Pope Francis in a puffy coat / balenciaga pope meme.

Pope in White Puffer Jacket / Pope Francis Drip

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Updated Apr 04, 2023 at 04:27PM EDT by Zach.

Added Mar 26, 2023 at 04:13AM EDT by Aidan Walker.

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About

Pope in White Puffer Jacket, also known as Balenciaga Pope and Pope Francis Drip, is an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a long white puffer coat, which was created with Midjourney. The photo inspired many jokes and memes about the Pope, drip and hip-hop culture. It also looked realistic enough to many that a notable portion believed it was a genuine photo, leading to debate over the consequences and possibilities of artificial intelligence.

Origin

On March 24th, 2023, the photo of Pope Francis wearing a long puffer coat (along with three others) was posted to the /r/midjourney subreddit by a Redditor that deleted their account shortly after. The original post received over 700 upvotes in two days.[1] It was presumably made on Midjourney.



On the evening of Saturday, March 25th, Twitter user @skyferrori then reposted the image on that platform (seen below). This post received over 178,000 likes, and within the next hour or so, several others commemorating the "dripped-up pontiff" were made.[2]


leon @skyferrori. 18h OKAAYYY 1,557 28.5K 182.6K ₁17.9M ↑ :

Spread

Later Twitter posts spreading the photo around garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and interactions as it went viral in late March 2023. Others also started riffing off the central meme. For example, on March 25th, Twitter user @GritGrowthCap imagined an album cover with Pope Francis on it, receiving over 3,300 likes in one day (seen below, left).[6] Also that day, user @Javalle posted a version with Abraham Lincoln wearing a similar outfit, earning almost 500 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).[7]


PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT made with mematic

Commentary about the Pope Francis Drip meme led many to question whether society was prepared for the widespread use of artificial intelligence, given how real-looking the AI-generated image of Francis appeared to be. For example, on March 26th, celebrity Chrissy Teigen confessed to being duped by the image (seen below), receiving almost 14,000 likes in less than a day.[5]


chrissy teigen @chrissyteigen I thought the pope's puffer jacket was real and didnt give it a second thought. no way am I surviving the future of technology 3:31 AM. Mar 26, 2023 869.6K Views 733 Retweets 107 Quotes 13.5K Likes 50 Bookmarks ...

Various Examples


Nikita S @singareddynm. 18h The boys in Brooklyn could only hope for this level of drip 1,053 t 19K 169.9K ₁8.9M ↑ : Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) @IwriteOK. 8h man i hate to give a pope credit but that's a solid look Jake Flores @feraljokes 9h Ayo. Blessed be. 51 t 121 3,369 ₁139.7K ↑ ... Mason Mennenga @masonmennenga β€’ 14h the pope looks like he's the pastor of a church that justin bieber would go to O 80 149 1,691 ₁65.8K ↑

Zack Bornstein @ZackBornstein Β· 15h looks like he's about to drop a 40 point triple double 173 1 483 SEMANA 5,177 ₁425.7K ↑ : Phil Klay @PhilKlay. 13h "Ain't nobody Pope as me, I'm just so fresh, so clean" O 12 24 206 ₁16.8K I Could've Just Sat On In With Massa @Written ByHanna the pope has been wearing that same musty robe for a 100 years now why would he decide to be dripped out on a random Saturday afternoon HOOD VOGUE is tired of poverty @keyon - 14h The picture of the pope in a puffer trench coat is Ai????????? Show this thread 8:49 PM Mar 25, 2023 685.5K Views . . : 1,212 Retweets 47 Quotes 12.5K Likes 116 Bookmarks


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External References

[1] Reddit – /r/midjourney

[2] Twitter – @skyferrori

[3] Reddit – /r/photoshopbattles

[4] Reddit – /r/MemeEconomy

[5] Twitter – @chrissyteigen

[6] Twitter – @GritGrowthCap

[7] Twitter – @JaValle

Recent Videos 1 total

Recent Images 22 total

Top Comments

Victreebong
Victreebong

This is a scary time we’re in. If you weren’t told this was AI generated, would you have known it was fake? It’s becoming more influential than PS. We can no longer rely heavily on tape and photos as reliable.

+36
YeetYeetAwoo
YeetYeetAwoo

in reply to Victreebong

I talked about this months ago. Any video evidence used in court is gonna have to be thrown out because you can't be sure if it's real or not. Or worse you could have cases of what would normally be clear cut evidence of wrong doing and it will just be brushed off as AI generated.

+19

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