I know you like to think your ish don't stink.
August 20, 2012 4:51 PM Subscribe
In the Outkast song "Roses," is Andre saying "Poo-poo" or "boo-boo"? This seems to be a popular point of debate on the Internet.
definately "poo-poo," not sure how any thing else fits.
posted by katypickle at 5:03 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by katypickle at 5:03 PM on August 20, 2012
Roses, roses they smell like poooooo-poooooo.
posted by livinglearning at 5:08 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by livinglearning at 5:08 PM on August 20, 2012
Clearly none of the other commenters live in the South. People here totally say "booboo" to be a little more polite. And I live in Atlanta, home of Outkast.
posted by masquesoporfavor at 5:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by masquesoporfavor at 5:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Boo-boo is a commonly used stand-in for "poop". That's why I asked.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
boo-boo! Boo-boo = poop, just less nasty.
posted by xicana63 at 5:16 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by xicana63 at 5:16 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
I have never heard "boo-boo" as a stand in for poop. It has to be poo-poo.
posted by brainmouse at 5:16 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by brainmouse at 5:16 PM on August 20, 2012
Response by poster: Just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it's not a thing. It's pretty common slang i the south.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:18 PM on August 20, 2012 [10 favorites]
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:18 PM on August 20, 2012 [10 favorites]
It's boo-boo.
posted by loriginedumonde at 5:19 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by loriginedumonde at 5:19 PM on August 20, 2012
It sounds like poo-poo to me, but given that p and b sound very much alike, there doesn't seem to be any way to tell without asking the lyricist.
posted by muddgirl at 5:28 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by muddgirl at 5:28 PM on August 20, 2012
Boo-boo = poop, just less nasty.
Also, I'll note that poo = poop, just less nasty, as well. Boo-boo would be a second layer of euphemism.
posted by muddgirl at 5:29 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, I'll note that poo = poop, just less nasty, as well. Boo-boo would be a second layer of euphemism.
posted by muddgirl at 5:29 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
I am Golfhaus, and I cast my vote for boo-boo.
posted by Golfhaus at 5:42 PM on August 20, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Golfhaus at 5:42 PM on August 20, 2012 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Well given we are at an impasse, is there anyone in the metafilter community with a line to Andre 3000 to answer this question?
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:49 PM on August 20, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:49 PM on August 20, 2012 [5 favorites]
It is absolutely boo-boo. I even hear this in the North.
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 5:59 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 5:59 PM on August 20, 2012
I have lived in the Shallow South (VA-NC border regions) my whole life and I have never heard boo-boo as a euphemism for doodie. Not saying it's not, just anecdata. For me, a booboo is babytalk for a child's minor wound. Personally I think this is like what Ralph Wiggins meant about the viking.
Regarding the lyric specifically, as many times as I have listened to this song, I don't get a strong p sound OR a b sound. To my ear it sounds like ooo or woo, even though I know that's probably not what he's saying. Or Eww-eww-ewww. I don't think Andre Ben was being intentionally ambiguous. It's possible, but I think perhaps just through some odd production quirk the lyric was rendered ambiguously.
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 6:04 PM on August 20, 2012
Regarding the lyric specifically, as many times as I have listened to this song, I don't get a strong p sound OR a b sound. To my ear it sounds like ooo or woo, even though I know that's probably not what he's saying. Or Eww-eww-ewww. I don't think Andre Ben was being intentionally ambiguous. It's possible, but I think perhaps just through some odd production quirk the lyric was rendered ambiguously.
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 6:04 PM on August 20, 2012
According to this site "poopoo" is a misheard lyric. It's boo boo.
posted by sweetkid at 6:18 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by sweetkid at 6:18 PM on August 20, 2012
That site, like most lyrics sites, doesn't have any sort of citation or attribution for 'boo-boo' being the correct lyric and 'poo-poo' being the misheard one. Looking at lyrics sites it's about 50-50.
posted by muddgirl at 6:20 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 6:20 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Someone who wants to pay $3.69 to buy the sheet music online could settle this in an instant.
posted by gingerest at 6:24 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by gingerest at 6:24 PM on August 20, 2012
FWIW, boo-boo was the term used by African American 7th graders in Texas in the 2000's. They had never even heard of poo-poo.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:26 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by unknowncommand at 6:26 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Black Southern vernacular, booboo = feces.
The lyrics are definitely booboo not poopoo.
If you've never heard this usage, that's just 'cause you ain't been around the right people. You gon' learn today.
posted by anansi at 6:30 PM on August 20, 2012 [10 favorites]
The lyrics are definitely booboo not poopoo.
If you've never heard this usage, that's just 'cause you ain't been around the right people. You gon' learn today.
posted by anansi at 6:30 PM on August 20, 2012 [10 favorites]
Definitely always thought it was "booboo", it doesn't even sound like "poopoo" there.
posted by Papagayo at 6:49 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by Papagayo at 6:49 PM on August 20, 2012
Response by poster: Exciting! Metafilter's really expanding vocabularies and changing minds tonight!
(for the record, I've always thought it was boo-boo, but I was talking to some friends tonight and I was alone in this opinion. I figured askme probably had some poo-poo v. boo-boo authorities.)
posted by to sir with millipedes at 7:00 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
(for the record, I've always thought it was boo-boo, but I was talking to some friends tonight and I was alone in this opinion. I figured askme probably had some poo-poo v. boo-boo authorities.)
posted by to sir with millipedes at 7:00 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
rapgenius seems to think it's poo but I think metafilter could suggest an improvement, listening it sounds like boo to me too.
posted by ch1x0r at 7:05 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ch1x0r at 7:05 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
In this live version, it sounds more clearly like "boo-boo"--especially the chorus here (@2:13) where Big Boi joins in singing it.
posted by neda at 7:13 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by neda at 7:13 PM on August 20, 2012
+1 for boo-boo, as an ex-AtL-ian.
(That's why I really liked that lyric. It's so... Southern.)
posted by functionequalsform at 7:31 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
(That's why I really liked that lyric. It's so... Southern.)
posted by functionequalsform at 7:31 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]
I grew up in inner-city Atlanta, and I am confident that it's boo-boo.
posted by rustcellar at 7:34 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by rustcellar at 7:34 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
I always heard that lyric as boo-boo, and as a kid used boo-boo as kid talk for dook with my parents as well as with my kid brother. In fact, I didn't learn until much older that some people also used "boo-boo" as baby talk for getting hurt.
Note: My dad is black and from Mississippi, if we're keeping count on this being some kind of regionalism.
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:41 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Note: My dad is black and from Mississippi, if we're keeping count on this being some kind of regionalism.
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:41 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Totally boo-boo.
posted by whitneyarner at 8:12 PM on August 20, 2012
posted by whitneyarner at 8:12 PM on August 20, 2012
Best answer: Someone who wants to pay $3.69 to buy the sheet music online could settle this in an instant.
I did. It's "boo-boo". (And also "boo boo".)
posted by themanwho at 8:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [21 favorites]
I did. It's "boo-boo". (And also "boo boo".)
posted by themanwho at 8:14 PM on August 20, 2012 [21 favorites]
It sounds close enough to poo-poo that the meaning is clear to people who aren't aware of "boo-boo" as a euphemism for poo.
(Am from the south, have never heard that, but I'm not from Georgia/Atlanta, so...)
posted by Sara C. at 8:59 PM on August 20, 2012
(Am from the south, have never heard that, but I'm not from Georgia/Atlanta, so...)
posted by Sara C. at 8:59 PM on August 20, 2012
Also, I always just heard it as "roses really smell like poo," with an exaggerated oooo sound. Like "poo-ooooooo-oooh-oooooooh". Which might be a case for "boo-boo", because to me a B is a slightly softer sound. He's definitely not enunciating that hard pppppppppp on the second poo/boo.
And for sio42, where I grew up we called a child's small injury a "bo-bo", not a "boo-boo". Then again, I remember being told to "go do-do" at nap time in kindergarten, so I'm clearly from a very dialectically weird part of the south.
posted by Sara C. at 9:05 PM on August 20, 2012
And for sio42, where I grew up we called a child's small injury a "bo-bo", not a "boo-boo". Then again, I remember being told to "go do-do" at nap time in kindergarten, so I'm clearly from a very dialectically weird part of the south.
posted by Sara C. at 9:05 PM on August 20, 2012
100% pure boo boo. You playa haters are gonna to tell us that they ain't saying "ish" next for reals. Shame. Caroline!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:06 PM on August 20, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:06 PM on August 20, 2012 [3 favorites]
Absolutely 100% 'boo-boo'. I don't see how it's even debatable - it's clear as day on the track.
'Boo-boo' is most definitely a part of Black vernacular as well.
posted by gnutron at 9:15 PM on August 20, 2012
'Boo-boo' is most definitely a part of Black vernacular as well.
posted by gnutron at 9:15 PM on August 20, 2012
OK, just re-listened to the song.
It's definitely boo-boo, but it is NOT ish. It's shit.
I was open to having misheard it forever as some kind of "not from Atlanta" "outsider to Black culture" thing, but it's definitely shit. It's one of the most enunciated "shit"s I've ever heard in any pop song, up there with Mick Jagger's perfect choirboy enunciation of "get my ass fucked" in Cocksucker Blues.
posted by Sara C. at 9:21 PM on August 20, 2012
It's definitely boo-boo, but it is NOT ish. It's shit.
I was open to having misheard it forever as some kind of "not from Atlanta" "outsider to Black culture" thing, but it's definitely shit. It's one of the most enunciated "shit"s I've ever heard in any pop song, up there with Mick Jagger's perfect choirboy enunciation of "get my ass fucked" in Cocksucker Blues.
posted by Sara C. at 9:21 PM on August 20, 2012
It's "ish" in the radio edit, but "shit" in the original. And "boo-boo" in both.
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:45 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:45 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's definitely boo-boo, but it is NOT ish. It's shit.
The sheet music agrees with you. Also, "stank", not "stink".
posted by themanwho at 9:47 PM on August 20, 2012 [5 favorites]
The sheet music agrees with you. Also, "stank", not "stink".
posted by themanwho at 9:47 PM on August 20, 2012 [5 favorites]
Huh, I always heard it as boo-hoo, but I guess I was just wrong.
posted by daisyk at 12:43 AM on August 21, 2012
posted by daisyk at 12:43 AM on August 21, 2012
Response by poster: THEMANWHO FOR THE WIN!
Thanks everyone for helping me resolve this incredibly important argument.
Oh, and Sara C, I wrote "ish" because it is common in radio edits of rap songs to backwards loop the word "shit" to sound like "ish." I know that it's "shit."
posted by to sir with millipedes at 3:59 AM on August 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Thanks everyone for helping me resolve this incredibly important argument.
Oh, and Sara C, I wrote "ish" because it is common in radio edits of rap songs to backwards loop the word "shit" to sound like "ish." I know that it's "shit."
posted by to sir with millipedes at 3:59 AM on August 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
And for those who were curious like me, "poop" comes from a French word for "the stern of the ship".
posted by IAmBroom at 7:28 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by IAmBroom at 7:28 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Sara C., are from around New Orleans? Because 'do-do' for 'sleep' is a French thing.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:42 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by benito.strauss at 5:42 PM on August 21, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kimdog at 4:54 PM on August 20, 2012 [3 favorites]