Vulture visited the set of Parks & Recreation and was able to corner Rob Lowe and ask him about his character’s unlikely catchphrase:
“I think I just leaned into that word really hard a couple of times and it made [Mike Schur] laugh. The next thing you know it just became one of Chris’s things, but it was never designed that way. It was merely a word in a sentence. I think I just took a really big, probably very embarrassing swing at it and it stuck.â€
He continued:
“It’s funny, I have no idea what I’m doing when I’m doing it … But it’s very exciting to be so far down the road in this business and to finally have a catchphrase. It’s one thing I can tick off my career to-do list. I don’t think it’s as good as ‘What’chu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis,’ but it’s up there.â€
What’chu talkin’ ‘bout, Rob Lowe. “Literally†is literally the best catchphrase literally ever.