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Who dat? Who dat? is a chant of team support by sports fans, used especially by fans of the New Orleans Saints, an American football team. The entire chant is: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat?" |
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The league is getting uppity because there are T-shirts that combine "Who Dat" and the fleur de lis -- a saying and a symbol that were around long before they had any linkage to the NFL. The NFL has backed off on its claim that the league owns the rights to "Who Dat" and the fleur-de-lis. Origins The chant of "Who Dat?" originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and was then taken up by jazz and big band performers in the 1920s and 30s. The first reference to "Who Dat?" can be found in the 19th Century. A featured song in E.E. Rice's "Summer Nights" is the song "Who Dat Say Chicken In dis Crowd", with lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.[1] A common tag line in the days of Negro minstrel shows was: "Who dat?" answered by "Who dat say who dat?" Many different blackfaced gags played off that opening. Vaudeville performer Mantan Moreland was known for the routine.[1] Another example is "Swing Wedding," and “The Old Mill Pond”, a rarely shown 1930s Harman-Ising cartoon musical, which caricatured Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ethel Waters, and the Mills Brothers as frogs in a swamp performing minstrel show jokes and jazz tunes. The frogs repeatedly used the phrase "who dat?"
In the swing era, "who dat" chants back and forth between the band and the band leader or between the audience and the band were extemporaneous. That is, there was no one specific set of words except for the two magic ones. Staged minstrel skits had frightened black people saying "who dat" when they encountered a ghost, or someone imitating a ghost. Then, the "who dat"..."who dat say who dat"...skit would play itself out. This skit was done frequently in short reels from the 1930s - 1950s and in some early TV shows too. Even the Marx Brothers had a "who dat" routine, which they included in their film A Day at the Races.[1] Often, a ghost was called a "who dat." An animated character, now banished to the archives as being racist, MGM's Bosko had such an encounter in a toon called "Lil Ol Bosko in Bagdad" in 1938. Origins of the "Who Dat?" Chant "Who Dat" became part of a chant for fans cheering on their favorite team. It has been debated exactly where it started, but some claim it began with Southern University fans either in the late 1960s or early 1970s and went "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Jags" - Southern University being nicknamed the Jaguars.[2] Another claim is that around the same time it began at St. Augustine High School, a historically African-American all boys Catholic high school in New Orleans, and then spread to the New Orleans Public Schools. Another claim is that the cheer originated at Patterson High School in Patterson, Louisiana (home of Saints running back Dalton Hilliard).[1] In the late 1970s fans at Alcorn State University and Louisiana State University picked up on the cheer.[3] By 1983, the New Orleans Saints organization officially adopted it during the tenure of coach Bum Phillips, and Aaron Neville (along with local musicians Sal and Steve Monistere and Carlo Nuccio) recorded a version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" that incorporated the chant (performed by a group of Saints players) that became a major local hit, due in part to the support of sportscaster Ron Swoboda and the fact that Saints fans had been using the chant already.[1] Who Dat Nation In recent years the phrase "Who Dat Nation" has become a popular term for the community of Saints fans.[7][8] According to Bobby Hebert, formerly a Saints quarterback and currently a sports commentator in New Orleans, the term "Who Dat Nation" originated after a highly anticipated 2006 game between the Saints and the favored Dallas Cowboys, which the Saints won; after the game, listeners from a wide geographic range called in to Hebert's radio show on WWL (AM), and Hebert commented, "Man, there's a whole Who Dat Nation out there."[9] Ownership Controversy In January 2010, the NFL sent cease and desist letters to several Louisiana t-shirt shop owners ordering them to cease producing t-shirts bearing the phrase "Who dat". According to some recipients of these letters, the NFL was claiming to own the trademark to the term "Who dat", and that the NFL claimed that unlicensed t-shirts bearing the phrase would cause confusion among fans of the Saints about the official status of the merchandise.[10] The Monisteres, through their company WhoDat Inc. also released a statement claiming rights to the phrase, which they registered in 1983 after recording the version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" that incorporated the chant.[11] The Monistere's record is listed as inactive, meaning that it was not renewed upon expiration. The Saints organization, through their company The New Orleans Louisiana Saints Limited Partnership, also registered the mark "Who Dat" in 1988 when used in conjunction with "fleur-de-lis design",[12] but later the Saints released their claim of ownership to WhoDat, Inc., asserting that they owned the phrase.[13] Recorded versions A play list of over 50 "Who Dat" and "New Orleans Saints songs" can be heard Who Dat? - Aaron Neville (1983)
Who Dat - Royal Crown Revue In 2009, New Orleans based artist K. Gates recorded “Black and Gold (Who Dat)” based on Ying Yang Twins’ “Halftime (Get Crunk)”.
"Who Dat" is the name of the 4th single off of The Recession by Young Jeezy. They say who dat? A variation of the "Who dat" chant was also used in the Lil' Wayne single "A Milli". Who dat say they gon beat Lil Wayne?
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