Minions: The Rise of Gru

About

Minions: The Rise of Gru is the 2022 animated Minions movie that adds to the Despicable Me franchise. It focuses on the origin story of the main character Gru who's voiced by Steve Carell. The movie garnered many memes and reactions in the months leading up to its July 2022 release, mostly referencing Chads, Tickets To X, Please and 'Rich Minion' by Yeat. As the premiere approached, the Minion Cult on TikTok developed and many people wore fancy attire like suits and ties to the theater. They were dubbed Gentleminions and ultimately caused riots, mosh pits and led to the police kicking patrons out of the theater.

History

On May 21st, 2019, Minions: The Rise of Gru was announced by Universal and Illumination studios as the sequel to Minions. ^[1] The original theater release date that was announced was July 3rd, 2020. The movie would follow Despicable Me 3 which was released in 2017. Additionally, the original Minons movie, released in 2019, grossed roughly $1.16 billion.^[1] News of the upcoming movie hit Twitter on May 21st, 2019 via a tweet^[2] from the account DiscussingFilm, earning over 440 likes in three years (shown below).

On March 19th, 2020, Illumination studios rescheduled the release date for The Rise of Gru due to complications with the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[3] On April 1st, 2020, Illumination announced an updated release date for July 2021,^[4] however, it was later changed in March that year to July 1st, 2022, which became the official release date.^[5]

The official Twitter^[6] account of the Minions posted a tweet on March 4th, 2021, that announced the official July 2022 release date, earning roughly 6,100 likes in 15 months (shown below, left). Internet users and fans immediately started posting memes about the upcoming movie, an example being a reply posted by Twitter^[7] user lib_crusher on March 4th, 2021, that referenced the Minions Served Hitler in 1933-1945 trend, earning over 310 likes in 15 months (shown below, right).

Trailers

On March 30th, 2022, Illumination studios released the first trailer for Minions: The Rise of Gru, posting it to YouTube and receiving roughly 24.4 million views and 128,000 likes in three months (shown below, left). On June 6th, 2022, a third trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Illumination, earning roughly 9.4 million views and 41,000 likes in four weeks (shown below, right).

Related Memes

'Rich Minion' by Yeat

'Rich Minion by Yeat, also known as "Yeat X Minions" or the "Minions X Lyrical Lemonade," is a collab and song performed by the rapper Yeat which will possibly be featured in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Its primary lyric is "I got money," and the song was first referenced on Twitter in June 2022 by Lyrical Lemonade CEO Cole Bennett. It was then used in an Instagram post that featured the snippet. From there, it went viral on TikTok as a sound, predominantly used in videos showing TikTokers eating the "Minions Meal" at IHOP.

Tickets To Minions: The Rise of Gru, Please

As the July 2022 release date of Minions: The Rise of Gru came closer, many ironic memes were created that used the phrasal template of 'Tickets To X, Please'. The trend originated from hype surrounding the 2019 film Joker that manifested into the Tickets to Joker, Please trend.

The Tickets To Minions: The Rise of Gru, Please meme started in May 2022 on Twitter. For instance, on May 10th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user dadboddyke posted a meme using the caption in response to a tweet sharing the soundtrack for the film, gaining over 46,000 likes in a month.

In June 2022, TikTokers began making videos using the format. On June 20th, TIkToker^[9] localsigmaguy posted a video that begins with the caption, "Bro wtf that's a kids movie," followed by images of characters including Walt and Jesse from Breaking Bad, GigaChad and the men from the No Russian mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 asking for tickets, gaining over 1.4 million views in a week (shown below).

More TikTokers used the reference going into the month, spreading to YouTube as well. For instance, on June 25th, 2022, YouTuber Quandale Dingle posted a video that received roughly 265,900 views and 16,000 likes in four days (shown below).

Minion Cult / Moonians

Minion Cult, also known as Moonians, are a TikTok Cult where members change their profile pictures to a screenshot of a man in a Minion costume holding up a glowing ball, representing the stolen moon from the Despicable Me franchise. Members of the cult are known as "Moonions" and are meant to follow other members with the profile picture, increasing each other's followings. The cult was started by TikToker @hutchbucketz in late June 2022 and gained viral spread over the following days leading up to the release of the Minions The Rise of Gru movie.

Gentleminions

Gentleminions refers to the young men and high schoolers that came to watch Minions: The Rise of Gru in theaters wearing suits, ties and smoking cigars to show ironic adoration for the film. Multiple TikTok videos documented their arrival as well as the riots, mosh pits and disruptive cheering they did that often resulted in police shutting down the theaters and showings. The slang term was coined by the official TikTok account of the Minions in July 2022.

Various Memes

Search Interest

External References