Bye Felicia: What is Bye Felicia and where did it come from?
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“Bye Felicia” is iconic, but not that many people seem to know what it means or its origin.
“Bye Felicia” definition: It is a phrase which has been referenced in TV shows and films, turned into a meme and – when it still existed – a popular Bye Felicia Vine or two.
Firstly, just go so everyone’s up to date, here’s the “Bye Felicia” clip.
Even if you haven’t seen that clip before, you’ve definitely heard or read it.
Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race will have heard “Bye Felicia” more times than they can count.
Jordin Sparks, the US singer who achieved success with late-00s songs Battlefield and No Air, released a mixtape titled #ByeFelicia in 2014.
And Bye Felicia’s enduring popularity even saw it turned into a TV show in 2015, as VH1 leapt on the bandwagon with Bye Felicia!, a “docu-reality series” about two life coaches.
What is Bye Felicia? Definition
Let’s go back to the start, the “Bye Felicia” origin story.
The phrase originates with Friday, a film starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker which was a significant success, making a $24 million profit.
And its place in the pantheon of cult classics was assured by the iconic scene in which Felicia approaches Ice Cube and Tucker’s characters, first to ask to borrow a car, then a joint.
After Tucker’s character, Smokey, refuses her repeated requests, she turns to Craig Jones, played by Ice Cube.
“Bye Felicia,” he tells her, dismissing her with two words while simultaneously sparking an earthquake in popular culture – albeit a delayed one.
After all, the film aired in 1995. It wasn’t until two decades later that it resurfaced in all its meme-tastic glory.
The meaning of Bye Felicia
As well as Drag Race, Bye Felicia has now been referenced in TV series Empire.
The hit 2015 film Straight Outta Compton – which, like Friday, was directed by F. Gary Gray – also utilised the phrase.
Ice Cube has said that the idea was actually his son’s, which may make him a modern-day hero.
But what does “Bye Felicia” mean?
In essence, the phrase is a way of dismissing someone, either to strongly encourage them to get out of your face, or as you’re walking away.
Who said Bye Felicia?
Ice Cube said the phrase originally, in Friday.
Since then, though, it’s been said by – well, pretty much everyone.
It was even used in 2017 by ABC news anchor Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, in reference to departed White House staffer Omarosa Manigault.
It’s a phrase which, more than two decades after its first use, shows no signs of dropping out of the lexicon.
And if you encounter any haters of the phrase, you know what to say.
