Bye Felicia > A dismissive send-off that can playfully mask deeper feelings (or not)
The Feels Guide is a field guide to internet emotion — new feelings, moody machines, emotional design, and wherever, whenever, however emotion and technology mix and mingle.
Bye Felicia is an example of how we make light of our feelings while still seeking a bond with like-minded people on the internet.
🔑 DEFINITION
A dismissive send-off meant to show how little you care but often reveals how much you care.
See also: Ok boomer, girl bye
📜 A BRIEF HISTORY
The phrase has its origins in a scene from a 1995 stoner movie, Friday, where rapper Ice Cube dismisses a hanger-on named Felicia. While the phrase first showed up in Urban Dictionary in 2006, it didn’t enter popular culture until 2009 when it was used in RuPaul’s Drag Race to dis and dismiss contestants. In 2011, a user uploaded a clip to YouTube and labeled it “Bye, Felicia,” finally giving confused internet users the source.
In 2014, the phrase became popular enough that VH1 aired a show called Bye Felicia, about two life coaches who encouraged viewers to say goodbye to their inner Felicia. Bye Felipe, a blog highlighting screenshots of hostile responses to rejection sent by men from online dating sites, also launched in 2014.
Bye Felicia peaked in 2015, according to Google Trends. The notable resurgence might be attributed, once again, to Ice Cube who revived the phrase in the hip-hop biopic Straight Outta Compton.
From time to time, it surges in popularity again. In December 2018, former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, used it **to describe what was going through her head as she and President Obama waved goodbye to the White House as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Many a sarcastic Bye Felicia was directed at Donald Trump in the final days of his presidency in January 2021. In October 2022, #byefelicia was trending on Twitter after Tulsi Gabbard announced leaving the Democratic party.
💬 EXPRESSION
Bye Felicia expresses casual disregard as if to say, “That’s it. I’m done putting up with you.” Mostly it’s in the spirit of playfully throwing shade by suggesting the speaker couldn’t be bothered with another person’s presence.
While humor is almost always part of it, the tone has changed over time. More recently, Bye Felicia is used with a more aggressive tone than a nonchalant one. Sometimes, it’s a pose, pretending to care less about something that actually matters.
Generations past might have used “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out” in the same way. Gen Zs have adopted “OK, Boomer” to a similar end.
🎩 PERSON OF INTEREST
Ice Cube is the “Bye, Felicia” is a line uttered by the actor in the 1995 flick Friday Here’s the gist: Felicia (Angela Means-Kaaya) wants to borrow a car. Smokey (Chris Tucker) says no way. Then Felicia wants to borrow a joint. Again, Smokey refuses. To dismiss Felicia, Jones (Ice Cube) waves her off with “Bye, Felicia.”
In an interview with late-night host Conan O’Brien, Ice Cube elaborated, “That is the phrase to get anybody out of your face that’s saying something stupid.”
👎 NOT-SO-FUN FACT
Bye Felicia is an example of white culture appropriating Black culture, along with slang like “lit” and “bae” and emojified gestures like clapping between words. Acknowledging origins, steering clear of ethnic stereotypes, and engaging with culture on more than an aesthetic level can move us toward a more fluid culture rather than an appropriative one.
💡 BIG PICTURE
Like so much of how we express emotion on the internet, Bye Felicia is exaggerated and playful but it can mask deeply felt emotion. A performative lack of caring often translates to caring a lot, whether dismissing a destructive person or a chapter of our own lives.
👋
That’s all the feels for this week!
xoxo
Pamela 💗
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The guide behind the guide
I’m Pamela Pavliscak, a tech emotionographer who studies emotion on the internet. I’m writing a book, All the Feels (Algonquin, 2024), about how technology is changing our emotional life — mostly for the better. I run an emotion tech consultancy called Subjective Labs and teach emotional design at the Pratt Institute in NYC. And I’m starting to share what I learn here and on Substack, Instagram, and Twitter.
