Mickey from Austin, Texas, is curious about a phrase his mother uses: Are you smelling what I’m stepping in? meaning “Do you understand what I’m saying?” It likely derives from Black English Do you smell me? and Do you feel me? and is probably related as well to You smell what I’m cooking? a variant of which, Do you smell what the Rock is cooking? became a catchphrase for professional wrestler Duane “The Rock” Johnson. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Are You Smelling What I’m Stepping In?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hey, this is Mickey calling from New Braunfels, Texas.
Hey, Mickey, welcome to the show.
What can we do for you?
So I’ve been thinking about this for a while and finally got up the nerve to call.
But my mom does this thing and she’s the only one I’ve ever heard do this.
And I’m curious if she’s the only one.
If she’s not, where it might have come from, she has no idea.
But she’ll do this thing where she’ll, kiddingly, if she wants to know if you acknowledge what she’s saying,
she’ll be like, are you picking up what I’m putting down?
Are you smelling what I’m stepping in?
And that’s the part that I don’t know if anybody else says it or if it’s just her thing.
This is interesting because there’s a whole nexus of similar sayings that kind of all come together here.
How old is your mom?
Oh, she’s going to tell me because I don’t actually know.
Give me a decade.
I will say late 50s.
Okay, late 50s.
I would expect someone using are you smelling what I’m stepping in to be younger.
I’m not judging.
My mom is super hip.
Okay.
Go mom.
Yeah, go mom.
Are you smelling what I’m stepping in has never been all that common, but it’s become more common in the last 10 to 15 years.
But it’s a variant of things like, and not just this one, but things like you smell what I’m cooking.
And probably a certain small segment of our audience,
remembers that Dwayne The Rock Johnson had the catchphrase,
do you smell what the rock is cooking,
which was part of his shtick when he was a professional wrestler.
And that, in turn, kind of combines what’s cooking
with the persona that he had as a professional wrestler.
And so all of these things kind of play on each other.
And in turn, the smell, do you smell what I’m cooking,
is probably an extended form of the black English, you smell me, which is probably a form of the black English, you feel me.
Both of them meaning you get me, you understand me.
And both of those are at least a couple decades old.
Definitely from the early 2000s, probably well into the 90s and maybe even older than that.
So all of these kind of play off each other and it’s really difficult to say what begat what.
You know, what stems from what?
Because there’s so much interplay here in the usage of these.
But certainly in the kind of the spider web of all these different ways to say,
do you get me? Do you understand me?
Are you smelling what I’m stepping in?
Is a part of that.
Is a part of that whole kind of melange.
Gotcha.
And by the way, the are you picking what I’m putting down
had some currency in the 1950s among jazz musicians.
And that just is a play on
just the general English.
It’s not even really slang
to pick up on
which means to gather
or to understand
or to perceive.
That is interesting.
Alright well take care of yourself,
Mickey, and give our best to your mom.
Alright thank you so much.
Alright bye bye.
Thanks Mickey, bye bye.
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