Hello again. Have you ever had anyone come up to you and say, “How you doin’?” If so they were probably Italian and just wanted to break the ice with you in that old New Yawk or New Joisey tone of voice. Well, that might catch quite a few of you off guard since it is far from the usual “Yo”, “Hey what’s up”, or “What’s new “salutation. And yes, it will make you want to quickly turn on your infrequently used Jersey accent and respond with a similar retort.
If you are at least over 35, you will automatically associate this phrase with a certain TV character named Joey Tribbiani on the show “FRIENDS”, who incessantly tried using this catch phrase to get the attraction of any number of young, attractive walking breathing females who just happened to come into his view (He wasn’t always successful).
Though almost certainly used in colloquial speech earlier, the salutation first appears in print in the 1940s and spreads in the 1970s. In the late 20th century, “How you doin”?” was popularly associated with New Yorkers and Jerseyites of Italian descent—and pronounced more like “how YOO dooin’?”
Just to be clear, no one in my family ever used this phrase when flirting or courting. If they ever did, it certainly was way out of the earshot of our dad. If he ever did hear you say it, he would immediately give you a swift smack upside the head… implying that only hoodlums and gangsters “tawk like dat”.
FYI, this head smacking gesture is also called a “cuff”, although you won’t find many mentions of this word anywhere… it’s probably just a Jersey thing.
Joey also sometimes uses the Tuscan insult: “Va fa Napoli!”, the Tuscan equivalent of “Go to Hell!” which literally translates as: “Go to Naples!”. This has nothing to do with picking up women but when he says it in his suave Italian New York hipster voice, it does draw some nasty stares.
To my knowledge Joey has never used the word “BoomBOTZ” to relate to women and that’s probably a good thing. It means idiot! Thanks for reading my blog and until next time… Caio
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lol funny , I’ll give you a good cuff upside the head
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I’m from New Jersey but never heard that phrase in real life. Guess I grew up among the wrong people! Cute story though and can relate to the cuff upside the head. I did see that a few times!
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