Anastasia Denisova speaks to The Lowdown about Minions, Memes and mainstream media

Dr. Anastasia Denisova was interviewed for The Lowdown magazine as part of a feature celebrating the release of the new minions film, Minions: The rise of Gru, which is due to hit UK cinemas on the 1st July 2022. The article, by Tom Beasley, asks why the Minions franchise has been so persistent, and why it remains so popular. Speaking alongside other academics, Denisova offered her thoughts on the endurance of Minions as memes, noting that ‘memes are cultural artefacts that need a recognisable reference to reply on for proliferation and amusement.” Talking more specifically about Minions, Denisova states that they “make for a perfect package – visually striking, coming from a blockbuster cartoon, and having an ironic undertone about calling someone a lesser being. Minions are baby-like, cute, harmless – they tick all the boxes of mainstream social media communication and humour.”

The full article can be read in the online magazine The Lowdown.

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