Noah in Burlington, Vermont, wonders about the catchphrase I’m too cringe for New York, too based for LA. As explained at Know Your Meme, the slang term based is now a positive term popularized by the rapper Lil B, referring to one’s...
Sarah from Haddonfield, New Jersey, grew up hearing her mother announce, Are you ready for Freddy? while everyone was trying to get out the door. Her mother’s explanation about Freddy the undertaker comes straight from Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l...
Kit from Pulaski, Tennessee, recalls that when he played hide-and-seek as a youngster in Miami, Florida, the call he and his friends used at the end of the game to draw everyone out of hiding was All y’all come in free!. However, he’s...
Martita in San Antonio, Texas, is curious about the expression cool beans! meaning “that’s great!,” or “excellent.” This phrase was commonly used in the 1980s, and although the TV show Full House may have helped...
You bet your sweet bippy! meaning “Definitely!” comes from a large cache of catchphrases from the TV variety series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, which was wildly popular in the late 1960s. The bippy in this case was a euphemism...
The catchphrase Good stuff, Maynard! Comes from a series of TV commercials for Malt-O-Meal hot cereal that aired during the early 1980s and featured a little boy and his imaginary friend Maynard. Some folks still use this phrase today when enthusing...

