# The Babadook The Babadook started as a 2014 Australian psychological horror film about a grieving mother and a top-hatted storybook monster, then took on a bizarre second life in 2016 when a Netflix category screenshot sparked the running joke that the character is gay. By Pride Month 2017, the pop-up book villain was a full-blown LGBTQ meme icon. ## Origin The film itself opened in 2014 to strong reviews, with critics praising its restraint and emotional weight rather than conventional jump scares[5]. The meme reframing began in the summer of 2016, when rumors first spread on Tumblr and Twitter that the monster was queer[1]. The spark was a screenshot, which some users claimed came from Netflix's own interface, showing The Babadook categorized as an LGBT movie[1]. No single creator can be credited with the meme format, and the earliest Tumblr posts that pushed the idea are not individually archived in the available sources[3]. Mashable traced the first wave to anonymous Tumblr posts and screenshots shared in 2016, which did not break out widely until the following year[1]. On the costume side, Katie Dippold's Halloween-2015 Babadook photo went viral after she shared it on Twitter in 2016, giving the character a second, unrelated meme life[4]. - **Platform:** Tumblr / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2016 ## Overview The Babadook refers both to Jennifer Kent's 2014 Australian horror film and to the meme that reframed its charcoal-sketched, top-hat-wearing monster as a gay icon[1]. The joke took off after screenshots circulated showing Netflix had filed the movie under its LGBT category, which Tumblr and Twitter users ran with as proof that the suburban-haunting ghoul was, in fact, queer[2]. Mashable later confirmed Netflix no longer classified the film that way, but by then the bit had outgrown the source[1]. The format usually pairs a still of the Babadook, often in his tailored black coat and stovepipe hat, with captions treating him as a drag queen, a Grindr match, or a relatable queer archetype who lives in a basement rent-free[3]. Teen Vogue summarized the appeal by noting the character 'made a pop-up book of himself for the drama of it all,' which fans read as camp performance rather than horror[3]. Variants include Pride-flag edits, fake dating-app profiles, and jokes casting the monster on RuPaul's Drag Race[3]. A parallel strain of Babadook humor comes from Katie Dippold's viral Halloween photo, in which the comedy writer showed up in full movie-accurate Babadook costume to a casual party where nobody else dressed up[4]. That image became its own cringe reaction template about social overcommitment, separate from but adjacent to the gay-icon run[4]. ## How It Spread After simmering on Tumblr through late 2016, the gay Babadook meme hit critical mass during Pride Month 2017[1]. On June 7, 2017, Mashable published a piece declaring 'the Ba-Ba-DOOOOOK is gay,' walking through the Tumblr screenshots and the running list of 'evidence,' including the monster's dandy-ish top hat and basement-dwelling lifestyle[1]. Teen Vogue followed with its own June 2017 writeup framing the character as a Pride mascot and rounding up fan jokes about his fashion choices and hypothetical Drag Race run[3]. The meme moved fast across Twitter in June 2017, where users posted edits placing the Babadook against rainbow backgrounds and wrote fake first-person captions in his voice[1]. Mashable noted that Netflix had, by the time of its article, stopped classifying the film under LGBT, but the correction did little to slow the bit[1]. Teen Vogue acknowledged the meme had cooled briefly in February 2017 before Pride month revived it[3]. The Katie Dippold costume thread followed a different arc. Dippold told New York Magazine in October 2016 that she had worn the full Babadook outfit, including a Goodwill peacoat, a Halloween-store hat, and face paint, to a casual gathering the previous Halloween[4]. Her tweet about the social anxiety of overdressing circulated widely enough that she gave a full interview about it a year later[4]. Specific fan posts beyond the Dippold tweet and the Netflix screenshots are not individually archived in the available sources[1][3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Babadook? The Babadook is the title monster of Jennifer Kent's 2014 Australian psychological horror film, later reclaimed online as a camp LGBTQ icon[1]. ### Where did The Babadook meme come from? The meme started on Tumblr and Twitter in 2016 after screenshots circulated showing Netflix had filed the movie under its LGBT category[1]. ### What does The Babadook mean as a meme? It treats the top-hatted film monster as a queer character, a drag-ready diva, or a relatable basement-dwelling gay archetype[3]. ### How do you use The Babadook meme? Common versions pair a still of the Babadook with captions casting him as a Grindr match, a drag performer, or a Pride mascot[3]. ### Is The Babadook meme still popular? After peaking during Pride Month 2017, it settled into a classic recurring June reference rather than a daily format[1]. ### Why did people start calling The Babadook gay? A Netflix screenshot showing the film under its LGBT category went viral on Tumblr, and users ran with the joke using the monster's top hat and theatrical style as 'evidence'[1]. ### Was The Babadook actually listed as LGBT on Netflix? Mashable reported that screenshots did circulate, but Netflix no longer classified the film that way by the time the meme peaked in June 2017[1]. ### Who is Katie Dippold and why is she linked to the meme? Dippold is a comedy writer whose viral tweet about wearing a full Babadook costume to a casual Halloween party became its own meme thread, separate from the Pride run[4]. ### Did the film's director comment on the meme? The available sources don't document a public response from Jennifer Kent to the gay-icon meme[1]. ### Is The Babadook a good movie? Critics praised it for using real dread over cheap jump scares, with Rotten Tomatoes highlighting its heartfelt and moving story[5]. ## References 1. [https://mashable.com/2017/06/07/babadook-meme-lgbtq-pride/#sdsqjUDux5qs]() 2. [https://www.teenvogue.com/story/babadook-gay-icon-memes]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-babadook]() 4. [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/10/awkward-babadook-halloween-costume-katie-dippold-tells-all.html]() 5. [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_babadook]() 6. [https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-babadook]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5WQZzDRVtw]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-babadook Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library