Pop Culture dictionary
dilly dilly
[dil-ee dil-ee]
黑料网 does dilly dilly mean?
Dilly dilly is a nonsense expression for “Cheers!,”听popularized by听a 2017鈥�18 medieval-themed Bud Light ad campaign.
Related words:
- Ben听Roethlisberger
- Game of Thrones
- Hear, hear!
- pit of misery
Where does dilly dilly come from?
As it happens, dilly听was a shortening of delightful听or delicious听in the 1930s, among many other slang meanings. In the 1990s and 2000s, dilly was also sometimes used for听deal, especially in the greeting 黑料网’s the dilly, yo?
These uses, though, seem to have no conscious bearing on Bud Light’s听dilly dilly. In August, 2017, Bud Light released “Banquet,” an ad created by Wieden+Kennedy that parodies the popular fantasy show, Game of Thrones.
In the ad,听three听subjects give their king gifts. The first two offer Bud Light, to which the king raises his beers and cries听Dilly dilly!听His fellow feasters join him in the toast. The third provides a fancy mead wine, which gets him sent to the “pit of misery”鈥攁nd which punishment is met with cheers of Dilly dilly!
The ad writers said they invented dilly dilly while spitballing ideas for the script. Bud Light loved it鈥�and so did viewers.听The phrase went viral during the fall 2017 professional sports seasons, heavily targeted by Bud Light ads.听
That November, Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben听Roethlisberger notably called out Dilly dilly!听when calling an audible in a game against the Tennessee Titans.听
Capitalizing on their success, Bud Light launched a follow-up dilly dilly ad in late 2017 and a third in early 2018, which aired during Super Bowl LII.
In spring 2018, it was rumored the Masters had banned dilly dilly听from their golf tournament鈥攁 fan crowing the phrase was escorted off grounds. Seizing the moment,听Bud Light issue a medieval-styled decree that they would send 1,000 t-shirts with the catchphrase so fans could still enjoy some听dilly dilly.
Joining the likes of Got milk?听or Wasabi!听in recent decades,听dilly dilly has proven itself one of those rare ad slogans that took on a life of its own as a reference听in popular culture, with some people using dilly dilly as a festive cheer (Woo-hoo!), especially when watching sports and drinking鈥攅ven if it’s a fancy mead wine.
Examples of dilly dilly
Who uses dilly dilly?
Outside of Bud Light commercials and , you might expect dilly dilly to be shouted among more bro-ish, sports-loving types while slamming brewskis after their team scored.
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Out of enjoyment of the original ad campaign, dilly dilly expresses good vibes and a feeling of camaraderie. The phrase itself now stands for “fun times” more generally,
Dilly dilly听also figures in various image macros on the internet, especially among sports fans.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of dilly dilly like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of dilly dilly that will help our users expand their word mastery.