Internet Culture
Posted on Sep 15, 2021 Updated on Sep 20, 2021, 1:18 pm CDT
The Twilight Saga is something of a goldmine for memes, whether it’s Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) facial expressions, the WTF factor that is the Renesmee doll, or our collective fixation on vampire baseball. But a throwaway line from the 2009 film New Moon is spawning cakes, shirts, tweets, memes, and plenty of remixes on TikTok.
While Twilight is centered around Bella and Edward’s newfound relationship, New Moon delves into darker territory as it explores Bella’s depression after Edward abruptly breaks up with her to “protect” her and the Cullen family leaves Forks, Washington. During that time, she purposely puts herself into dangerous, thrill-seeking situations so that she’s able to feel closer to Edward. About 35 minutes into the film, Bella gets ahold of a couple of old bikes and brings them over to her friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) so he can help her fix them.
When she arrives at Jacob’s house, he runs toward her and gives her a big hug; he hasn’t seen her in ages.
“Bella,” he says as he runs up to her. “Where the hell have you been, loca?”
Instead of asking how she’s been, Jacob’s concern is about where she’s been—even though he could’ve hypothetically found that out through his father’s friendship with Bella’s father. He also, for seemingly no reason at all, calls Bella “loca,” even though there isn’t really any reason for Jacob to call his friend “crazy.” And it’s not even really a line that has any real effect on the plot. Soon enough, Jacob will gain werewolf abilities, Bella will jump off a cliff, and Edward will try to take his shirt off and sparkle his way through an Italian festival to force the Volturi to kill him.
It’s silly and cringe-worthy, but for whatever reason, it’s endured among Twilight fans and even got a shoutout a couple of months back from the official Twilight Twitter account.
Absolutely no one:
Me to my serotonin: Bella where the hell have you been loca
— 1984’s George Whorewell (@EwdatsGROSS) September 5, 2021
//www.twitter.com/Twilight/status/1412811145086263296
It’s also the kind of phrase that is easily adaptable to other memes and situations. For instance, it only took a bit of editing to place Jacob at the Met Gala or to make Mary Jane Watson defend him.
//twitter.com/jayjayriv/status/1433190115912736769
bella — i cannot stress this enough — where the hell have you been loca
— Jill Gutowitz (@jillboard) August 12, 2021
OMG! ok, unfollowing now. i didn’t realize her name was bella and she was loca because we didn’t know where the hell she’s been
— wolfgang ruth (@itswolfgangruth) September 10, 2021
It’s even got a handy acronym that we might not even remember.
On TikTok, the riffs on “Where the hell have you been, loca” are even more creative. TikToker @yeehawgabrielle performed a cover of “Hey There, Delilah” that quickly morphed into a New Moon parody.
//www.tiktok.com/@yeehawgabrielle/video/7002350999750888709?/
And not to mention homemade cakes and fan-made merchandise featuring some iteration of the scene. One shirt has Lautner’s face, a big pink heart, and the phrase “Bella, where the hell have you been, loca?” printed around it.
//www.tiktok.com/@quieromasut/video/7003390687483907333?/
//www.tiktok.com/@lesel____/video/6989042239737498886?/
//www.tiktok.com/@larissaaliz3/video/6991630599001738502?/
//www.tiktok.com/@222melaniee/video/6991657058265287941?/
//www.tiktok.com/@mirandabarragan44/video/6992052495828733190?/
So where has Bella been? She doesn’t respond and instead immediately introduces the motorcycles she obtained to Jacob. And, more than a decade after Jacob asked it, we’re still waiting for the answer.
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*First Published: Sep 15, 2021, 12:47 pm CDT
Michelle Jaworski
Michelle Jaworski is a staff writer and TV/film critic at the Daily Dot. She covers entertainment, geek culture, and pop culture and has covered everything from the Sundance Film Festival, NYFF, and Tribeca to New York Comic Con and Con of Thrones. She is based in Brooklyn.
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- Twilight’s “Where The Hell Have You Been Loca?” Meme Explained
Why did Jacob's throwaway line "Bella, where the Hell have you been loca?" (from 2009's sequel New Moon) go viral among Twilight fans recently?
The Twilight fandom has recently been cracking up over the line “Bella where the Hell have you been, loca?” but why did this obscure New Moon quote go viral online? Released in 2008, Twilight was a huge hit with its target audience of teenagers—but not overly beloved by critics. A melodramatic fantasy romance, the movie was based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyers, and its success soon saw the entire Twilight saga adapted to film.
However, while viewers may have loved the movies despite their corniness, critics were not kind to Twilight. The original Twilight, with its murder mystery subplot, was slightly better reviewed, but its sequels struggled to earn critical approval, and 2009’s New Moon, in particular, received a veritable mauling from reviewers. To be fair to the critics, New Moon was the weakest movie of the series and featured an infamously pointless plot, making the mockery all but inevitable.
Still, this did not hurt New Moon’s performance at the box office and, when 30 Days of Night director David Slade took over directorial duties for the vastly superior sequel Eclipse, the movie’s flaws were largely forgotten. Until now, that is. Recently, a clip from New Moon went viral, and the hilarious out-of-context line reading reminded many fans why the sequel was seen as the worst Twilight sequel movie. When Taylor Lautner’s secondary love interest Jacob Black encounters Bella at his reservation home, he grins and asks “Bella, where the Hell have you been, loca?” and the bizarre question has prompted countless memes from the franchise’s sizable fanbase in recent months.
It’s a bizarrely out-of-character line from the usually stoic and almost comically self-serious Jacob, and one that underlines just how awkwardly teenage the main characters of the series are with its believably cringeworthy delivery. As a result, the quote went viral recently as viewers revisited the series since its arrival on Netflix, with most of the unintentional comedy coming from Taylor Lautner’s delivery and how surreally out-of-place the moment is in an otherwise overly serious sequel. The character of Twilight's Jacob Black earned more serious criticism thanks to the questionable stereotypes involved in his anger issues and animalistic side, but most of the critique leveled at this moment has been more from laughter than anger.
All memes aside, “Bella, where the Hell have you been, loca?” is a pretty effective encapsulation of what most viewers and reviewers alike disliked about New Moon, despite its unintentional hilarity. The sequel has scenes of completely self-serious melodrama including suicide attempts by both main characters but also features broad, out-of-place humor that seriously messes with the movie’s pacing. Seemingly added to lighten the tone, this too-goofy humor (Bella and Jacob view a violent action movie entitled “Face Punch,” whose gore prompts love triangle third wheel Mike to vomit in the theatre) left New Moon’s tone disastrously inconsistent and resulted in the movie’s moments of pathos flatlining. That said, viewers can only be so annoyed about the Twilight sequel’s failure when New Moon also provided fans with the immortal "Bella, where the Hell have you been, loca?”.
More: Every Possible Twilight Sequel Explained