Wassup !!/??

Now what is the deal with this word?

I mean why do people say it? What I mean to ask is, should one add a question mark at the end of it or an exclamation mark?

To know that we will have to trace out the history of this word, or rather phrase.

This phrase was first made popular in 1940 by the very popular and favorite cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Remember “What’s up, Doc”? In the series all the words were pronounce as per Standard English usage. The more standard one would be ‘What is up’. But that would just sound weird. Then the phrase somehow got fused into a word. So then came ‘Whassup’. This further shortened to ‘Wassup’. This can also be pronounced as ‘Wussup’ or ‘Wuzzup’. This phrase was made popular by the African American Community and was then later taken advantage of by the popular commercial series by Budweiser.

The evolution of this word didn’t stop there. This evolution would put Darwin to shame. The word got further shortened to ‘Ssup’ and later to just ‘Sup’. These versions though are more popular among the internet community.

Now we come to the question that I am addressing to. What exactly do people mean when they say wassup. And more importantly do they expect an answer in return or just another wassup. And even more importantly, what is the answer that they expect? Among Mexican-American street gangs in California, the phrase ‘what’s up’ means ‘there is going to be a fight’ when opposing gangs confront each other.

As far as I am concerned I go all blank when someone says this to me. What is it that I am supposed to say? The bigger reason for the confusion is that people say this in motion and don’t stay for more than a second to even listen to anything I would want to say. Well if you don’t want an answer you might as well just say Hi!

I think it is about time that people think about this. Technically thinking isn’t it a false show of concern? I mean someone can really get hurt you know. Now please leave your comments and tell me what IS the deal with this phrase.