Do You Ever Look at Someone and Wonder, "What Is Going On Inside Their Head?"

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Part of a series on Inside Out. [View Related Entries]

About

Do You Ever Look at Someone and Wonder, "What Is Going On Inside Their Head?" or simply Inside Their Head refers to a dialogue line from the trailer for the 2015 animated film Inside Out. Originally used on YouTube and Vine as a setup for videos in which animals, fictional characters or people exhibiting zany behavior, in late 2018, the catchphrase regained popularity in memes on TikTok after being combined with a sped-up version of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.

Origin

Line

On December 11th, 2014, the first trailer for the 2015 animated film Inside Out premiered.^[1] In the trailer, the character Joy, voiced by Amy Poehler, says, "Do you ever look at someone and wonder: what is going on inside their head?"

Song

On December 12th, 2016, YouTube^[2] user WormBurn posted a video titled "Bears Dance to Sweet Dreams" in which they combined an animation created by 3D artist PunchesBears and a sped-up version of the 1983 song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics (shown below, left). The video accumulated over 4.8 million views in four years, with a remastered version (shown below, right), uploaded^[3] by WormBurn on December 16th, 2016, and later copyrighted, gaining over 5.8 million views in four years.

Use in Memes

On October 25th, 2015, YouTube^[4] content creator kmlkmljkl uploaded the first known meme that used the clip from the trailer as a setup. The video, a Gabe the Dog meme, received over 756,000 views in six years (shown below).

Spread

Starting in late October 2015, the clip from the trailer gained notable popularity as a setup for jokes on YouTube and Vine. For example, on October 27th, 2015, YouTube^[5] user Dyuba posted a Spider-Man Ass Slap meme that gained over 64,000 views in six years (shown below, left). On September 9th, 2016, content creator Dolan Dark uploaded^[6] a meme that gained over 810,000 views in five years (shown below, center). On October 13th, 2018, YouTube^[7] user Meme Republic posted a compilation of Vines that used the meme which received over 300,000 views in three years (shown below, right).

The first video that combined the line with the sped-up version of "Sweet Dreams" is unknown, but is estimated to have been posted in October 2018 on TikTok. The earliest found memes that use the remix are October 21st, 2018, TikTok^[8] by user minus.like and an October 26th, 2018, YouTube^[9] video by TheFlaxCompany (shown below, left and right).

In the following years, the remix gained significant popularity on TikTok, with a person, animal (particularly cats) or character in their normal state shown while the line is being said and a montage of the same person, animal or character behaving in a zany way shown during the music (compilation videos shown below, left and right).

As of May 17th, 2021, over 3 million views using the remix had been posted on TikTok.^[10]