Parents Throwing Baby — Two hikers in red jackets tossing a baby between rocks

Parents Throwing Baby

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Published September 20, 2026

Parents Throwing Baby is a photoshopped image of a couple appearing to toss an infant across a rocky chasm, edited from a 1995 Patagonia catalog photo by climbing photographer Greg Epperson1. The doctored version surfaced on Reddit in January 2011 and grew into a long-running photoshop template used for shock humor and object-labeled political jokes.

photoshop memes exploitable templates shock humor memes dark humor memes object labeling

Overview

The image shows two rock climbers on opposite ledges of a canyon with an infant appearing to fly through the air between them. In the original Patagonia photo the couple was tossing a duffel bag across the gap, and someone swapped a baby in for the bag to create the shock-value edit1. Its dark humor rides on the dissonance between a calm, professional gear-ad composition and the horrific act it appears to depict.

The photo's polished, real look fooled plenty of early viewers, which is part of why the edit kept circulating online1. Later remixers built it into a full photoshop template, swapping the baby for whatever labeled object fit the joke they wanted to make.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit
Date
2011

The source photograph was shot by climbing photographer Greg Epperson and ran in the Spring 1995 Patagonia outdoor wear catalog, showing a man and woman tossing a bag across a gap between cliffs1. The earliest known photoshopped version, with a baby swapped in for the bag, appeared on r/pics on January 23, 2011, posted by Redditor RocketRobinhood2. When Semi Rad later asked Epperson if he had made the edit himself, he answered, "Maybe I did or maybe I didn't"1.

How It Spread

On June 30, 2011, outdoor blog Semi Rad contacted Patagonia and Epperson to verify the picture, confirming the original ran in the catalog but leaving the photoshop's authorship unresolved1. Epperson told the blog he was unhappy about the unauthorized reuse of his copyrighted image online, where remixes and edits were already circulating1.

The image kept resurfacing on Reddit for years. Redditor Jpf123's March 9, 2017 repost to r/Campingandhiking cleared 7,000 upvotes and led to a fresh round of edits on r/PhotoshopBattles the same day. On March 14, 2019, Redditor organic_crystal_meth posted a version labeling the baby and parents as a jab at the anti-vaccination movement, pulling more than 28,000 upvotes on r/MemeEconomy2.

Timeline

1995

Patagonia's Spring 1995 outdoor wear catalog runs Greg Epperson's photograph of a couple tossing a duffel bag across a chasm.

2011-01-23

Redditor RocketRobinhood posts the earliest known photoshopped 'baby' version to r/pics.

2011-06-30

Outdoor blog Semi Rad reaches out to Patagonia and Greg Epperson to verify the image, confirming the original but leaving the edit's authorship unresolved.

2017-03-09

Redditor Jpf123 reposts the image to r/Campingandhiking, drawing over 7,000 upvotes and prompting a fresh round of r/PhotoshopBattles edits.

2019-03-14

Redditor organic_crystal_meth posts an object-labeled anti-vaccination version to r/MemeEconomy that pulls more than 28,000 upvotes.

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