About The Scary Minion Meme

The Scary Minion meme features an unsettling image of a Minion standing in a dark forest, capturing the viewer's attention with its eerie stare.

Background

The image, known as Minion Staring in the Forest or Scary Minion, portrays a Minion gazing directly at the viewer in a dark and foreboding forest. Many found the visual to be creepy and disconcerting. The meme gained widespread popularity on TikTok in early 2025, inspiring an image macro series that often incorporated themes of anger, discontent, or frustration. Common captions included phrases like 'How I look at X' or 'How I stare at X,' using the Minion to represent the meme creator's glare after a perceived wrongdoing. A notable trend involved women expressing their frustrations with their boyfriends, echoing sentiments from the 'I Hate My BF' trend. The earliest known upload of the image dates back to January 2024.

How It Began

The origin of the Scary Minion meme can be traced back to January 5th, 2024, when a seemingly AI-generated image of a Minion in a dark forest was posted on a Russian War Thunder forum. This marks the earliest known instance of the image's circulation. Subsequently, on February 8th, 2024, a higher quality version was shared by Redditor Bl4z932 on the /r/deepwoken subreddit, gathering 39 upvotes over 11 months.

Internet Reaction

As 2024 progressed, the Scary Minion image gained traction on Reddit and other social media platforms. For instance, on November 3rd, 2024, Instagram user @reactionpiccs reposted the image, accumulating over 19,500 likes within two months. The meme reached its peak on January 20th, 2025, when TikToker @user197429037 shared it as part of a one-photo slideshow, garnering over 3.5 million likes in just nine days. This post ignited a wave of similar content, with users adding their unique captions. One notable example was on January 22nd, when TikToker @mysglare_ captioned the image with 'IK where you live,' attracting over 2.5 million likes in a week. Many of these TikTok iterations featured the sound 'Old Roblox horror music.' As the trend evolved, alternative sounds, such as a bell toll, were also utilized. For example, TikToker @thats.sojayden's version, captioned 'You make me laugh so much. I'm going to crawl into your bed tonight while you sleep,' received 1.3 million likes in two days. By late January 2025, the meme spread widely across social media, with Instagram users like @motormia.co and @gio.temple posting humorous takes, while Twitter/X user @northstardoll's iteration, captioned 'Do you hate me be honest,' amassed over 258,000 likes in two days.