About

Killer Bean refers to a series of computer-animated web shorts and a feature film following the story of an anthropomorphic assassin coffee bean Killer Bean. After the release of the 2009 film Killer Bean Forever, the series gained a cult following and have been referenced in memes online, with the interest towards the films increasing significantly following a June 2019 review by YouTuber penguinz0.

History

In 1996, engineering graduate Jeff Lew created a three-minute short film "The Killer Bean: The Interrogation" for the purpose of teaching himself computer animation (shown below, left).^[1][2] On August 8th, 2000, second seven-minute short _The Killer Bean 2: The Party" was released (shown below, right).^[3] The video accumulated over 1 million views.^[4]

On January 1st, 2009, Jeff Lew released Killer Bean Forever, an 85-minute feature film taking place in a world of anthropomorphic coffee beans and following the story of a hired assassin named Jack Bean, working under alias Killer Bean.^[4] The film was animated entirely by Jeff Lew over the course of approximately five years.^[1] On May 19th, 2018, the official Killer Bean Animation YouTube channel uploaded a 4K-resolution version of the film, with the movie accumulating over 3.7 million views in one year.^[5]

The Return of Killer Bean and the Killer Bean Series

On March 3rd, 2020, Jeff Lew tweeted^[17] that he had been working on the new Killer Bean series. On March 5th, he announced^[18] that a ten-episode Killer Bean series would be released on YouTube in 2020. On May 2nd, Jeff Lew launched a Pateron^[19] account to support the production.

On May 10th, 2020, Jeff Lew uploaded The Return of KIller Bean, a five-minute standalone short in which Killer Bean retrieves his car from a group of armed thugs.^[20] The short received nearly one million views on YouTube in five days (shown below).

Killer Bean Video Game

On August 19th, 2023, Killer Bean Studios released a trailer for a Killer Bean video game, "coming soon" on Steam. The trailer received a significant amount of hype, as several Twitter users opined that it looked like it could be one of the best action video game titles ever.

The game was showcased at the 2024 Summer Game Fest, finding positive response online. The game is expected to release in Summer 2024.

Reception

The film gained mixed reviews from viewers, maintaining a 6.3 rating on IMDb as of June 13th, 2019.^[1] Critic reviews of the film varied with both strongly negative^[6][7] and strongly positive reviews submitted,^[8][9] with multiple reviews pointing out a "so bad it's good" vibe to the film.

…What the fuck did I just watch? It was like watching a feature-length “crazy frog” commercial that doubled as mindless gun porn. Why… why would anybody make this?
- Films In Boxes, December 10, 2011

So that was my thoughts on Killer Bean Forever. Is it bad? Yes. But is it not worth watching? Not exactly. Since it is an action film, the action should be the primary subject, and the action scenes are very good. It could have been a lot better, but I respect what it gave us. So I’ll give this film a 3/10.
- The Animation Files, October 6, 2013

No description of this masterpiece’s plot will ever give it the credit it deserves, so I highly recommend you watch this fantastic dumpster fire yourself. Even though the movie is an absolute dumpster fire, I still highly recommend it as a “it’s-so-bad-it’s-good” flick.
- RMU Sentry Media, January 31, 2019

Fandom and Meme Presence

Online, the film gained a cult following similar to that of the 2003 film The Room. The film started gaining notable presence in memes with May 22nd, 2017 montage parody video MLG Killer Bean by YouTuber Bucket which gained over 268,000 views in two years (shown below, top left).^[10] On February 22nd, 2018, YouTuber Fluffe posted a You So Fucking Precious When You Smile edit based on scenes from the film which gained over 200,000 views in 16 months (shown below, top right).^[11] On the following day, YouTuber MaximilianMus posted a dubbed scene from the film, gaining over 262,000 views in the same period (shown below, bottom left).^[12] On December 16th, 2018, Instagram user bepiz.man posted an I'm Gonna Say the N-Word edit which gained over 740,000 views in seven months (shown below, bottom right).^[13]

On June 4th, 2019, YouTuber penguinz0 posted a video titled Killer Bean Is An Animated Masterpiece which gained over 1.5 million views in one week.^[14] In the following days, multiple memes based on scenes from the film were posted on Reddit and other platforms. For example, on June 6th, 2019, Redditor Vanimal58 made a post in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit which gained over 16,800 upvotes in one week.^[15] On June 12th, Redditor Borfotron posted a Boys Locker Room meme based on the film to /r/dankmemes subreddit, gaining over 34,000 upvotes in ten hours (shown below).^[16]

Search Interest

External References