Bye, Felicia! – Wait, Who is She?

Who is Felicia and why are we telling her bye? Have you heard this or other popular phrases and wondered where it came from or are you just annoyed people are using the phrase incorrectly? Then this post is for you. Today, I’m decoding “Bye, Felicia” and a few other phrases.

Bye, Felicia!

The cast of Party Down South frequently bid Felicia adieu and this phrase is always an acceptable sassy send-off. Seriously, I’ve heard everyone and their grandma use this and I doubt most of them know where it actually came from. Watch Nicole Ritchie try to explain the phrase to Ryan Seacrest.

Origin: “Bye Felicia” comes from the movie Friday.  Felicia, a crackhead, keeps dropping by asking for stuff. Smokey (Chris Tucker) is the first to tell her off. She then turns to Craig (Ice Cube) and he simple waves her off with the line – “Bye, Felicia”.

Right Now: Now you hear it everywhere as people use it to signify an irrelevant person. It is the phrase to get anybody out of your face who is saying something stupid.

Damn, Gina!

Origin: “Damn Gina” Is from the TV show Martin.  Martin used this catch phrase when Gina was annoying him or when she did something that really surprised him. I surprisingly couldn’t find many YouTube clips with him saying it. C’mon peeps, step it up.

Right Now: Now you hear people saying the phrase as a replacement for “whoa” or “wow”, when people are trying to express their frustrations, or on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Shade

Origin: I’m not sure if I can give you the real origin of this word. However, I can explain what it means. Shade is weird or disrespectful behavior. It’s most commonly used when you hear people say “throwing shade”. So basically it’s when a person says something or acts shady or in an underhanded way.  One example is one of the queens of shade: Miss Phaedra Parks from the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Still not getting it… Listen to Queen Dorien Corey in “Paris is Burning” – a documentary about house and ball culture in the LGBT community – explain shade:

 

Sips Tea/ Spill Tea

So speaking of shade, I guess I’ll move on to “spillin the tea” or “sippin the tea.” How many times have you seen this Kermit .gif or a similar meme on your news feed and timelines?

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll2/palmsinatl/Gifs/sipstea_zps3q0ryhr9.gif

Origin: This really comes from the old southern tradition of ladies drinking tea, during which a lot of gossip was spread.

Right Now: So sippin’ tea or spillin’ tea is basically being involved in or observing a gossip fest.

YASSS Queen

Origin: If you google this phrase “Broad City” is one of the first things that comes up or there’s the video of a fan yelling it at Lady Gaga. There’s actually a number of articles about how the writers of the show got this phrase from that clip.  Let’s be clear drag queens have been using this for years!!!

Right Now: It’s a term used to show excitement, praise or affirmation. Interchangeable with yasss, boo, yasss, honey and also roared by lions.

On Fleek

Origin: You may need to fact check me on this, but I’m pretty sure people started using this term after this a Vine from Peaches Monroe went viral. Peaches used “on fleek” to describe her eyebrows.

Right Now: Fleek is something that is on point; perfection; flawless.

Bae

Origin: Your guess is as good as mine. Time (yes, as in the magazine) published an article that discussed where the term came from. I don’t know whether this is good or a telling sign of where journalism is headed.

Right Now: So call me old, but when people first started asking me what bae meant. I assumed it was short for babe.  Wrong, Donni! Wrong. Bae stands for “before anything else”. Oh ok. But it’s bacically babe as it is used to describe a crush, boyfriend, girlfriend, or best friend.  Fun Fact: Bae means poop in Danish.

 

So that’s my rundown. Are there any other words you’re curious about? Let me know in the comments below.