Who dat?!

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Not a Saints fan and I am sure you guys get tired of explaining it but what does it truly mean and where did it originate? Something tells me that ESPN did a terrible job of covering the topic.

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It comes from....

"who dat, who dat, who dat say dey gonna beat dem saints????"

and where did it originate from??

I don't think anyone knows? Lots of people say they are the original who dats. but no one really knows.

(no message)

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it seems like a more civilized version of Rammer Jammer.

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get that bullshite out of here

The "who dat" chant comes from minstrel shows over 100 years old. It became a chant in sports in the 1970s, with several local high school and college teams claiming they did it first, but no one knows definitively. It somehow became adopted by the Cincinnati Bengals with their "Who Dey" chant, and shortly after with the Saints "Who Dat" chant. Now it's pretty much universally known as a chant for the Saints.

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The "who dat" chant comes from minstrel shows over 100 years old.

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this

Libretto - Who Dat Say Chicken In dis Crowd, 1898


The chant of "Who Dat?" originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the late 1800s and early 1900s and was 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 in the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, first in his poem "When Malindy Sings" and later in his lyrics to the song "Who Dat Say Chicken in dis Crowd," a featured song in E.E. Rice's "Summer Nights," in a show called Clorindy: The Origin of the Cake Walk by Will Marion Cook.[1][2][3] 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.[3] Another example is "Swing Wedding," a 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.

"Who Dat?" lyrics from 1937:

Who dat up there who’s dat down there
Who dat up there who dat well down there
Who’s dat up there, sayin’ who’s dat down there
When I see you up there well who’s dat down there
Who dat inside who’s dat outside
Who’s dat inside who dat well outside
Who’s dat inside, singin’ who’s dat outside
When I see up there well who’s dat out there
Button up your lip there big boy
Stop answerin’ back
Give you a tip there big boy
Announce yourself jack
Who dat up there who’s dat down there
Who dat up there who dat, well down there
Who’s dat up there, singin’ who’s dat down there
When I see you up there you bum
Well who’s dat down there
Who dat

Staged minstrel skits featured frightened African-American characters 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 to 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.[3] Often, a ghost was called a "who dat". MGM's now-banned animated character Bosko once had such an encounter in a 1938 toon called "Lil Ol Bosko in Bagdad".

"Who Dat?" became a familiar joke with soldiers during World War II.

Back in WWII, US fighter squadron pilots would often fly under radio silence. But things get lonely up there in the cockpit, so after a while there'd be a crackle of static as someone keyed his mike. Then a disembodied voice would reply, "Who dat?" An answer would come, "Who dat say who dat?" And another, "Who dat say who dat say who dat?" After a few rounds of this, the squadron commander would grab his microphone and yell, "Cut it out, you guys!" A few moments of silence. Then... "Who dat?"

"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 talkin' 'bout beatin' dem Jags" — Southern University being nicknamed the Jaguars.[4] 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).[3] In the late 1970s fans at Alcorn State University and Louisiana State University picked up on the cheer.[5] 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.[3] Meanwhile, in about 1981 Cincinnati Bengals fans and players had started with their similar "Who Dey" cheer

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someone made a video of the history of the who dat.

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The Origin of Who Dat video