Pitbulls vs. Toddlers

About

Pitbulls vs. Toddlers, also known as Pit Bulls Attacking Toddlers, refers to a series of memes that present pit bulls as a dog breed that is inherently dangerous for toddlers or children and is prone to attacking them for little to no reason, many of which reference statistics on real-world fatal dog attacks that often involve pit bulls. The memes, launched by the 2018 #PitbullDropOff hoax hashtag campaign, maintained a notable presence on iFunny before achieving virality on TikTok and other platforms in 2022. The viral debate is also prevalent on Reddit, typically whenever a pit bull-related post is made.

Origin

In May 2018, the hashtag campaign and internet hoax "#PitBullDropOff" began to gain traction on Twitter in which people claimed to be adopting pit bulls and directly taking them to kill shelters. The discussions regarding the #PitbullDropOff hoax on 4chan also led to the creation of various memes related to the notion that pit bulls are an inherently violent and dangerous breed that specifically seeks out toddlers and children to maul.

On December 20th, 2018, iFunny^[1] user TurdFurgisonXXL_2016 posted an anti-pitbull meme to the website, gathering 11 smiles in over two years (seen below).

The subreddits /r/pitbullhate^[2] and /r/banpitbulls^[3] were created in 2016 and 2017, respectively, for sharing such memes or discussing the topic. On February 18th, 2021, Redditor^[4] HMS_Vladamir posted a compilation of anti-pitbull memes sourced from /pol/ on 4chan and gathered over 600 upvotes in over a year (images from the collection below).

Spread

Anti-pitbull memes and pitbull vs. toddler memes continued to proliferate in 2022, making a notable appearance on TikTok and continuing to be popularized on sites like iFunny.

On January 25th, 2022, TikToker^[5] @motesticle posted a meme about pit bulls hurting toddlers, gathering over 900,000 plays and 140,000 likes in nearly 10 months (seen below, left). On January 30th, TikToker^[6] @d.ortga posted a meme about pit bulls being aggressive towards kids, gathering over 250,000 plays and 37,000 likes in nearly 10 months (seen below, right).

Pitbull vs. toddler memes continued to gain traction on TikTok into the latter half of 2022, with TikToker^[7] @d.park3r69 posting a meme on July 4th that gathered over 500,000 plays and 70,000 likes in three months (seen below, left). On July 15th, TikToker^[8] @rhin0pillz posted a meme about pit bulls, gathering 80,000 plays and 12,000 likes in three months (seen below, right).

Pitbull memes continued to be popularized on iFunny as well, with several TikTok posts being inspired by or directly copying iFunny uploads. On October 23rd, 2022, iFunny^[9] user ouch_the_edge posted a pitbull meme, gathering 65 smiles in a day (seen below, left). On October 21st, iFunny^[10] user Poonerino posted a meme about pit bulls harming children, gathering over 1,000 smiles in three days (seen below, right).

AI-Generated Pitbulls vs. Toddlers

On September 30th, 2023, an anonymous 4chan^[11] user started a Pitbulls vs. Toddlers thread on the /an/ board with an image of a demonic pitbull towering over a toddler generated with Bing Image Creator. In the thread, multiple other users shared more AI-generated pitbull memes, including giant pitbulls terrorizing toddlers and babies having a soulslike stand-off against the dogs (examples shown below).

In the following days, similar threads appeared on /v/^[12] and /pol/^[13] boards, with more images generated with Bing Image Creator being shared. On October 2nd, X / Twitter^[14] user @tulpapilled posted an AI-generated image of a pitbull using a baby vending machine, with the post gaining over 430 reposts and 5,400 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also that day, iFunny^[15] user MerilTheMoth posted another image that was featured and received over 12,800 smiles on the app (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References