Minion on the Cross, or Crucified Minion, is a recent series of memes showing a minion tied or nailed to a cross, often with a crown of thorns much like Jesus Christ. Although the original intent was a silly photo to post to social media, it has since grown in meaning, largely religious.
Origins of the Minion on the Cross
The earliest iteration of the Crucified Minion was posted by Dolan Dark on Facebook on July 7th, 2015. In his post, Dark took a photo of a plush Minion doll strapped to a burning cross with the message, “This is what all Minions deserve.” The photo has been viewed over 1.2k times and has been shared over 300 times over the intervening years.
The image was reposted to the social media site Twitter (now known as X), along with a scathing rant about the symbolism of the image and how he was a “looser [sic]” who should be burning on the cross instead of the Minion toy.
Afterward, Dark shared his perspective on why he burned the minion as a response to the now-deleted comment, screenshotting it for posterity on his tweet, although some might say that he went meta for the dramatic story he wrote.
She responded that she did not realize his writing was satire.
Spread of the Crucified Minion
The crucified Minion meme has gone through cycles over the years and saw a resurgence in May 2024. In January 2019, X user @Shi*postBot5000 added the photo of the burning Minion on the cross to a “teens react” style video screencap.
In 2021, a 3D rendering artist Américo Cruz drew the Minion wearing a crown of thorns hanging from the cross in a very similar fashion to classical sculptures and paintings of Jesus on the cross. In the caption of his Facebook post, the artist wrote, "In Minion we trust…"
People were inspired by this iteration of the Jesus Minion, and Redditors and videos using this version of the imagery took off in 2020. On June 26th, 2020, Redditor u/Chanx_x123 posted the image with the addition “The Snyder cut” to the bottom, and YouTuber Phitpost Shtatus semi-animated the artwork in a 9-second YouTube video.
Then in November 2021, @UnhingedTwit tweeted the unaltered image on X, where it was retweeted over 1.6K times and collected over 15K likes.
It was posted on Tumblr by user @minionresearch in April 2023, where it has since garnered over 7.5K notes.
Jesus Minion in 2024 and TikTok
The latest trend for the Crucified Minion came about in May 2024, when religious Christian TikTokers took the 3D art rendering by Cruz and proselytized about how the Minion didn’t *actually* die on the cross for your sins.
The videos appear to follow the same script, although the vast majority of them are technically original sounds from the TikTokers. In the script, they say that the artist “messed around” to create this artwork, downplaying Cruz’s years of study and skill as an artist.
What looks to be the original TikTok from this trend appears to be posted by TikToker @pastorjoshpan on May 2nd, 2024, garnering nearly 10K views.
“So there was this animator and he was messing around one day when he suddenly created a Minion who died on the cross. And you can see, he even put a nail through the three-fingered hand and even put a crown of thorns on the Minion's head,” Josh Pan said in his TikTok.
“But look, let me tell you something. A Minion didn't die for you. A Minion didn't pay the price of sin for you and me that we deserve. But Jesus did. Why? Because Jesus loves you. And if you think a Minion died for you, then keep on scrolling. But if you know that Jesus died for your sins, type 'wonderful savior' and smash that subscribe button.”
Reactions
More TikTok videos began to appear since then, many following the same general script as Pan’s, while others were compilations or reactions. While some TikTokers seem upset over what could be seen as sacrilegious or excessively trivializing, many are earnest in their videos, arguing that the Crucified Minion is a way to spread the gospel of Christianity and teach people about the Bible in a digestible way by using recognizable and beloved characters.
