Comedian who first coined the phrase ‘booty call’ reveals his regret

Bill Bellamy has shared his regret over not trademarking the phrase “booty call,” with the comedian joking it could have made him wealthy enough for a “spaceship”.

The comedian reflected on the lasting cultural relevance of the phrase, which he coined and made popular while telling a joke on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, during an appearance on People’s People in the 90s podcast.

When asked by co-host Jason Sheeler whether he ever considered trademarking the term, Bellamy admitted that, at the time, he hadn’t been thinking about it in terms of anything other than his joke, nor did he realise “booty call” would become so popular.

“At the time I wasn’t thinking of it like that,” Bellamy recalled. “I was just thinking of my joke. I didn’t realise the phrase would catch on to become, like you said, a normal word that people know what it is now. Booty call was just a clever way to say you’re trying to get a girl to come by.”

According to the 56-year-old, if he had had the foresight to trademark the phrase, he is confident that it would have made him wealthy, with the comedian claiming he “probably” would be on a “spaceship” right now.

“Who knew that everybody was going to lock in on it? I probably right now would be on a spaceship if I trademarked it,” he joked, adding that he would be “out there” with billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

As for why he thinks the term “blew up” in the first place, the comedian said he thinks it was because the 1992 joke was “really, really funny,” and because the phrase was both “so easy” and relatable.

“When I was doing it in the clubs, people started smiling, because they were like: ‘That’s what it is!’” Bellamy recalled, adding that the term had perfectly described the now-outdated process of using a phone to call potential partners to see if they “wanted to come by”.

According to Bellamy, the creation of dating apps means the term doesn’t have the same meaning as it did in the past, with the comedian noting: “Now they got Tinder, they’re cheating. But back in the day you had to really make the call.

“We had to get the number. Now you just see a picture and you swipe.”

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “booty call” as “communication (such as a phone call or text message) by which a person arranges a sexual encounter with someone”.

This is not the first time that Bellamy has expressed his regret over a lack of trademark, as the comedian previously told Esquire he didn’t know that “booty call” was something that would “stick”.

“You don’t know that you can do something that’ll stick,” he said. “It’s like Prince’s Purple Rain, that’s one of the biggest songs he ever wrote. You don’t know which one people are going to rally around. You’re just an artist and you create, and then you let the wave go where the wave goes.”