Baton Roue is a four-panel webcomic by French illustrator Corentin Penloup that became a widely edited image macro about self-sabotage, showing a cyclist who crashes after jamming a stick into his own front wheel.

Where did Baton Roue come from?

French illustrator and Paris-based animator Corentin Penloup drew the comic and posted it to his personal art blog in 2011, and English-speaking users later spread it through Reddit and Tumblr.

What does Baton Roue mean?

The French name refers to the stick that gets jammed into the bicycle wheel in Penloup's original strip, which is what causes the rider's crash.

How do you use Baton Roue?

People usually edit Penloup's four panels by labeling the cyclist, the stick, and the crash with different subjects so that the fall reads as a self-inflicted failure.

Is Baton Roue still popular?

Baton Roue peaked in the mid-2010s during political meme waves, and by Penloup's 2018 Design Viral interview people were still producing new edits, including later anti-meme versions where the rider is fully aware of what he is doing.

Baton Roue

2011image macroclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Baton Roue, also called Bike Fall, is a French four-panel webcomic image macro by illustrator Corentin Penloup showing a cyclist who jams a stick into his own front wheel and wipes out. Editors relabel the rider, the stick, and the crash with different figures to depict self-inflicted failure.

webcomic memes exploitable templates multi panel memes object labeling backfire memes

Overview

"Baton Roue," French for "wheel stick," is an image macro built from a four-panel webcomic by French illustrator Corentin Penloup1. The strip shows a man cycling happily, jamming a stick into his own front spokes, then face-planting on the pavement. Editors relabel the cyclist, the stick, and the crash with different people or ideas to describe a self-inflicted disaster.

The comic is also known as Bike Fall in English-speaking meme circles, where editors often add a fourth panel showing the fallen rider begging for donations2. That extra frame turned the format into a jab at grifters and self-serving figures. The four labeled slots give remixers clear places to insert a target, so the template stays useful whenever a public figure appears to author their own downfall.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Personal art blog (source) / Reddit and Tumblr (viral spread)

Creator

Corentin Penloup

Date

2011

Corentin Penloup is a French illustrator who works in film animation in Paris1. He first posted the "Baton Roue" comic to his personal art blog on January 23, 2011, and the strip sat quietly for more than a year before Redditor muthafuckenbeetroots reposted it to r/funny on October 16, 2012, where it pulled in over 1,500 upvotes2.

How It Spread

The English-language breakout came from Tumblr in September 2015, when user lonely-and-the-infinite-sadness posted an edit labeling the cyclist as Donald Trump and the stick as his own comments, racking up over 110,000 notes2. From there the template moved into political forums, with a version targeting Anita Sarkeesian showing up in gamer threads during Gamergate and another version featuring a Greek flag surfacing during the mid-2010s European debt crisis.

By 2022, the Baton Roue format had flipped into anti-meme territory, with users posting deconstructed versions where the cyclist is fully aware of what he is doing, like an Imgflip edit by user TheOmegaFish. Penloup addressed the meme's afterlife in a 2018 interview with Design Viral, saying he found it "hyper cool" that strangers had loaded political meanings onto his drawing that he never intended1.

How to Use This Meme

People typically start with Penloup's original four-panel strip1 and add short text labels: one on the cyclist for the person being mocked, one on the stick for the self-inflicted mistake or opinion, and one on the fallen rider for the consequence. Some versions extend the comic with a fifth panel where the crashed cyclist asks for donations, turning the joke into a shot at perceived grifters.