From Slim Thug to SNL: The Meme History of “Like a Boss”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey there, this is April from Iowa City.

Hi, April.

Hi, April. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

What can we do for you?

Well, I have a question.

I’m an avid Internet user, and there’s something I’ve noticed lately. In the last couple of months, is that people will use the phrase like a boss. I’ve seen it on Facebook. I’ve seen it on, you know, other Internet applications I use. And about, you know, one minute of Googling found the Andy Samberg video that was very funny and clearly uses that phrase. So I figure that’s probably a source of its current popularity. But I wondered, is that where it originated, or does it have a longer history than that?

So like a boss, in what circumstances are you seeing it?

Oh, people will use it to say that they did something very skillfully or with great authority. Like someone might say, I made that dinner like a boss.

Right, with style and panache and a little bit of class, right?

Yes, yes.

Okay, now I have to confess I haven’t seen the Andy Samberg video. April, I too am an avid Internet user, and I know exactly what you’re talking about. Now, have you seen the images making the rounds, and there’s like a billion of them, where it’ll show somebody doing something kind of freaky or embarrassing or awkward, but they seem not to care. They have a look of like being cool or collected, right? And it’ll say, like a boss.

Right, right, like the joy of enthusiastic failure.

Yeah.

Hey, that’s it.

What?

You pretty much nailed it. And you also successfully Googled the answer. It turns out that in 2005, there was a guy named Slim Thug, a hip-hop artist who did a song, straight song called like a boss, right? And it was on his album, already platinum. It wasn’t a very big hit. I don’t even think it actually went platinum. And so he did this. And then in 2009, a couple of the guys from SNL, from Saturday Night Live, including Andy Samberg, and then Seth Rogen is in the video for it. They did a version of like a boss, a parody version where they had him doing all this boring office stuff, like using the copier like a boss, you know, celebrating birthdays like a boss. It’s all this kind of stereotypical office nonsense like a boss. And you can actually see it spike, the term like a boss, when you look on Google Insights or the Google keyword searches and see that the use, right as that video is released, just explodes on the Internet. The power of Saturday Night Live to spread memes is still very strong. And that is absolutely the source of popularization for this.

So is it over now?

No, it’s going strong. And just go to a site like Reddit and look for the words like a boss, and you will find it everywhere. What’s interesting to me is that it’s a nice continuation of some older meanings of boss that date back to the 1800s, meaning a person, not necessarily the boss of an operation, but a guy who is the head of a gang or the head of a crew, who’s powerful or who has authority or class.

I thought that maybe it went back to video games. When you complete a level on a video game, you have to fight a really tough opponent called a boss.

Oh, yeah? That’s possible. I don’t do a lot of gaming, so I don’t know, but I do remember that from Mortal Kombat, right? The last round, right? Is that the boss round?

Exactly, yeah. I did it in Super Mario Brothers, but same idea.

Okay.

It might come from that, I don’t know, but you do find it occasionally pop up before 2005 in hip-hop lyrics, but really, you’ve got to give all due credit to Andy Samberg and the folks at SNL for putting out their parody version of like a boss. That was the popularization moment.

Cool.

Thanks for calling, April. Really appreciate it.

I appreciate your answer.

Thank you.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Goodbye.

877-929-9673 or send your questions in email to words@waywordradio.org.