What's Up With This Lady Screaming 'FRANCE' On TikTok?

Over the past two weeks, a viral video has depicted a woman, apparently possessed by the spirit of a vengeful ghost for a brief moment, shouting "FRANCE!"

The Miss Universe pageant blooper laid dormant online for several years until it became one of the hottest memes of early 2023. Here, we'll walk through the story behind the clip and why it's going viral now.

What The Heck Is Happening In This Clip

The blooper comes from the Miss Universe Pageant of 2018, and the woman representing France is Eva Colas. At the start of recent Miss Universe Pageants, it has become a tradition for each country's representative to proudly declare the name of their country. In the 2018 edition, this was done over extremely loud music, causing the contestants to shout. In the entire clip, multiple contestants' voices actually crack. In fact, Miss Dominican Republic's voice also cracks while announcing her country, but she quickly recovers.

Unfortunately for Colas, she bore the responsibility of shouting a one-syllable country name, and her voice happened to crack on that one syllable, leading her to shout "F̵̧̯̑̅̚ŗ̸̡̨͖̽̌̀ḁ̷̻̬̆̔n̷̲̜̲̔̏͂̕c̷̼̲̘͑ė̸͈̺̦̜́͒͆!"

I didn't know Miss World was a thing still, but I've been watching how the French woman introduces herself for about half an hour pic.twitter.com/Cumd2LJIN0

— Stefan Bielik (@prstskrzkrk) January 6, 2023

So It's Five Years Old? Why Did It Become A Thing Now?

It remains a mystery why the clip didn't go viral in 2018. It seems like the perfect kind of Miss Universe blooper that should have caught fire, like when Steve Harvey announced the wrong Miss Universe winner in 2015. Perhaps the ascent of TikTok played a role in the clip's rediscovery.

On December 23rd of 2022, TikToker @therialqueenmissology, an account that seems largely dedicated to the Miss Universe pageant, posted the 2018 opening ceremony featuring all the contestants shouting their country's names. The video was not intended to highlight Miss France's gaffe, but it went viral after people discovered it fairly deep into the video.

After the clip was discovered on TikTok, it was reposted to Twitter, and once the clip hit Twitter, memes followed.

It had to be done pic.twitter.com/t6OIW83ihJ

— Badam.eth (@badam1666) January 7, 2023

Did The Gaffe Affect The Competition?

Colas did not make it to the Top 20 in the Miss Universe 2018 pageant. While it's possible Colas' gaffe may have hurt her chances with the judges, there is no writing or indication of any sort from the time to indicate her shriek played a role in the scoring.

As for her newfound social media stardom, Colas appears to be taking it in good humor. After she went viral, she responded to the clip in an Instagram post where she drinks wine and shrugs as the caption reads "C'est la vie." She's even taken to posting memes of the moment.

For more information, check out the Know Your Meme article on Miss France Shouting 'FRANCE!'