Editor's Note: This entry contains minor spoilers for House; read at your own caution.

About

What's My Necklace Made Of? refers to a scene in the TV show House in which Dr. Gregory House is in a fugue state and a woman asks him, "What's my necklace made of?" and House replies, "No." The necklace was made of amber and made Dr. House remember the name Dr. Amber Volakis, the wife of his friend and colleague Dr. James Wilson, who was in a bus accident with him; the same bus accident that caused his fugue state. The epiphany revealed to House that Volakis was misdiagnosed, causing her death. The scene comes from season 4, episode 15, titled "House's Head." A three-panel screencap of the scene went viral on Twitter / X in late 2024 and early 2025. Many fans of House said that it was one of the show's most heartbreaking scenes and one of television's best plot twists.

Origin

On May 12th, 2008, season 4, episode 15 of House titled, "House's Head," aired on American television. The synopsis reads, "A bus that House was riding crashes. House claims there's a victim on the bus who is dying, but not from the bus accident. He stops at nothing to figure out who the patient is and what is ailing him/her."^[1]

In one scene, Dr. House is in a fugue state and remembers the name Amber when a woman asks him, "What's my necklace made of?" Amber is the name of Dr. Wilson's wife who was the woman on the bus with Dr. House. The realization strikes him and he solemnly says, "No." Amber passes away in the episode because she was misdiagnosed. It was too late for Dr. House to save her.

The scene was uploaded by YouTuber^[2] blackeyes90 on December 14th, 2015, gaining over 1.1 million views in nine years (shown below).

The first known meme using the scene was shared by a suspended Redditor^[3] to /r/okbuddyvicodin on January 8th, 2024, which replaced the necklace with Chris Chan's Sonichu Medallion, gaining over 780 upvotes in a year (shown below).

Spread

On August 11th, 2024, Redditor^[4] FirulaisHualde shared a Name Soundalike meme to /r/okbuddyvicodin that likened House's, "No," to the element nobelium, receiving over 1,200 upvotes in five months (shown below).

On December 30th, X^[5] user @nocontexthousem tweeted the unedited three-panel screencap, gaining over 41,000 likes in 17 days (shown below).

In the following weeks, viral quote tweets of the abovementioned tweet surfaced online. For instance, on January 8th, 2025, X^[6] user @CupPump quoted it, writing, "This account has made me watch House. Just got to this episode and I don't think it’s an overreaction to say it’s one of the best episodes of television I've seen," receiving over 243,000 likes in eight days (shown below).

On January 15th, X^[7] user @incaseimakeit quoted the post, adding an Anti-Meme caption that riffed on the Powder That Makes You Say 'Yes' meme, reading, "Me when my friend is wearing a necklace made of No," gaining over 72,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References