Why Everyone Says "Let's Gooooooo!": The Lost History of a Phrase, from Shakespeare to Taylor Swift

Summary

Podcast Summary: Pablo Torre Finds Out

Episode: "Why Everyone Says 'Let's Gooooooo!': The Lost History of a Phrase, from Shakespeare to Taylor Swift"

Host: Pablo Torre
Notable Contributors: Jeremy Tasche, Ryan Parakeet Cortez, Matthew Driscoll (Coach), others
Date: October 10, 2023

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Overview

In this episode, Pablo Torre dives into the linguistic, cultural, and sports phenomenon of the phrase “Let’s go,” charting its evolution from Shakespearean English and military slogans to a ubiquitous, visceral rallying cry found everywhere from sports stadiums to award shows. With a reporting assist from Jeremy Tasche and inputs from coaches, linguists, and culture mavens, the show seeks to uncover who—if anyone—can claim to be the originator or the "GOAT" of “Let’s go.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage: The Taylor Swift Trigger

• [01:28-04:05]
  • The episode springs from the overwhelming media coverage of Taylor Swift attending NFL games, specifically her caught-on-camera exclamation of “let’s go” at a Chiefs game, which went viral.
  • Pablo highlights the phrase’s omnipresence: “Everybody everywhere, all of the time, all at once seems to be saying, let’s go.” (Pablo Torre, 04:05)
• Listener Voicemail poses the central question: Why has "let’s go" become the universally accepted exclamation in sports and culture?
  • “How did that happen? Where did it come from?” (David from DC, 04:59)

The Ubiquity and Flexibility of “Let’s Go”

• [06:31-09:10]
  • “Let’s go” is dissected as both a pre-action rallying cry and a post-victory cheer, used by athletes, fans, gamers, and celebrities.
  • Jeremy Tasche likens it to “shalom,” expressing how its meaning can shift depending on context (Jeremy Tasche, 09:10).

Tracing the Roots: Origins Debate

• [10:17-14:31]
  • The search for “patient zero” begins. Tom Brady is suggested as a modern king of “let’s go,” but the phrase’s deeper history is revealed to stretch much further back.
  • Tom Brady on the Meaning Behind “Let’s Go”:
    • “When I ran out of the field and I said, let’s go, it was really, let’s go kick some ass.” (Tom Brady, 12:26)
  • Standard set for the phrase’s authenticity: It must be organic and gutturally sincere, not forced or performative.

Precedents in Pop Culture & History

• [16:21-19:40]
  • Shakespeare is cited: “Now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another” from The Comedy of Errors (Jeremy Tasche, 16:41).
  • The phrase appears on a 1942 US Navy recruitment poster.
  • Baseball anthems and arena music including “Let’s Go (Pony)” by The Routers (1962), the Ramones (1976), and the Cars (1979), as well as the 1986 “Let’s Go Mets” video—“a giant singing pile of cocaine” according to Pablo (19:40)—show its communal, hype-inducing power.

The Meme-ification and Cultural Spread

• [20:22-23:44]
  • “Let’s go” adopted and industrialized by entertainment and sports marketing, with the “Let’s Go Mets” video crafted expressly for fans with “six beers in them.”
  • The jingleman behind “Let’s Go Mets” also created the Meow Mix song, underscoring how simple, chant-able catchphrases take root.
  • Spanish language influence: the phrase “vamos” in Spanish, an equivalent long used to similar effect (Pablo Torre, 22:56).

The Modern Bard: Lil Jon and Performative “Let’s Go”

• [23:44-24:11]
  • Lil Jon is acknowledged for amplifying “let’s go” in hip-hop and club culture, but declines to claim the “origin”—eschewing throne for the phrase’s viral spread.

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Crowning the “Let’s Goat”: Coach Matthew Driscoll

The Viral Coach and His Technique

• [25:37-29:01]
  • Jeremy Tasche identifies North Florida men’s basketball coach Matthew Driscoll as the “Mr. Let’s Go.”
  • Description of the classic 2017 viral clip:
    “A head coach who is approximately 8 inches shorter than everybody else in the room…wearing a white shirt and tie…facing away from everybody…” (Jeremy Tasche, 26:10)
  • Driscoll’s "Let’s go" is epic—extending the “O” into a guttural, stadium-shaking force.

The Art and Science of “Let’s Go”

• [28:01-29:34]
  • Driscoll discusses perfecting his technique: “Sometimes it has to be a let’s go. And then something doesn’t go right. Right. And then you have to kind of regroup.” (Matthew Driscoll, 29:01)
  • On breath and vocal technique:
    “The breath is huge. Whether or not you have a vitamin C drop in your mouth is critical…the diaphragm…you want it to be able to breathe back out.” (Matthew Driscoll, 29:12-29:34)
  • Driscoll is recognized in public for his unmistakable voice—not his face.

Cultural Impact and Self-Awareness

• [30:17-31:57]
  • Driscoll’s let’s-gos have become a recruiting tool and a meme, complete with custom illustrations from players.
  • At games, “Let’s Go” competitions hype the crowd; Driscoll does keynote speeches about his meme status.

Crowned by Pablo Torre Finds Out

• [32:27-34:06]
  • Pablo and Jeremy agree Driscoll meets their criteria for the “Let’s Goat”: authenticity and O-count.
  • Driscoll humbly receives his title, suggesting “maybe I could be the goat of the let’s go.” (Matthew Driscoll, 33:21)

Challenge to Tom Brady: The “Let’s Go” Battle

• [34:21-35:31]
  • Coach Driscoll throws down a challenge: “Let’s let the nation decide who is the goat of the let’s go.” (Matthew Driscoll, 35:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the phrase’s pervasiveness:
  • “Everybody everywhere, all of the time, all at once seems to be saying, let’s go.” (Pablo Torre, 04:05)
• On Tom Brady’s performance psyche:
  • “When I ran out of the field and I said, let’s go, it was really, let’s go kick some ass.” (Tom Brady, 12:26)
• Coach Driscoll’s humility and energy:
  • “I’m not a Shakespeare, I’m not a Longfellow...maybe I could be the goat of the let’s go.” (Matthew Driscoll, 33:21)
• Pablo on “Let’s Go Mets” video:
  • “Basically a giant singing pile of cocaine.” (Pablo Torre, 19:40)
• On meme culture:
  • “If you say any phrase often enough, it can no longer be considered ironic. In fact, if you say any phrase often enough, it just becomes who you are. Lol.” (Pablo Torre, 39:50)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Taylor Swift at Arrowhead and “Let’s Go” introduction: 02:47–04:05
• Listener’s voicemail—core question: 04:59
• Tom Brady’s influence, his own words: 12:00–12:49
• Origins in Shakespeare and the U.S. Navy: 16:21–17:25
• Sports anthems and 1986 “Let’s Go Mets”: 19:04–19:40
• Coach Matthew Driscoll’s coronation and challenge: 25:37–35:31
• Final reflection on irony, meme phrases: 39:45-end

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Conclusion

The episode blends earnest reporting with humor and cultural analysis, ultimately revealing that no single figure (not even Tom Brady or Shakespeare) can solely claim credit for “let’s go.” Instead, Coach Matthew Driscoll—via his legendary viral shout and pure passion—is crowned the undisputed “Let’s Goat,” while the phrase itself stands as a linguistic meme that continually evolves in meaning and power.

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"Let’s Gooooooo!" is more than just a cheer—it is a cultural touchstone that carries centuries of history, hype, and humanity with every guttural, elongated shout.

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Tom Brady, you and I split screen and let's let the nation decide who is the goat of the.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

Right after this ad. You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network. So for the past couple weeks, Cortez, we here inside the PTFO newsroom have been grappling with a particular dilemma.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

So there's a team of journalists out there and I see them, they are working on something, all of them together. And what it is, is they are working on why you've worn the same blue jacket every single time we've taped.

[Pablo Torre]

It is a cardigan. It is not a jacket.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

It's been over worn.

[Pablo Torre]

It has high thread count.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

You have not taken it home to wash it once.

[Pablo Torre]

It is naturally resistant because of those fibers.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

Do you have any other cardigan or sweater type of outfit?

[Pablo Torre]

I have many cardigans. I have a lot of knitwear. That is not the dilemma.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

It's not apparent.

[Pablo Torre]

No. If you watch this show, the dilemma we're here to discuss and how dare you? How dare you.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

It's a nice cardigan. I'm sorry, but you do wear it a lot. That's all I'm saying.

[Pablo Torre]

The dilemma is far more pressing. This sweater does not smell. The dilemma is how we're supposed to cover Taylor Swift, right? The threadbare sweater of American media these days is talking about Taylor Swift because we should just say it for people who have been, I guess, in a coma for weeks now. Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce and it is the most over covered, oversaturated. It's most overdone story in all of American culture.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

Bro, I apologize. I was not listening to anything you just said because it just hit me like you and the cardigan. It's not unlike a doctor putting on a lab coat or whatever it is they wear and they're like, oh, now I'm a doctor and they go in or whatever. You put that on when you walk in here. Like, I am now a journalist.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm just trying to make my parents proud of me. They're not. But I was contemplating. I was contemplating, truly. Like, how are we going to do this differently? How are we going to stitch together our own beautiful high thread count quilt that addresses the Taylor Swift story? And so I did notice one thing. 11th play of the drive Mahomes walking end zone.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

There it is.

[Pablo Torre]

A touchdown of Kelsey. This may be the first time in history that Patrick Mahomes isn't the most popular player in Arrowhead, but Taylor Swift in the house. Travis Kelce says, oh, baby. Now, if you are not watching on the DraftKings network or on YouTube, what you cannot see there is Travis Kelce. Yes. Kansas City Chiefs tight end scoring a touchdown. What you cannot hear there anywhere is what Taylor Swift is very obviously saying on live television in front of all of America behind the glass of a luxury box right next to Donna Kelce, which is let's go. And this mostly just went like, unremarked upon except by certain people.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Here you have Taylor Swift probably just.

[Pablo Torre]

Met Travis Kelce's mom for the first time.

[Jeremy Tasche]

They're at the game last week and.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

She'S going, let's effing go right in front of her.

[Pablo Torre]

But Travis Kelce said that everybody in the booth that she was sitting in his family, everybody said that she was so lovely.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Lovely until I'm sorry if I heard that.

[Pablo Torre]

And my son was dating a girl has a mouth like a teamster.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

That's it.

[Pablo Torre]

Like a teamster, bro.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

What's wrong with this Fox News guy? Like, let's go. Is everywhere. I've seen it in sports for years. I see it everywhere. I say it myself.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, that. And that part, what you're saying here, profanity aside, that's the thing that hit me about this, because you're completely right. Everybody everywhere, all of the time, all at once seems to be saying, let's go. Quarterbacks say it, college kids say it. I've seen Formula one drivers say it, NBA players say it. Teachers say it. Gamers say it all the time. What I wanted to find out is something that I have long been curious about myself. Why? Why is everyone saying this same phrase as if this is a meme that they're all forced to to retweet?

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

And it turns out you're not the only one with that question. Because when we put out the call for voicemails to our great listeners, it turns out one of them had a very similar question to that.

[David from DC (Listener)]

Hey, Pablo, it's David from dc. I was hoping to get the definitive story about how the phrase let's go became the de facto response to a big play in a sports game. Everywhere I look on tv, in local sports, that's all that's being said when something happens, it has just become the go to phrase for all athletes when they do something big. How did that happen? Where did it come from? Thanks. Bye.

[Pablo Torre]

I genuinely love our listeners.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

I do, too. Call 51385, Pablo, if you have more questions, please. Amazing.

[Pablo Torre]

The assignment inbox is open is what I'm calling it. But all of this really did feel like the universe itself was calling us to investigate this question. Right? The question of who deserves the most credit for this phrase. And the good news is that I knew exactly which PTFO correspondent that I needed to go on this assignment.

[Unnamed Co-host or Guest]

I'm thinking of the same guy.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Yeah. Chair Bear. Oh, God. Fart bear.

[Pablo Torre]

Jeremy. Taje. We meet again. How old are you?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I'm 28, Pablo.

[Pablo Torre]

Just. Even the voice is already giving me PTSD. So. You're 28 years old. You're very young. You forced me to reckon with my mortality, and you're bringing me back into the time machine. Because the last time I saw you, Jeremy, or at least the time that I cannot forget, it was April. The Miami heats were playing the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA playoffs, and I was hosting, sitting in Dan's chair, trying to direct a conversation among you Miami Heat propagandists. And in that conversation, suddenly I heard you say this, let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

In that scenario, I was just trying to add a rightful punctuation to one of our beloved Heat propagandists in Ryan Parakeet Cortez, someone who obviously is beloved here at Pablo Torre finds out, and to me, I felt like he just needed some support.

[Pablo Torre]

To me, you felt like Wile E. Coyote over the canyon, realizing that, oh, yeah, this is gonna go south real quick.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

And we can play it one more time, actually, just for, you know, just thoroughness.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Let's go. The reason that I was saying it to begin with is because I was sort of following what athletes have been saying in moments like that.

[Pablo Torre]

Forgive me, what athlete were you channeling there specifically?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I think it would be unfair to name any specific athletes in this scenario. I don't want to throw them under the bus.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, there are lots of suspects, so that's the thing about this story, is that you start to just peel the first layer back and you're like, this is omnipresent.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Well, there are a ton of options, right? Like you have Nick Foles in the 2018 Super bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go. Let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

You have LeBron James, who will say it before games.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. I've heard Formula One drivers say it after their races.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go. Let's go. Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Which means that both pre game and post game athletes are using this, right? It kind of means everything is kind of like, at this point, it's a word that gets deployed to mean all sorts of things. Like, it's a call to action as well as a celebration of the action you already had successfully completed.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, it's shalom, essentially. No, it's one of those words where, I don't know. I guess the part with let's go that's confusing to me is that I don't really remember it existing growing up. And you pointed out I'm super freaking young. So it's not like there's been that much time for all of these phrases to evolve.

[Pablo Torre]

And for us elder millennials, Jeremy, we are similarly confused. All we sort of know now is that the word cloud of American life right in 3000 point font is let's go. And it's there now. It's hanging over us. And so this is why I came to you with an assignment, an actual journalistic task for a guy who is allegedly a reporter.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

You're counting us right now as the Miami Y have just won game two of the NBA Finals. You can see that this crowd here is hoisting babies into the air.

[Pablo Torre]

How did we get here? Like, how does human speech in this way go viral? Who was the patient zero of this movement?

[Jeremy Tasche]

That's a great question. And yes, I did spend weeks reporting this. I mean, we spoke to other journalists. We spoke to people within sports, people within entertainment. I mean, really, it kind of went across the board. And this goes beyond the standard jumbotron calls of like, let's go Yankees or let's go Mets. And I think that's the part that's kind of crazy. We were just talking about it, Right. I don't remember it growing up. And I think that's my first takeaway from going down this rabbit hole.

[Pablo Torre]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So you went down the rabbit hole and you didn't find anybody there?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I mean, if you're polling America, the obvious and easy patient zero would be Tom Brady.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Are you ready?

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go. Let's go, baby. Let's go. Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

When you see that, you're like, oh, right, of course, of course. Every bro in a quarter zip sort of fleece. They're cosplaying as Tom Brady.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yes, well, and that's the part, right? Tom Brady's supposed to be Mr. Let's go. You know, he's been using this sort of elongated version of let's Go, the one that we're talking about, the Scream, the guttural version of it, since at least 2015 at the Patriots victory parade.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

I saw a viral clip from Like a conference. I think this was. This was last month, a viral clip from a conference where Brady sort of took us inside the actor's studio on this.

[Tom Brady (Interview Clip)]

You've got to create a lot of different emotion to heighten your sense of awareness and focus. Like, for me, anger was good. Anger was good because it was motivating. The more I could create an enemy, the more I wanted to go out and kill those guys. Now, I knew I was gonna kill him physically, but, man, if I could just. What did they say, you know, and.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

What did they look like?

[Tom Brady (Interview Clip)]

Do they disrespect me at all? You know? And did that say something? Like, those are little, little, little things that can get me right in the emotional frame of mind. That when I ran out of the field and I said, let's go, it was really, let's go kick some ass. That's what we were doing.

[Pablo Torre]

That is the sound of people applauding a sociopath. I mean, that's what that sounds like.

[Jeremy Tasche]

He literally was like, let me figure out what it's like to channel a serial killer. I'm not going to do it, but I want to get it.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right. So who inspired Tom Brady to say this then? Like, in your investigation, is everyone just, like, ceding intellectual property rights to that dude?

[Jeremy Tasche]

No, absolutely not. Like, that's not going to happen. And we'll get to the guy that, you know, really thinks he may very well be behind it, but I can tell you that it's not Taylor Swift. As someone who is a resident swifty around these parts, at Meadowlark Media, she does. Hey, she does have a song, an unreleased song, mind you, called let's Go.

[Pablo Torre]

I need to stop you there. Not just because I am worried that I don't know enough Taylor Swift stuff to actually be a working member of the sports media today.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

We.

[Pablo Torre]

But also because I do want to turn our little sports journalism enterprise here into something of a trademark office. Because the question we're circling is, like, who owns this phrase, Right? Like, what's the standard here that we're using to determine who Mr. Let's Go or Mrs. Let's Go would be?

[Jeremy Tasche]

So, to me, standard number one was pretty simple. Let's go. Had to be organic. It couldn't feel forced. It couldn't feel performative. It's got to come from that deep place inside of you, that guttural place that this is not something that I have planned. So, like, listening back to some of your previous episodes of Pablo Torre finds out Russell Wilson started all of A sudden making his catchphrase let's go. Because he heard that Taylor Swift has been saying it. Well, you know that that wouldn't necessarily apply.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, right, right. So Russ saying, by the way, Russ saying a lot. Go Hawks in Seattle. That doesn't apply either. Because again, the letter of the law there not exactly the same thing as let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Right. Because for standard number two, the letter of the law wasn't enough. Right. We want to talk about the sort of spirit of the rule as we continuously discuss how this is sort of an emotional thing. I think the spirit of the law matters here. And so the phrase let's go, it's really been around forever. But it's usage, it's spirit that's distinct. You need like, I don't know, at least seven O's in it.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, right, right, right, right. So again, not like this.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

More O's, even more chutzpah, I believe. So what's the lineage here? Like, where does this origin story actually begin?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Even the great all knowing Wikipedia struggled to get all of the details right here. For example, Wikipedia claimed that there was a resurgence of a 70 year old chant to a let's go, go, go White Sox that led to the 2005 White Sox playoff run.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

My song, we're with you all the way, you're always in there fighting.

[Pablo Torre]

But, but, but 2005 absolutely would predate all of the Internet stuff we're describing right now.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, and, and that's part of why this story is wrong. Because we reached out to catcher A.J. prasinski, who was on that team, a classic, a classic name in Major League Baseball. And he told us via DM that that song in 2005 was not really as much of a part of the White Sox World Series run as Don't Stop Believing by Journey.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Don't stop believing.

[Jeremy Tasche]

When you talk about the real origin story of this phrase, it goes all the way back to the late 1500s. It turns out that Shakespeare had a line in a comedy of errors. Now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, listen to that. Now it does occur to me that you are a little more Shakespeare than Tom Brady, Jeremy.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, more Shakespeare than Tom Brady, I think is how anyone who knew me in high school also probably would have described me. But a writer for Slate who we spoke to, Luke Winkie, he's also obsessed with this, he traced that that Shakespeare line drew straight from there all the way to 1942. And that's when there was a recruitment poster for the US Navy that read, fight, let's go join the Navy.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, now we're getting, I think, significantly more macho in the evolution of the phrase.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, well, the writer said the same thing, and he said that the militarization of this rally cry kind of gave it this communal masculinity, in a sense.

[Pablo Torre]

And so this phrase, just to recap, here goes from Shakespeare to the U.S. navy, out to, like, locker rooms to stadiums, to the sidelines to where jukeboxes.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Across America in the 1960s. Pablo, do you remember this clap?

[Pablo Torre]

Of course. Of course.

[Jeremy Tasche]

I found out where it comes from. It's 1962's let's Go parentheses Pony by the Routers. And I was legitimately really excited to find this song because I think as so many sounds that initially come from songs no different than Seven Nation army, which has become an arena staple, I don't think I realized that that clap and let's Go came from musicians, came from a song. This is something I always just assumed was concocted for stadiums. And so the ide idea that this came from one place was really exciting.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. Well, now that I'm thinking about, like, the musical catalog here, there's that, and then there's the Ramones.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Right. And that was in 1976. And then the Cars had a song called let's go in 1979.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

And then in 1986, the New York Mets had a song.

[Pablo Torre]

Do it.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Now, this is the video for let's Go Mets. This is essentially a hype video for the New York Mets in the middle of their season in 1986, a season that was going incredibly well, obviously led to them winning the World Series. And halfway through, they had this unbelievable idea to create a music video around a song called let's Go Mets that had everyone chanting, let's go Mets.

[Pablo Torre]

So this thing, as someone who grew up, was born in the city, in New York City in 1985, this thing, when I watch it now for the podcast audience, what you're missing on our YouTube channel is essentially like a giant singing pile of cocaine.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Even watching it, you know, behind the scenes video on the VHS that we were able to find here, which that was a journey in itself. The energy behind it is crazy because you have, you know, players juggling baseballs for the camera, blowing bubbles, and there's all sorts of extra shots that they had to get.

[Pablo Torre]

Who the are the people behind this?

[Jeremy Tasche]

So we spoke to the. To the ad man who commissioned the video as well, as the jingle writer who made the song, and he also directed the video. And what they told us was a ton of different information about what was going on behind the scenes here. First and foremost, the ad agency that was working with the Mets. Initially, they reached out to Billy Joel, to Elton John, to Stevie Wonder, and ultimately, they settled for someone who they had already worked with on previous jingles. So the ad man gives one direction to the jingleman. It better be great.

[Pablo Torre]

That's just good coaching.

[Jeremy Tasche]

It is good coaching. It is good coaching. And the jingle guy told us that. And this is a direct quote. What can people get their head around with six beers in them? And so that's sort of where this simple let's go, let's go, let's go starts up. You know, he had.

[Pablo Torre]

What were they on? What were they on, Jeremy? What were the players in the video on?

[Jeremy Tasche]

He had no comment about whether or not the Mets, who were notorious party animals, were particularly on anything during the video shoot. But he said that the energy was up. It did sound like a lot of fun on set. I mean, there were notes of Ron Darling playing air guitar on a baseball bat. Keith Hernandez sat the director down and told him that initially the players were really excited about the song and making the video because they all thought they were going to be rock stars and make a million dollars a piece for some reason, which they did not. And what the director told me specifically is, quote, they all wanted to be rock stars. That was the level of childhood naivete. So this is what's going on. As you have all of these players behind the scenes, it's amazing.

[Pablo Torre]

But this director. I imagine that this director must look upon this work as the greatest of his entire career, then.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Well, he also wrote the jingle for the Meow Mix commercial.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow mix.

[Jeremy Tasche]

It could not have been a better thing for him to have done than write the Meow Mix commercial. Like, it's perfect.

[Pablo Torre]

I am reeling now at the arc that you're tracing here. Right. So we go from William Shakespeare to Meow Mix guy. And now, as I assess the English language, Jeremy. And you are a crypto Cuban. You're quietly a Cuban American.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Crypto Cuban is great. Crypto. That's a new phrase I'm going to use all the time.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm thinking of the Spanish language for that reason. Right. And as a person who knows Spanish and marvels at how to do it better. I want to point out that, like, Vamos. Vamos is a thing. In Spanish, vamos literally means let's go, and that's been a thing forever. And vamos. When I think about what that word means versus what Meow Mix guy had the Mets doing, right? Like, there is an edge to. There's an edge to vamos. There's that Brady, the Tom Brady animosity to vamos. And so which of the. Which of the English speaking artists that you surveyed here, who came closest to sort of replicating that specific quality?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Well, for that, I believe there's only one answer.

[Pablo Torre]

The modern bard himself. Yes. How could I have forgotten?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I mean, come on, it's gonna play in every single arena. You're gonna hear it constantly. We did reach out to Lil Jon multiple times. But a humble guy himself, he refuses to come on here and take credit for the origins of let's.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh. After the break, we figure out who deserves the throne that Lil Jon somehow abd. So I want to be intellectually honest here with you, Jeremy, because I think we're. We're. We're dealing with something that is legitimately tricky because what we're trying to do is solve the mystery of influence. Right? And influence is not the same thing as being first. William Shakespeare cannot just in the comment section of human history, say first. And so the question really is about who is the most influential and maybe even who is best. It reminds me of, like, the problem that advertisers and marketers are facing even in the age of the Internet, because our brains are so noisy. Our brains are so reluctant to assign credit for things. And so I feel like that's. That's a complication here that we gotta reckon with. Who deserves credit.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Look, Pablo, all of that is fair. All of your intellectualism is appreciated. But I do think I found the guy who deserves the most credit.

[Pablo Torre]

God, I remember this man. I want to describe this man, Jeremy, for our podcast audience. What is happening in that video that you just resurrected for me?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Well, this video that you're watching is of Matthew Driscoll. And so Matthew Driscoll is the North Florida men's basketball coach. He's been there since 2009. But what's wonderful about the visual of this. Let's go. Is you have a head coach who is approximately 8 inches shorter than everybody else in the room.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Jeremy Tasche]

At least right off the bat. Wearing a white shirt and tie. Okay. A white shirt and tie tucked into his dress pants, facing away from everybody in the room.

[Pablo Torre]

It's kind of an amazing reveal. Like, you don't see him at first.

[Jeremy Tasche]

The team is walking away. And what's beautiful about it is you only see the team at first. You hear the let's go in the background, but you see the team. And then slowly, there's a bit of a pan, and then a quick sharp zoom right into Matthew Driscoll, who's yelling at the top of his lungs, pablo. He is my Mr. Let's go. This was in the a Sun title game in 2017.

[Pablo Torre]

Of course. Of course. Who could forget the 2017 Atlantic sun title game? I believe the only Atlantic sun title game to ever go viral.

[Jeremy Tasche]

And I talked to Coach Driscoll this month.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for having me on. It seems like it was so long ago when in reality was right around the corner.

[Pablo Torre]

What is this guy like in. In, like, actual human conversation?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Well, he says he's been doing this basically forever. In sort of a more punchy way, though. More of a, hey, let's go. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. That type of mentality.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

I'm a very. Hey, let's go. Hey, let's go. Let's knock it out. Let's go. Let's knock it out. Let's knock it out. Let's knock it out.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go. Let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

But then one day in 2015, during a conference semifinal, he let out a sound that I imagine sounds somewhat like this.

[Pablo Torre]

What I have found out already in this episode, Jeremy, is who your exact opposite is, because that is the diametric inverse of this.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Let's go. He is the greatest, and he is the king of the let's go. And I think he knows it, Right? He loves when other people do it, too. And he'll be the first to judge, which I think is great. He's kept track of when LeBron said, let's go. Let's go. He's kept track of when Bronny James has said, let's go. He's kept the receipts. He judges Pablo.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

He judges instead of America's Got Talent. I could be sitting up there. I don't know if you bent the knees enough. I'm not sure if your back. If your vocal cords were extended enough.

[Jeremy Tasche]

I just really don't.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

I don't think you hit that note. The crescendo. It really didn't crescendo the way it should have.

[Pablo Torre]

The technique. The technique is what I am most impressed with now.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, I mean, he has a down to an art form. I mean, literally, if you look at the video, he's someone who. He stands away from his players. He says he always looks toward the wall as to not scream in anybody's face. He doesn't want to blow out their eardrums.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Sometimes it has to be a let's go. And then something doesn't go right. Right. And then you have to kind of regroup.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

You know, and then. So now you get a different ending. The breath is huge. Whether or not you have a vitamin C drop in your mouth is critical. The way in which you take that breath before the depth of the let's go in there in your body movement, because you don't want the diaphragm too.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Right.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Compacted, because you want it to be able to breathe back out.

[Pablo Torre]

This man is a teacher.

[Jeremy Tasche]

He is a master. He. He is truly incredible at this.

[Pablo Torre]

Does he get recognized because of this, like, out in real life?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Oh, yeah.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

I was at Marshall's the other day with my wife returning something. The guy said, I know that. I know that voice anywhere. I said, well, it's a good thing no one ever says, man, I recognize your face. No, it's always like, I know that.

[Pablo Torre]

Voice is being recognizable in this way. Does that help him in his actual job? Does it help him, you know, recruit young people to play for the University of North Florida?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, I mean, he said that in the middle of probably a half dozen different recruiting trips, there's been a wait, hey, you're that guy from the meme, Right. And he had a recruit that actually ended up, I believe, coming to the school who drew out a picture of him as the meme, who's a bit of an artist himself, who drew the.

[Pablo Torre]

Arched back, the vocal cords uncompacted, the diaphragm extended.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yes. The veins just popping out of the neck. He drew it all. It was amazing. And look, he says that the team has let's Go offs, that he'll continue doing the let's Go no matter the team's record, because he wants to be able to show that this is kind of a fabric of the program. He's still doing it every game. And one part that I think is awesome is that the school even has a sort of let's Go competition during player warmups to hype up the crowd, when fans come down from the stands with an opportunity to scream, let's go. I mean, it's become marketing for the university at this point. He does keynote speeches, conferences. It's unbelievable. It really is.

[Pablo Torre]

I just want to say, for the record, I unironically want to hire this man to do the keynote speech. I want to start a conference just to have a keynote speech where he does this.

[Jeremy Tasche]

He wants to be a proper influencer. I'll tell you that. Based off the conversation he suggested to me, and I kind of think he was only half joking, he said that his athletic department should get 3/10 of a penny for every new view of the video. He's up to 385,000 and counting on YouTube alone. That's not including any of the times I sent it to my group chat.

[Pablo Torre]

I am now trying to piece this all together because you gave us two standards in the last segment for deciding who Mr. Let's Go ought to be. And number one, I believe, was that it needs to be organic. It needs to be coming from deep inside you. And this man feels like the Marianas Trench when it comes to where this is coming from.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Let's go.

[Jeremy Tasche]

So, obviously, check on standard number one.

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely. So, number two, I think we. We. How many O's did you say we needed?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I think it was seven.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. Okay, so let's try and count this. Every time we play it, it feels like there are more O's attached. But, yes, I think we're. We're hammering the over on this one.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yeah, I think if we counted, we'd probably get closer to 700 than to 7. He smashes the over here. I think we're in good shape.

[Pablo Torre]

So did you tell him, Jeremy? Did you tell him on behalf of Pablo Torre finds out that. That we were deciding his place in linguistic history, that a coronation was. Was on the line in your interview?

[Jeremy Tasche]

Yes, I did. I did tell him. I told him that he topped both Lil Jon and Tom Brady, and in turn, he actually coined his own new phrase.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

Well, first of all, that's a kind honor, and I want to say thank you. And second of all, I think when something's genuine, I think it certainly separates itself and it allows it to be whatever it becomes. And so I'm not a Shakespeare, I'm not a Longfellow. I'm not any of those of those people, but I would say that I'm very honored that you would phrase it that way because it, you know, that's pretty good rapper, and that's obviously the Goat, so that's pretty. Hey, maybe I could be the goat of the. Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

Wait, is he. Is he saying that he is the let's Goat?

[Jeremy Tasche]

I think he is. Look, Coach Driscoll is still pretty decidedly pro Lil Jon in this narrative, but he legitimately thinks that he can take Tom Brady.

[Matthew Driscoll (Coach)]

It wouldn't even be a competition. And really, I'm serious, it wouldn't be. I mean, if you want to do this or do this real quick and get him on someday and get me on and then have a national vote to see he bring gonkowski with him. He can bring whoever he wants to bring with him and let the best person win. Now he can't use the explicit because, you know, a lot more people are that secular population gonna be voting for him. So Tom Brady, Listen, Coach Matthews Risco, university of north Florida. Apparently you and I both have a let's go that's been very, very popular over the years. We know you're the goat in football, but let's see you and I split screen and let's let the nation decide who is the goat of the let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

I, I, this is, this is me actually having to take my headphones off like that. That, that actually did bust my eardrums. That is not a joke.

[Jeremy Tasche]

He is full of energy, you could.

[Pablo Torre]

Say full of explicitness as well, which I love. He said he's not Shakespeare. I disagree. I fully disagree.

[Jeremy Tasche]

He's creating words.

[Pablo Torre]

He's creating words. But hold on. I do need to admit something here, Jeremy, because the reason I went into this episode was because I had a very strong feel go was dead and that you specifically you were the murderer, that you had killed it in April. And then when I saw Taylor Swift appear on national television in the most now famous game of the NFL season, I thought I was just watching her, you know, like just run a steamroller over what was already a corpse. And now after having, you know, my cerebellum burst by Matthew Driscoll, I kind of got to admit that I, I, I want to see the let's goat prove that he is in fact the greatest of all time.

[Jeremy Tasche]

I'm just already sort of concerned for society as to what will happen if UNF ever runs off a match March madness tournament win. The levels of energy on that. Let's go from Matthew Driscoll.

[Pablo Torre]

I think people would actually die. I think, I think power plants could be fueled by it and lives would be lost as a result of it. But you do raise a good question here. And so I should ask for journalistic thoroughness here. When Matthew Driscoll gave that iconic let's go right? This is 2017, the one with a zillion o's that made him the greatest the let's Goat. Did they win that game? Uh, no.

[Jeremy Tasche]

They lost by 16.

[Ryan Parakeet Cortez]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, that's. That's. That's perfect. Jeremy Teshe, thank you for your reporting.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Wait, am I allowed to real quick try to redeem myself?

[Pablo Torre]

No.

[Jeremy Tasche]

With one final. Better. Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

No, no. But I have a feeling.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

Ok. Please stop. Okay. At the end of this episode, I found out that I need to look inward at my own vocabulary. Because the number one phrase that I absolutely abuse and beat into the ground through sheer repetition is lol. You know, lol. Lol. Laughing out loud LOL is all over my texts. And I always say lol. Ironically, obviously, because I would never be the type of person who says it sincerely. I say it as a parody of someone who would say it sincerely. I say LOL all the time as a joke. But after hearing from the the deafeningly sincere Matthew Driscoll and Jeremy Tasche, I realized something important. If you say any phrase often enough, it can no longer be considered ironic. In fact, if you say any phrase often enough, it just becomes who you are. Lol. This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out a Meadowlark Media Production and I'll talk to you next time.

[Jeremy Tasche]

Sam.