossip is usually lies...hence:

chin-wag = bulls*it !!

[rinkytink]

Oh....and the Jimmy Hill bit just came along later because he had a huge chin !!

[bluedolphin]

I definitely remember it as a way to convey (usually behind the speakers back) that he was spoofing if not downright lying....