Ever wonder why something becomes a huge meme or has such a huge, random following? Today, cult followings for film stretch beyond just watching it, because memes and YouTube poops are saturating the Internet. "Shrek" and "Bee Movie" are two films in particular that saturate the Internet with memes and YouTube poops, but why? Why are these films/memes, "Shrek" in particular, so popular on the Internet? Sure these movies are good and well-known, but that is too easy of an answer. Also, although these memes are satirical, there is a much easier explanation for why these memes are all over the place and very satirical.
The answer lies in the marketing/advertising. "Shrek" and all of its sequels were shoved in everyone's faces when it was being advertised. There were copious amounts of ads, trailers, and products. When "Shrek the Third" came out, Shrek was on almost every known product. The franchise appeared on Cheezits, Nestle, Gogurt, cereal, Kraft mac and cheese, Cheetos, fruit roll ups, gushers, toothpaste, popcorn packs, perfume, twinkies, and so many more products. You couldn't run away from Shrek!
With all of this advertising and product advertisements, people had no choice but to have Shrek enter their life one way or another. A lot of people found this annoying for obvious reasons, but a lot of people found this funny because the creators of Shrek had the impression that everyone loved the films whether they actually did or not. So essentially, the reason why these memes are all over the Internet and are still happening is because everyone is making fun of how "Shrek" oversaturated (and still is oversaturating) pop culture. The "Shrek" meme creators are basically trolling people with various "Shrek" memes because that is exactly what the advertisers did to us for so many years. It's satirical marketing at its best. The meme creators not only create a funny joke surrounding a trend by adding "Shrek," but they also get to throw the advertising back in everyone's face.
This is actually quite interesting, and makes a lot of sense. Even though some meme creators don't create "Shrek" memes to acknowledge the advertising, the oversaturation of those ads is most likely what caused them to make the meme in the first place. If "Shrek" tried to enter our lives through ridiculous products and advertising, we're obviously not going to forget that! There is a greater chance to make fun of something that has constantly been in the public eye than something that hasn't. The "Shrek" franchise put itself in this hole. If it hadn't annoyed everyone with "Shrek" advertising, then people wouldn't think to troll the series or immediately remember that franchise through brand recognition to make fun of it.
As for why "Bee Movie" has so many memes, I'm still figuring that out. I guess the absurdity of bees being personified as humans in a human world with a bee and a woman having feelings for each other could be one reason.
