If you want to list a list of the most famous online emoticons in the contemporary era, the Minions theme will definitely be listed. Even if you have never watched the movie " Despicable ", you must have used it. This little guy with a simple shape, cute, slutty, lazy and other attributes can be called a white shirt on social networks, almost versatile with the various subtle emotions you want to express. However, most of the time, the Minions' Internet image is relatively relaxed, and it seems that they cannot be caught with serious political demands.
"Minius Series" latest animated film "Minius Big Eyes: Prequel of Despicable Dad" was released in North America a few days ago. It mainly tells the story of the Minions when they first met Gru .
A recent article published in the magazine " Rolling Stone " (rollingstone) has somewhat changed this perception. The article records a view of VOX reporter Rebecca Jennings, who believes that the Minions have every potential to be selected by Western leftists as the totem of the new generation of "labor radicalism". She believes that the Minions' series of films have portrayed them as a group of "clutty idiots" who "desire to serve the master (capitalist) and are so stupid that they are not aware that they are used as pawns". Therefore, the left can fully use the symbolic slogan of "liberation of Minions" to express their own demands.
In fact, Jennings is not the only person who has thought about the political and cultural implications contained in the Minions. Despite its appearance that is too simple, the "magic" of the Minions may not be simple when they conquer people of different ages and aesthetics as soon as they appear. What realities in Western societies does the popularity of minions reflect? At a time when the epidemic has not yet dissipated and expectations of globalization are questioned, what kind of sentiment does the political implication of re-recommendation of the Minions reflect? Reading this issue, Book Reviewer will share with you interesting opinions related to this topic.
projection of the working class or stereotype ?
In the 2010 movie "Despicable", the Minions made their debut as a supporting role. In the setting of this movie, they are capsule-like creatures composed of Gru and Dr. Nifario with two cups of banana puree, variant DNA and fatty acids, specifically helping the boss Gru do all kinds of bad things. With the unexpected popularity, the life experience of the Minions was also completed by series of movies such as " Minions Big Eyes Cute ": they are creatures evolved from single cells billions of years ago. Before Gru, they had served many "big figures" - such as Egyptian pharaohs and Napoleon - who had dealt with dinosaurs and successfully eliminated the vampire Dracula due to mistakes. Interesting settings made these movies become popular quickly. On July 1 this year, the latest work of the series, "Minius Big Eyes: Prequel of Despicable Dad", was also released in North America. The film still tells the story of the Minions serving other masters in the "Pre-Geru" era.
People with minor yellow have some common characteristics that are easy to be identified: technical otakus with cute attributes, likes to make magical laughs, is extremely efficient in work, loves to eat bananas, has strong acting ability, and has the talent to mess things up. Another important point - like to wear blue straps - this style of clothing is considered by many people to be the "cute" of working-class clothing. If we consider that Gru, whom they serve, is a person similar to a contractor, it would be more natural to use to link . A recent article by VOX pointed out that the capitalist culture reflected by the Minions is funny and a bit absurd, but ultimately it seems "not smart enough", and it can only be demonstrated by serving billionaires - under the system of capitalism .
More importantly, the minions represent a kind of "standardization" and "interchangeability". They often appear in groups, and in the twittering noise, the individual's characteristics are also drowning in the group, and "feel passionate and do their best for any of their work." In addition, they "do not bleed or break, do not require medical care, do not tire, and are not even affected by development or age."Whether it is Chaplin's Modern Times or Taylor's reform of the work system, we can all identify similar labor situations.
" Despicable 2" (2013) Stills.
An article in 2018 pointed out a phenomenon that many cultural symbols of left-wing thoughts began to spread on the Internet, and the minors' theme expressions were also listed. The article believes that people use such memes to express dissatisfaction and boredom with neoliberal culture, and more importantly, it is a dual significance to spread such culture on platforms such as Instagram: online memes themselves have the equality pursued by left-wing culture, which can be made and shared by anyone with the internet and smartphones, and they are also difficult to censor.
An article by scholar Justyna Szklarczyk deeply analyzes this kind of metaphor of the Minions. Justina pointed out that the history of the Minions subtly corresponds to the history of labor changes in real society. Minions wearing worker-style clothing can be regarded as workers in the factory era " Fordism ": working on assembly lines and having stable jobs near home. However, the people of the little yellow have been constantly changing their masters in history. They "see strikes as failures" and have a "post-Fordist" self-expectation. In a high degree of liquidity, they are "ready to adapt to the unpredictable changes in modern global capitalism at any time." From the 19th to the 21st century, the people of Minions worked hard for various types of capitalists, but the nature of labor underwent a transformation from material labor to intangible labor, from labor organized and supervised by factory owners to labor organized and supervised by workers. Justina even believed that "the working class uniforms close to the Minions' body, the standardized bright yellow skin" symbolized that they could not even "reject and give up their class identity."
From Justina's perspective, Minions movies also create a specific image of labor. She pointed out that at the turn of the 20th century, the discourses of medicine, psychoanalysis and sociology created a unique image of "hysteria" that was mainly used by existing dominant classes to stigmatize some new "historical subjects" in the early 20th century - women and the working class. However, "hysteria" also reflects some resistance to traditional patriarchal culture. To some extent, the noisy and unknown minors inherited this "hysterical" feature, but Justina believes that they are a "non-human" subject, and they also adapt to a "non-human" system.
American scholar Sianne Ngai also said in the book Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting: Working class pop culture targeting adult audiences usually depicts three aesthetic categories - funny, cute or funny. And in these depictions, the representative of the working class is either an “overexcited fool” or a surprising other. In her opinion, maintaining an overexciting state is a requirement for the physical practice of the working class to "maintain constant labor". Justina believes that the image of the Minions is intertwined with three, and she is also dissatisfied with the image of the Minions referring to. As mentioned earlier, the Minions continue to serve one master after another, but again and again bring them trouble and even death, which seems to coincide with the more realistic changes in the relationship between social rights. That is, the working class "unconsciously" deprives the master of his power, but it is difficult to obtain true liberation because of his limited cognitive ability.
The harmless "cute" of humans and animals:
The "naive" of globalization anxiety?
However, compared to serious and confrontational political conflicts, what we can read directly from the cute minors is probably a strong, gentle, and extremely assimilating culture. An article in 2017 pointed out that in an era when the vision of globalization is repeatedly challenged, the Minions can be regarded as an excellent "globalization spokesperson".The article believes that the previous similar totem may be Hello Kitty, which originated from the economic boom in Japan in the 1970s. It was initially popular in Northeast Asia , Southeast Asia, and later spread to the West. It has "a delicate and cute... This is naturally attractive to the public... It is true for children, and for adults, it can provide a path to escape reality."
is different from SpongeBob, Mickey Mouse , and Marvel superheroes. Minions do not have stable and prominent personality traits and narratives. Their stories always "screw something", but they do not deliberately emphasize the themes of "friendship", "love", and "family". This kind of "cute" temperament that looks full of "deconstructing everything" is particularly suitable for conquering people living in different civilizations in this era. The article points out that in 2010, the minors were popular all over the world, and then there were a series of regressions in the political field. The rise of the British Brexit , Trump , and in India, Japan, Austria , France, far-right parties have made a comeback, and the sense of deprivation of the working class around the world has rapidly heated up - all this cannot affect the minors with this "cute" temperament and harmless humans and animals "will be liked wherever they go."
"Mini-Yellow Cute: Prequel of Despicable Dad" (2022) Stills.
This kind of harmless "cute" of humans and animals has also made the minors very popular with Hollywood . For Hollywood, the cross-cultural communication of film and television often encounters risks due to the cultural tension in the narrative. But the article points out that the Minions represent a "permanent failure" narrative, where Minions are not only cute and funny, but always mess things up - essentially they are not at all offensive. In this absurd narrative that deconstructs everything, "historical figures, politics, ideology will be ridiculed - the movie becomes depoliticized, becoming an act that pleases everyone and offends a few people."
This makes people feel somewhat irrelevant to Mark Mazor's judgment on United Nations in "The Palace of No Magic": Now we all criticize the inefficiency and inaction of the United Nations, believing that it has lost its firm position to advance the ideal of cosmopolitanism. However, in this era of emphasis on cultural diversity, it is precisely this criticized issue that has become the source of the vigorous vitality of the United Nations. The ambiguity of the Charter spirit and the initiative within the organization have allowed it to be embedded in the complex international situation more smoothly in a gentler attitude. The culture represented by the Minions also has this gentle and vague characteristics to some extent.
As the author of this article said, Minions successfully "minimize" and "naive" contemporary anxiety about globalization. In an era of high nostalgia and nationalism, Minions convey an alternative globalist future imagination - but it seems difficult for people to judge whether this imagination itself has a solid foundation of belief. Or, it is just a helpless emotional projection when people are in anger, powerlessness, dissatisfaction but unable to take effective actions.
To a certain extent, this unstable absurdity and "lack of meaning" may also be the real core behind Minions culture. In his opinion, while the Minions often seem to be talking nonsense, he sees it as a "legacy of silent films" - more stories told through pranks, gags, and body humor. This kind of comedy philosophy is somewhat anti-complex narrative, and it prioritizes "simplicity". Just as Minions’ voice actor Coffin once said in an interview, this is also prominently reflected in its popularity as an online meme.
"No Magic Palace", written by Mark Mazor, translated by Zhu Shilong, one page folio | Guangxi Normal University Press May 2022.
Memes that cannot be defined
and confusing emotions of the times
As a word derived from Richard Dawkins 's " Selfish Gene ", "meme" (meme) is the hottest word in social media research.This word can be roughly understood as a certain "cultural gene", which is similar to the gene in the biological field to copy . Culture on social media will also be inherited and innovated by imitating and copying certain basic units. Although Minions have always been regarded as one of the most important memes on social networks today, a 2015 article believes that this view deserves to be questioned. The reason is very simple. It is too difficult to find a stable "cultural gene" from the little yellow people.
"Minion Man" popular memes on the Internet.
In a cultural sense, the Minions seem too "decentralized": they "have nothing" in wealth, they are "hermaphrodite" (or desexualized), their language is a variant based on a hodgepodge of languages in various countries, and their bodies have both slender skinny and obese curves... "They can carry enough signifiers that we can project our thoughts and wishes at will." This article believes that in general, memes will be linked to a specific, refined emotion, but Minions and any relatively stable emotional core are not linked to. They "occupies a strange middle ground" and can be "ironist, honest, cunning, mean, naughty..."
Paradoxically, unlike the memes, Minions, have stronger plasticity on social media than ordinary memes - you can use it to create emoticons that express any emotion. In 2010, when the Minions just became popular, there was even a word called "Facebook Mom Meme" - not only young people, but middle-aged people of mothers at that time often used Minions' pictures with "meaningless" sentences to have fun on social media. In this sense, the article says that the Minions may have “destroyed the culture of the Internet” but reshaped a “super meme.”
Can "Minions" become the new "leftist" totem in the minds of some people? Despite its popularity, it may seem a bit of a big deal to hand such a serious task to such a cute minion. Go back to the judgment mentioned above: Minions culture may represent an alternative globalist posture, but this is more due to its deconstruction of meaning with the help of "cute", and moderated and childish the anxiety about globalization. As a "super meme", it may not be called a totem, but it can also reflect the complex attitude of people toward reality in their minds when the epidemic is still ongoing: they hope to take action, but often frustrated - a kind of anger that often feels absurd.
Reference link:
1.This Is Why The Minions Are So Popular
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danielspielberger/how-the-minions-took-over-the-world
2.Are Minions a Symbol of the Proletariat?
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/despicable-me-the-minions-labor-movement-meme-culture-1376868/
3.How Minions 2: The Rise of Gru explains capitalism
https://blingeach.com/how-minions-2-the-rise-of-gru-explains-capitalism/
4.Beautiful Exploitation. Notes on the Un-free Minions
https://www.pismowidok.org/en/archive/2017/19-pictures-for-children/beautiful-exploitation.-notes-on-the-un-free-minions
5.How Minions Destroyed the Internet
https://www.theawl.com/2015/06/how-minions-destroyed-the-internet/
6.Why Is Social Media So Obsessed With Minions?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-media-loves-minion-memes_n_7700154
7.The Socialist Memelords Radicalizing Instagram
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ev3vgz/the-socialist-memelords-radicalizing-instagram
written by Liu Yaguang
editor/Li Yongbo Qingqingzi
proofreading/Wang Xin
