In American English, the phrase "Bye, Felicia" or "Bye, Felisha" is an informal phrase and internet meme intended as a dismissive send-off, wherein a person or idea is rendered so unimportant his or her name is reduced to "Felicia." According to Ice Cube, who starred in Friday and co-wrote its script, "'Bye, Felicia' [...] is the phrase to get anyone out [of] your face that's saying something stupid".[1][2] Nicole Richie said "Felicia is, like, some random[a] that you just do not even care about."[3]
The phrase originally comes from a scene in the 1995 American comedy film Friday in which Ice Cube's character says "Bye, Felisha" to dismiss Angela Means' character, Felisha. Due to the phrase being spread orally, it was incorrectly recorded as "Bye Felicia", now the most popular variation.
In an interview with Vibe magazine to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary, Means said she believes the phrase wasn't in the script and Ice Cube ad-libbed the line "based off what I gave him as an actor."[4]
According to Robert Thompson, a media professor at Syracuse University, the phrase went relatively unnoticed at first and it was regarded as a "throw-away line." He suggested that it only became popular with the advent of social media and YouTube.[5] On Google, "bye felicia" first began to grow in popularity as a search term around August 2012 and peaked in September 2015. The phrase has been gradually dwindling in popularity as a search term ever since, although it had a brief resurgence in December 2017.[6] According to Twitter analytics site Topsy, the hashtag "#ByeFelicia" was used over 35,000 times in August 2014.[7][8]
In 2009, the phrase entered the lexicon of the LGBT community thanks to its usage on RuPaul's Drag Race, an American reality competition television series.[1][9]
In 2014, VH1 launched a reality show titled Bye Felicia starring Missy Young and Deborah Hawkes. Each episode sees Young and Hawkes give a young woman a makeover and help them "say goodbye for good to their inner 'Felicia.'"[8]
In the 2015 movie Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube (played by his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr.) said, "Bye, Felicia!", while throwing a girl named Felicia out of his hotel room. Naming the girl Felicia was not an intentional reference to Friday, but when Jackson ad-libbed the line as a "coincidental joke", the filmmakers decided to keep it in the film.[10]
The phrase has also been used by numerous celebrities. Some examples include:
- Musical artist Jordin Sparks referenced the phrase in the title of her first mixtape #ByeFelicia.[8]
- On an episode of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, guest Nicole Richie informed Seacrest about the phrase and its origins.[3]
- Robin Roberts, one of the hosts of Good Morning America, directed the phrase towards Omarosa Manigault after she resigned as adviser to President Donald Trump.[11]
- Keith Olbermann regularly used the phrase on his eponymous show on ESPN, and often uses the term on Twitter as a means of ending a conversation.[12][13]
In an interview with NPR, Black writer Allison Davis talked about the phrase's usage in Straight Outta Compton, saying director Gary Gray unnecessarily added a "misogynistic moment for a punchline." She characterized the scene as "kind of disturbing" and "slut-shaming," and was particularly critical of the decision to have the partygoers blame Felicia, "the harlot troublemaker," and punish her by kicking her out of the party naked.[14]
Writing for the online magazine The Root, Dustin J. Seibert, a Black writer, states his point of view that the phrase was originally created by Black people and meant to be used by Black people. According to him, "white people co-opted the phrase and stunk it up [...] Hit up the former Twitter right now and type "Bye Felicia" in the search bar…you'll see it's not us using it like that anymore." He specifically mentioned Keith Olbermann as someone who co-opted and "stunk up" the term.[15] theGrio's Monique Judge, who is also Black, agrees that Olbermann overused the phrase, and cites him as an example of "white people stealing a phrase with significant meaning for Black people."[16]
- Bye Felipe
- The dictionary definition of bye, Felicia at Wiktionary
