Close-up of Barry B. Benson from Bee Movie with blue eyes and antennae

Bee Movie

2007viral videoclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Bee Movie is a 2007 Dreamworks animated comedy starring Jerry Seinfeld that turned into a massive ironic meme on Tumblr, Reddit, and YouTube starting around 2016. The film's absurd premise about a talking bee suing humans fueled script recitations, shitposts, and viral remix videos like 'every time they say bee it gets faster.'

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Overview

Bee Movie is a 2007 Dreamworks animated film starring Jerry Seinfeld that turned into one of the internet's favorite ironic obsessions roughly a decade after its theatrical run 1. The meme covers everything from Tumblr posts marveling at the film's existence to YouTube remix videos that speed up, slow down, or otherwise mangle the entire 91 minute movie 1. Fans quote the opening monologue about aviation and bee wings from memory, and the full script gets shared as a running gag on Reddit and Tumblr 2.

The ironic Bee Movie fandom leans on the film's genuinely bizarre premise: a talking bee named Barry B. Benson sues the human race for stealing honey and eventually falls for a human florist voiced by Renée Zellweger 3. The mismatch between an earnest Dreamworks production and its unhinged plot is what fuels the joke 1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr / Reddit (viral spread), YouTube (remix wave)
Date
2007

Bee Movie hit theaters on November 2nd, 2007, produced by Dreamworks Animation with Jerry Seinfeld as co writer, producer, and voice of protagonist Barry B. Benson 4. Renée Zellweger voiced love interest Vanessa Bloome, and the writing team included Seinfeld alongside Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, Andy Robin, Chuck Martin, and Tom Papa 4. Critical reception at release was tepid: Rotten Tomatoes summarized the film as having 'humorous moments' but 'tame delivery' that made it 'mostly forgettable' 5.

How It Spread

A page for Bee Movie went up on TV Tropes in May 2012 6, and Redditor bottledbeaches created the /r/beemovie subreddit on March 16th, 2013 2. The ironic fandom picked up steam on July 22nd, 2016, when BuzzFeed published 'For Everyone Who Still Can't Believe Bee Movie is Real,' compiling Tumblr posts about the film 1. A week later, on July 29th, Jerry Seinfeld tweeted asking if anyone wanted a Bee Movie sequel, drawing more than 47,000 likes and 24,200 retweets within four months 7.

That tweet hit the front page of /r/movies the next day, with users mocking the idea of a Bee Movie 2 8. In August 2016, the humor site Dorkly published '12 Most WTF Tumblr Posts About Bee Movie,' and by that November a wave of YouTube remixes broke through 3.

YouTuber Avoid at All Costs uploaded 'The Entire Bee Movie but Every Time They Say Bee it Gets Faster' on November 17th, 2016, pulling over 11 million views and 33,000 comments in two weeks before the video was later removed 3. On November 10th, user Boredmations2 had posted a clip of Barry asking 'Ya Like Jazz?', which kicked off its own subgenre of remixes 9. James Nielssen's 'Barry Benson saying ya like jazz? 1,073,741,824 times,' posted December 18th, 2016, has topped 2.4 million views 9.

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How to Use This Meme

Bee Movie memes typically start with quoting Barry's opening monologue from memory ('According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly...') or reposting the film's entire script as a joke on Reddit and Tumblr 2. Remix formats often include speed shifted edits of the full movie and 'Ya Like Jazz?' word replacement videos on YouTube 9.

Frequently Asked Questions