The Bee Movie But: The Bizarre Meme The Internet Buzzed Over (And Then Forgot)

The 2007 DreamWorks animated feature "Bee Movie" didn't seem like the kind of film destined to leave behind an especially rich legacy. However, nearly a decade after its release, the film would find itself immortalized in internet culture with the birth of a viral sensation. 

While the film  — which tells the story of a bee (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) who grows close to a human florist (voiced by Renée Zellweger) and attempts to halt the exploitation of bee's honey –  had been poked fun at across such platforms as Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit for some time, one 2016 YouTube video changed the game entirely. 

In November of that year, YouTuber Darcy Grivas uploaded a video entitled "Bee movie trailer but every time they say bee it gets faster" to his channel Avoid At All Costs. While believing that it wouldn't see much traction, Grivas was pleasantly surprised to find it spread like wildfire within a short period of time. He went on to create more "The Bee Movie But" videos with similar concepts, showcasing the movie or its trailer altered in increasingly absurd ways, usually after the word "bee" is uttered. Other fans would follow suit and create their own over-the-top "The Bee Movie But" edits in the years to follow.

Since then, Grivas' YouTube channel and his videos have been removed and the trend naturally died down as time went on. But even without Grivas' contributions, others have found their own creative ways of poking fun at "Bee Movie." 

The "Bee Movie But" videos came out during a high point of the film's internet popularity. A Tumblr photo uploaded in February 2016 featuring the user, Madison, wearing a T-shirt that contained the entire "Bee Movie" script, went viral. This was likely inspired by the script being shared on Facebook in 2015. 

While the now-defunct Avoid At All Costs YouTube channel started the "Bee Movie But" trend, it would be far from the last to alter the animated film for comedic purposes. YouTuber James Nielssen realized the film's potential for such outrageous humor, telling Inverse in 2017, "The whole concept, there's nothing like that ... It's funny, satirical, and ironic. Any joke can be made." Nielssen's videos such as "Barry Benson saying 'ya like jazz?' 1,073,741,824 times" and "'Seinfeld' Theme Recreated From Barry Benson Saying 'jazz'" have garnered millions of views. "Seinfeld" theme creator Jonathan Wolff even commented on the latter video, saying, "So honored and happy that folks are still having fun with this theme I created in 1989!" 

And that barely scratches the surface of what the trend birthed. From Ninja Panda's "The Bee Movie Unnecessary Censorship" to Editing is Everything's "Bee Movie But In 7 Different Genres," there was hardly a place left unpollinated by the film's odd stranglehold over the internet at the time. In fact, it'd probably be easier to watch every "Bee Movie" parody out there than to pinpoint just why the film has become such a phenomenon. 

"Bee Movie" is far from the most fondly remembered film out there. While it earned a solid box office gross of $293 million worldwide, the film's middling critical response hasn't improved with age. So what was the spark that granted "Bee Movie" a second life? Is it the off-putting, dated animation? Its ridiculous premise of a bee trying to sue humanity? The awkwardly implied romantic love story? Some feel it's all these aspects combined that make "Bee Movie" a perfect fit for memes.

In 2017, Lizzie Plaugic of The Verge described the "Bee Movie" parodies as technical memes. which see pieces of media be ironically altered to include an easy-to-achieve formula, with the enjoyment coming from the commitment to the concept as opposed to any editing prowess. Many see the same qualities that make "Bee Movie" so mediocre as being beneficial to the film's lasting legacy online. One Reddit user commented on this, saying, "'Bee Movie' is at the same time culturally ubiquitous yet ultimately unremarkable ... So these content creators are taking something ubiquitous and unremarkable, and turning it into something niche and remarkable. somehow speeding up the movie progressively as it goes on makes it more memorable as an experience than the very safe, very cookie cutter talking animal movie." 

Few could have imagined the footprint "Bee Movie" would leave on internet culture. Then again, there are few movies out there quite like "Bee Movie."