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Chinny Reckon

liveinabin

liveinabin

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I was wondering, does anyone have any idea where the phrase 'chinny reckon' comes from. I recall it being used in about 1983 and my friend John claimed to have invented it. I called Chinny Reckon on that straight away.
 
I seem to remember it being used when I was at first school ... 1979ish? Although I might be getting confused with 'Jimmy Hill', which I always thought was related to chinny reckon, what with Jimmy Hill having a big pointy chin.

Did I vaguely once hear it had to do with the devil having a big pointy beard and being a liar?
 
While in school a friend of mine came back from a holiday in England and announced that the English kids were stroking their chins and saying "Jimmy Hill!" when they though someone was bullshitting.

This we found hilarious and incorporated into conversation as much as possible. For all I know we were the only kids in Scotland to do this. We always said "Jimmy Hill" in an English accent when we did it. This would have been early to mid eighties.
 
There was a comedy programme called "The Mary Whitehouse Experience" - with David Baddiel and Rob Newman, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis were in it too, IIRC. I think chinny reckon came from that.
 
Fizz32 said:
There was a comedy programme called "The Mary Whitehouse Experience" - with David Baddiel and Rob Newman, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis were in it too, IIRC. I think chinny reckon came from that.
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Not at all. As I said I remember it from 1983 and Mary Whitehouse Experience was long after that. They were merely commenting on playground nostalga.

I'm interested to hear how it travelled to Scotland. My husband recalls it too and we grew up 500 miles apart. I've often wondered how things like this travel around primary schools across the country.
 
Oh, well. I thought it came from that because it was the first time I'd ever heard it, we didn't use the phrase when I was at school in the 70s and 80s in Cheshire.
 
meanhile, next door to chesire in north staffordshire, we used itchy beard, chinny rub and jimmy hill from at least 1977... this evolved locally into cries of "chin wag" when succesfully duping someone.
 
Oh and of course it's pronounced 'Chinny Rec- on'.
 
drbates said:
We had "itchy beard" for lying, which sounds like it could well be related...
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At my school it was 'Itchy chin'.
 
'70s Sahf London, it was "Jimmy Hill!" which transmuted to chinny reckon. Jimmy Hill seemed to have a rather long chin, accentuated by the beard he wore and a quite narrow face. But how Jimmy became associated with tall tales is beyond my ken, Ken!
 
Wouldn't this thread be more at home in the Folklore section? I'd hate to think of it disappearing from Chat, this is modern folklore after all!
 
It was Itchy Chin for me in Dorset and my husband in Stafford. I find it so odd that a completely meaningless phrase can travel across the country like that.

Anyone from outside the UK familiar with it?
 
I first heard 'Jimmy Hill' in this context in the early 80's although the chin stroking motion, used to express a listeners reservations as to the veracity of another chaps verbals, came well before anyone underlined the movement with a comment.

I've always assumed that chin stroking was an unselfconscious 'tell' indicating disbelief that's been around forever and which becomes exaggerated when people become conscious that they are doing it, or in environments where they do it a lot. If this is true then it's no surprise that schoolyards, places where bullshit is currency, are where most of us appear to first recall it from.
 
We had this discussion a few years back, complete with Jimmy Hill and beards, on a Folklore/Local Sayings type thread.

As I recall, every poster claimed that they/their mate invented it around 1969/1977/1981 in Chehire/Dorset/Tyneside by stroking their chin/shouting 'Chinny!'/saying 'Jimmy Hill!' whenever a tall story was recounted. ;)
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
emmbob said:
drbates said:
We had "itchy beard" for lying, which sounds like it could well be related...
Click to expand...

At my school it was 'Itchy chin'.
Click to expand...

Me too, where did you grow up?
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I'm from Somerset. I asked my partner, who grew up in Devon, about it - at his school the saying was "Itchy chin, itchy chin, runny nose, runny nose." Which just confuses things further.
 
Fizz32 said:
Oh, well. I thought it came from that because it was the first time I'd ever heard it, we didn't use the phrase when I was at school in the 70s and 80s in Cheshire.
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Nor me in the 70s in London. I also saw it first on TMWE and assumed it was a boy thing. Did you go to an all girls school Fizz?
 
emmbob said:
I'm from Somerset. I asked my partner, who grew up in Devon, about it - at his school the saying was "Itchy chin, itchy chin, runny nose, runny nose." Which just confuses things further.
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Actually, I don't know.

Okay, this is going to sound a bit weird...

Just try rubbing your chin and then move your fingers up to the tip of your nose - doesn't the actual gesture feel familiar - and not in the sense that it's something you do consciously, but in the sense that you recognise it as something you do in certain situations without thinking about it. And then couldn't those two gestures when separated be interpreted as scratching your chin and wiping your nose.

Okay, so who here plays poker?
 
emmbob said:
CarlosTheDJ said:
emmbob said:
drbates said:
We had "itchy beard" for lying, which sounds like it could well be related...
Click to expand...

At my school it was 'Itchy chin'.
Click to expand...

Me too, where did you grow up?
Click to expand...

I'm from Somerset. I asked my partner, who grew up in Devon, about it - at his school the saying was "Itchy chin, itchy chin, runny nose, runny nose." Which just confuses things further.
Click to expand...

I was in Warwickshire, quite a gap there.
 
...sorry, someone at the door.

Okay . Mouth covering and nose touching are both classic tells in poker (not to mention real-life), and both indicate that there's a distinct likelihood that bullshit is being disseminated (or, if you're any good, that you wish to give the impression that bullshit is being disseminated...or, that just maybe you have an itchy chin and a runny nose, the latter not being uncommon among poker circles but that often has more to do with coca....er...anyway...).

Maybe the playground gesture is not an exaggeration of its creators reaction to a bullshitter, but a parody of how the former believes the latter should be behaving under the huge weight of complete bollocks that they've just regailed everyone with.
 
emmbob said:
I'm from Somerset. I asked my partner, who grew up in Devon, about it - at his school the saying was "Itchy chin, itchy chin, runny nose, runny nose." Which just confuses things further.
Click to expand...
Yeah, in Bristol it was originally "Itchy Chin" or "Extra Long Chin" which then morphed into "Jimmy Hill". I only really recall "Chinny Reck-on" after The Mary Whitehouse Experience used it, but that's not to say it wasn't around before that, as I was in my mid-twenties by then.
 
Richard Herring still says "Chinny Reck-on" in his comedy routines, for what it's worth.
 
pre mary whitehouse experience, at our school we had "chin on", "chinner!", "itchy chin" and then "itchy chin, jimmy hill" when the person was seriously talking out of their ring. also, people would pretend to pour salt on their chin as well. apparently that made your chin grow.

jimmy hill - well he is famous for talking pony.

we also had "spin on" and "spinner" (both often accompanied by a circular waving of the hand/arm) all at the same time as the chin phenomenon and well before the idea of putting political spin on a story. man, we were so ahead of our time down in the sticks. and what a lexicon!

my favourite was "choice!" when you were told to do something you didnt want to do. the temptation to use this is still great, especially in a work/corporate environment.

shame all the above arent still in common parlance, especially in the grown-up world.

Paxman: So what do you say to the minister's comments, dr smith?

Dr smith: With all due respect, I say itchy chin, jimmy hill. spin on, you doomer! [pours imaginary salt on his chin while spinning his free arm round and round]

Paxman: Quite. Now over to kirsty with news of the earthquake in Japan

Kirsty: Choice!
 
We used to have chin-oh, itchy chin, or simply point our chins out and rub them.

Interesting to compare the poses thrown by breakers where the hand is raised to the chin mockingly.
 
LOL @ Choice. Wish I could remember all those funny phrases.

In east Kent we had chinny reck-on which in time turned into BEARD, bee-ARD, or beardy beardy accompanied by as many varities of beard getsures as lies are being told. The bigger, more spirally and longer the beard, the bigger the lie.
To gesture a beard, you pretend to pull the beard hair from out of your chin and proceed to make it straight, curly, sideways, short, long (the maximum being arms length unless you have a friend who you can 'pass' the beard to so they can continue it) or of course, the two-handed beard which you can tie in knots around your head or legs etc :lol:
If the person is telling the truth, this can be a tad annoying, but very funny indeed.
I still use the beard regularly. Especially when watching adverts on telly.
 
cassandra78 said:
In east Kent we had chinny reck-on which in time turned into BEARD, bee-ARD, or beardy beardy accompanied by as many varities of beard getsures as lies are being told..
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This matches my experience elsewhere in Kent.

excellent stuff! :)
 
Please can a mod move/merge this into a more permanent forum? Urban myths and legends maybe. It's a really good thread, and worthy of being spared the lash.
 
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