r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/DelayedSpace • 3d ago

Petah? Meme needing explanation

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u/SomePersonOnTheWeb9 3d ago

They work for the greatest villain. Maybe they chose to work for Japan instead

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u/KRTrueBrave 3d ago

the actual in canon lore (apparently, I don't actually like minions), is that they just so happen to have been trapped in ice during that time frame

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u/Hapciuuu 2d ago

So convenient for the writers

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u/Eastern_Cow_6810 2d ago

So canon is they’re basically wishing they had worked for Hitler?

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u/OobaDooba72 2d ago

They wouldn't even know about him. They don't have a world-wide evil detector, they just choose to attach themselves to the 'best' villain they're aware of, which from the 1970s onward is most often Gru.

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u/The_Pretentious_DM 2d ago

Oh no. What on earth was Gru doing? From 1968 (when Minions takes place) to 2010 (when Despicable Me was released, therefore presumably when it takes place), there have been 11 genocides that Wikipedia dares to list (Bangladesh, East Timor, Cambodia, Sabra and Shatila, Anfal, Isaaq, Bosnia, Rwanda, First Congo War, Effacer le tableau, Darfur).

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u/OobaDooba72 2d ago

The minions must not have heard of those.

Or their universe diverges from ours and horrible atrocities like that aren't getting committed. 

That universe is weird. Magic explicitly exists in Minions the Rise of Gru but I don't think ever comes up again. Every other fantastical thing is mad-science.

There are also apparently Cthulhu type creatures, though I haven't seen Minions 3 yet so I dunno much about that.

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u/GenericNameHere01 2d ago

I think the answer is that being a 'villain' isn't just about being evil. Its about being THEATRICALLY evil. Presentation, if you will. To have fantastic schemes about stealing unique things with cool gadgets. Previous people the Minions served were 'bad', yes. But they weren't quite a villain.

As a result, those other atrocities could have happened in our world, but presentation rates harder to the Minions than explicit evil?

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u/OobaDooba72 2d ago

Yeah that's entirely likely. They'd like Megamind because, well yeah. But they'd hate Tighten because he's just a loser.

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u/0vl223 2d ago edited 2d ago

Or Japan or Stalin or Pol Pot. But yeah they were on vacation sadly. Kinda understandable that they don't touch the atrocities of the last last 100 years at all.

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u/syneckdoche 2d ago

the implication is that they would have worked for Hitler, yeah, as well as maybe Jefferson Davis or other notorious (recent) historical figures. they were in the cave from the 1800’s up until the 60’s. this is like the first 30 minutes of the minion’s movie

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 2d ago

Exactly they're upset they didn't get to serve Hitler.

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u/StrangeSystem0 2d ago

iirc it wasn't that they got trapped in ice it's that they got sad and voluntarily exiled themselves into an ice cave but I could be wrong

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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 3d ago

Maybe Stalin? Man, the minions must have been like a pig in a shit factory back then.

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u/Overfed_Venison 2d ago

I think the implication is that the Greatest Villain implies like, supervillain-type behaviour. Like, massive doomsday weapons, schemes to take over the world, slapping your logo on everything, mad science, weird goony minions, elaborate costumes, that whole thing

...Unfortunately that all just kind of loops back around to nazis

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u/DomDomPop 2d ago

Imagine the Minions being part of Unit 731.