Omelette Du Fromage

About

Omelette Du Fromage refers to a memorable quote from the American animated series Dexter's Laboratory. In the episode, Dexter repeatedly says the phrase, "omelette du fromage," and became a popular phrase among fans of the series, inspiring image macros and remix videos.

Origin

On December 4th, 1996, the Dexter's Laboratory episode "The Big Cheese" aired on Cartoon Network. ^[1] In the episode, Dexter studies for his French test at the last minute by using a device that teaches him while he sleeps. However, the recording he used skips and repeats "omelette du fromage" all night. The following morning, "omelette du fromage" is all he can say (clip below).

On December 12th, 2009, Urban Dictionary ^[2] user MrSchwab defined "Omelete du fromage." They wrote,"The amazing phrase from Dexter's Laboratory in the episode 'The Big Cheese,' when he listens to a French recording overnight to learn said language. This consequentially gets stuck on repeat, on this phrase. The next day all he can say is 'omelette du fromage,' actually working to his advantage in everything he does (except at the end, when his lab blows up)." The post received more than 1,800 upvotes in less than 11 years (shown below).

Spread

On November 20th, 2012, YouTuber 82percent shared a clip from the episode of the girls in Dexter's school showing romantic interest in Dexter because of his pronunciation of "omelette du fromage." The post received more than 1.1 million views in less than eight years (shown below, left).

Over the next year, references to the episode grew in usage. For example, on March 6th, 2013, Tumblr ^[3] user fearofwinning published a screenshot from the episode that features a vinyl record sleeve that reads, "Dexter Sings Omelette du Fromage." The post received more than 129,000 notes in less than eight years (shown below, right).

Later that year, on August 20th, Tumblr^[4] user tab-hoarder published an image of Dexter whispering and the subtitle, "[whispers] Omelette du fromage." The post recieved more than 50,000 notes in less than eight years (shown below).

On April 14th, 2017, Vice^[5] published the article "I Spent an Entire Day Only Saying 'Omelette Du Fromage.'" They wrote, "So to mark 20 years since the episode was first broadcast, I'm going to put this run of good luck to the test: by only saying 'omelette du fromage' all day and seeing where it takes me."

I Love Your Accent

I Love Your Accent, Say It Again is a quote from Dexter's Laboratory in which the protagonist accidentally forces himself to only say "Omelette du Fromage" in a French accent. A girl character says "I Love Your Accent, Say It Again," to which he replies "Omelette du Fromage." In 2018, Black Twitter users began parodying the moment by changing Dexter's line to various black slang (examples below).

Omelette Du Fromage Man

Omelette Du Fromage Man refers to a shirtless, masked American tourist who crashed a French news report to impersonate a French accent during a celebration of Joe Biden's apparent victory in the 2020 United States Presidential election. The man, wearing a messenger bag, a University of Michigan baseball cap and sunglasses, whose real name is Meka Anyanetu, leaned into the French reporter and said, "I’ve been to France; it’s beautiful. I ate escargot. I love a croissant." He also quoted the 90s Cartoon Network animated series Dexter's Laboratory when he said, "I love an omelette du fromage." The video went viral on Twitter in November 2020.

On November 7th, 2020, Twitter user @pierre_It tweeted the clip. The tweet received more than 9.2 million views. 84,000 likes and 33,000 retweets in less than three days (shown below).

J'en chialle pic.twitter.com/e35nw2BQaa

— Pierre Le Texier (@pierre_lt) November 7, 2020

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References