Gen Z, The Minions, and The Revolution

A few weeks ago I went to the local drive-in theater to watch the latest installment of the enormously popular Minions franchise- Minions 2: The Rise of Gru. While I enjoy the Minions themselves, I'm a bigger fan of Steve Carell, and was more interested in hearing a fresh round of his super-villain-esqe, heavy-Russian accent.

A few weeks after watching that, I ended up sitting down to watch Minions 1 (2015) one evening with some family members.

For those of you who don't know, the Minions franchise is a spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise. Calling it a spin-off is barely accurate; really they're two parts of the same story.

The Minions themselves first showed up in the original Despicable Me movie, released in 2010. Since then they have become an international sensation. They have their own movie franchise, they have become the official mascot for Illumination Studios, and have reached the same or even greater levels of popularity as previously held by characters like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, or Woody Woodpecker. They trend on TikTok, they feature in memes. They are everywhere.

The internet, being the immaculate critic that it is, is using words like obsessed when describing Gen Z's relationship with the Minions. If you know anything about the recent  "Gentleminions" TikTok craze, (link here) you'll know that this is a pretty accurate assessment.

So the question: why are Gen Z'ers dressing up in full suits and bringing loads of bananas into theaters to watch the newest minions movie? This is happening to such an extent that theaters have started banning it. (Link here) Why is Gen Z obsessed with these shapeless, yellow characters? How does that even make any sense?

The answer is that it doesn't make sense, and that's the point.

Bringing bananas into theaters while running around wreaking havoc while dressed in suits is exactly something the Minions would do. Yeah it's crazy, it's random, it's chaotic, but it's fun, and it's funny. And that's the point.

Gen Z is obsessed with the Minions because the Minions are Gen Z.  When Gen Z goes to see a Minions movie, they are watching themselves, and they can't stop watching.

Let me outline a few of the characteristics.

The Minions

Minions are chaotic, random, absent-minded, almost child-like creatures who are somehow both agents of accidents and destruction as well as innocent and extremely lovable all at the same time. Visually they are non-threatening: they are small, yellow-colored, and pill-shaped, almost resembling Twinkies. They wear googly-eye glasses and love hip-hop music, and also bananas. They speak gibberish; sometimes throwing in a real word (English or otherwise) but for the most part their language is entirely unintelligible to the audience.

They are funny too. The humor often comes in brief, random, slapstick-style actions. Part of the reason this works is because of the Minions’ apparent invulnerability. Nothing seems to really be able to harm them, including things like Kevin (kind of their leader) swallowing a guided missile and having it explode inside him, yet seemingly no harm done.

Their invulnerability extends to time as well. They don't seem to age. According to Minions 1 (2015), they have been around since the beginning of time, when they evolved out of the primordial goo.

But what's interesting is that the same Minions who stepped out of the prehistoric pond are the same ones who are alive today. They're all males who don't age, and they don't self-propagate. So essentially, they are genderless, they never die, and they never have kids.

But they are, for the most part, happy. Everything about them is brightly-colored, innocent, funny, lovable, with an upbeat track poured over everything. Good vibes.

They are also capable of incredible feats of building and engineering, at least when their chaotic efforts are driven in the right direction, by the right person. Which is the next point.

The Minions are purposeless without a leader. Minions 1 makes this very clear. According to the story, their purpose of existence is to serve the biggest bad guy around, at least until he's gone, whether accidentally, by cause of a Minions mishap, or by the replacement of the bad guy with an even bigger bad guy. Minions 1 shows them originally serving a roaring T-Rex, then progressing through characters like a Neanderthal, an Egyptian Pharaoh, Count Dracula, the Pirate Blackbeard, and even Napoleon.

Without a leader, a boss, someone who can understand their gibberish and give their chaotic efforts a direction, the Minions are lost and purposeless. They get bored.

That's why they look like Twinkies. By themselves they're shapeless and incoherent. They need someone else to come along and tell them what their purpose is; someone to tell them what to do.

But taking this one step further: they don't just want any leader. What they seem to prefer is a society-wrecking super-villain.

This is the premise of the original Despicable Me movie. The Minions serve Gru, an aspiring villain who wants to be the greatest super-villain who ever lived. Because of his minions, Gru is able to do things like steal the Great Pyramid, and ultimately, steal the moon.

And that's what the minions do best. They steal things, blow things up, pull down empires, displace kings and queens, and literally take the moon out of the sky; but they aren't actually bad, right? They're Minions. I mean, look at them. Have you ever seen anything so adorable? They're soft and squishy and bright and happy and yellow and they can't even speak English. They don't mean any harm. They're having the time of their lives. Of course they aren't bad. Besides, what they're doing can't be wrong, because they're Minions, and so the rules of society don't apply to them. They're not like regular people.

As a general rule, anytime a populace becomes enamored with some piece of art, it is often because they have seen part of themselves in it.

It seems that this is exactly what has happened with Gen Z and the Minions.

My argument here is that Gen Z is obsessed with the Minions because Gen Z has seen in the Minions both themselves as they are, and themselves as they would like to be.

The Zoomers

Gen Z is chaotic and random. It's what they do, it's their humor, it's who they are. Just scroll through TikTok for five minutes. Within that span of five minutes you might see videos of a guy imitating emojis, someone putting a sliced cucumber on their dog's head, a girl dancing to music at work, a girl trying to match another singer's voice control, failing miserably, and then laughing hysterically, and then another girl melting plastic-ware knives and making glasses out of them. All these videos are about 10 seconds in length, and they've almost all got music tracks overlayed onto them. It doesn't make sense. It's not supposed to. It's chaos, and it's fun.

To the rest of the world, Gen Z speaks gibberish. How are the older generations supposed to keep up with terms like yeet, bet, that's cap, facts, vibe, high key and low key, just to name a few. (Here's a helpful dictionary, for those curious.)

Going back to the humor, Gen Z's is fast-paced, chaotic, slapstick and random. TikTok is a testament to this, but it's not the only thing. Just google "Internet's funniest videos". You'll see chairs flying through the air, people falling off skateboards and slipping in doorways, zebras running through houses, people talking about bath bombs and then throwing chairs into bathtubs. It's unexpected, chaotic, random. It doesn't make sense. It's just funny.

And, just like the Minions, Gen Z is invulnerable too, but for a slightly different reason. Throw anything their way, and they'll make it a joke. Serious scenes in movies, real wars, speeches and press conferences become memes. You can't touch Gen Z; they'll laugh and meme you to death. Got an incoming missile? No problem. Actually, what if someone swallowed it, and then it exploded? That'd be funny. Laughs hysterically in front of the camera. No harm, no foul.

Death is a long way off for Gen Z. In fact, does it even exist? Haven't we always been here, laughing hysterically in front of the camera? Won't we always be?

Gen Z is also, like the minions, infertile. Check out this article here. Things like #childfree trend on TikTok, with more than 242 million views. And of course, being anything at all on the LGBTQ+ spectrum pretty much comes stamped with an infertility-guaranteed gold star.

Gen Z has been told they can be anything they want, all the way down to selecting their own gender out of the 74 (currently) to choose from.

And so you have Gen Z: they're genderless, they're young and will never die, and they don't have children. Sound familiar?

The Doomers

However, there is a dark underbelly to all this. Take a look again at the title of the 2010 movie. It's called, quite literally, Despicable Me. A bit on the nose, if you ask me. There's a song too that goes by the same name. Look it up. It's random. It's chaotic. It's monotone and depressing.

And it's the title song of this happy-go-lucky children's movie franchise.

Underneath all their antics, Gen Z is reportedly the most depressed, anxious and the loneliest generation to date. (Link here) Mental health is a huge concern. Privately, they're addicted to social media, porn and drugs. Panic and anxiety attacks are common. The suicide rates are higher than they ever have been.

What's the Reason?

Philosophically, Gen Z is a mixture of postmodernism, existentialism, nihilism, and hedonism, for starters. They've been told morality is relative and a social construct. They've been told they can, quite literally, be anything they want to be and do anything they want to do. They've been told there's no ultimate meaning and that nothing really matters. Oh, and also they've been that the world is probably before the end of the century. (Link here) And they've believed it. (Link here) They've been told that the best you can aim for in life is your own happiness.

They've believed it all, but that's not really what's surprising. What's surprising is that they are actually living it all out for real.

When you tell someone they can be anything they want to be, they become shapeless. When you tell someone nothing really matters and the world is ending, they'll find their self-worth and distraction in making videos of themselves wearing glasses made out of plastic knives. Just like a child. Just like a Minion.

The Answer Given

So what's the answer? What do you do when you're shapeless, purposeless, and incoherent? What do the minions have to say?

The Minions are happiest when acting as agents of chaos, stealing crazy stuff, building machinery for their super villain boss, and generally laying waste to society as it is. But remember, they don't do any of this because they are evil. They do it because it is fun. And they look adorable while they are doing it.

But most of all they need a leader. They need direction. They need a boss, a king, a father. Someone to tell them what to do.

Individually they are shapeless and harmless. Together, united under a leader, they can steal the moon. Or destroy the world. Give them the right leader, and they'll do it, just because. It's fun. It's interesting. It's chaotic. Nothing matters anyway. Who cares?

The Minions, and more importantly Gen Z, are not simply harmless, shapeless, lovable, fun-loving entities.

They are revolutionaries.

The Revolution

Let's talk quickly about revolutions.

Since 1776, there have been several major revolutions in the world.

The best of the lot was the first, the American Revolution in 1776. This was when the American colonies were forced to revolt against the English king and Parliament. Yes, I said ‘forced’ on purpose. For those of you still agonizing over whether the Founding Fathers were acting rightly in their revolt against England, check out this book here. Your doubts will be quelled and your hearts will be calmed, you can grill your hotdogs in peace, sing the national anthem with real gusto, and set off your fireworks next Fourth of July with a clear conscience.

The American Revolution was a necessary evil. And though the Founding Father were in fact right, and though much good has come of it, it resulted in thousands of deaths.

The French Revolution came right on the heels of the American, during the years 1789-1799. Many figures were actually heavily involved in both. But the two Revolutions could not have been more different. The American Revolution was a reluctant, defensive revolution, based on principle and clear and heavy thinking. The French Revolution was a crazed, offensive revolution, based on whims, nonsensical ideologies, unchecked passion, and vile hatred. Seventeen thousand people were executed during the single year of Robespierre's Reign of Terror alone, not counting the people who died in prison and without trial.

The Russian Revolution happened in 1917. It abolished the monarchy and set up the world's first communist government. The numbers here are less established, but this is the revolution that opened the door for Lenin and Stalin, the Soviets, and paved the way for the German Nazis. And we all know what happened there.

The last revolution I want to mention is the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. This was obviously a very different kind of revolution, but similar nonetheless. Acceptance of sexual liberation spread everywhere, due in part to the invention of contraceptives, abortions, and the philosophy of feminism.

And, just so we don't miss it, this revolution was bloody too; maybe the bloodiest. 63 million abortions occurred in the US between Roe vs Wade's beginning and end.

The point: Revolutions, even the “good” ones, are terrible events. And the bad ones begin in glory, and end in horror, blood, and tragedy. They always have, and they always will.

The Answer Not-Given

The endings of the Minions and Despicable Me movies have all been somewhat unsatisfying to me. They're tropey, predictable, and don't fit well. I think this because the creators don't know what the end of the story is yet. Gen Z is still young, and they seem to be spiraling endlessly into the future, singing and dancing and breaking and stealing and laughing, forever not caring.

Or maybe it's because the creators know exactly what the right ending is, but know they can never show that part, because it's horrible, bloody, and tragic. Gen Z are revolutionaries, and revolutions always end the same.

I'm not saying here that Gen Z is about to start rioting in the streets and burning down the country. I do think they could be very much capable of something like that, given the right (or maybe wrong) events and leadership. Just look at the recent rioting and looting that's already taken place all over the country. But I think its more likely that most the blood will be in places we’ve already seen it; things like abortions and suicides. Gen Z is a direct descendant of the Sexual Revolution, and thus the abortions. Many of them are also in direct revolt against The Way that God Made the World, and thus the suicides. (Link here and here) Pastor Douglas Wilson has commented that stupidity is not a long term strategy, and it may be that Gen Z is a revolution that exterminates itself, both through its infertility and its suicides.

Also in writing this, I don't want to be an encouragement to parents to ban the Minions from their households. The movies aren't so much teaching wrong ideas and principles as they are describing a generational mindset that is already very much here. Parents would do well to sit down with their children and really watch these movies, and both come to understand, and help their children understand what is being described.

The Actual Answer

So what do you do when you are shapeless, purposeless, and incoherent? The Minion movies have both given the wrong answer, and given the no answer at all. So what's the real one? The problems--the depression, the anxiety, the infertility and suicide--that Gen Z is facing is all very real.

Gen Z, just like the minions, wants and needs a boss, a leader, a figure-head to tell them what to do with their lives. The most obvious positive example of this is the rise of Dr. Jordan Peterson in recent years. His message seems to be more specifically aimed at Millennial-types, but it fits Gen Z as well. Peterson has risen to fame because he talks straight and gives direction. He talks about old things, like personal responsibility, order, truth and sacrifice. He has been, as Pastor Wilson says, a father to America (and, I would add, a lot of other places).

And the young people have responded. They have come out in droves to his 12 Rules For Life lectures. Views of his YouTube lectures and videos number in the millions. People have expressed that Peterson says things they feel they always knew, but didn't know how to say or put into practice. They comment on his videos and say that he has saved their lives.

Dr. Peterson recently released a video where he more-or-less commanded the evangelical church to take up the mantle and start speaking the truth and giving the direction to young people, like he has been doing for years. And I would like to echo that.

In the fully-expressed, full-reaching gospel, the church has the meaning and the direction that Gen Z is desperately searching for. They don't have to revolt. Instead, they can be taught to rebuild. The church just lacks men like Peterson who are both courageous, competent and articulate enough to say it and to act it out. But that can change.

If you'd like to help; if you, like me, are part of Gen Z yourself and want a better understanding of your peers and how to be a light in their lives; if you’re a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a friend, or just a concerned citizen, and you’d like to start understanding today's young revolutionaries, your children, and the future; if you'd like to begin to learn how to speak to them and how to begin to offer direction, meaning and hope:

The Minions are a great place to start.

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