# "Po-po?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096 "2006-11-28T17:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/21 "2006-11-28T20:21:26Z")
I’ve always heard it in rap songs, and from people I know who think it’s funny. Another in the same catagory would be “One time”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/22 "2006-11-28T20:29:49Z")
Well, that explains it: as an old, East Coast white woman, I always called them “coppers.” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/23 "2006-11-28T20:52:10Z")
So how does it fit into Kevin Federline’s “Po-po Zao” that they mecilessly poke fun of on The Soup? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/24 "2006-11-28T21:49:05Z")
[QUOTE=velvetjones] Count me among those who grew up hearing po-po as a name for your backside. My mom even had this silly little diaper changing song that she used to sing that contained the phrase “pat 'em on the po-po”. [/QUOTE] Sis? Is that you??? (I’m freaked. I thought it was just my mom being weird.) ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/25 "2006-11-28T21:57:16Z")
Heard as slang for the police in Oregon as early as 1982. ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/26 "2006-11-28T22:04:37Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Sis? Is that you??? (I’m freaked. I thought it was just my mom being weird.) [/QUOTE] Count me in as another who heard “pat em on the po po” as a child. However while po po did refer to one’s backside my mother never used it as part of a diaper changing song. “Pat em on the po po” was my mother’s term for a smack on the butt for misbehaving. “Knock it off or you all are going to get a pat on the po po!!” Much like **Ginger of the North** I didn’t hear the term again until I became familiar with the habits of stoop kids and corner kids in West Baltimore. There it is used exclusively to mean police. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/27 "2006-11-28T22:07:50Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] So how does it fit into Kevin Federline’s “Po-po Zao” that they mecilessly poke fun of on The Soup? [/QUOTE] Now, [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopoZ%C3%A3o) has something to do with \>ahem\< patooties. And umlauts. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/28 "2006-11-28T22:08:35Z")
As a toddler, this was the term our family used to refer to that part of the body technically known as the “wee wee.” ---
**Author:** ![Hirundo82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/919ad9/32.png) [@Hirundo82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirundo82)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/29 "2006-11-28T22:14:15Z")
I grew up in Virginia and am familiar with the term. I have also heard it used as a singular noun. FWIW, I have never heard it used in a derogatory sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/30 "2006-11-28T22:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] As a toddler, this was the term our family used to refer to that part of the body technically known as the “wee wee.” [/QUOTE] Technically, it could be both a butt and a hoo-hoo. At our house. I didn’t know what a vagina was til I was 37. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/31 "2006-11-28T23:12:29Z")
“Feet up! Pat 'em on the po-po! Let’s hear him laugh?” It was a fairly popular [novelty song](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feet_Up_(Pat_Him_on_the_Po-Po)) in 1952. Here’s a [sound file](http://forbiddencrypts.250free.com/MonsterMash8126/3FeetUpPatEmOnThePoPo.mp3) of it. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/32 "2006-11-28T23:50:30Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] I didn’t know what a vagina was til I was 37. [/QUOTE] “Cooter” down here in the South. Just lettin’ y’all know and trying to be helpful! 🙂 Q ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/33 "2006-11-28T23:54:46Z")
Californian weighing in here: I never heard the expression in Monterey, Marina, San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Oakland, or Alameda. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/34 "2006-11-29T00:52:14Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist] I live in the midwest and have heard it mainly from those in the meth/drug/underground culture. [/QUOTE] Aren’t straight lines supposed to be reserved for **MPSIMS** or the **Pit**? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/35 "2006-11-29T00:59:21Z")
Hey, I’m just glad that so far no one has pointed out that meth _is_ a drug. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/36 "2006-11-29T01:43:35Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Another Californian weighing in with “Heard it for quite awhile, always collectively.” [/QUOTE] Another Californian weighing in with ‘I have never heard the term before seeing it in the Pit thread’. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/37 "2006-11-29T02:16:40Z")
I’m a native Texan and I heard it here in the mid or late-90’s. Before then, I was probably too young anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/38 "2006-11-29T02:27:00Z")
It sounds almost like another term for someone’s grandfather-similiar to “Pappap”. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/39 "2006-11-29T02:34:48Z")
I first heard it used on NYPD Blue, as Andy Sipowicz asks his young son if somebody touched him on the po-po. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096/40 "2006-11-29T09:31:57Z")
When I first saw the thread title, my first thought was “one old lady shot another old lady?” Popo is Chinese for “maternal grandmother” (Cantonese, I think). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po-po/382096.md?page=3)