<P> Button up your lip there big boy Stop answerin' back Give you a tip there big boy Announce yourself jack </P> <P> 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 </P> <P> 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 . "Who Dat Man? Why It's Gabriel!" Often, a ghost was called a "who dat ." Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer's animated character Bosko once had such an encounter in a 1938 toon called "Lil Ol Bosko in Bagdad ." In 1941 Butterfly McQueen infamously delivered what African American film historian Donald Bogle described as what "might be the most demeaning line ever uttered by a black in the movies" when she said, "Who dat say who dat when I say who dat?" in the movie Affectionately Yours . </P> <P> "Who Dat?" became a familiar joke with soldiers during World War II . </P>

Who dat say who dat when i say who dat origin