What Hafen Vella? How a Twilight Parody Took Over the Internet

(SPOT.ph) If you’ve been on Facebook or TikTok lately, chances are you’ve come across someone saying—or captioning a post with—“What hafen Vella?” No, you’re not reading it wrong, and no, there's no typo there either.

The viral phrase comes from an old clip from It’s Showtime during the variety program's “Kalokalike” portion where contestants dress up and act like the celebrities they kind of physically resemble. Back in 2013, Cristopher Diwata, a fish dealer from Orion, Bataan, and a Taylor Lautner lookalike, took on the role of Jacob Black from Twilight—and gave it everything he had.

SPOT.ph got to talk to Diwata and asked him about his It's Showtime experience more than a decade later.

Also read: The Wildest Moments and Quotes From Twilight, Presented Without Context

Where did “what hafen Vella?” come from?

So what hafen? Diwata went viral for delivering the most dramatic monologue in a most impassioned way to an imaginary Bella Swan, lead character in the Twilight series—in front of the It's Showtime hosts, crew and audience:

“What hafen, Vella? Why you crying again? I know… vamfire, rayts? Vamfayr will feyt to me!" He then addressed another imaginary person. "Edward! What are you doing here? I trusted you to protik Vella. But you did not. I will sure you die, Edward! I will sure you die! From now on, she is mine.”  The funniest part is that nowhere in Twilight does Jacob Black ever utter those lines. 

Where did those words come from? He told SPOT.ph he simply followed his instincts: “Sa performance ko po, ginawa ko lang po ‘yung best ko. Mahina man po ako mag-pronounce sa English, hindi na po ako nahiya para 'matic na po gumalaw katawan ko, ayon sa practice na ginawa ko po.” The delivery wasn’t even meant to be funny. “Wala naman po sa plano. Ganun po talaga ako, hehe.” 

Putting another layer to his act, Diwata also did a little striptease for the It's Showtime audience while mouthing his lines. First he removed his leather jacket, then ripped off his tank top until he's completely shirtless. Just when everyone thought it’s over, he broke into the chorus of "A Thousand Years"—“I have died every day waiting for you...”—the theme from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, as images of the real Taylor Lautner flashed behind him on the big screen. If that was not Performance Art, we don't know what is. 

Diwata's "What hafen" audio began circulating on TikTok in late 2024, but it wasn’t until Netflix Philippines shared a meme of it on Facebook on May 2 that it broke into mainstream consciousness. The post has so far racked up over 295,000 reactions and 55,000 shares. 

The famous sardine brand Ligo even released a new ad on social media showing a can of its green variant with two holes and red liquid dripping from them. The copy: "I know...vamfyr ryt?"

Meanwhile, what hafen to Diwata himself? He's been spending the past few days giving in to requests of TikTok followers: to send them a shoutout using his famous quote—but replacing Vella with the name of the netizen who sent the request. Diwata also continues to perform at events—but it's more of a side hustle than anything. 

“May mga offer na event po, dagdag income," he told Spot. "Malaking tulong po.” Offstage, Diwata is happily married with two young children. 

Watch his full performance on It’s Showtime below.

Also read: It's Official: A Twilight TV Show Is in the Works