Minions, explained

You've probably heard of Minions, or maybe you've just seen their bright yellow likeness on a T-shirt, meme, or bumper sticker. Perhaps you've already decided whether you love them, hate them, or simply find them baffling, as they've been known to inspire quite a range of emotions in all who encounter them.

Minions are a species of tiny yellow henchmen; they look like unusually dressed Mike and Ike candies. They're earnestly driven by the desire to serve an evil boss, though they often screw up because they're selfish, easily distracted, and generally inept. They vary in height, but it's safe to say they're between 2 and 3 feet tall (though closer to 2). They communicate using a gibberish language that's understandable to them and a few people who have longstanding relationships with them.

They're also resilient. Minions have been turned into evil purple versions of themselves, transformed into giants, crushed, tortured, and buried without being worse for wear (this may be the reason they've survived so long).

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Banana, explained

Minionese, also called Banana Language by some fans, the gibberish that the hysterical yellow Minions from the Despicable Me movies (and their own spin-off movie) is actually a bunch of words taken from other languages, as well as some onomatopoeia (words that sound like what they mean), or just syllables that sound silly together.

According to Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, directors of the Minions movie, they used their creative license to pick up interesting-sounding words from all over the world to create the Minions' own unique way of speaking. They said in an interview that they envisioned the Minions as being able to work for evil villains all over the world, so that gives them global appeal.

"Their language sounds silly, but when you believe that they're actually communicating, that's what makes it funnier. What's great about the Minion language, while it is gibberish, it sounds real because Pierre puts in words from many languages and does the lion's share of the Minion recordings. There are a lot of food references. For example, 'poulet tiki masala' is French for the Indian chicken dish.

Sources: Tech Times   Vox.com