Query: Slang "Awesome sauce!"

[Garson O'Toole]

Thanks to Ben and Bill for information about "weak sauce" and "awesome
sauce". An entry from 2005 in UrbanDictionary points to "Strong Bad",
the main character of Homestar Runner which is a flash-based animation
series.

awesome sauce

a beautifully assonant phrase which can and should be used on any
occasion where joy and elation are expressed. the origin of 'awesome
sauce' is probably from Strong Bad, although in that case he refers to
a cleaning product with the trade name of Awesome Sauce. 'awesome
sauce' has been adapted for use both as an exclamation or reserved
sign of approval.
chel: i just got a hired at Big Lots.
macgyver: awesome sauce.

by elemental Jun 8, 2005 share this

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=awesome+sauce


Here is an excerpt from the Homestar Runner wiki that includes the
term "awesome sauce". The transcript is based on a flash animation.
The date seems to be June 2, 2003 but I am not sure. The "409" in the
transcript refers to "Formula 409" a cleaning product:

Strong Bad Email #75
... skip ..
STRONG BAD: {to The Cheat} Well, aren't you gonna go get your 409 or
Awesome Sauce or whatever you're gonna clean this up with?
... skip ...
Commentary Transcript
(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)
... skip ...
MATT: Uh, there's really a cleaner called, uh, "Awesome!"
MIKE: {overlapping} "Awesome!", yeah
MATT: {continues} right? Yeah, our friend Tobin got us, that he keep—
we keep mentioning.

http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/funny
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail75.html

On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 10:16 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Query: Slang "Awesome sauce!"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My impression is that "awesome sauce" (along with similar "X sauce"
> formations) was originally modeled on "weak sauce" (meaning 'lame,
> disappointing'). Urban Dictionary has entries for "weak(-)sauce" going
> back to 2003:
>
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=weak%20sauce&defid=115176
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=weak-sauce&defid=331879
>
> --bgz

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