About

Baba Booey is a catchphrase that is often shouted as a verbal prank during moments of high tension and live TV broadcasts. Originally said by the executive producer of The Howard Stern Show Gary Dell'Abate when he misstated the name of cartoon character Baba Looey, the catchphrase then caught on first among the cast of the show, and then in the popular culture in general. In 2020, the catchphrase was popularized in memes after YouTuber twomad started using it in his videos.

Origin

On July 26th, 1990, during an episode of the radio show The Howard Stern Show, its executive producer Gary Dell'Abate was telling a story of his prized collection of animation cels.^[1] While talking about a Quick Draw McGaw cel, Dell'Abate incorrectly referred to the character's sidekick Baba Looey as "Baba Booey," with the cast of the show proceeding to mock him for the rest of the episode (parts one and two of the interviews shown below, "Baba Booey" is said by Dell'Abate at 1:58 mark of part two). "Baba Booey" later caught on as Dell'Abate's nickname.

I was thinking about getting Quick Draw McGaw and Baba Booey. […] Those are a little bit cheaper. Quick Draw and Baba Booey are about 3.25.
- What do you call him?
- Baba Booey.
- It's Baba Looey, isn't it? It's Baba Looey. You're hanging a picture of a guy and you don't even know his name?

Spread

In the following years, the catchphrase "Baba Booey" developed into a mantra for the fans of The Howard Stern Show, being used during prank calls and on other occasions.^[1] For example, during the low-speed police chase of O.J. Simpson a prank caller to ABC News signed off with saying "And Baba Booey to y'all!"

During the 2012 Olympics, freestyle wrestler Jake Herbered yelled the phrase as the camera panned over Team USA during the opening ceremony, with the phrase becoming a popular shout during moments of heightened tension in sports events (compilation video shown below).^[1] Additionally, the catchphrase appeared in numerous songs, films and TV series.

On November 13th, 2009, YouTube^[2] user stokepogue uploaded a recording of the 1993 The Howard Stern Show episode in which the members of the cast repeatedly say "Baba Booey" and "Fafa Fooey." The video gained over two million views in eleven years (shown below, left). On August 18th, 2014, YouTube^[3] user GFORSE uploaded the "Baba Booey" soundbite as heard at 43 second mark of the video (the sound effect of Dell'Abate saying the phrase in the 1990 episode; shown below, right), with the clip gaining over 880,400 views in six years.

More uploads of the soundbite to YouTube were made in the following years.

Use in Memes

Starting on March 2nd, 2020, YouTuber^[4] twomad started using the soundbite in his videos to censor explicit language, with the soundbite first appearing in twomad's video "K-POP twitter stans still sueing against me" (shown below, left). On March 16th, YouTube^[5] user Mimo uploaded a one-hour version of the soundbite to YouTube as "Twomad Bababooey Sound Effect 1 Hour." The video (shown below, right) received over 342,200 views in five months. Before twomad, the soundbite was used by YouTuber Filthy Frank in the intro of his vides starting in October 2014.^[12]

The active use of the soundbite by the streamer popularized it among meme content creators, with humorous edits featuring the soundbite and using it as a punchline starting to appear on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube in the following months. For example, on May 2nd, 2020, YouTube^[6] user Easy Sneezy uploaded a video that received over 77,100 views in four months (shown below, left). On July 20th, 2020, YouTube^[7] user JackOD posted a compilation of memes that used Baba Booey soundbite (shown below, right).

TikTok Spread

On August 28st, 2020, TikTok^[8] user @suhdon posted a meme in which he used a filter to give himself a grotesquely square jaw and high cheekbones, lip syncing "baba booey" three times. The video received over 7.9 million views and 596,700 likes in two months (shown below, left). The clip spawned a TikTok^[9] trend in which users applied a filter and lip synced "baba booey," often flexing their chest and biceps and approaching the camera (examples^[10][11] shown below, center and right). A now-removed video by TikTok user @gidster gained particular popularity as a part of the trend, being actively shared on Twitter and other platforms in September 2020.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References