I watch Jim Cramer’s program frequently and have heard Boolyah, Kramer from wherever…Perhaps I’m one of only a few who doesn’t know the origin or the meaning of this so frequently used expression…but would some kind soul out there clue me in?..Please!
K is my error. I know his last name begins with a C…thats about it.
I think its Booyah, not bullyah. Not sure of the origins, but basically it can mean; a win, or “nailed it!”. Its something positive. So if you buy a lottery ticket, and you hit the numbers, Booyah! If you nailed a touchdown, you can scream Booyah! in your opponents face.
If your chosen stock goes up 100%, Booyah!!
Didn’t Stuart Scott of “Sports Center” take the phrase mainstream, if not invent it?
Scott made it mainstream(around the mid-late 1990’s?). It was popularized in hip-hop/rap by T.R.I.B.E. in 1990 or so.
Evidence indicates that it was the imitative sound of a sawed-off shotgun firing and probably an urban expression in the 1980’s at least.
If you watch “ER,” the Eriq LaSalle eps show him in the opening credits kinda squatting on the floor and thrusting his fist down in front. This comes either from the pilot movie, or the first regular season ep, in which he has just *saved a patient who was suffering from a dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm. In the actual ep, he is saying “Boo-yah!” as he squats and thrusts.
*The patient was scheduled to have surgery in the next week or so, but his AAA seemed to have already started leaking, so Dr. Benton (LaSalle) thought. No one seemed to take his diagnosis seriously (and do emergency surgery), so Benton thought he’d start operating himself. When word gets out to the other surgeons that Benton is opening the man himself, they start coming in to take over, at which point Benton says, “Suddenly I have all the help I need.” After they tell him that they have the situation under control, and he leaves the OR, he does the scene that’s shown in the credits.
Booya (no h) also refers to a communal stew traditional amongst Minnesota-Wisconsin peoples. Judging from James Lileks’ reportage, it sounds like a defanged, northernized version of Kentucky burgoo.
There was a rap group in the late 80s named the BooYah Tribe…I want to say they were Samoan, or perhaps Filipino. They had a few videos on MTV Raps. That was the first use of the term that I’m aware of.
Thanks everyone, I can now sleep soundly right after I watch Cramers’ late show.
Any relation to the juvenile British taunt “yah boo”?