23 ‘Minions’ memes to go to the movies completely minion-ified

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Jul 28, 2026 6:30 PM EDT

Who would have thought that these talking yellow ovals would have so much success?

None of us, probably. When the first Despicable Me movie came out, we all loved the little minions, with their silly sense of humor and their very short vocabulary. So much so that now the word 'minion' refers almost exclusively to these little characters. Even so, it is a surprise that they are still popular after all these years. The first movie came out in 2010, which makes the minions SIXTEEN years old. Goodness, we're old.

Generally, everybody loves the side characters; they give comedic relief in the movie, they are relatable, and they tend to be instantly lovable, since they are already nice and don't need to go through a whole character arc. However, it is hard for a side character to become a protagonist and hold an entire movie or show by themselves. Oftentimes they are not profound or strong enough on their own to be interesting. They are interesting as support for the main character, but they lack that "je-ne-sais-quoi" (pardon me, my French is terrible).

This makes the minions' success all the more surprising. They are simply little yellow ovals!! Yeah, they are tremendously funny, but how much material can we get from them?

Apparently, a lot. They have a whole backstory, going back to ancestral times, fated to serve the most evil of masters, but doomed to remain alone due to their own clumsiness, which leads them to end up with the same villains they seek to serve. It's incredibly dramatic and tragic for creatures that can only say "banana", "potato" and "papaya", and communicate mostly through funny noises. Who says that drama and silliness can't go together? Congratulations to the writers of these movies; somehow they manage to keep making them funny and engaging.

Since the Minions have given us so many moments and are still doing so with the current third movie, we gathered some of the never-ending stream of memes they already gave us so much and keep on giving. For now, we say: Poopaye!