Check out this article from Bengals forum on "who dey" chant (1 Viewer)

[Smokintoad]

The Bengals want to win SOMETHING.

This appears to be their best chance.

 

[TheBigEasy99]

Look, I wasn’t around in the late seventies/early eighties when all this stuff was going down so I can’t attest either way as to whether or not Who Dat or Who Dey came first.

All I know is the wording “Who dat” and, more specifically, the term “Who dat say” has been a part of the vernacular of the deep South for well over 100 years. For me, it seems a logical leap that the fans from here might make a chant that started with “who dat say” because that’s how many people in this region actually speak.

But “who dey?” No one from Cincinnati talks that way so why would they all of a sudden randomly make a chant that heavily featured that phrase?

 

[triplethreat]

Well I hope our fans that go to Cincy will show them what the real chant is....

 

[Archer Saint]

It's clear that the two chants originated not FROM each other, but parallel to each other.

It seems that the Bengals are more insistent on the Saints' cheer originating from their cheer.

We all know that's not the case.

The bottom line is that the Saints completely own the "Who Dat?" cheer. They do it best. They use it most.

Ask any random NFL fan which team is associated with "Who Dat?" and virtually all of them will say the Saints.

Ask any random NFL fan which team is associated with "Who Dey?" and I assure you, there will be as many people incorrectly saying "Saints" as correctly saying "Bengals."

Give up this fight, Bengals. You've lost.

 

[tenordas]

It's pathetic we have to rehash this every time we play the Bungles. You'd think by now they'd have bowed to reality that Who Dat came about in Louisiana a long time before their "Who Dey" - in fact, a long time before the Saints even existed for that matter.

I'm barely willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they came up with the "Who Dey?" chant from their local Hooday beer, but they really need to give it a rest already about that being the origin of Who Dat. It's just sheer stupidy at this point.

Tell any Bungle fan who wants to hold onto this fallacy to go to youtube and look up "Who Dat Marx Brothers" and "Swing Wedding cartoon". "A Day at the Races" was made in 1937 and the cartoon comes from 1938. The cartoon uses the "Who Dat" vaudville sketch and the Marx Brothers incorporate several Negro folk tunes that date from the 1800s including the one that uses the "Who Dat? Who Dat man?" line.

Puh-leeeeze.

 

[lonestarcajun]

It's clear that the two chants originated not FROM each other, but parallel to each other.

I think it's pretty clear that "Who Dat" has origins long before either team started any chants and that the "Who Dat" cheer was a natural progression from the way people in the South talk. I think it's clear that "Who Dat" was used in football context in and around New Orleans prior to when the article posted by the OP says the "Who Dey" chant started.

I don't know that it's clear that "Who Dat" had no influence on "Who Dey" and that it just sprang up in parallel. Who talks that way up North?

Could "Who Dey" have been started with no influence from the chants in the South? Sure. But I don't think that one is so clear that there was no influence. Just saying.

 

[Bundok Saint]

Who Dat got one of these:

Thought So.

 

[coldseat]

 

[TheGooch]

I didn't know until a couple years ago that Who Dey existed.

This...I just learned about this last year and thought it was a joke when i read it...Who Dey hahaha Really guys...this goes beyond weak and pathetic

I sure didnt hear anything about the NFL giving the bengals any crap about Who Dey...but they were all over our Who Dat

 

[Stadium Rat]

It's clear that the two chants originated not FROM each other, but parallel to each other.

I think it's pretty clear that "Who Dat" has origins long before either team started any chants and that the "Who Dat" cheer was a natural progression from the way people in the South talk. I think it's clear that "Who Dat" was used in football context in and around New Orleans prior to when the article posted by the OP says the "Who Dey" chant started.

I don't know that it's clear that "Who Dat" had no influence on "Who Dey" and that it just sprang up in parallel. Who talks that way up North?

Could "Who Dey" have been started with no influence from the chants in the South? Sure. But I don't think that one is so clear that there was no influence. Just saying.

I heard my parents do a Who Dat exchange when I was a kid before the Saints existed.
My dad was surprised by my mother on the other side of a door in our house and said "Who Dat?"
She replied, "Who dat who say who dat?"
And my dad responded with "Who dat who say who dat when I say who dat?"

My dad was born in 1918 and was as New Orleans as you can be. There was a history of vaudeville-type shows on the riverboats for decades before my dad was born. There is evidence that Who Dat routines, similar to my parents exchange, existed in vaudeville.

The tie between the origins of Who Dat and Who Dey is the Mississippi River, as both Cincinnati and New Orleans were bustling river ports in the 19th century and therefor both had the same shows as influence.

See the Wikipedia articles here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat%3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dey#Chant

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

if we're yats do they want to be called yeys?


i was in Tad Gormley in '81 for the Jesuit - St Aug game and that was the first time i heard it - it was pretty impressive and a little intimidating

 

[Stadium Rat]

The first time I heard it was at an LSU basketball game somewhere in the 1978-81 range. There were about a dozen or more African American LSU fans sitting in a row together, away from anyone else near the top of the arena. They chanted it and the whole crowd eventually picked it up. At the time I heard that, I was going to most Saints games and it was not done there.

 

[chank]

I'm guessing that their next claim will be that they were the first to make gumbo and jambalaya :hahahaha:

 

[lonestarcajun]

I heard my parents do a Who Dat exchange when I was a kid before the Saints existed.
My dad was surprised by my mother on the other side of a door in our house and said "Who Dat?"
She replied, "Who dat who say who dat?"
And my dad responded with "Who dat who say who dat when I say who dat?"

My dad was born in 1918 and was as New Orleans as you can be. There was a history of vaudeville-type shows on the riverboats for decades before my dad was born. There is evidence that Who Dat routines, similar to my parents exchange, existed in vaudeville.

The tie between the origins of Who Dat and Who Dey is the Mississippi River, as both Cincinnati and New Orleans were bustling river ports in the 19th century and therefor both had the same shows as influence.

See the Wikipedia articles here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat%3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dey#Chant

OK, you support that Who Dat goes way back... that much we know is true.

Then say that Who Dat & Who Dey are related because of the Mississippi and throw out two articles that just don't support the claim. The "Who Dey" article talks about how "Who Dat" goes back to vaudeville -- not the other way around. The "Who Dat" article just says that the Bengals have a similar chant.

So, Who Dat does have vaudeville origins and yes the Mississippi carried influences up and down the river. But Northern people don't talk that way, Southern people do. Not to mention that if there was an influence carried up the Mississippi, it would have been the "Who Dat" of those performances and not freakin' "Who Dey".

Any article I've every seen about "Who Dey" says the origins go back about 1981. Who Dat goes back much much farther than that. It's not like they were saying "Who Dat" at the bottom of the river and "Who Dey" in the Northern part.

The biggest thing I've seen for an independent origin of "Who Dey" is the car commercial referenced in the "Who Dey" article. But even with that, how do you get "Who Dey" out of "Who's going to give you a better deal?" It's not like the commercial even had a "Who are they". I can see where they may have gotten the noooooooooooobody, but how do you make the jump from "Who's going to" to "Who Dey" in a segment of the country that doesn't naturally talk that way.

So as I said earlier, I think it's pretty clear how a chant like "Who Dat" would grow out of the Louisiana culture... but as far as "Who Dey" just naturally springing out of Cincinnati, so far I just have to call BS on that.

 

[Flipx99]

Their admission that they only began to use the cheer in 1981 is fatal to their claim that they originated it. I can recall very distinctly hearing a predominately black high school in Mississippi using that cheer in the 70's. So, by that time it had already crossed the border from LA.

There is just no doubt in my mind that this is of local origin.

Maybe someone on here can remember which MS school used that cheer, I believe it may have been South Panola.