# Bow chicka wow wow **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928 "2010-03-01T22:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/1 "2010-03-01T22:42:40Z")
Everyone has heard it. Everyone knows what it means. But where did it start? Has anyone actually heard it in the context it implies? I’ve only watched a few hundred hours of porn in my life so I don’t have that large a data pool to draw from so I thought I’d ask the group that would be sure to know. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/2 "2010-03-01T22:59:38Z")
I have no idea where it actually started, but Denis Leary popularized the phrase in his standup act. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/3 "2010-03-01T23:01:09Z")
Previous thread: > **[Origin of "bow chikka wow wow" to denote porn music in conversation.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=156942)** > > The title of the topic says it all. Nearly everyone I know uses some variation of the “bow chikka wow wow” onomatopoeia to signify the horrible music in pornography. No one, though, knows how it originated, and it keeps me awake at night. Since... ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/4 "2010-03-01T23:14:58Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Everyone has heard it. > > Everyone knows what it means. > > But where did it start? Has anyone actually heard it in the context it implies? It derives from quasi-funk background music used in 1970’s porn films, which made heavy use of wah wah pedal-inflected guitars. [Example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNcskHlvc2c). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/5 "2010-03-01T23:35:15Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest in the linked thread] Having watched several 70s (mid and late) pornos I have yet to hear anything like that. In fact most of the music set to those pornos could have been written by “The Carpenters” it seems. [/QUOTE] That’s my \*experience, too. **Mangetout** actually nailed it in the earlier thread. “Shaft” was the tune that made it part of the collective memory. The conflation of the two seems to have been of relatively recent vintage. And, I could be completely wrong, too. \*Well, except replace “several” with “practically all” ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/6 "2010-03-02T03:24:18Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Previous thread: > [Origin of "bow chikka wow wow" to denote porn music in conversation. - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=156942) Excellent memory you have there. Sounds about like what I was expecting. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/7 "2010-03-02T04:10:11Z")
I hear it in 70s jazzy funk classic “Brick House.” They sing “Shake it down, shake it down now. Shake it down, shake it down now.” It sounds very much like chicka bow chicka wow wow, so maybe that’s the connection. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/8 "2010-03-02T17:32:50Z")
q: what did the farmer say when he walked in on his cow gettin’ it with a chicken? a: brown chicken brown cow ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/9 "2010-03-02T19:55:11Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > It derives from quasi-funk background music used in 1970’s porn films, which made heavy use of wah wah pedal-inflected guitars. [Example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNcskHlvc2c). Yeah, this - it’s a verbal imitation of a wah-wah pedal in a porno funk song. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/10 "2010-03-02T21:21:08Z")
Another vote for cheesy 70s era porn. The kind where the repairman comes to the office to fix something, and the secretary looks him over as he works, licks her lips, says something…he turns…she lets down her hair…and they hump like bunnies. Bow chicka wow wow. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/11 "2010-03-02T22:49:49Z")
Brown chicken Brown cow ---
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/12 "2010-03-03T03:33:26Z")
First time I heard it was on the sit-com “Reba.” But it was pronounced more like “bow, chicky, bow bow”, said in a high-pitched, nasal voice. (Reba is a show that I discovered only about two months ago in re-runs, and I think it’s realistic and frequently hilarious, especially Van and Barbara Jean. Barbara Jean used the phrase when talking about her problems with Reba’s ex, whom she married.) ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bow-chicka-wow-wow/530928/13 "2010-03-03T04:00:21Z")
I actually saw a porno once where Pat Benatar’s song “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” was playing over one sex scene. I shit you not. I’m assuming somebody got the shit sued out of them for that one.