Is the GEICO Paul Revere commercial hiding a racist message?

Written by David Rogers on Sunday, 24 February 2013 16:55.

Get your tinfoil hat on, it's time for a conspiracy theory. Take a listen to the GEICO Paul Revere commercial above and pay close attention. Around the 0:16 mark, Revere turns around to return to his game of charades after warning that the British are coming. His friends (or family, we're not sure) make their guesses as Revere dances an awkward jig.

If you heard "Blacks, Monkey, Baboon", you're not alone. Add in the context of Revere dancing, and you've got people questioning what the dialogue in the ad is all about. The YouTube comments for the commercial are loaded with people discussing what's really being said.

The closed captioning for the commercial states the dialogue as follows, "OK...four words...black monkey?" That's not what we hear. We hear a definitive "blacks" and then "monkey" spoken by two different voices with a noticeable pause between the words. Also, if you're playing charades, why would you say black monkey? Wouldn't you just guess monkey? It's not as if he's acting out a specific color.

Are we positive that they are saying "blacks"? No, but that's what it sounds like and there really aren't any other words that fit. Quacks? Snacks? Nothing else seems to fit. In fact, none of their guesses match the Hot Stew Saturday answer, but they all are potentially racist (baboon, monkey) if the first word is in fact "blacks". It's also worth noting that the voice that says the mystery word doesn't seem to fit or match the characters in the scene that are shouting out their guesses.

What do you hear? Tell us in the comments below.

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UPDATE: GEICO has removed the ad from YouTube and changed the ad that's running on television. Thankfully, once something is on the Internet, it's there to stay. You'll still find the unedited version above. GEICO is now running one that says "scarecrow" instead of "blacks", which you can see below. Looks like there's a pretty obvious controversy here that GEICO is now trying to correct / cover up.

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JanisKroener

O geez with the tinfoil hat...I like a good conspiracy as well as anyone but this is just not one of them.. Paul Revere is playing charades with three other people, two women and one man...they are all guessing at the same time. Someone is guessing baboon and monkey (makes sense looking at Paul's dance); someone else is guessing "black pot stew Saturday". The commercial is funny because the guess black pot stew Saturday makes little sense as a guess based on the dance clues, BUT black pot stew was a common way of referring to anything cooked in a cast iron pot back in Paul Reveres day. It is not a racist comment in any way. Apparently most Americans just don't know enough about America's history to see the humor.