--- title: Minions Memes: How the Cult of Despicable Me Characters Took Over description: The little yellow creatures are getting a movie of their own canonical: https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-09T17:13:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:06:02.923Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Minions Memes: How the Cult of Despicable Me Characters Took Over og:description: The little yellow creatures are getting a movie of their own og:url: https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb87a2b8e71c201a9/698858efa988cacfcb6b3422/150629_em_deals_minions.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 150629_EM_Deals_Minions og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Minions Memes: How the Cult of Despicable Me Characters Took Over twitter:description: The little yellow creatures are getting a movie of their own twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb87a2b8e71c201a9/698858efa988cacfcb6b3422/150629_em_deals_minions.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How Minions Took Over the World > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Can 'Minions' Keep The 'Despicable Me' Streak Alive? Maybe. [Watch (HLS stream): Can 'Minions' Keep The 'Despicable Me' Streak Alive? Maybe.](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/T3z4ebyW.m3u8) (1:14)  _Published 2015-07-10. The third movie in the "Despicable Me" series is hitting theaters this weekend but can the "Minions" score a hit all their own?_  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jul 9, 2015 5:13 PM UTC  Minions MinionsUniversal  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jul 9, 2015 5:13 PM UTC The two animated _Despicable Me_ films are most famous for two things: the song “Happy,” written for 2013’s _Despicable Me 2_, and the minions. For the uninitiated, the minions are a band of subverbal blobbish yellow creatures who exist to serve the film’s antihero; intended as a bit of spice, they’ve become, for their devoted fans, the main course. Because—in case you haven’t noticed—minions are _everywhere_. Friday brings the release of _Minions_, a feature film about characters who’d heretofore been a cute comic counterpoint. The film dispenses with the machinations of a villain played by Steve Carell in the _Despicable Me_ films, bringing in Sandra Bullock to voice a new character but focusing more closely on characters who were barely characters at all. It’s as though the Bond films spun off an installment just about the adventures of Q, or _Star Wars_ produced a movie just about Boba Fett. (Wait: [That one’s happening](http://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-2nd-anthology-film-will-be-boba-fetts-origin-story/).) But that’s no surprise at this point: The _Minions_ film represents the film industry’s eagerness to respond to what is popular by making more of that thing. The minions are the most-widely-liked aspect of a film franchise that was meant to be about a charismatic villain character; no one is Photoshopping pictures or getting tattoos of Carell’s _Despicable Me_ character Gru. It’s likely that not many above the age of 11 recall his name! And yet the minions are wildly popular online, particularly on Facebook. The little yellow things illustrate memes (photos with text overlaying) depicting [friendship](http://quotesnhumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Funny-Minions-Memes-Minions.jpg), [boredom](http://quotesnhumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Top-30-Best-Funny-Minions-Quotes-and-Memes.jpg), and [love of chocolate](http://grabhouse.com/urbancocktail/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/memepile.jpg), among many other component parts of the human experience. They’re able to do this because no one knows, exactly, what minions stand for, and yet they’re sort of cute and all exaggerated facial features, so one can project anything onto them. As [Brian Feldman points out](http://www.theawl.com/2015/06/screaming-cornpops-who-are-tearing-apart-society) on The Awl: “Minions are basically emoji. They’re yellow, they run the emotional spectrum, they function as a malleable shorthand for almost indescribable feelings.” Now they’re anchoring a feature film in wide-release, despite having no identifiable character traits other than fecklessness and, again, no recognizable language. It’s hardly news that major studios are largely in the business of brand extension: [The top-grossing film of the year so far](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2015), _Jurassic World_, takes the formula from a 1993 dinosaur movie and just makes the dinosaurs bigger and the conversations about science less sophisticated, while the second-highest-grossing one, _Avengers: Age of Ultron_, is only a component part of a release plan that [currently extends to 2019](http://www.businessinsider.com/marvel-film-schedule-through-2018-2014-10). Sequels are no longer quite enough when there’s money to be made, as the Marvel films and the announced _Star Wars_ spinoffs in particular prove. A spinoff, examining even the thinnest aspect of a “cinematic universe,” can help keep coffers full in the years between installments, as, for instance, _Ant-Man_ is set to do this summer. That film examines other aspects of the Marvel world without dragging the whole Avengers team into the fray. But a superhero played by Paul Rudd is one thing. Characters famous and beloved for their blankness are quite another. There’s recent precedent for spinoff movies dying on the vine; an attempt to extend the _Madagascar_ franchise with _The Penguins of Madagascar_ last year went that way. But if it turns out the minions can’t anchor a movie, it will matter little: _Despicable Me 3_ is slated for release in 2017. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/"},"headline":"This Is How Minions Took Over the World","datePublished":"2015-07-09T17:13:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:06:02.923Z","description":"The little yellow creatures are getting a movie of their own","url":"https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb87a2b8e71c201a9/698858efa988cacfcb6b3422/150629_em_deals_minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb87a2b8e71c201a9/698858efa988cacfcb6b3422/150629_em_deals_minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"150629_EM_Deals_Minions","caption":"150629_EM_Deals_Minions","creditText":"Universal","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3951167/minions-memes-cult/","name":"This Is How Minions Took Over the World"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Can 'Minions' Keep The 'Despicable Me' Streak Alive? 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