Lorenzo Pushing Child

About

Lorenzo Pushing Child, also known as Lorenzo Tossing Child or Lorenzo Throwing Child, refers to a screenshot from the 2021 Pixar animated film Luca depicting the character Lorenzo pushing a child into the water. Online, it has been used mostly as an object-labeling or reaction image, often referencing a situation where something is mercilessly discarded or casually tossed aside, or alternatively to signal disgust or otherwise general apathy towards something without malice.

Origin

In the movie Luca, a child sea monster runs away from home to join his friend, another sea monster, in an Italian port town. The way this works is that sea monsters have a magical property that turns their scales into flesh when they are dry, thus allowing Luca and his friend to blend in with the human townsfolk. When Luca's parents travel on land to find him, they aren't able to tell which human child is really their son. Lorenzo, Luca's father, is sure that the first child they see, who is enjoying ice cream by the water, is Luca, so he goes over to him. After a small speech, he casually tosses him into the water below.

The first screenshot of the scene appeared online on July 6th, 2021, three weeks after the film's release, when it was posted on Tumblr with the title "fuck them kids" by user anopoula,^[1] where it gained 5,200 notes in one week (shown below).

Spread

The first meme usage of the screenshot was posted to the subreddit /r/memes^[2] on July 7th, 2021, by Redditor u/thefour009, where it gained 40,900 points in five days (shown below). This example used a common /r/HistoryMemes joke, which is that the Spartans of Greece were brutally vicious to their children, and would cast out those who were born with slight defects.

Another example using a reference from history memes, this time on the /r/dankmemes^[3] subreddit, was posted on July 9th, 2021, by Redditor u/iRrbba, earning 72,000 upvotes in four days (shown below).

Various Examples

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