Slang dictionary
how you doing
or how you doin' 摆丑辞耻听yoo doo-ing] or 摆丑辞耻听you doo-in] or [hou ya doo-in]
What does听how you doing mean?
How you doing听is an informal greeting like How’s it going.听It is most commonly known as the signature pickup line of character Joey Tribbiani from the sitcom听Friends.
Where does how you doing come from?
How you doing听is a shortened form of the longer, more formal greeting how are you doing.听Though almost certainly used in colloquial speech earlier, the salutation first appears in print in the 1940s and spreads in the 1970s. In the late 20th century,听How you doing听was popularly associated with New Yorkers of Italian descent鈥攁nd pronounced more like how YOO dooin.听These long U sounds, as well as the dropped final G, stereotype Italian-American accents. With this association,听How you doin’听could convey an almost ominous, confrontational tone used by, in another stereotype of Italian-Americans, a mobster.
How you doin’听became a humorous pickup line, however, when Italian-American character Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) used it in a January, 1998 episode of Friends, “The One with Rachel’s Crush.” In it, Joey teaches his friend Rachel how to confidently ask out a man she has a crush on by looking him up and down, smiling, and asking,听How YOU doin’?, with a stress on the middle word. Rachel is skeptical that his plan will work, but after Joey successfully demonstrates the pickup line on another character, Rachel is convinced. Throughout the rest of听Friends’ run on the air, the pickup line returns many times as a running joke.
Other popular figures have also used听how you doing听as a catchphrase, from New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano on听The Sopranos to comedian and talk show host Wendy Williams on听The Wendy Williams Show. For Williams, the omitted verb to be and dropped G are consistent with features of AAVE, though the phrase may also be influenced by her being native to New Jersey.
Examples of how you doing
Who uses how you doing?
Today,听how you doing听is widely used in everyday speech as a way of greeting another person, albeit without a caricatured Italian-American accent and unusually unstressed听ya for you. How you doing听is also widely used as a genuine way of asking after the well-being of a person in conversation, true to the questions literal origins.
Outside these uses,听听how you doin’听is most often used in reference to Joey’s pickup line from听Friends, said in Joey’s Italian-American-stereotyped way. T-shirts, stickers, and other items featuring the phrase and Joey’s face or other references to the show are common in online stores. Even when the reference to the character isn’t made directly, use of听how you doin’听as a pickup line was popularized by Friends. Especially in online contexts in which tone is hard to get across, the stylization as听how you doin听conveys the flirtatiousness of the phrase as Joey delivered it. Because the pickup line has become so ingrained in American culture, it is often panned as corny if actually employed in romantic interactions.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of how you doing like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of how you doing that will help our users expand their word mastery.