Guest Writer: Lane Webb
I have seen the rise and fall of many fads throughout the years. These fads range from being both good and bad, however, the worst of these fads is the rise in popularity of Minions.
Minions have risen from the deepest chasm in Hell to plague humanity. The origin for this evil idolatry stems from the movie “Despicable Me.”
The lighthearted comedic relief that the Minions presented quickly became the true love for many because of their simplistic design, humorous reactions to circumstances and their universal applicability for life situations.
The design choice for the Minions is very simple. They are designed with very few distinctions for several reasons.
Illumination, the company responsible for the “Despicable Me” trilogy, was tasked with making a high-income movie on a low budget. This resulted in very simplistic and cartoony design for each character with the exception of the core cast.
As a result, the overwhelming number of henchmen that accompany the main character, Gru, all have the same bland design. This accommodates for the large number of characters in the same scene due to laziness.
Along with making up for the lack of effort put into the movie, their design also allows them to react any way the directors feel to any circumstance.
Their inherent lack of design allows them to maximize their humor in any circumstance because of the versatility each Minion can fill.
They can sing Copacabana in one scene and follow up with stealing a shrink ray in order to steal the moon in the next.
The Minions are able to fill the role for any circumstance that might be presented, not directly as a dues ex machina, but very closely.
The instances in which the Minions serve the role of reactors are very jarring to the flow of the movie much like their humor. The two mechanics that they fill can work in tandem.
An example of this is when the producers seemingly run out of jokes to make, so they have a Minion make an obscene gesture or sound that tickles the fancy of 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds alike.
This leads into the worst part of the Minion fad: the applicability for the fans.
Many of you have witnessed your grandma post a picture saying something like “My favorite food is an onion, but you’ll still love me” accompanied by a picture of a Minion. This is the root of the problem.
At least in the movies, the Minions’ untasteful design and humor can serve a purpose; but in the context of real-world situations, they are shallow attempts at mainstream humor through the medium of memes.
According to KnowYourMeme.com, a catalogue that documents various memes and their iterations, the Minion meme has fallen to a pleasant low that shows promise that the Minion fad is dying.
This is positive news for your social media feed, but bad news for your grandmothers who were looking for that perfect picture to capture their antisocial behavior and subconscious sociopathic tendencies through the filter of a cycloptic yellow tube that evokes laughter by rage-yelling at anything.
Like I said, I have seen the rise and falls of fads, yet the Minion craze has by far been the worst to grace the face of this space known as Earth.
The only good thing about Minions is to know that I’ve seen the worst of the worst. The next fads will most certainly never reach the low of what this colossal mistake could be. I’m beyond ready for a world without Minions.
Lane is a senior English major from Pendleton, Indiana.