The INSIDER Summary:
- The Minions from "Despicable Me" are a widely used internet meme.
- The voice actors from the movies just discovered them.
- They seem very confused and horrified by the internet phenomenon.
Minions are one of the strangest internet memes. And the stars of "Despicable Me" — the movies that Minions come from — are absolutely puzzled by them.
Until recently, the "Despicable Me 3" stars — Steve Carrell, Kristen Wiig, and Miranda Cosgrove — didn't know that Minion memes existed. Screen Junkies interviewed them had had them react.
"Wait, this is real?!" Wiig asked. "That is very strange."
Minions originate from the "Despicable Me" and "Minions" movies, as short yellow henchmen who wear overalls and goggles, sometimes have only one eye, and speak in gibberish. In the films, they generally work for Gru, the supervillain voiced by Steve Carrell who's at the center of the franchise. And according to the "Minions" movie, they have existed since the beginning of life on Earth.
As a meme, they don't seem to have any sort of distinct identity, and have been used as sort of emojis of graphic tees, absorbing whatever emotion or meaning the meme creator thrusts upon them. Minion memes have been used to oppose vaccination for children, express poorly conceived puns, and remind people not to take the lord's name in vain. The meme is so despised that the subreddit r/MinionHate has nearly 35,000 subscribers.
"What's going on?" Carrell asked.
Watch their reactions below:
One of the memes Screen Junkies showed them was of "Minion Mike," where the Minions are portrayed as buff stripper characters from "Magic Mike."
"The one on the right is really doing it," Wiig said.
"I've never seen them like that," Cosgrove said.
