This may get moved to the Game Room, but I realized there might be some non-sports answers to this question as well.
You’re in a conversation, and you find yourself in a moment where you need to change the subject quickly, be it jokingly or otherwise. You pipe up with, “How 'bout them _______?”
Fill in the blank!
Mets! Occasionally Dodgers, but usually Mets.
Greeks.
If jokingly, it’s “How bout that local sports team?”
Lakers. It’s the only sports prattle I have so outside basketball season I’m pretty well screwed.
On the contrary – I think it is much more effective when used out of season! What better way to throw people’s minds off-track?
The newest trend in electronics. I can usually derail any conversation by bringing up the latest toy. Be it a new smart phone, PDA or game system, someone will jump on it because they either bought it or they want it.
Crabs.
Mariners.
By the way when did this meme originate? I always assumed it’s from this speech (Jimmy Johnson utters the infamous words “how bout them Cowboys!” about 1:22 in).
“How 'bout them Dodgers, ain’t they something?”
I think it’s quite old. I seem to remember it from my youth, but might just have a faulty memory.
Dawgs.
Dawgs, always gotta be Dawgs.
I’d never heard the phrase until I worked for a genuine UGA grad who grew up not 20 miles from the school. The amazing thing was he could actually read.
The way he said Dawgs was like pouring molasses. Had about 4 vowels in there, and it just smoothly changed from D to A to O to U to W to G to Z with no breaks you could pinpoint.
I have to agree, it’s “DAWGS”!
Here in Tucson, the University of Arizona is the biggest thing happening in sports, so the question here would be “How 'bout them Cats?”
In Michigan it was the Red Wings (along with any other local team). What made it funnier was when someone said something awkward outside of hockey season, and the response was “Sooo, how 'bout them Red Wings.”
(and follow-up posts)
This was the original version for me. I can’t place the date accurately, but I’ll say at least 20 years ago. It got picked up and modified for many teams after Georgia coined it.
The silliest version was when Vanderbilt (my school) had it as “How 'bout them Dores?” I have always thought Dores was worse than silly.
Off-topic: War Eagle! Who else says “War_____”?
DAWGS!!!
SIC 'EM!!! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!
InstallLSC, the phrase is a lot older than Jimmy Johnson talking about the Cowboys… here’s a Time magazine article from 1980 that has the phrase in its headline.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924579,00.html
This site gives the birth of the phrase from the 1970s: http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/223879
“Giants”, mostly. Occasionally “Blue Claws”.
Dawgs.