Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for The Last Of Us season two; read at your own caution.

About

I'm Gonna Be A Dad is a line of dialogue spoken by the character Ellie in season two, episode four of the TV series The Last Of Us when she finds out that Dina is pregnant with Jesse's baby. The episode was released on May 4th, 2025, and went viral online shortly after, inspiring memes based on the scene. Many of the memes make fun of the dialogue for being cringey and of actress Bella Ramsey (who plays Ellie) in general. The scene also inspired discourse and memes about the show being too woke.

Origin

On May 4th, 2025, the fourth episode of The Last Of Us (TLOU) season two was released by HBO. In the episode, Dina confides in Ellie, with whom she is romantically involved, that she is pregnant with Jesse's baby. After explaining how she came to find this out, Ellie confirms that she's no longer with Jesse and exclaims, "I'm gonna be a dad."^[1]

Ellie's reaction in the show is notably different from her reaction in the game. In the game, Ellie reacts with shock rather than immediately embracing the fact that Dina is pregnant.

Spread

The scene became the viral subject of memes and discourse online after the episode was released. On May 4th, 2025, X^[2] user @amittensblight posted some edits of scenes from The Last Of Us 2 video game in which Ellie and Dina are seen with an Asian baby, garnering over 11,000 likes in roughly three weeks. Jesse, by whom Dina was impregnated, is Asian.

On May 5th, X^[3] user @JonnyRoot_ made a post complaining that the episode was the "wokest episodes of TV of all time," specifically calling out the dad line, garnering over 1,700 likes in just over two weeks.

On May 6th, 2025, X^[4] user @DramaAlert posted an image macro of the scene, writing, "HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ is getting backlash for going full WOKE," garnering over 88,000 likes in two weeks. That same day, Redditor u/Persepolissss posted an edit of Ellie as Kratos from God of War to the /r/TheLastOfUs2^[5] subreddit, captioned, "'I'm gonna be a dad,'" garnering over 2,200 upvotes in two weeks.

On May 7th, Redditor u/kimotheapple made a post to /r/TheLastOfUs2^[6] about the scene titled, "'I'm gonna be a dad' is even worse than you could possibly imagine," garnering over 3,200 upvotes in two weeks. In the post, the user criticizes the differences between the scene in the game as opposed to the show.

That same day, X^[7] user @TheOfficerTatum posted the scene, complaining, "Is it too much to ask to leave this WOKE nonsense out of entertainment?" garnering over 1,500 upvotes in two weeks.

On May 9th, Redditor u/DarkSpartan267 posted an edit of the Kevin James Smirking meme to the /r/TheLastOfUs2^[8] subreddit, which alters Kevin's face to resemble Ellie's, titled, "I’m gonna be a dad?" garnering over 69,000 upvotes in two weeks.

The meme was reposted by X^[9] user @BillyM2k on May 10th, garnering over 290,000 likes in the same span of time. On May 11th, it was reposted as an image macro by Instagram^[10] user dark___humor_, garnering over 88,000 likes in two weeks.

On May 12th, 2025, X^[11] user @DrClownPhD posted a version of the meme that depicts Ellie as Sloth from The Goonies, garnering over 9,500 likes in just under two weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References