![]() ![]() It would do a disservice to O’Malley’s true command of craft to divulge anything else that happens, so I will let the videos speak for themselves. In both videos, the #MinionSquad is sponsored by Chase Bank. ![]() O’Malley then claims he started this group back in 2007 (before the first Despicable Me movie even came out) following his son’s funeral. In the second video, O’Malley attempts to get Milwaukee residents to join the Minion Squad where members will try to turn themselves into Minions-which he explains to one middle-aged woman who is initially intrigued at the mention of Minions, but immediately put off by the idea of turning into one. In the first video, O’Malley loudly and breathlessly informs New York drivers on the highway that the Minion Squad will be shutting down the BQE that upcoming weekend to raise awareness of…highways. In both instances O’Malley purports to be an advocate for an organization known as the “#MinionSquad,” though the mission statement of the Minion Squad changes between videos. What exactly did “Minion Squad” mean? Well, O’Malley was intent on coming up with the answer on his own, first by harassing drivers while walking on the New York City Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), and then five months later by badgering residents of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Somewhere in between O’Malley’s more recent string of eccentric visual and performance art and his old on-the-street bits came his pair of “Minion Squad” videos in 20, a bit born after O’Malley bought an airbrushed t-shirt boasting the phrase “#MinionSquad” on it. But he mostly maintains a niche online popularity, performing alt-comedy in his preferred form: Experimental short films such as Endorphin Port and Top 10 Wisconsin Dells Haunted Houses For Free Pulled Pork, where he explores (in a near-Cronenbergian vein) the warped relationship between technology, capitalism and humanity.īut before O’Malley became quite so avant-garde, his YouTube channel primarily consisted of videos doing man-on-the-street comedy-namely at Trump rallies, where his strange personas and the borderline unintelligible yet confrontational questions he’d pose to random people would bring forth nuggets of confessional gold. Since then, he’s cropped up in occasional movie and television spots, like in Palm Springs and I Think You Should Leave. O’Malley gained cult recognition from his Vine videos during the 2010s, enough to secure himself a spot in the Late Night with Seth Meyers writers’ room. This unspoken way that Minions have infiltrated nearly every facet of our day-to-day lives in these strange, inescapable ways is perhaps best articulated through two YouTube videos from comedian Conner O’Malley. And since many Minions memes reflect specific feelings and emotions, it’s almost as if they function as communal therapy for a generation specifically unwilling to actually deal with their emotional problems. As characters, they are meant to be “evil” but ultimately ascribe to no true worldview and, thus, can be easily projected onto. Though as ruminated on by Tickld last year, it’s probably because Minions can be applied to both nothing and everything. To what end? It’s hard to say, though it most certainly includes indoctrinating your aunt via one of any number of curious Minions-themed memes shared on Facebook, the popularity of which among the Boomer generation is both astronomical and downright strange. From facemasks to Crocs to waffle makers, steering wheel covers, motorcycle helmets, bras and, yes, dildos, it feels as if the good folks over at Illumination Studios planned for this worldwide merchandising coup all along. Basically, if you can think of it, there is probably a Minions version of it (and I assume this includes porn-I’m not gonna double check on that, but you guys certainly can). It seems that since Despicable Me found massive commercial success back in 2010, the diminutive, yellow overalls-clad henchmen creatures known as the Minions have been executing their own takeover of the real world. Minions-who can get enough of them? That’s a rhetorical question. ![]()
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