Moving On: Minerva Mink

Well, this is kind of a weird thing to be writing about.

Weird because it's something I never thought would be an issue worthy of my time in this regard.

This whole business of why the character of Minerva Mink from the cartoon show and comic book series Animaniacs, from the 1990s, is so popular is something that's always been a little beyond me. I mean, sure, seeing the not-so-subtle gags about her good looks was fun in the context of the show and the comics I've seen. But beyond that, I don't get it. Why is this character so popular, anyway?

It can't just be nerdy guys like me fantasizing about blond women with large chests, even if they are cartoon animals, can it?

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. And I'm guilty as charged, too. No point in denying that I've been a fan of this character for what seems far too long now.

What's bringing this thinking up is something that's been going on over the course of the last month or month and a half.

A while back, I mentioned that there had been an art archive dedicated to fan art based on our friend Ms. Mink which had gone down after quite a few years on the web. I've only got speculation as to exactly why that happened, but I have a feeling it's good speculation.

See, the show that started all of this was current and popular in the early and mid 1990s. By the time I was out of high school, it was over and done with. That's been fifteen years now, more or less. I suspect that the person or people responsible for running the original tribute site finally decided it was time to move on to other things and either canceled the hosting service for the site or just let it expire.

Not long after, a few folks I follow around the web got together and started a new message board based on the same theme, and dredged up a couple Yahoo groups for the character. There is nothing, in and of itself, wrong with that. Fans will be fans, after all.

Thing is, though, I've noticed that this new message board isn't getting a lot of action, and the Yahoo groups have a track record of the same. The groups, after all, have a combined total of ten or fewer messages, and all those came the first month or so after they were created three to five years ago.

To me, that's a clue that it's time to move on with regards to Minerva Mink. There are other good characters to be fans of. I've still got my list, of course, and Minvera's on it. It's just that now she's one of the ones who makes me think of the last host segment from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Specifically, the part where Pearl looks at the camera, tells Mike to move on because she has, and then pulls the plug to the SOL. I think that's good advice for all of us at this point. Move on and find other things to be fans of. It's what Minerva would want, if she actually exsisted.