Nepo Baby

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About

Nepotism Baby or Nepo Baby is a slang term for someone who succeeds due to insider connections from their family. In particular, it is often used to describe Hollywood actors and actresses with famous parents. The term came to prominence because of jokes parodying a Twitter user who expressed their surprise to learn that Maude Apatow, the actress who plays Lexi on the TV series Euphoria, was a "nepotism baby," implying that she was able to succeed in show business because her father is famous director Judd Apatow and her mother is actress Leslie Mann. As the tweet spread in late February 2022, other users poked fun at it for being a rather obvious observation. They also parodied it by using the original tweet as a phrasal template and edited it to include other famous people with notably famous parents.

Origin

On February 20th, 2022, Twitter user @MeriemIsTired^[1] tweeted, "Wait I just found out that the actress that plays Lexie is a nepotism baby omg 😭 her mom is Leslie Mann and her dad is a movie director lol." She was referring to Maude Apatow, daughter of actress Leslie Mann and director Judd Apatow. The tweet gained over 270 retweets, 2,300 quote tweets, and 3,900 likes (shown below).

Spread

The tweet was swiftly mocked on Twitter as users noted that the connection between Maude Apatow and "famous director" Judd Apatow was obvious, as Apatow is one of the most acclaimed comedy directors of the past two decades. User @Breliloquy^[2] wrote, "'A movie director' has me screaming. They said Judd Apatow who?," gaining over 30 retweets and 300 likes in two days (shown below, left). User @woahitsjuanito^[3] joked, "sincerely love that this person knows leslie mann but not judd apatow's name," gaining over 20 retweets and 500 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Other users began parodying the tweet on February 21st, 2022, by recreating it in a snowclone by humorously adding celebrities with even more famous parents. For example, Twitter user @vilehag^[4] recreated the tweet with Liza Minelli, whose parents are Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, gaining over 1,000 retweets and 23,000 likes in roughly 24 hours (shown below, left). User @GoldAssFang^[5] tweeted the joke with Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, gaining over 20 retweets and 280 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Vulture Article

On December 19th, 2022, Vulture published a cover article by Nate Jones describing the rise of the "nepo baby" term in 2022 and profiling some entertainment industry figures.^[6] The article began with a description of the viral @MereimIsTired tweet and its reception, profiling the author and their life story. Then, sourcing from interviews with casting directors and others, the article described an entrenched culture in Hollywood where family connections lead to career success. The piece was accompanied by another piece featuring a series of charts describing the family connections of famous Hollywood figures.^[7]

These charts rapidly became fodder for memes, with many using their structure as an exploitable to identify various characters as nepotism babies. For example, @zachsilberberg posted a meme exposing Remy the Rat from Ratatouille's nepotistic origins, receiving 31,000 likes in less than a day on December 19th (seen below, left).^[8] Others referenced the article with other memes, including @mikescollins, who earned almost 20,000 likes on December 19th (seen below right) for a George Bush Learning About 9/11 meme, a format that saw increased usage throughout late 2022.^[9]