About

Ash Baby or Screaming Baby Made of Ash, also known as the Pompeii Baby Meme, is an AI-generated image of a small baby crying out while covered in ashes that was initially popularized on Reddit in October 2022. The image was later used in a series of videos on TikTok around early October 2023, mostly as a reaction image for TikTok duets related to bright lights burning people.

Origin

On October 25th, 2022, Redditor^[1] u/HyperCool27 uploaded three images of babies made of ash (shown below) using OpenAI and DALL-E 2 technology. The post, titled "Screaming baby made of ash," amassed over 1,800 upvotes and 95 comments in a year.

Spread

The AI-generated image became a prevalent exploitable on TikTok after user @inert_malice^[2] uploaded an animated video about the Ash Baby meme on October 13th, 2023. The video (since deleted) amassed over 5 million plays and 1.2 million likes in a month.

The image was later used in a series of ironic videos dueting a @guinnessworldrecords^[3] video of the "Brightest outsized flashlight." For instance, on November 18th, TikTok^[4] user @brtallz posted a duet video showing his baby being flashed and transforming into the Screaming Baby Made of Ash (since deleted), which amassed more than 9 million plays and 1.8 million likes in three days.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References