Some people love the goofy yellow sidekicks from Despicable Me a little too much.
hey’re everywhere. Your mom is probably posting memes of them. Your gran is probably forwarding them to you in emails. Grandpa thinks your generation is weird because everyone seems so obsessed with these little yellow balls of weirdness. He fought for his country in Vietnam, but these things are making him regret it just a little bit.
They were made for kids, but the ones you see online take on very adult topics. Not the kind of adult topics that are any fun. No, minion-love skipped a generation, and went straight for a middle-aged audience that likes to complain about being grumpy before their morning coffee, or about how having kids makes you crazy, or how this country needs less Obama, or something.
It’s easy to see why this is the case. Kids, apparently, like these things. Since older adults with children or grandchildren are forced to watch the Despicable Me or Minions movies twelve times in a day (people with small children will understand this plight), they may as well have some fun themselves. It’s a phenomenon we’ll call minion-washing, and it’s provoking widespread backlash on social media.
One subreddit called /r/minionhate concentrates all of that rage into a single, glorious cross between /r/cringepics and /r/forwardsfromgrandma. Unlike /r/cringepics, however, this is a hate group we can all get behind (our lovely later-in-life, grandma-forwarding readers notwithstanding). If you want to know why people hate minions so much, this is a good place to start. In fact, let’s take a look at some of the best (read:worst) minion-memes the subreddit has to offer.
Here we go. This will not be pretty.
“Would you believe me if I said someone shared this non-ironically?”
“You gotta be f—king kidding me.”
“You can almost feel the parent’s disappointment.”
“Fed-up Minion gives us a lesson in COMMON COURTESY!”
Why do YOU hate minions?
I asked users of the /r/minionhate subreddit why they personally despise minions so much. “As far as fb memes go, they help fill a niche that I’ve always hated” says /u/dih-no-saourzzz, “‘sassy’ or ‘edgy’ or ‘quirky’ quotes with silly cartoon character inserted. In the past it was sassy tinkerbell! or grumpy tweety bird! etc. but now it’s these stupid unfunny yellow f-cks.”
One helpful redditor did direct me to this enlightening video:
The subreddit’s official description also lays it out plainly:
“Minions™ are a marketing ploy first introduced in 2010. They are now the Facebook mascots of seventh graders, way2random girls, grandmothers and generally obnoxious people.
Universal Pictures™ is the studio that created the Minions™. Comcast™ owns Universal Pictures™ and they are now the owners of the rights to Minions™. In summation: Comcast™ is responsible for the existence of Minions™ and uses them to over saturate the market in a scheme I’m calling ‘hyper-merchandising’. This ensures that they’re turning a profit from the sale of a vast range of miscellaneous products being sold today. Minions™ are no longer just used for advertising related to Despicable Me™ and Minions™ and can even be found in ads for things like snack cakes, misc junk food, fruit, candy, broadband internet, video gamesetc etc.Comcast™ makes money from the sale of all of these items and more. This money is then used to systematically shit all over the rights of the general public.” -/r/minionhate
What do you think? Are minions really an evil corporate conspiracy (yes) or are they just harmless fun (no)? If you love minions, share your reasons why with us (please don’t). You won’t be judged (you will be).
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