Common Grounded
This is one of the earliest “Minions at Work” cartoons. Probably not the funniest, but it really defines one of the primary mission statements for the cartoon: Sooner or later, we all end up serving the forces of evil. Maybe we work for an evil fast-food empire killing people by inches using fat and salt, or maybe we work for a big-box store chain that spreads like cancer and leaves shuttered main-streets and shattered dreams in its wake. Or maybe we join a soulless bureaucracy that leeches off the people and cares only for perpetuating itself. Maybe we find ourselves selling shoddy goods, or unnecessary services, or over-priced trinkets and toys to people who can’t really afford them and don’t really need them. Maybe we chew away at our own planet, or undermine our communities, or exploit the weak, just to keep the dollars flowing. Or maybe we just serve hateful people who treat us (and their other employees) like crap.
And most of it, we don’t do it because we’re EVIL. We’re just a little flawed, a little weak, a little desperate, or just too worn down by life to give a damn. But hopefully, sooner or later, we find a way to escape the service of evil. But until then, the Minions offer us hope. Hope that, in our bumbling and half-hearted service of Dark Forces, maybe, just maybe we ARE doing good, by hindering them, by slowing them, by bungling their evil plans.
If you must serve evil, my friends, and sometimes you must, at least do it reluctantly. Drag your feet, shuffle, goof-off, and for god’s sake, don’t do a good job! Evil deserves no more than that.
Discussion ¬