Nepotism Baby Diagrams

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Part of a series on Nepo Baby. [View Related Entries]

About

Nepotism Baby Diagrams, also known as Nepotism Baby Graphs, Nepotism Baby Charts or Nepotism Baby Flowcharts, refers to a series of parody diagrams that trace the family tree of imagined nepotism babies. The diagrams came after news outlet Vulture published an article titled "How a Nepo Baby Is Born" in December 2022 that exposed nepotism babies in Hollywood. After the article and its flowcharts went viral, Twitter users, among other meme creators, made mock diagrams highlighting the imagined lineage of many different characters, influencers and celebrities.

Origin

On December 19th, 2022, Vulture published a cover article^[1] by Nate Jones describing the rise of the "nepo baby" term in 2022 and profiling some entertainment industry figures. The article began with a description of Twitter^[2] user MereimIsTired's tweet that coined the term "nepotism baby" 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^[3] featuring a series of diagrams describing the family connections of famous Hollywood figures (examples shown below).

The article also coined the term "Industry Babies" defined as, "A lesser cousin of the nepo baby. Didn’t inherit a famous name, but did inherit connections and knowledge of the business." Among the list were Timothée Chalamet and Jonah Hill, among others (examples shown below).

The stylized and simplistic infographics led to the format's use as an exploitable. The first known meme creator to make a parody of this was Twitter^[4] user zachsilberberg at around 4:36 p.m. EST on December 19th, 2022, who inserted Remy the Rat from Ratatouille as a nepotism baby. Twitter user zachsilberberg captioned the meme, "god damn this nepo baby article is crazy," and received roughly 79,900 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

Other than parodies, many Twitter users simply reacted to the Vulture's actual nepotism baby diagrams with many finding the connections made by the journalist to be obtuse or obvious. For instance, on December 19th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user ZoeRoseBryant tweeted about the Chalamet diagram, joking that, "Timothée Chalamet catching Nepo Baby strays for being the NEPHEW of the director of LEPRECHAUN 2 is so unserious," gaining roughly 66,200 likes in two days (shown below, left). Later on December 19th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user kindestcuts tweeted, "my favorite descriptions of the nepo baby list," and highlighted two charts with odd descriptions, such as actor Bill Skarsgård having "inherited his father's habit of playing creepy dudes." The tweet received roughly 2,700 likes in two days (shown below, right).

More parodies surfaced on December 19th and in the days that followed, becoming more abstract and self-referential. For instance, on December 20th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user 5_ROAM tweeted an iteration featuring Professor Sada, Professor Turo and Arven from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, gaining roughly 2,700 likes in one day (shown below).