About

Nabilla's "Allô" Parodies are a series of videos and photographs mocking the French reality TV personality Nabilla Benattia and her catchphrase “Allô ! Non mais allô quoi !” roughly translated as “Hello? Like, are you serious? Wake up!” in English, which was originally quoted in a fifth season episode of the French reality TV show Les Anges de la téléréalité.^[1] The parodies are meant to deride Benattia’s superficial and judgmental statements, which have been considered obnoxious and vapid by many on the French web, in similar vein to online parodies surrounding the cast of the MTV reality TV series Jersey Shore.

Origin

The colloquial expression “non mais allô quoi,” which roughly translates to “Hello? Like, are you serious? Wake up!” in English, is most commonly used by French women to express incredulity towards someone else's discreditable behavior. The original quote can be heard in Season 5, Episode 3 of the French reality television show Les Anges de la téléréalité (Angels of Reality), which follows the lives of 12 contestants living together in a Miami mansion, that aired on March 5th, 2013.

In one of the interview segments in this episode, contestant Nabilla Benattia can be heard uttering “Allô ! Non mais allô quoi !” to express her shock after discovering that one of her housemates did not carry her own shampoo. Several videos of her reaction were subsequently uploaded to YouTube as early as March 7th, with one version accumulating over 1.1 million views by the following week

English Translation:

Benattia: "Apparently it was Aurélie and Capucine who didn't have any shampoo. Hello girl! Like, girl, are you serious?! You're a girl and you don't have shampoo? Hello? Can you hear me or what? You're a girl and you don't have any shampoo. I mean, it's like saying "you're a girl and you don't have any hair!"

Spread

On March 7th, 2013, several French news sites began reporting on the Internet’s response to the episode, including Meltybuzz,^[2] the French Huffington Post,^[3] TF1^[4] and Le Nouvel Observateur.^[5] The same day, a Tumblr blog titled “Allo Quoi”^[7] was launched, which featured notable photographs of people mocking Benattia's interview scene by posing with a phone hand gesture held up to their head (shown below).

On March 8th, a Hitler's Reaction parody of Benatti's quote (shown below) was uploaded by YouTuber FrenchGelein, which accumulated more than 1.8 million views in the next 10 days.

On March 9th, a Facebook page titled "Âllo quoi, t'es une fille t'as pas de shampoing"^[6] was created, gaining over 55,000 likes in nine days. On March 12th, a special typeface^[8] was submitted to the French font sharing website Dafont^[8] titled "Allo t'as pas de shampoing" (shown below).

Notable Examples

Advice Animal Spin Off

On March 12th, 2013, the single topic blog Allo-Nabilla^[9] was launched, which highlighted image macros featuring a screen capture from Benattia's interview segment with captions in the style of an advice animal series. The captions typically mock well-known French brands, pop culture and recent events followed by the phrase “Non mais allô quoi!”

Twitter Feed

Official trademark

On April 10th, Le Nouvel Obs^[10] reported that Nabilla Benettia filed a patent for her catchphrase in the INPI (Institut National de la Propriété Intellectuelle). She plans on reusing the meme she started as a slogan for jewellery, clothing and other brands. However, shampoo isn't included in the patent.

Allô Nabilla

In september 2013, a teaser video was released on French NRJ12 TV website^[11] about a spin-off reality show titled "Allo Nabilla – Ma famille en Californie" (Allo Nabilla – My family in California) that is set to begin on november 12th^[12].
As the title suggests, the show will follow Nabilla, her family and their everyday life in California.

Search Interest

External References