Friend Inside Me

About

Friend Inside Me is a remix of Randy Newman's song "You've Got a Friend in Me" created by Toby Fox in which the lyrics are rearranged to make Newman repeatedly sing, "Friend inside me." The remix was posted to Fox's Tumblr account in September 2019. In late 2023, the song became the subject of memes, primarily on X / Twitter, in which it is paired with and referenced alongside eerie, black-and-white, creepypasta-like edits of Woody from the Toy Story franchise from which "You've Got a Friend in Me" originates. The black-and-white version of Woody is often referred to as "Friend." These memes became increasingly popularzed in June 2024. Prior to this, in 2023, a theory known as "Woody Theory" that "Friend Inside Me" teases a secret boss in Fox's upcoming video game Deltarune: Chapter 3 began to spread on social media, although these are unconfirmed and highly speculative. The memes regularly reference this theory, although not exclusively.

Origin

On September 17th, 2019, Toby Fox posted a comedic remix of "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman to his Tumblr^[1] page, fwugradiation, in which the lyrics are remixed to have Newman sing, "as they years go by I will never die," writing in the post description, "when you realize that you’re going to outlive Andy himself," garnering over 27,000 notes in five years.

On September 23rd, Fox posted another remix of the song to Tumblr,^[2] this time rearranging the music to sound more eerie and to have Newman sing, "Friend inside me," garnering over 15,000 notes in five years (shown below).

On December 14th, 2021, YouTuber^[3] Varky posted a video consisting of the song alongside an image of Woody from Toy Story that slowly loses its color and zooms in as the song plays, garnering over 525,000 views in three years (shown below).

Spread

"Friend Inside Me" gained viral spread throughout the early 2020s, inspiring remixes and memes, as well as rumors that the song has some connection to Fox's upcoming, highly anticipated game, Deltarune: Chapter 3.

Deltarune: Chapter 3 "Woody Theory"

The main theory was largely spread by YouTuber^[4] SpookyDood on April 5th, 2023, in a video titled "Deltarune Chapter 3 Secret Boss SOLVED | Woody Theory," garnering over 129,000 views in a year (shown below). The video begins with the YouTuber discussing how, according to Fox's Deltarune newsletter, a cowboy section of the game was "in danger of being canceled." The YouTuber purports that he and others in the fandom found the wording of the announcement strange. He admits it could mean nothing, but also theorizes that Toby could be teasing a secret boss battle from Chapter 3.

The theory is based largely on a line from the newsletter that reads, "Well, that's how cowboy shows go." He posits that this is a reference to the "death of the Western," meaning the loss in popularity of Western-themed media. The YouTuber mentions how, in Toy Story 2 lore, the TV show that the Woody doll is based on, Woody's Roundup, was canceled. He suggests Deltarune: Chapter 3's secret boss could be a parody of or reference to Woody, then links this back to the "Friend Inside Me" remix and other remixes of the same song made by Fox, suggesting another remix of "You've Got a Friend in Me" could be used as the boss theme.

"Friend Inside Me" Memes

In late 2023, memes linking the song and the standalone phrase "Friend Inside Me" with images of a distorted, eerie-looking Woody from Toy Story became increasingly popularized on social media, particularly on X. One of the earliest accounts to kickstart the meme is X^[5] user @friendinsideme_ who began exclusively posting memes referring to the track on December 27th, 2023, many of the memes featuring various distorted black-and-white images of Woody (examples shown below).

On February 18th, 2024, YouTuber^[6] VibingLeaf posted a video using similarly creepy images of Woody titled "friend inside me," claiming that the video was found on the Toy Story wiki, garnering over 214,000 views in four months (shown below).

The memes saw a significant boost in popularity throughout June 2024. On June 1st, 2024, X^[7] user @shadowkristal posted a video consisting of a "Friend Inside Me" remix in the style of Deltarune music, using an image of a black-and-white Woody sprite as the cover, garnering over 1,600 likes in 11 days (shown below).

FRIEND INSIDE ME pic.twitter.com/S7TfuhHe78

— shadowkristal (@shadowkristal) June 1, 2024

On June 10th, X^[8] user @TheRealLillbirb posted a series of images imagining the hypothetical boss fight with Woody from Deltarune: Chapter 3, writing, "friend inside me" on the post, garnering over 1,400 likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References