Minions are small and yellow oval-shaped creatures who have existed in history for one purpose, to serve the world’s most despicable masters. According to director Pierre Coffin, who voices most of the minions in the animated film franchise, all minions are male. He explained the reason why.

“Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn’t imagine Minions being girls,” said 48-year-old Coffin.

It comes as no big surprise that the minions are in fact male. All of them have male, gender-specific names. Kevin, Bob, Stuart, Carl, Tom, Phil, Jerry, Dave, Tim, Jorge, Jerry, Lance, Paul, Frank, John, Steve, Donny, and Mark are the names of a few of them.

The boys all either have tiny strands of hair, like Homer Simpson from ‘The Simpsons’ or are entirely bald. The minions usually wear goggles, blue jean overalls, black gloves, and black shoes. Although, occasionally, a few of the minions dress up like girls. As to what language they speak, “it’s gibberish.”

“It’s a mixture of all the languages of the world and it’s about finding a particular magical rhythm and melody that makes the nonsense make sense,” said Coffin in an interview with The Guardian on Friday, June 26.

Prior to serving Gru, the minions have served villainous masters such as the T. rex dinosaur, a caveman, Dracula, Napoleon, an Egyptian pharaoh, the Yeti, and Scarlet Overkill.