What is Pope in White Puffer Jacket?

Pope in White Puffer Jacket, also called Balenciaga Pope or Pope Francis Drip, is a Midjourney-generated image of Pope Francis in a long white designer puffer coat that went viral in March 2023.

Where did Pope in White Puffer Jacket come from?

The earliest documented post was on /r/midjourney on March 24, 2023, by a user whose account was deleted soon after. A later /r/aiArt user claimed authorship and said their Reddit account was banned over the image.

What does Pope in White Puffer Jacket mean?

The picture pairs papal authority with hip-hop drip fashion vocabulary, and many viewers treated it as an early reference point for how convincing AI-generated photos had become.

How do you use Pope in White Puffer Jacket?

Common riffs swap the Pope for other public figures in the same designer puffer silhouette, such as @Javalle's Abraham Lincoln edit on March 25, 2023.

Is Pope in White Puffer Jacket still popular?

Its viral peak was in late March 2023, and the image is still cited in ongoing discussions about AI-generated photos and media literacy.

Pope in White Puffer Jacket

2023AI-generated imageclassic

Published November 10, 2026

On March 24, 2023, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a long white puffer coat appeared on Reddit and convinced enough viewers that it became a major talking point in debates about photorealistic AI fakes. Twitter reposts collected hundreds of thousands of likes within 48 hours, and celebrity reactions including Chrissy Teigen admitting she was duped turned 'Balenciaga Pope' into a reference point for AI discourse through 2023.

ai generated memes hoax memes ai image generation memes religious parody memes fashion aesthetic memes

Overview

The image shows Pope Francis walking outdoors in a floor-length quilted white puffer jacket with a silver crucifix across the chest and a strap cinched at the waist. Realistic lighting and plausible accessory details fooled many on first look, which is what gave the picture its early virality as people argued over whether the shot was genuine1 6.

Riffs stuck close to the original setup, swapping the subject while keeping the oversized designer puffer. @GritGrowthCap mocked up a Pope Francis hip-hop album cover on March 25, 20234, and @Javalle generated an Abraham Lincoln version in similar streetwear the same day5. The nicknames Balenciaga Pope and Pope Francis Drip trace to how the picture stacks papal authority with hip-hop drip vocabulary, which is where most of the follow-up joke captions aimed.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit /r/midjourney (source) / Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2023

The earliest known post of Pope in White Puffer Jacket / Pope Francis Drip went up on March 24, 2023, in /r/midjourney under the title 'The Pope Drip,' showing four Midjourney renders of Francis in a long white puffer with the lead image featuring the crucifix detail. The post collected more than 700 upvotes within two days, and the Reddit account that submitted it was deleted shortly after2.

On March 26, an /r/aiArt user claimed authorship of the original and said their Reddit account had been permanently banned over the drip images, sharing the prompt they said they used and an Instagram handle (@art_is_2_inspire) featuring other AI generations7. The claim was not independently verified, so the actual creator is unconfirmed6.

How It Spread

On the evening of March 25, 2023, Twitter user @skyferrori reposted the picture, and that single post went past 178,000 likes while kicking off dozens of quote-tweet remixes within the hour1. Album cover edits and historical-figure swaps followed the same day: @GritGrowthCap's fake Pope album cover picked up over 3,300 likes in 24 hours4, and @Javalle's Lincoln-in-puffer version cleared nearly 500 likes in a similar window5.

The AI-hoax angle took over the conversation by March 26, when Chrissy Teigen admitted on Twitter that she had believed the image was real, a confession that drew close to 14,000 likes in under a day3. Her reaction added to arguments about how convincing Midjourney had become at generating photorealistic people, with the Pope image cited repeatedly as an early example6.

Timeline

2023-03-24

Four Midjourney renders of Pope Francis in a long white puffer were posted to /r/midjourney under the title 'The Pope Drip'; the submitting account was deleted soon after.

2023-03-25

Twitter user @skyferrori reposted the lead image and collected over 178,000 likes, kicking off the viral spread.

2023-03-25

@GritGrowthCap published a fake Pope Francis album cover edit and @Javalle posted an Abraham Lincoln version in a similar puffer.

2023-03-26

Chrissy Teigen admitted on Twitter that she had believed the image was real, framing the picture as an AI realism warning.

2023-03-26

A user on /r/aiArt claimed to be the original creator, said their Reddit account was permanently banned, and shared a prompt alongside an Instagram handle.

How to Use This Meme

Posts in this format typically keep the long white puffer coat and silver crucifix constant while swapping in another dignified or historical figure, often with captions comparing them to streetwear or hip-hop fashion. Later variants reuse the original Pope image with new captions commenting on AI realism, Balenciaga, or papal fashion.