Waszuuup comes from the Budweiser Whassup advertising campaign that first aired in 1999, featuring a group of friends greeting each other on the phone with the same drawn-out call. The ads became a cultural catchphrase in the early 2000s, quoted in everyday conversation, parodied on television and reused in comedy sketches. Its simple, instantly recognisable greeting survived long after the campaign ended because it works without context, signalling friendship, nostalgia and a joke about to happen.