The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. SHAPIRO: I guess there are worse things bored teens can do.Ĭopyright © 2022 NPR. It's just there's nothing else better to do. SHAPIRO: So why did he do the whole suit up and post on TikTok about it thing? LAW: OK, if I'm going to be honest, I didn't like the movie. But Joshua Law - you know, that teenager we heard from earlier - he actually wasn't a huge fan of the movie.
GRU AND MINION MEME MOVIE
SHAPIRO: And, I suppose, free marketing for a movie that's doing pretty well at the box office.ĬHANG: Yeah, apparently it's doing awesome at the box office. So, you know, again, this just happened to be where you could grow your influence. As Rebecca Jennings noted in a recent Vox piece on Minions, Over the course of the 2010s, Minions have become synonymous with a certain kind of meme in particular: the ‘Facebook mom meme. GRYGIEL: We've all been geared towards more media. And they say the rising popularity of social media influencer as a career path contributes to some of the absurdity that we are seeing online right now. So that's Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse University and an expert in social media and memes. That's why it's also, you know, kind of just taking off.ĬHANG: I think so. JENNIFER GRYGIEL: Overall, it's just everything is highly memetic. Why is this trend going viral?ĬHANG: Well, you know, Ari, being NPR, we asked an expert about this. And some theaters have gone as far as to ban wearing suits altogether. And they're even starting these mosh pits.
SHAPIRO: I don't - is this safe for public radio?ĬHANG: (Laughter) Well, it turns out, like, some of these kids, they get pretty rowdy. And I guess this video is one of the tamer ones, supposedly. And he appeared in one of these GentleMinion videos that got, like, 1.3 million views on TikTok. That's 18-year-old Joshua Law from Singapore. So then we just decided to try it out in Singapore.ĬHANG: OK. JOSHUA LAW: At first, we saw the TikToks from the American kids at first. minions banana minion creepy gru scary 3dart digitalart 3dprinting. And I guess this trend, it's, like, going viral all over the world. 25K likes, 178 comments - marvelousmikee on July 21, 2022: BANANA. And then they make these TikToks about it because of course.ĬHANG: Exactly.
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/HJSFUSFTXRHLLC6HDCRLPG43XE.jpg "gru and minion meme")
And they're calling themselves the GentleMinions.ĬHANG: OK, got it? All right. So for their new movie, "Minions: The Rise Of Gru," there are, like, these large groups of people, mostly teenage guys, who are suiting up in, like, dress suits and heading out to theaters to watch this movie.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Minion, inaudible).ĬHANG: (Laughter) OK. Like, Minions - right? - like, (imitating Minion). Go ahead.ĬHANG: Have you ever heard of the GentleMinions (ph)? "TikTok seems to be kind of how they figure out what the happenings are, right? So maybe that would have been a teen magazine or, you know, some type of teen show on TV.So, Ari, do you want to hear something that's going to make you feel really old?ĭoes anyone ever want to hear something that makes them feel old? OK. But the way it is now communicated may be. Grygiel added that the spreading of a message or a trend wasn't a new concept. "Their algorithms kind of sync up with their peer groups, getting it promoted through a moment like you would see on Twitter or like a trend." You know, sometimes social media ends up functioning like a big water cooler." "I think it leads to that type of participation. "They got exposed to it because they're all seeing TikTok and so they aware of it," Grygiel said. Grygiel sees the trend as an endless, accessible feedback loop for the teens watching and those that might want to join in. In other words, it's a perfect storm for an opportunity at virality. "Everything is highly memetic," said Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse University, who is an expert in social media and memes. Tried to ban the suits, nah #minions #yeat #suits ♬ Rich Minion - Yeat
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