Since the beginning, the trends and styles of teens have never failed to confuse and puzzle the generations before them. The latest viral trend, the “gentle minions” is no exception.
On July 1st, Minions: The Rise of Gru came out, and many groups of mostly teenage boys have gone and documented themselves on social media in their finest 8th-grade graduation outfits.
Groups of people show themselves pulling up to their local movie theater, wearing full suits, dress shirts, and sometimes even sunglasses. They also carry themselves with an aura that feels part businessman, part Secret Service, and with a hint of self-awareness, too.
They call themselves the “gentle minions,” which has already gotten a collective 65.4 million views on the social media platform “TikTok” from the hashtag alone.
In one video, which got more than 1 million views and almost 700,000 likes, there is a very large group of teenage boys, more than 20 of them in a single group, going up an escalator, with text that says, “22 tickets for Minions: The Rise Of GRU, please.” The boys in this particular video say that the now-viral clip is more a product of coincidence than planning or intention.
This video showed a tamer iteration of the trend. But other videos have shown the supposed “gentle” minions being anything but gentle. They have started mosh pits in theaters, disrupted the film for others who want to watch, and were generally just annoying to the people there.
Some theaters have taken steps to ban the gentle minions, saying that suits weren’t allowed in the screenings, or giving warnings to groups of teenagers that might disrupt the film. However, many groups of these gentle minions have been showing up in disguise, then revealing their suits at the theater itself.
“Everything [about this] is highly memetic,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a professor of communications at Syracuse University, who is an expert in social media and memes. In other words, it’s a perfect opportunity for virality. Grygiel sees the trend as an endless, accessible feedback loop for the teens watching and those that might want to join in.
And in this world, where influencing has become a preferred career choice for children, the opportunity to have your moment of fame can explain why so many want to join in, even if they don’t want to watch or see the movie or care for the banana-loving pill-shaped workers.
“I didn’t like the movie,” admitted Law, who was in the viral
#gentleminions
video. “I thought it was mediocre at best. But I liked the atmosphere.”
And when pressed on why they joined in on this trend, to go through the struggles of spending their own money to see a movie mainly for kids, Law gave perhaps the most honest, accurate answer as to why teenagers have always done the things that teenagers do:
“I think we’re just bored. There’s not really anything else better to do.”
On July 1st, Minions: The Rise of Gru came out, and many groups of mostly teenage boys have gone and documented themselves on social media in their finest 8th-grade graduation outfits.
Groups of people show themselves pulling up to their local movie theater, wearing full suits, dress shirts, and sometimes even sunglasses. They also carry themselves with an aura that feels part businessman, part Secret Service, and with a hint of self-awareness, too.
They call themselves the “gentle minions,” which has already gotten a collective 65.4 million views on the social media platform “TikTok” from the hashtag alone.
In one video, which got more than 1 million views and almost 700,000 likes, there is a very large group of teenage boys, more than 20 of them in a single group, going up an escalator, with text that says, “22 tickets for Minions: The Rise Of GRU, please.” The boys in this particular video say that the now-viral clip is more a product of coincidence than planning or intention.
This video showed a tamer iteration of the trend. But other videos have shown the supposed “gentle” minions being anything but gentle. They have started mosh pits in theaters, disrupted the film for others who want to watch, and were generally just annoying to the people there.
Some theaters have taken steps to ban the gentle minions, saying that suits weren’t allowed in the screenings, or giving warnings to groups of teenagers that might disrupt the film. However, many groups of these gentle minions have been showing up in disguise, then revealing their suits at the theater itself.
“Everything [about this] is highly memetic,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a professor of communications at Syracuse University, who is an expert in social media and memes. In other words, it’s a perfect opportunity for virality. Grygiel sees the trend as an endless, accessible feedback loop for the teens watching and those that might want to join in.
And in this world, where influencing has become a preferred career choice for children, the opportunity to have your moment of fame can explain why so many want to join in, even if they don’t want to watch or see the movie or care for the banana-loving pill-shaped workers.
“I didn’t like the movie,” admitted Law, who was in the viral
#gentleminions
video. “I thought it was mediocre at best. But I liked the atmosphere.”
And when pressed on why they joined in on this trend, to go through the struggles of spending their own money to see a movie mainly for kids, Law gave perhaps the most honest, accurate answer as to why teenagers have always done the things that teenagers do:
“I think we’re just bored. There’s not really anything else better to do.”
