The phrase originally comes from a scene involving Angela Means' character Felisha in the American comedy film Friday (1995). According to Ice Cube, who starred in the film and co-wrote its script, "'Bye, Felicia' is the phrase to get anyone out of your face".

Bye Felicia is a slang way of dismissing someone. Sometimes formatted as bye, Felicia and based on movie character whose name is spelled Felisha, bye Felicia often appears in memes, GIFs, and hashtags online to express disregard or indifference to someone, as if to say, “That's it. I'm done putting up with you.

She continued passionately about the assumption that Felicia was a “crackhead.” “You never saw Felicia doing drugs. She wasn't a crackhead, she was just lost.