# What up (saying) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [June 14, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888 "2024-06-14T20:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/1 "2024-06-14T20:20:57Z")
I might be misremembering, but I seem to remember a character (SNL?) saying “What up?” My friends and I used to say it all the time, and I’m sure we picked it up from the zeitgeist. It’s hard to Google because it’s too close to ‘what’s up’. Does this ring a bell with anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/2 "2024-06-14T20:35:59Z")
Is this what you’re thinking of? > **[What Up with That?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Up_with_That%3F)** > > "What Up with That?" (also rendered "What's Up with That?" in some episodes) is a recurring sketch on the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. The sketch first aired in 2009. It stars Kenan Thompson as Diondre Cole, host of a talk show on BET. Supporting characters include the show's announcer, originally played by Will Forte, and later by Taran Killam and Mikey Day, Fred Armisen as Giuseppe, a Kenny G-like saxophone player, Jason Sudeikis as Vance, an overzealous track-suit-wearing b Th... ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/3 "2024-06-14T21:10:50Z")
I don’t know where it came from but when I saw the title of the thread I know how to say it (if I’m thinking of the same thing). For example, I know how long to hold the 'up". ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/4 "2024-06-14T21:30:17Z")
Uh, not the Budweister ad from 1999? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JJmqCKtJnxM/hqdefault.jpg "budweiser wassup commercial") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJmqCKtJnxM) ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/5 "2024-06-14T22:27:23Z")
Matthew Brock (Andy Dick’s character) on NewsRadio would often use a monotone “What up?”. [TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/NewsRadio) calls it his catchphrase, but I’m not sure I’d go quite that far. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/6 "2024-06-14T22:44:50Z")
Maybe that’s it. Now that I see that, did they ever say it 3 times in a row? ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/7 "2024-06-14T22:57:21Z")
I remembered where I got it from. It’s the Budweiser commercial. Someone else mentioned it. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/8 "2024-06-14T23:12:03Z")
The “Wasssuppp” commercial was a huge hit at NASA when my electronics tech buddy, Hot Bob, superimposed all the crew’s faces over the actors’. Their supervisor became the guy sitting in the chair on the right. I’m telling you we could not look at each other for weeks with out going, “Wasssuuppp”. [HOT BOB](https://imgur.com/a/eK2MNSI) But that is a completely different vibe then “What up”. I’m think Snoop Dogg. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/9 "2024-06-14T23:17:15Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I’m sure we picked it up from the zeitgeist. Well, ‘taint that a co-inky-dink! Every time us kids got caught running through the Zeitgeists’ back yard, Ol’ Lady Z (I think her real name was Ethel…) would lure us into her mid-century-not-modern kitchen for warm molasses cookies. And Mr. Z (Bernard?) would try out Borscht Belt vaudeville routines on us. Poor Bernie, he tried so hard to get us to use his catchphrases, and kept inventing more on the spot (“Ooh, ooh, I know… what about, let’s see, _‘That’s a snootful!’?_ You kids like that? Wouldja use it with your friends?”) We’d grab a cookie for the road and barrel out of there, yelling “You can’t mold us, Zeitgeist!” ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/10 "2024-06-14T23:56:06Z")
First words of this skit are kinda catchy… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O7VaXlMvAvk/maxresdefault.jpg "Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks - SNL") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/11 "2024-06-15T13:06:33Z")
That’s interesting. I think I might have conflated two things in my mind. That’s definitely the three word version of it I was hearing in my head. But I don’t think it’s old enough to be the one we used back in the day. Couriouser and couriouser. Thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/12 "2024-06-15T13:09:38Z")
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xiv9RQVXlG4/hqdefault.jpg "R Truth Whats Up") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiv9RQVXlG4) A What’s Up song that’s easy to get tired of hearing. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-up-saying/1002888/13 "2024-06-26T13:23:31Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Maybe that’s it. Now that I see that, did they ever say it 3 times in a row? The main joke of the recurring sketch is that the host of the show kept interrupting the show to sing the theme song over and over, so the guests barely got interviewed, including poor ol’ Lindsey Buckingham, who never even got to speak. So the phrase was indeed repeated many times over the course of the show. Despite the fact that it was essentially a one-joke concept, and SNL always made a habit of running recurring sketches into the ground, I never got sick of this one: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/sqpnRyfz_aY/maxresdefault.jpg "What Up With That?: Samuel L. Jackson & Carrie Brownstein - SNL") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqpnRyfz_aY)