"Hello, nurse!" was a popular catcall used during the heyday of vaudeville. One of many running gags used in many vaudeville shows was the appearances of a voluptuous, suggestively-dressed person wearing a nurse's uniform. Upon her appearance, the main characters in the vaudeville sketch would call out, "Hello, NURSE!" This phrase is also the basis for the "catcall" whistling sound used in the United States and other countries to suggest that a pretty girl has entered the room.

Hello Nurse was a character from the cartoon show Animaniacs. Hello Nurse was the sexy assistant to Dr. Otto Scratchnsniff. Whenever she appeared in a scene, Yakko and Wakko would scream at her beauty in a Tex Avery-like manner "Hello-o-o-o-o, NURSE!" in the same manner as the original vaudeville routine. The idea of Hello Nurse was to be the sexy assistant to Dr. Otto Scratchnsniff, often leading to the Yakko and Wakko having lustful thoughts about her, followed by Dot's explanation "Boys, go fig!" Hello Nurse herself was often seen as the love interest in the show, possibly explaining why fellow character,Minerva Mink, was so under-used (Simply as they both were to be the sexual icons of the show).

The phrase "Hello-o-o-o-o, NURSE!" was used in Animaniacs to represent any attractive, sexy character. It was also popular among the show's fans (and animation fans in general) to be used in a similar way, so that when a person familiar with the phrase saw an attractive person, he or she would exclaim (or say to himself or herself), "Hello nurse!"