Ryan Lochte Trademarking His Nonsense Catchphrase “Jeah!”

Olympic swimmer and Michael Phelps’ second banana Ryan Lochte is trying to keep busy now that the London Games have concluded. His first plot in the Olympic interim? Trademarking his nonsensical, jibberish catchphrases, namely, “Jeah!”

The “annoying” catchphrase “Jeah!” has found its way onto a legal document filed by Lochte, locking the word up in trademark land, likely for future branding purposes, reports TMZ. Lochte is apparently intent on starting his own brand: He wants to put the phrase on sunglasses, workout DVDs, gift cards, mugs, drinking glasses, trading cards, calendars, posters, swimsuits, swim caps, sports hats, and water bottles. Basically, if you thought the catchphrase “Jeah!” is annoying, the joke is on you. You’re going to be seeing it. A lot.

Jog over to Lochte’s website. He’s already getting started with his ambitious branding strategy, offering “Jeah!” t-shirts, hats, and sunglasses there.

According to MSN, “Lochte’s no wordsmith, bumbling his way through numerous recent interviews,” but that isn’t stopping him from turning his nonsensical non-words into marketing gold. But what’s the story behind the catchphrase? I mean, where do you get something like that? Apparently, he lifted it from Young Jeezy’s “Chea!” and altered it to suit his purposes (or to avoid copyright infringement against Jeezy, we don’t know).

But what does it matter?

“Who cares?” asks Richard Lawson of TheAtlanticWire. “People are pretty mean to Ryan Lochte because he seems to have a little water on the brain, but whatever, right? He’s not hurting anybody. He’s just a guy who likes to swim and wear diamond teeth grilles and trademark nonsense words. Who is that hurting?”

Well? No one, I guess.

Ryan Lochte explains his catchphrase “Jeah!” in this YouTube video.