What's in a Can of Del Monte Green Beans?

Submission 6,584

About

What's In a Can of Del Monte Green Beans? is a quote from a Del Monte Green Beans advertisement, where the narrator asks the question before opening a can of green beans. On YouTube, users have humorously edited the ad to replace what's in the can of green beans.

Origin

The original Del Monte Green Beans ad (shown below) was uploaded to YouTube on November 6th, 2013. It received over 11,000 views by July 2018.^[1]

On October 7th 2017, YouTuber ⌠VorTep⌡ uploaded a clip of the ad, with the inside of the can being replaced with a greenscreen^[2] (shown below, left). It received over 3,000 views and 100 likes in under a year. On February 4th, 2018, YouTuber Imhotep uploaded the first known parody edit of the clip (shown below, right), in which the inside of the can was replaced with a Vsauce clip.^[3] The video got over 600 views and 20 likes in about 5 months. Imhotep credited Twitter user @SpingebillGuy for the original greenscreen, although it does not seem to have been posted there.

Spread

The meme format was used by several other YouTubers, though the early edits did not gain popularuty (examples shown below).

The first video in this format to gain significant views was a video by YouTuber kmlkmljkl, which was uploaded on March 26th, 2018 in which the inside of the the can was replaced with the bean from the You Just Got Beaned! image.^[4] The video (shown below, left) received over 20,000 views and 1,500 likes in under four months. The next day, YouTuber Sumeme uploaded another meme using the template in which a bird appears in the can and scares someone.^[6] The video (shown below, right) received nearly 3,000,000 views and 23,000 likes within four months.

On March 29th, kmlkmljkl released another Del Monte meme with the inside of the can replaced with a woman dancing. This video (shown below, left) received over 17,000 views and 600 likes within four months. On July 16th, 2018, YouTuber AutisticYui uploaded a meme with the template that replaced the inside of the can with the Metal Alien and the Polar Bear Gif] The video (shown below, right) received over 4,000 views and 600 likes within one day.