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Friday

One of the most popular memes on the Internet these days originates from F. Gary Gray‘s classic comedy Friday, which hit theaters two decades ago this year. Straight Outta Compton, a film that follows the origins of the pioneering hip-hop group N.W.A., shares two connections with Friday: Friday star Ice Cube is a character in Straight Outta Compton (he’s played by his son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), and Friday director Gray is at the helm of the biopic. Given the popularity of the #ByeFelicia meme, it seemed like a cute Easter Eggs for fans to insert the line from Friday into the new film, which has proven to be a box-office smash.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G05u7ihoYQA]

In Friday, Ice Cube’s character Craig utters the famous line to his annoying neighbor (the aptly titled Felicia) as a send-off. But the new movie paints a different picture of the line’s origins. As Allison P. Davis writes on The Cut:

A young Dr. Dre is in his room while a party rages in the crew’s hotel suite. Suddenly, two armed men start pounding on the door — one of them is looking for his girl, Felicia. Dre slams the door, walks into the next room looking for Felicia, whom he finds fellating Eazy-E. Ice Cube, Dre, and Eazy-E grab some guns, reopen the door to confront the two intruders, and inform them that Felicia was too busy sucking someone else’s dick to come to the door. After the two intruders run down the hall, Eazy-E grabs Felicia — who is wearing nothing but a hot-pink thong — and pushes her out into the hotel corridor by the head. As the door slams, Ice Cube deploys the very first “Bye, Felicia.”

The scene has caused some controversy, particularly in light of the film’s omission of the misogynistic behavior of its subjects — particularly Dr. Dre, who infamously assaulted hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes in 1991. (Barnes tells her story in a long account on Gawker.)

The Cut’s Davis had the opportunity to ask Gray about the inclusion of the fictional origin story of the meme in his new film. “Some people may feel like it’s the origin of ‘Bye, Felicia,’ but it’s a fun moment,” he explained, ” wink and a nod to the originalFriday and a little bit of fun. It’s one of the funniest moments in the movie.” (Gray also took offense when Davis brought up the misogynist undertones of the scene, and the film’s omission of Dee Barnes’ story, saying, “If you’re looking to be politically correct in entertainment, especially as it relates to comedy, that’s the end of entertainment. If people want us to make entertainment in a certain way, you tell me how we should have shot the scene.”)

But as Davis said on NPR’s Morning Edition today, the moment fits into the complicated nature of the film’s subject matter, particularly when it comes to hip-hop’s treatment of women. The film has received praise from black women like Oprah and Ava DuVernay, with the latter tweeting, “To be a woman who loves hip hop at times is to be in love with your abuser. Because the music was and is that. And yet the culture is ours.” Davis admits, “That you love hip-hop because it’s a product of your culture, and it’s done so much, in so many ways, to give voice to your culture and your community. But you can’t ignore, especially in this movie, how the culture degrades women. You can’t ignore the rampant misogyny and the brutality that’s also part of the culture.”

Did Straight Outta Compton put the otherwise humorous #ByeFelicia meme into a darker, more aggressive context? Possibly, but it’s likely that the line — and the meme — will forever be associated with the classic ’90s comedy rather than the fictional origin story depicted in Gray’s new film.

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