About

Dead Baby Voldemort refers to a series of image macros featuring the small red remains of the fictional character Voldemort from the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The image is often used in the three-panel What Happened to Him? meme format featuring a conversation between the characters Harry Potter and Dumbledore.

Origin

On July 17th, 2011, Universal Studios released the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.^[1] At the end of the film, Harry Potter and Voldemort (portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe and Ralph Fiennes) fight, which transport them to a white room, where Harry finds Voldemort as a small, red creature that shivers under a bench.

On December 13th, 2011, YouTuber Camisaria Ultra Geek shared the clip. It received more than 1.9 million views in less than a decade (shown below).

Spread

On November 29th, 2012, Tumblr ^[2] user messybill posted the image with the caption "This is what a newly aborted fetus looks like at 3 months" (shown below, left).

On January 28th, 2020, Redditor ^[3] hin2u shared a three-panel image of the scene with the captions "What happened to him? / He tried to out pizza the hut." The post spawned What Happened to Him? meme archetype and received more than 40,000 points (97% upvoted) and 185 comments (shown below, center).

The following day, Redditor^[4] CosmicMarbles shared a variation that added the punchline "He tried to go on Disney.com without his parents permission." The post received more than 25,000 points (98% upvoted) in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Related Memes

What Happened to Him?

What Happened to Him? is a recurring caption in memes depicting a sick or dying person in which someone asks a question about the cause of their condition, which is then revealed to be something that, while not life-threatening, can trigger mental discomfort and be hard to handle unprepared. First used in formats such as Dead Baby Voldemort and Uncle Ben What Happened?, in June 2022 the archetype regained popularity with the Two Guys Carrying a Stretcher format.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References