Hours before the extremely dramatic Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson showdown ended with a Mickelson victory, it seems some Howard Stern fans had a little fun by hiring a skywriter to put the words “Baba Booey” across the sky during the match.
Shortly after the start of the long-awaited match spectators began to notice skywriting above. The letters would spell out “BABA BOOEY,” the signature nickname of “Howard Stern Show” producer Gary Dell’Abate. You can see for yourself in photo of the event, posted to Twitter by user @vegasphotograph (and used here with permission).
@HowardStern fans trolling with a Baba Booey sky writing above the #TigerVsPhil #TheMatch in Las Vegas pic.twitter.com/lypMj06Vxk
— 📸 @VegasPhotograph | Las Vegas Photography 📸 (@vegasphotograph) November 23, 2018
Dell’Abate has been called “Baba Booey” since 1990, when he revealed it was how he’d long-mispronounced the name of cartoon character Baba Looey. It became such a meme among Stern fans that Dell’Abate embraced it, and even titled his 2010 autobiography “They Call Me Baba Booey.”
The phrase gained popularity in the world of golf over the last decade, according to Golf Digest writer Sam Weinman, who noted the chant became “unavoidable” during PGA Tour events in 2013.
It wasn’t the match’s only bit of levity — Earlier in the day, fans got to watch the match for free on B/R Live, a necessity brought about by a technical issue.