<P> "Mr Chad" or just "Chad" was the version that became popular in the United Kingdom . The character of Chad may have been derived from a British cartoonist in 1938, possibly pre-dating "Kilroy was here". </P> <P> Etymologist Dave Wilton says, "Some time during the war, Chad and Kilroy met, and in the spirit of Allied unity merged, with the British drawing appearing over the American phrase ." Other names for the character include Smoe, Clem, Flywheel, Private Snoops, Overby, The Jeep (as both characters had sizable noses), and Sapo . </P> <P> Author Charles Panati says that in the United States "the mischievous face and the phrase became a national joke...The outrageousness of the graffiti was not so much what it said, but where it turned up ." The major Kilroy graffiti fad ended in the 1950s, but today people all over the world still scribble the character and "Kilroy was here" in schools, trains, and other public areas . </P> <P> It is believed that James J. Kilroy was the origin of the expression, as he used the phrase when checking ships at the Fore River Shipyard in Massachusetts during WWII . </P>

Where did the expression what's up come from