Why Does the Internet Hate This Animated Baby?
A viral meme based off a cartoon baby from the Movie Ice age has people unusually upset, and nobody knows why.
Ice Age Baby, also known as Roshan, from the 2002 animated movie Ice Age has been circulating Twitter recently — and the internet has had a violent reaction to his reappearance in online culture.
In the film, the baby is discovered by the protagonists of the film, who take it upon themselves to reunite the boy with his father.
According to Don Caldwell, the editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme, the baby had appeared online, mostly in what many considered “deep-fried” memes but didn’t garner virality until January of 2020. The meme appears to have originated with Twitter user, @Kein69Mistkerl. The tweet is a picture of Roshan with the caption, “RT if you’d beat the s**t out of Ice Age baby. The post has garnered over 71,000 retweets and 159,000 likes in over two months.
Soon after, Reddit and Facebook pages popped up dedicated to the hatred of Ice Age Baby. The Facebook page “I Hate The Baby from Ice Age” has 122,000 likes with frequent posts and fresh memes targeting the animated child. The website Change.org, known for its online petitions, currently has a page titled “Kill Ice Age Baby with close to 12,000 signatures.
Last week, alt-right adjacent Youtuber PewDiePie, posted a video “Why I HATE Ice Age Baby,” garnering 9.7 million views and skyrocketing awareness and usage of the meme. While PewDiePie goes on to share his favorite memes, he’s not even clear why people hate the baby but joins in on the collective bashing declaring, “If I had a hammer and the ice age baby was sleeping in front of me, I can’t guarantee it’s safety.”
There doesn’t appear to be a singular reason for the animosity towards the character either, some point to the character's obliquely animated facial features, while others are upset that the baby was nothing more than an irritating MacGuffin for the film’s pre-historic protagonists. The motivations over this Ice Age Baby hatred are unclear, but it appears to be one of those rare moments where the internet has collectively channeled its energy towards a singular goal.
But not everyone is on board with hating on and projecting violence onto an animated baby.
The Twitter Account Friends of Journalism, which asked “The ‘Ice Age Baby’ is one of many indigenous characters recently targeted by the far-right, such as 4chan and PewDiePie. To be fair, PewDiePie echoes a similar sentiment, at one point asking in his video whether “[it’s] racist to not like Ice Age Baby…maybe a little bit.” Considering these memes surrounding Ice Age baby are possible racist dog whistles which incite violence against native people, should anyone posting them be banned from Twitter?” The poll has garnered 1,459 votes, with 26.3% of its voters saying YES.
In a very Barbara Streisand-effect way, the poll has encouraged some to spread even more memes while others seem to be starting some type of dialogue about the meme itself, with one user commenting, “the character isn’t indigenous! I understand that sometimes jokes can be taken the wrong way and in some cases, the original joke can be turned into something considered racist or just offensive, but this is not one of those cases.” Where other users are left scratching their heads at the entire phenomenon: Twitter User @ayoo_bri3, wrote: “can someone please tell me why ice age baby is becoming a meme and why they hate him…I’m so confused.”
Memes are often more powerful than we give credit and have recently made headlines as political campaigns are beginning to experiment with the format as a communication tool. This meme, in particular, is benign. Users sharing the meme are looking to shock, and disgust innocent onlookers, but like most memes, will not add value to the cultural conversation at large. This meme, while extreme, offers no staying power and will soon be forgotten.
