> A man poses with a mop on his head at Cyberia, the world’s first cyber cafe. This was very indicative of the humor of the times.
Oh. We're having to explain 90's humor as though on a museum placard.
I feel ancient.
One day we shall have to explain that no, wearing an onion on one's belt was never the fashion at the time.
But the 90s had many strange things, and I think I may never understand "wazzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaap" phone calls… or was that the early 00s?
And, having recently described the period as "around the turn of the century", I agree entirely with the sentiment.
The wazzap was mocking a trend of dudes greeting each other with "whassup" by elongating it ridiculously. Some of the appeal came from the execution and some from hitting just the right point in the zeitgeist.
Wazzzzzappp is easy. It was just a super bowl commercial that was popular
That origin doesn't tell me why it was popular.
Also, the ads were common in the UK where I was growing up, and the Superbowl was not as I recall broadcast on normal TV (we didn't have sky or cable, though that existed, so possibly that?), to the extent that I had to google the event to find out which sport the superbowl even was — I'd incorrectly guessed the other famous US sport of baseball, which is also not a big thing in the UK.
I don't think I've ever even noticed American Football being on UK TV at any point.
It was popular because it was funny. I think you will have a hard time ever finding a final "why" for social phenomena
It was a Bud Light ad campaign that originally ran for three years everywhere that Anheuser Busch ran ads. Wikipedia claims it started on Monday Night Football, not the Super Bowl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whassup%3F. But in any case, that is hardly the only time it ever ran.
Asking why it became popular may as well be asked of any pop cultural phenomenon that ever becomes popular. 20 people will give 40 opinions. Nobody really knows.
Yep, in the UK we knew it from the Budweiser adverts. Before that there was the frogs Bud, Weis, Er. Apparently they were originally a Superbowl ad, but again they were just shown on normal TV here.
don't fret, it wasn't funny then either. theyre just trying to exacerbate the delta T.