Think Bee: The Cross Pollination of the Bee Movie into the American Conscious

I’m sure most of you are painfully aware of Bee Movie and its rise into meme stardom since its release in theaters. If you are unfamiliar with the film, I congratulate you on being able to live a wonderful life of blissful ignorance. Unfortunately, I’m here to destroy the lie you’ve been living. Bee Movie is an animated movie written by Jerry Seinfeld, starring himself as a bee who falls in love with a human woman and sues the entire human race.

In short: yikes.

It is a rather popular meme with a large ironic fandom. A sub-meme of the main meme (the movie itself) is copying the entire script and sending it to friends and enemies alike, for no reason whatsoever other than making them scroll through it in its entirety. I’ve been thinking a lot lately: What exactly is the big deal behind this meme? How did it skyrocket into meme fame? I decided that the only way to properly analyze this movie and said fame was to invite over a bunch of friends, get wasted, and watch the movie in order to critically analyze it.

Let me take you on a  journey.*

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

10:00-11:30 PM:

My friends arrive at my dorm, giddy and ready to embark on this adventure together. They have brought drinks and cups. One of my friends brought an actual pewter goblet to drink out of. Nerd. An hour and a half of pre-buzzing (hah) shenanigans ensue. Two people have already made out despite the fact that we will be conducting a serious film analysis. Another drunk friend proceeds to too-enthusiastically recount a tale of the time Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde did the horizontal tango.

I ask a few of them how they’re feeling about the night and what’s to come. 

Buzzed Beeauty: I am inebriated on bees!

Bill the Bee: I want to beelieve.

Bee-Flat: I’m gonna describe it as promising.

The night is off to a great start.

12:15 or something AM:

It was around this time that finally everybody settled down on my floor to watch the movie. Within minutes of the film starting, the audience began to raise a few good points.

Buzz Your Enthusiasm: ONE: JERRY SEINFELD IS… well, doesn’t have that much hair. TWO: He doesn’t have enormous blue eyes. THREE: He is not a bee. Also, am I supposed to be, like, attracted to Seinfeld in bee form? Okay that’s enough, goodnight.

Beemoji: It’s an allegory for corporate America.

From 12:15 to 1:30 ish AM:

It took awhile to get into the movie, but there was a definite moment of solidarity when we had to witness Barry the Bee (Seinfeld) sharpen his ASS with an automatic pencil sharpener. 

Sparknotes plot summary: Barry leaves the hive because he wants to pursue the American Dream or something, falls in love with Vanessa the human (Renee Zellweger, really?). He sues humans for taking honey from bees, wins the case, takes back all the honey from the humans and kills Winnie the Pooh, then realizes that humans and bees can live together in harmony. So he undergoes some character development, returns the honey, saves the day, and, we assume, fucks Vanessa.

Also, isn’t honey just bee fecal matter?

After the film, I interviewed my friends for their general opinion on the movie:

Bee Genghis Khan: Beeees?

Bill the Bee: I don’t know if I can sleep tonight.

BeeSexual: Invigorating.

King Beer: Why don’t I die?

Bee-elle: Sickening.

Bee Flat: Beeautiful.

I then probed them for their thoughts on the film’s rise into meme stardom. 

Bee Genghis Khan: Fucking ridiculous.

BeeSexual: Completely understandable. It has all the qualities of a good meme.

King Beer: It is trash.

Bill the Bee: There’s a reason that people dislike memes.

My last question for the participants was who their favorite character was in the film.

BeeSexual: Ken [Vanessa’s ex-HUMAN boyf] is the least problematic character in this movie.

King Beer : The tennis ball the one bee got stuck to in the beginning of the movie.

Bill the Bee: I feel a lot of sympathy for Sting [like, the Sting, who played a material witness in the Barry v Humans trial] because he’s so fucking done with the entire ordeal.

Beemoji: I AM SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO BEES!

Thus, our adventure was over. It was a strange and disturbing journey. So many questions are left unanswered: Why was this movie made? Was Jerry Seinfeld stoned when he came up with this idea? Why are Hollywood executives (and Americans for that matter) totally okay with having a bee/human relationship but still recoil at the word ‘bisexual’? None of these questions may ever be answered, but I think everyone who partook in the experience that night learned a little more about themselves and a little more about the world.

*Real names are omitted and codenames are provided in order to ensure anonymity

**Most transcriptions are verbatim and if they don’t make sense, this is because the speaker was extremely inebriated. Some have been edited for clarity.

Images via, via, via, and via.

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