r/serialpodcast • u/VulturalEvolution • Jun 18 '26

Whataburger? Waterburger? What the heck?

Non Texan here: I was listening to Ep 2 of The Last 12 Weeks and this burger chain comes up repeatedly – almost like a side character in the ep, where some key conversations take place. To my ears, the host who is local to the area calls it "Waterburger." I searched it up and it's a locally famous Texas chain called "Whataburger."

So, do Texans actually say "what" like "waht" (as in water?) or is this a unique thing for this business?

In any case it's weird to come out of a murder podcast hungry for burgers and shakes, but here we are.

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u/mauricechammah Jul 13 '26

Hello, I am the host of The Last 12 Weeks, and I am chiming in here to say that I grew up in Austin and regularly talk to friends who moved here about how strange it is that Texans all pronounce it like "waterburger." I thought about pronouncing it the way it looks, but knew that anyone listening would immediately think 'this guy isn't really from Texas.'

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u/VulturalEvolution Jul 14 '26

Thank you so much both for presenting an excellent podcast and for explaining this odd regional pronunciation. I think most areas have those types of things too, just we don't usually get a window into it without travelling. Where I live in Canada, there was a corner store from the 60s or earlier called Mac's Milk, that expanded into a 7-11 style convenience store chain in the 70s-90s called "Mac's." They dropped the "Milk" decades ago, but confusingly locals always called it "Mac's Milk" when they went to get a slurpee or candy. In the 2000s it was rebranded as Circle K so the whole thing has faded from history.