Whassup?

This article is about the advertising campaign. For other uses of the phrase What's up?, see What's up (disambiguation).

Whassup? (also known as Wazzup) was a commercial campaign for Budweiser beer from 1999 to 2002. The first spot aired during Monday Night Football on December 20, 1999. The ad campaign ran in much of the world and became a pop culture catchphrase, comically slurring "what's up?".

Origins

The commercials were based on the short film True written and directed by Charles Stone III, featuring Stone and several of his childhood friends: Fred Thomas, Paul Williams, Terry Williams, Jimmy "Puerto Rock" Perez, and Kevin Lofton. The characters sat around talking on the phone and saying "whassup?" to one another in a comical way. Steve Weinshel from C&C STORM films sent the popular short film to creative director Vinny Warren and art director Chuck Taylor at the Chicago-based ad agency DDB. They then presented the concept to August Busch IV, vice president of Anheuser-Busch. Impressed, Busch IV licensed the idea from C&C Storm films and enlisted Stone as the director for Budweiser TV commercials inspired by the film. Scott Martin Brooks won the role of Dookie when Kevin Lofton declined to audition.

Accolades

Whassup? was awarded the Cannes Grand Prix award and the Grand Clio award, among others. The campaign was inducted into the CLIO Hall of Fame in May 2006.

Sequels

In 2000, Budweiser created a sequel entitled “Whassup Girlfriend” featuring the original cast, with one member watching a program with his girlfriend when his friends call.

In 2001, during Super Bowl XXXV, Budweiser aired two more sequels. One, entitled, “Whassup Come Home,” features an alien who returns to his mothership and is asked what he has learned during his time on Earth, to which he responds, “Whassuuuuuuuuuuup.” The other, entitled, “What Are You Doing?” is a direct parody of the original commercial but instead featuring a cast of yuppies who utter the phrase, “What are you doing?” instead of, “Whassup?”

Eight years after it first aired, Stone rebooted the ad, with the same cast, as Wassup 2008. The two-minute short film was heavily critical of the presidency of George W. Bush and was a clear endorsement of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The 2008 video was nominated for the Favorite User Generated Video award at the 35th People's Choice Awards.

In 2020 a new ad campaign "Checking in, that's Whassup" was created by VaynerMedia. Social media spots featured friends meeting on an online platform, a common occurrence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign encouraged viewers to check in with friends, and received a Bronze award from the Clio Sports program.

In popular culture

The film Scary Movie (2000) parodied the ad in one scene.

In October 2000, Arsenal F.C. striker Thierry Henry celebrated a goal in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United by using the expression.

In 2001, the British music duo Shaft released a song and video titled "Wassuup!" under the name Da Muttz, referencing the Budweiser ad, set to a sample of "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer (which, in turn, sampled Rick James' "Super Freak"). It reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, and was also a hit on charts across Europe and in Australia.

In a 2001 episode of the BBC sitcom My Family ("Trust Never Sleeps"), in the scene where Ben (Robert Lindsay) is in an off-licence whilst on the way from Chiswick to Oxford, the guy behind the counter and a customer both say the line to each other when the customer enters the shop.

In an episode of the American sitcom “The Parkers” , Fred Thomas, Paul Williams & Scott Brooks make a guest appearance as “the Whatssup Guys” in the 6th episode of its second season called “ Whassup with Heyyy?"

Professional wrestling tag team The Dudley Boyz incorporated part of the ad as one of their signature moves. D-Von would climb to the top rope while Bubba Ray held an opponent's legs apart, before they both stuck out their tongues and did the Whassup head shake. D-Von would then execute a diving headbutt to the crotch of the opponent.

The Simpsons episodes "The Bart Wants What It Wants" (2002) and "See Homer Run" (2005) both feature the character Milhouse using the expression in an attempt to be cool.

Australian telecommunications company AAPT Limited parodied the ad with their series of commercials promoting AAPT Smartchat in 2000. Using Australian vernacular, instead of yelling "Whassup", people around the world would call each other and loudly yell "Maaaaate!"

Kim Possible also had Ron Stoppable shouting "Wazzup!" in the pilot Crush in 2002.

The Greg the Bunny episode "Father and Son Reunion" (2002) featured the character Gil trying to bond with his son Jimmy. Gil thinks all young people use the expression to be cool. They go out together along with Greg the Bunny and Gil shouts the expression at everyone they meet, much to the embarrassment of Jimmy.

In the 2003 Friends episode "The One With Phoebe's Rats", Ross enters Monica and Chandler's apartment saying "Whassup" trying to imitate the commercial, to which Chandler replies, "Seriously dude, three years ago!"

The Office episode "Pilot" has Michael Scott, Jim, and Dwight exchanging the expression with each other. Jim wryly tells the camera that Scott is still doing it constantly, seven years after the ad was popular. Michael references the ad series again in Peacock's extended version of the episode "Local Ad".

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Multiple Meat" (2010) had Frylock using the expression to Master Shake and when the latter does not react to it, he asks "I'm sorry, is that out now?"

The ad is also parodied in four episodes of the web series Annoying Orange. It has since become a staple running gag.

The band Falling in Reverse parodied the ad in the music video of the song "Good Girls, Bad Guys" (2011).

The phrase is used as a recurring joke in the 2012 film That's My Boy, starring Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg. There are also multiple occurrences of Budweiser product placement throughout the film.

In the film Central Intelligence (2016), Bob Stone sends Calvin Joyner a video clip of the ad and asks, "remember those commercials?"

In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Trilogy Time", Barney Stinson uses the expression in supposed "dream" futures.

In the Letterkenny episode "The Election" (2016), Stewart parodies the ad with Reilly & Jonesy in a campaign video for Wayne.

In Season 1, Episode 8 of Santa Clarita Diet, Drew Barrymore’s character says "Whassup?" to a "dead" undead character Loki, played by DeObia Oparei.

In the film Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Luis pulls up next to Scott and says it multiple times.

In June 2018, Burger King and Budweiser partnered to create a new Whassup? commercial.

In season 3, episode 1 of The PJs, Thurgood and his friends say Whassup? over the phone.

In episode 148 of Being the Elite titled, "Dead Friend 1", SoCal Uncensored parodied the ad but instead of "Whassup", they say SCU.

The introduction to Slowthai and Skepta's horror themed music video for "Cancelled" (2021) parodies the ad but instead they say "Wagwan?".