Minion Press

The Minions The Minions — small yellow creatures who dress in blue overalls and goggles — are an entertainment industry powerhouse. After appearing in the 2010 computer-animated comedy Despicable Me as the henchmen of the evil Gru, they were given their own origin-story film Minions in 2015, which eventually grossed $1.59 billion worldwide. In 2016, they officially became the mascot of Universal Studios. Not only are they a Hollywood money machine, but they have also become one of the most omnipresent internet memes. Their likenesses dominate Tumblr, Pinterest, and Facebook newsfeeds alongside mundane, innocuous jokes. Unlike SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse, Pixar characters, and comic book superheroes, the Minions don’t have any distinctive personality traits or narrative and they are completely devoid of the heavy-handed lessons of friendship, love, and family that are essential elements for children's cartoons. They are simply subservient to antiheroes and villains. And...

Minions Are So Popular “Ba-ba-ba, ba-banana...” I played a clip of the Minions covering the Beach Boys hit “Barbara Ann” and instructed my classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds to sing along. When I was teaching at an ESL center in Huế, Vietnam, in the fall of 2015, the administrators encouraged us to start off lessons with English songs as a way to engage the students. A week before the lesson, my students were waving Minions moon lanterns at our school’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration. And so I assumed that the Minions — these yellow, squishy enigmas that were ubiquitous in Vietnam — would be a safe bet to gain their attention and trust. I turned on the projector, pulled down the blinds, and took a seat. “Ba-ba-ba, ba-banana...” Everyone started singing along. Good, I thought. My students were learning the word "banana." Mission accomplished. “Bababaanana potatoooo, tokati, potato, bachata, bababananna, bababanana…” Uh-oh. My students instantly started mimicking...