When a person has problems that threaten to overwhelm them, sometimes an unhelpful friend says they have issues “up the wazoo.” Or they might use the alternative phrase out the wazoo. In either case, wazoo is slang for the butt, and the poor person who’s being talked about has a dilemma that is either up their posterior or coming out of it

Crass, but also quite descriptive, where did this saying come from?

Let’s start with wazoo. According to the Oxford English Dictionary(OED)—which remains an authority on words both pleasant and profane—wazoo’s origins are hard to pin down. One theory is that wazoo may be related to kazoo and its variant, gazoo, which both entered the lexicon in the 19th century to describe the buzzing instrument.

In the 1960s, all three words gained traction as slang for one’s butt or anus/asshole, perhaps because it also makes unpleasant noise. Wazoo first saw print in this context in 1961, when a Cal Berkeley humor newspaper suggested readers “run it up yer ol’ wazoo.”

My husband often adds, “And out your yin-yang.” He’s a colorful guy.

Eventually, up the wazoo and out the wazoo eclipsed their kazoo and gazoo counterparts—and even other wazoo phrases, including pain in the wazoo. Per the OED, both phrases mean “in great quantities, in abundance, to excess.” For some, out the wazoo means “to excess,” while up the wazoo has a more negative connotation, meaning “full up, as much as one can handle, to excess; all over the place.” So if one has an issue up the wazoo, it means the problem has multiplied and gotten out of hand.

If a situation has been described as going out the wazoo, then the excess isn’t necessarily a problem. One could have money out the wazoo with no complaints. Bills up the wazoo, however, would be a different story.

In all instances, a writer or speaker can communicate a crude meaning without running afoul of manners or editorial guidelines, which may help explain how the word wazoo caught on in the first place. Even The Wall Street Journal was an early champion: One 1971 article stated that golf “is quite safe, the greatest risk being the possibility of a long drive plunking some poor fellow in the wazoo.”

2025 has begun as a troubled year for me – holy crap!