A woman named Hailey Giamarino is going viral for sharing a very ~interesting~ voicemail she received from her dermatology clinic.
In her TikTok, which has nearly 6 million views, Hailey shares herself, then gets right into the voicemail that was left.
It starts out very normal, and what you would expect. A woman very sweetly and professionally introduces herself, then says, “I was giving you a call to go over the bacteria culture that we did here in the clinic the other day. So, the culture came back as a bacteria called Pantoea species,” she starts.
Now here is where things begin to go a bit off the rails. The woman continues, “And that is spelled ‘P’ as in…PORK.”
The phone then goes silent, and you can hear whispers and giggling in the background, and someone repeats back, “PORK?!”
Finally, the woman leaving the voicemail gathers herself and continues, “‘A’ as in ‘APPLE,’ ‘N’ as in…’NEW.'” She then can’t contain her laughter any longer and breaks out in giggles again (likely over her “pork” comparison, or maybe because she realized that “new” can also be spelled “knew,” lol).
She composes herself once more and keeps going, “I’m so sorry. Okay, ‘T’ as in, um, ‘TREE.’ ‘O’ as in ‘ORANGE’…”
She rushes to continue before her giggles return, “‘E’ as in ‘EARTH.’ ‘A’ as in ‘APPLE.’ So, um, Amanda wanted to know if you had—,” then the woman can’t hold back anymore and goes full on into a laughing attack.
However, much to our surprise, the woman collects herself enough to resume the voicemail, asking about a drug allergy. It appears she got at least some of the rest of the information across before ending the call, but the whole thing is hilarious.
It is obvious that everyone thought the voicemail was too funny.
So funny that some were peeing their pants laughing.
The conversation also segwayed into the realization that not many people know the phonetic alphabet.
So, if you didn’t know, the phonetic alphabet is the set of specific words used to stand in for letters when you’re speaking, especially in situations where it’s really important to be clear, like in Hailey’s voicemail. Many people, like TikToker @dianas.delicacies, are sharing it because they did not know it even existed.
It appears most people just think of a random word when they have to spell something out over the phone.
So people are sharing the hilarious examples they’ve used in the comments. Like “B” as in “BURP.”
And “B” as in “BAKED BEAN.”
Or how about “U” as in “UTERUS.”
“P” as in “POLLY POCKET.”
“J” as “JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH.”
You’ve got “T” as in “TOILET” and “P” as in “PAPER.”
As well as “T” as in “TYRANNOSAURUS REX.”
“V” as in “VELOCIRAPTOR.”
“F” as in “FELIZ NAVIDAD.”
“L” as in “LOVE” and “N” as in “NUGGET.”
There’s also “E” as in “EYEBALL.”
It is all really funny, but then it becomes clear why specific words are used. Because, even though one person above got “E” right for “EYEBALL.” It can be very easily confused with “I” accidentally.
Same with “Q” as in “CUCUMBER.”
Then there are even more confusing words like “T” as in “TEA.”
And “P” as in “PNEUMONIA.”
There are even some people out here just confusing the heck out of everyone with things like “TB” as in “TUBERCULOSIS.”
There are also worrisome words like “O” as in “ORPHAN” and “K” as in “KILLER.”
Essentially, panic mode just sinks in, and the first word that comes to mind is what comes out, like “O” for “OZEMPIC.
People have also shared their hilariously unfortunate phonetic spellings in videos, like TikToker @nickfromohio. This is how he spelled out “breakfast” one time:
And now we are asking ourselves one thing: WHY IS THIS NOT TAUGHT IN SCHOOL?!
BuzzFeed spoke with Hailey, who said she actually received the voicemail back in 2024 and didn’t even listen to it at first. “I was signing up for a gym membership when I noticed a call from my dermatologist’s office. I couldn’t answer, but they immediately called back, so I picked up. Cat (the girl in the video, aka pork girl) gave me my results directly — no mention of a voicemail.”
She then said it wasn’t until about two weeks later that she noticed the unusually long voicemail saved on my phone. “When I finally listened, I realized I’d been sitting on one of the funniest messages I’d ever heard without even knowing it,” she said.
And the next time Hailey went into her dermatology office, she brought it up to Cat, and the two laughed about it all over again. “I told her I’d already shown my friends and family because it was too good to keep to myself.”
We also attempted to get in contact with Cat to tell her how legendary we think her voicemail is, but we were unable to. So, Cat, we just want to say thank you for providing us with some much-needed humor.
Lastly, Hailey admitted that she, herself, does not know the phonetic alphabet. “I always thought the phonetic alphabet was reserved for military people or the poor souls trying to pronounce last names correctly over an airport intercom.” So, below is the phonetic alphabet again for reference…
…However, we still think it is funny to just keep making up your own words.