Eraserhead Baby

About

The Eraserhead Baby, also known as Henry's Baby, refers to the humanoid baby in the 1977 David Lynch psychological horror film Eraserhead. In memes, the Eraserhead Baby received fan art and fan edits on TikTok, predominantly surfacing in early 2024. Online interest in the Eraserhead Baby stems from theories about what the baby was made of with many believing that it was a lamb fetus or calf fetus (or made from some other unethical material as Lynch and his team never revealed its materials). Another theory that gained traction in 2024 centered on the baby being a disabled baby with colic, which Henry perceived as a monster due to his mentally ill state. The theory inspired a debate about whether or not people would love the Eraserhead Baby if they gave birth to it. The 2024 TikTok trend used the song "No More Birthdays" by Sophie May with the leading lyrics, "My baby don't cry, she just sleeps through the night."

Origin

In 1977, David Lynch's film Eraserhead was released.^[1] A character in the film is Henry's Baby (also known as Spike) who's the mutant child of the main character Henry Spencer. The baby is seen throughout the film and is a main throughline, symbolizing some of Spencer's strife. Scenes of the baby were posted to YouTube throughout the 2010s (example shown below).

Memetic usage of the Easerhead Baby predominately surfaced in 2010. Currently, the first known memetic usage of the Eraserhead Baby was fan art drawn by DeviantArt^[2] artist mydogatela, uploaded on June 5th, 2010, gaining over 5,500 views and 72 favorites in 14 years (shown below).

Spread

On June 13th, 2010, the Eraserhead Baby was mentioned on 4chan's /tv/^[3] board. On July 19th, 2010, DeviantArt^[4] artist nevski86n shared a piece of Eraserhead Baby fan art, gaining over 1,900 views and 14 favorites in 14 years.

On August 11th, 2010, YouTuber^[5] notdavidlynch posted a video called "Eraserhead Baby SECRETS REVEALED!!!!" in which he was impersonating the director and joked about Lynch's secrecy involving the materials of the baby by having a loud wood cutter interrupt his secret. The video received over 16,800 views in 14 years (shown below).

On March 13th, 2012, Redditor^[6] InstantPrinceWhippit shared an image of the Eraserhead Baby to /r/WTF,^[6] writing, "forever WTF: David Lynch's Eraserhead baby," gaining over 800 upvotes in 12 years.

Going into the 2010s, jokes about the Eraserhead Baby started to populate Twitter / X, evident in an early tweet shared by X^[7] user @wolfpupy on October 26th, 2014, receiving over 280 likes in 10 years (shown below, left).

On August 18th, 2019, X^[8] user @alexisparade tweeted fan art of the Eraserhead Baby, joking, "my next zine is just a bunch of children’s book-style illustrations of the eraserhead baby…" earning over 1,900 likes in five years (shown below, right).

During the same timeframe, memes about the Eraserhead Baby gained traction on Tumblr, evident in a post shared by Tumblr^[9] user junk-hed on January 15th, 2018, that captioned an image of Mr. Krabs holding a baby Pearl, "Eraserhead (1977) dir. David Lynch," receiving over 2,600 notes in six years (shown below, left).

On June 24th, 2022, Tumblr^[10] user itsbiscuittime shared an Eraserhead Baby meme that used the Hey, I'm Justin Bieber format, earning over 1,000 notes in two years (shown below, right).

Eraserhead Baby content also went viral on TikTok in the early 2020s, such as an edit posted by TikToker^[11] @locals.martemployees2.0 on May 25th, 2023, gaining over 38,700 likes in 10 months (shown below).

Lamb Fetus Theory

In a 1978 interview with SoHo Weekly News, director David Lynch refused to answer questions about what the Eraserhead Baby was made from. Interviewer Stephen Saban stated, "Someone I saw it with thought that it might be a calf fetus." Lynch responded, "That’s what a lot of people think it is." Lynch also said, "If I say, I’ll really feel bad."^[12][13]

Going into the internet age, discourse and debate about what the baby was made of continually surfaced on social media, evident in posts on Reddit^[14] and Quora.^[15]

"My Baby Don't Cry" Trend

In March 2024, a TikTok trend emerged that centered on the Eraserhead Baby, using the song "No More Birthdays" by Sophie May with the leading lyrics, "My baby don't cry, she just sleeps through the night." An early viral example was an animation posted by TikToker^[16] @m_malefaction on March 10th, 2024, gaining over 2.3 million plays and 253,800 likes in 19 days (shown below, left).

On March 15th, 2024, TikToker^[17] @charlie.hehehe posted a video with the song, showing them holding an Eraserhead Baby doll with text about how the baby is "so important to me I love him," gaining over 1.2 million plays and 52,800 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

Disabled Baby With Colic Theory

Because of the "My Baby Don't Cry" trend, a new theory about the Eraserhead Baby emerged when TikToker^[18] @nerdymixedpan posted a video on March 16th, 2024, in which she theorized that Henry's Baby was a disabled child with colic who Henry viewed as a monster. Her video received over 1.1 million plays and 46,100 likes in 13 days (shown below, left).

The theory received criticism and backlash from some, evident in a video posted by TikToker^[19] @cicithru on March 28th, which claimed, "U guys r so annoying no the eraserhead baby is not symbolism for a disabled baby with colic that's a theory none of u guys watched eraserhead or knows why David lynch made that movie," receiving over 271,600 plays and 20,100 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References