YMMV / GEICO

• Crosses the Line Twice: Griswalda casually turns one of her roommates into a cat that wanted someone to handle the cooking. Kinda terrifying? Yes. Then said cat-girl says the potion needs more salt. Her normal roommate asks if she's okay, and then casually brings out a feather toy to entertain the cat-girl. She did say she likes cats.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Drill Sergeant Therapist, portrayed by the late R. Lee Ermey. His over-the-top reaction to his patient's problems is both so line-crossing and utterly hilarious.
• Fan Nickname: Since we don't hear the Gecko's name often, some people have come up with different names for him, often names beginning with "G" to invoke Alliterative Name (like Greggie or Gordon). With that said, he does have a real name, Martin.
• Growing the Beard: Most agree that switching the gecko's accent to Cockney and change his voice actor is the best course of action for the character.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The "Stay" ad, where Lisa Loeb auditions for Geico. Her song is too "emotional" but is so good that it drives the cameraman to tears. He lies that he has pollen allergies. The Hilarious Outtakes show everyone laughing and having a good time.
  • The first Build Me Up Buttercup commercial has a motorcycle rider embarrassed when she's caught singing the song aloud at a repair shop. Then the other employees join in to make her feel better, and she regains her spirit.
  • A bride and groom receive a motorcycle. The bride catches him singing after the reception, and daydreaming in front of the ride while singing "Buttercup". She then finishes the song, and reminds the groom that she's driving. He leaps into the sidecar with joy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A 1999 commercial featured a talking duck promoting GEICO's "smaller bill" compared to other insurance companies. The duck strongly resembles the mascot for GEICO's competitor Aflac, who would debut a year later.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Most of their famous commercials have been parodied to no end, particularly the "I've got good news" and Michael McGlone rhetorical question ones.
  • HUMP DAAAAAAAAAAAAY!^Explanation One of their commercials had a camel get excited about Wednesday, which is colloquially called "hump day." The commercial resulted in people referring to Wednesday as hump day with the same inflection as the commercial, which a later commercial even acknowledged by depicting camels at a zoo frustrated that everybody shouts "Hump day!" at them."
  • I'M NOT YO DADDY I'M YO GRANDPA^Explanation The song used in the "Sexy Grandpa" Xtranormal commercials has become a common theme applied to any case of Cool Old Guys, particularly Toadsworth in Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • This commercial frightened young viewers due to the large ceramic piggy bank destroying a city.
  • Griswalda is a creepy Obviously Evil witch that force-feeds her roommates potions, turning them into weird cat-hybrids. She also gets insulted if you offer constructive criticism.
• Not So Crazy Anymore: One of the "Why haven't you called GEICO?" ads from 2004 featured a fake reality show called Tiny House. The ad was a good take on typical ads for reality shows of the time and probably fooled many people. The concept presented was two newlyweds who have to live together for one year in the titular tiny house. "The drama will be real... but it won't save you any money on car insurance." However, just look at the related videos on YouTube and you'll see a bunch of listings about actual tiny houses. Since the airing of the ad, an actual "tiny house movement" has gained a lot of traction, and there are now multiple real-life reality shows devoted to it.
• Older Than They Think: The "Did You Know?" ad featuring Kenny Rogers wasn't the first thing to feature him annoying people at a poker table while singing "The Gambler". That honor would go to the George of the Jungle sequel.
• Retroactive Recognition: Jerry Lambert was in some of the first commercials to feature the Gecko as an actual GEICO employee.
• Unintentional Period Piece: When they brought back the "Bob Wehadababyitsaboy" commercial from 1999 as part of the "Best of GEICO" campaign in 2018, it definitely came off as this, since it's a relic of an era when: mobile phones weren't universal, pay phones were still ubiquitous (and they were a staple of hospital waiting rooms), phone company charges made long-distance landline calls a bit of a hassle, you could call someone "collect" and have them pay for it, and the gag is that Bob and his dad are so cheap that they skirt around long-distance charges by having Bob pass off his message as his last name, then his dad rejects the call. The company is likely aware of this, as this ad didn't get much airtime during the campaign compared to the other, more popular, more timeless spots.

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