The rise of the Gentle-Minions

 Look, folks, hordes of people showing up to ironically watch a film isn't new. Without legions of fans ironically showing up to consistently watch The Room, we wouldn't know the brilliance of Tommy Wiseau. However, the "Gentle Minions" that show up in droves to watch the most recent entry in the Despicable Me series, Minions: The Rise of Gru, are a genuinely puzzling variant of ironic film fans. The reason why so many people find the "Gentle Minions" trend so confusing stems from the public's inability to assess if "Gentle Minions" are sincere fans or not. 

Minions: The Rise of Gru was always going to do massive numbers at the box office, but the film's runaway success this weekend shouldn't be brushed off too quickly. The movie set a box office record for July 4th and isn't showing any sign of slowing down. A large part of the success could be attributed to the "Gentle Minion" trend that sees throngs of teens dressed to the nines showing up to watch the film. The Tik Tok trend, while hilarious from afar, has divided the public. Several filmgoers with age-appropriate children have grown annoyed by the howling and rowdy teens, whereas other agents of chaos enjoy the meme's absurdity. Some theaters have gone as far as to ban Gentle Minions from watching the film.