*Bill Bellamy coined the term “booty call” when he was on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, but the 56-year-old comedian says he regrets not trademarking the phrase.
“At the time I wasn’t thinking of it like that,” said Bellamy on this week’s episode of PEOPLE in the ’90s, with co-hosts Andrea Lavinthal and Jason Sheeler. “I was just thinking of my joke. I didn’t realize 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.”
He continued, “But who knew that everybody was going to lock in on it? I probably right now would be on a spaceship if I trademarked it.”
Bellamy said the phrase caught on quickly because it was “so easy.”
READ MORE: Bill Bellamy Set for ‘House Party’ – 1990 Cult Classic Being Re-imagined for HBO Max
Bill Bellamy clears up those Janet Jackson rumors and so much more on the latest episode of PEOPLE in the ’90s. ✨ Listen to the full podcast episode: https://t.co/G4wDGFkbAA pic.twitter.com/uhE45D5DAC
— People (@people) August 5, 2021
“The reason why that blew up, I think, in my opinion, was one, the joke was really, really funny, but the phrase was so easy,” he said. “When I was doing it in the clubs, people started smiling, because they were like, ‘That’s what it is!'”
Bellamy also noted that folks no longer use the phone to make a “booty call”.
“Now they got Tinder, they’re cheating. But back in the day you had to really make the call,” he said. “Now you can swipe left, swipe right.”
“We had to get the number,” he added. “Now you just see a picture and you swipe.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Bellamy addressed rumors about his relationship with Janet Jackson.
“You have no idea how huge Janet Jackson was in this span of 10 years. And so I am in awe of this stuff, right,” he said. “And I couldn’t believe that she was a fan of me, but it came out awkwardly. Everybody used to be like, ‘What’s going on with Janet and Bill?’ People was doing this when they was watching TV.”
“There was an attraction, I’ll be honest with you,” he continue. “There was something. There was something going on. It was weird because it was like she was shy about it but [showed in] her flirty ways that she dug me more than just a little. It was crazy.”
The former MTV V-jay said Janet would sometimes invite him out.
“She booty called me,” he joked. “We never dated. We just skirted around it. We were like cats that just purred around each other.”
Bellamy interviewed Jackson multiple times on MTV — peep one such moment via the clip below.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
