No good thing ever lasts and this week, the Samoan call was lost to the corporate world forever.
Everybody’s heard a cheehoo before. Certainly if you’ve ever been in the vicinity of two or more Samoans, you’ll have heard one whether you wanted to or not. It soundtracks every sports event and school gathering, and Dwayne Johnson let out a few slightly cringe ones as Maui in Moana.
A cheehoo is undefinable. It’s loud (there is genuinely no way to quietly do it), it’s high-pitched and it’s 100% positive affirmation. Heartier than a “woohoo” and much browner. While it’s not strictly Samoan, it certainly feels like Samoans love doing it the most, and every time I hear it, I know there’s a warm-blooded Islander nearby and that’s nice.
Except now it’s dead. Killed by the most ironic of things: an AI company.
On Tuesday (Pacific time), Deadline reported the launch of Cheehoo, a “technology and entertainment company focused on providing creators, artists and IP rightsholders with a new AI-enabled platform to reduce barriers to animated storytelling”.
Sounds bleak, I thought, when I read the headline, but get that bag I guess, random Samoans.
Except it’s not random Samoans behind Cheehoo, it’s not even randoms. The founders include a former president of Dreamworks Animation, former Apple scientists, and the chairman of Netflix Film. None of them look like they’ve cheehoo’d in their life. I read one last name, LoFaso, instinctively as if it was Samoan but turns out it’s Italian.
In reading through the jargon, it appears the thrust of Cheehoo is to allow streamers, studios and brands to use AI to repurpose their existing IP into, for example, sequels, games and spinoffs. As far as business ideas go, it’s a bleak but smart move and will probably become a huge, global “production” company. Which means the name Cheehoo and its logo – which seems to be a visual representation of someone yelling it – will be everywhere. It also means the word cheehoo will be written and said so. many. times in interviews and casual conversation, and that’s how I know it has died.
Nobody says cheehoo. In fact, it’s extremely weird to just say the word in a normal tone. Somehow – don’t ask me how, I’m not a linguist – it is literally easier to pronounce it when yelling than when speaking normally. Now scroll back up to the photo of the founders, who look like walking American accents, and imagine them all just saying cheehoo constantly. The pronunciation will be “chee – hoo” which I know is exactly how it’s spelled but phonetically it’s wrong. And the more people just say “chee – hoo”, the more normalised it’ll become, until it loses all meaning.
And certainly no one writes cheehoo. The spelling has been contentious from the beginning because it really is just a sound. So to see it written, turned into a logo and chucked up on the Hollywood Hills… my usos, we are in hell.
If you really want to stress yourself out, think about classic start-up culture and imagine every palagi senior executive at Cheehoo yelling it every time they secure a new client. Think about it becoming a team bonding exercise or a daily incantation inside a large building made of steel and glass. Think about multi-millionaires wearing it on their little t-shirts.
I thought cheehoo was safe from full cultural appropriation (full cultural appropriation is when phrases and practices are adopted by others and taken all the way to the top of the capitalist ladder). But nothing remotely cultural is safe from the culture vultures of tech and Hollywood. And now, after decades of mostly being left alone in that regard, the Islands have shot all the way to the top, with a behemoth AI machine. Yay?
Michael LoFaso has a little quirky personal quiz on his own company’s page. It includes his favourite foods, holiday destinations and such. And his favourite recent purchase? A pair of Hoka running shoes. Figures.
Cheehoo the company won’t swallow cheehoo the sentiment immediately, but the descent has begun. And one day, probably soon, you’ll go to the movies to watch a fun new animated film with your kids, and as the production logos pre-roll begins, you’ll see the logo appear and hear the distinctive and disembodied yell of “cheeeeehoooo” over the top, and that’s when you’ll know it’s truly died.
RIP cheehoo. May you still be remembered at weddings and barbecues.
