We Need To Go Deeper

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Updated Dec 10, 2024 at 04:32PM EST by LiterallyAustin.

Added Apr 18, 2013 at 05:46AM EDT by Des.

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About

"We Need To Go Deeper" is an expression from the film Inception which is often featured in image macros and vertical multi-panes using screen captures from the movie. The phrase can indicate that further investigation is needed but can also be used to point out examples of recursion, in a similar vein to the Xzibit Yo Dawg image macro series.

Origin

The phrase was first uttered in a scene from the science fiction film Inception in which the character Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) speaks to Robert Fischer (played by Cillian Murphy) about planting a thought inside someone's mind. The film was originally released in theaters on July 8th, 2010. On July 20th, Redditor YoungCleanLegitSon submitted a post to the /r/pics^[5] subreddit, featuring a vertical comic with an Xzibit Yo Dawg image macro followed by a screen capture of Cobb with the caption "We need to go deeper" (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 1,300 up votes and 140 comments.

YO COBB I HEARD YOU LIKE DREAMS SO I PUT A DREAM IN YO DREAM IN YO DREAM SO YOU CAN DREAM WHILE YOU DREAM WHILE YOU DREAM WE NEED TO GO DEEPER INCEPTION

Spread

On July 27th, 2010, the Xzibit comic was featured on the viral content site BuzzFeed^[4] and the Internet news blog Geekosystem.^[2] On November 14th, the phrase was used in a 4chan^[1] thread in response to a post questioning the possibility of the universe being a simulation (shown below).

1 Name: Anonymous 2010-11-14 15:31 There was a guy doing esperiments to find real "pisels Is nature a big experiment? 2 Name: Anonymous 2010-11-14 21:48 If nature is an experiment, is it the control or a variable? 3 Name: Anonymous 2010-11-14 23:26 what, like Planck lengths? we already got quanta Name: Anonymous 2010-11-16 21:37 We are living in a simulation; no, it is not our own. 5 Name: Anonymous 2010-12-27 16:02 We need to go deeper

On January 16th, 2011, FunnyJunk user inq submitted a vertical comic joking that Cobb should "go deeper" to sexually satisfy his girlfriend (shown below, left). Within three years, the post received more than 32,000 views and 980 up votes. On June 2nd, the Internet humor blog Smosh^[3] highlighted several vertical Inception comics, several of which featured jokes using the phrase "we need to go deeper" (shown below, right).

MY GIRLFRIEND DOES NOT HAVE ORGASMS ttnt YOU NEED TO GO DEEPER.

IT'S NOT WORKING. E HAVE TO GO DEEPER. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

On April 22nd, 2012, Redditor OCDTrigger submitted a post titled "We need to do deeper" to the /r/pics^[8] subreddit, featuring a photograph of several laptops on a bed with desktop backgrounds matching each successive computer (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post garnered upwards of 700 up votes and 20 comments.

On September 17th, 2014, the Know Your Meme entry for this page was notably cited as a reference in the scientific study titled "Going Deeper with Convolutions" from Cornell University.^[9]