I have been reading a book about real English expressions and idioms. The first chapter deals with greetings. According to the section On departure,
See you later, alligator
is one of the informal ways of saying goodbye to someone.
The book says that it's humoristic and the answer would be in a while crocodile. Apparently, it's derived from a 50s pop song.
My question is: Is this expression common? It goes without saying that I am not a native speaker of English but I usually listen to English music, films and TV shows and I have never heard of it before.
Best Answer
The line is from a 50s rock n roll song. You can watch Bill Haley and the Comets performing this little ditty on Youtube See you later, Aligator
It was a catchy line and it caught on in popularity, and I'd say it resisted until the late 60s until it gradually declined in usage. Ironically, this form of greeting is seen as being quaint and/or painfully "uncool". I doubt if any of today's teenagers would be caught dead saying this.