EastEnders star Maisie Smith is best known to soap fans as the BBC soap’s sassy Tiffany Butcher, and there is one line that has stuck in viewers’ minds long after her exit. It is, of course, the iconic quip of ‘You’re NFI!’
For the uninitiated, it stands for ‘Not flippin’ invited’ and was directed at a young Dotty Cotton in 2010. It has become somewhat of an internet meme, and has been introduced into the vocabulary of EastEnders fans and beyond.
It came during a scene that saw Tiffany tell Dotty about her birthday party, which she wasn’t invited to. Tiffany and Dotty had an intense feud between 2009 and 2010, during which they each gave as good as they got. In another pretty infamous moment, Dotty pushed Tiffany into a bin. It’s no wonder she didn’t want to invite her to her party!
Just this weekend I overheard the phrase at Download Festival – albeit a less PG version – and I’m not the only one still hearing it. 16 years after it aired, it’s a quote that is still shouted to actress Maisie regularly, she revealed to Radio Times.
‘It’s so bizarre,’ she said. ‘It’s probably one of the most common things that people say to me, like when I have interactions in the street on a night out. ‘I don’t even know when it became a thing really, just overnight. Suddenly that’s the girl that says “you are NFI”.’
Fans of EastEnders fondly remember Tiffany in her early days, but she continued to play a role in some major stories as a young adult, including her tumultuous marriage to Keegan Baker. And, of course, her feud with Dotty continued, with the pair getting into another scrap in 2021.
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But it isn’t just Tiffany who has had some iconic quotes, with Maisie having sent the internet into meltdown with her reply to a comment from Khloe Kardashian in 2020. Aged 19 at the time, Maisie shared a post where she spoke about how ‘insecure’ she has felt about her legs for several years, writing: ‘I hope this can help other people feel more confident about their own insecurities.’
One of the people the viral post reached was Khloe, who commented: ‘You have the most beautiful legs!!!!! Envy worthy!!! I cannot build my legs for the life of me! So I’m drooling over yours. You are gorgeous!!!!!!’ If Maisie was starstruck by the interaction, she didn’t show it, simply replying: ‘thanks chicken x’.
And thus, a new meme was born!
