A deep dive into the yellow menace.
It’s been a question on the minds of Millennials and Zoomers alike for years, but why do Boomers love Minions so damn much? If you’re under 40 and have spent any time on Facebook you’re bound to run into some classic Minion memes from relatives and other folks. By now they’re so ingrained into the Internet, that we almost expect to see these little yellow tic-tac-looking fiends on our feeds.
Since 2013 or so, they’ve clogged up and saturated the web with their smug, doughy little faces and even more smug, sarcastic captions; just staring at you with those beady half-opened eyes and smarmy, weed-like hair.
Some have embraced the Minions ironically, while others have developed a great hatred for them. Heck, there’s even a change.org petition floating around titled, Minion memes should no longer be counted as memes.
But regardless of opinion on Minions, they don’t seem to be leaving any time soon. For as long as there are Boomers, there will be Minion memes, which leads us to the prime question of why?
It’s not exactly a thesis but Brian Feldman of the now-defunct website The Awl, had a philosophical take on the phenomenon.
“Minions are not tied to any central emotion”, he says. “They occupy an odd middle ground as a specific piece of intellectual property unbound from a specific feeling or worldview.”
“Minions are sarcastic, honest, smarmy, snarky, playful, mean, and downright sour depending on the need.”
“If we view Minions as a template onto which we project ourselves,” says Feldman, “then sharing a picture of something Minionized is not only saying ‘I like this’, it’s like saying ‘This is an extension of who I am’”.
“An extension of who I am.”
That last quote certainly stuck. In essence, Minions can simply just be whatever we want them to be. For certain Boomers, they probably serve as a reflection or proxy of their judgements towards themselves, younger generations, or maybe even society itself.
Maybe Minions just have the voice and charisma to say the unsaid things certain people wish they could. Or maybe they are literally just cartoon characters that older folks find adorable. It also helps that Minions resemble yellow emojis, another Internet fixture that Boomers are fond of too.
It’s very strange as to why people over 50 have resonated so dearly with a kids cartoon from 2013, but I digress. The same question could be applied to why any of us are even here on this rock rotating the sun to begin with. Love ’em or hate ’em, if the Internet is boundless and infinite then these yellow dudes will be here long after we’re all gone. In the meantime, enjoy some more unlicensed Minion content.
Banana.
