Not the Bees!

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Part of a series on The Wicker Man. [View Related Entries]

About

Not the Bees! is a memorable quote screamed by character Edward Malus, portrayed by Nicolas Cage, in the 2006 horror film The Wicker Man during an infamous bee torture scene. In late 2000s, the torture scene and the quote became source material for remixes and YouTube poops alongside other scenes from the film due to their unintentionally comedic nature.

Origin

On September 1st, 2006, horror film The Wicker Man, a remake of the a 1973 film of the same name, premiered in the United States.^[1] During one of the final scenes in the unrated DVD version of the film,^[2] protagonist, Edward Malus, portrayed by Nicolas Cage, is being tortured as a wire mesh helmet is put onto his head and live bees are poured inside (scene shown below).

What is it? What is it? What is that, what is that, what is it? Oh no, not the bees! Not the bees! Aaaaah! My eyes! My eyes! Aaaaah!

Spread

Due to the unintentionally humorous nature of the scene, starting in early 2007 it gained popularity as source material for memes and remixes alongside several other scenes from The Wicker Man such as How'd It Get Burned?.

On January 7th, 2007, YTMND user googooboodoo created a page featuring a GIF of Cage screaming accompanied by the dialogue,^[3] with the page reaching 19,000 views in 14 years and maintaining a 4.20 user score. On January 23rd, 2007, YTMND^[4] user ZxCG2 created a similar page that gained over 11,000 views.

On May 22nd, 2008, YouTube^[5] user CastingOutTheSelf posted a This Is Sparta remix of the scene which gained over 137,100 views prior to being unlisted (shown below, left). On February 14th, 2009, YouTube^[6] user CyberPunkStefan posted a techno remix of the scene that gained over 676,000 views in twelve years (shown below, right).

[This video has been removed]

The meme maintained its popularity late into the 2000s, with separate viral instances created in 2010s. On February 8th, 2010, video game website IGN^[7] uploaded a Bioshock meme that gained over 460,000 views in eleven years. On October 1st, 2017, YouTube^[8] user RazQ posted a video "Run Run NotTheBees" which combined multiple scenes from films starting Nicolas Cage and gained over 516,000 views in four years.