About

Papa Squid Game is a series of memes pairing a blown-out Photoshop of Squid Game actor Lee Byung-hun's (Front Man) face attached to a cartoon body holding a baby Lee Jung-jae (Seong Gi-hun / Player 456), with the audio of a baby saying "papa" over a slow piano melody. The meme's origins trace back to January 2025, when blown-out edits of Squid Game stars started going viral on TikTok. That month, TikTokers started sharing the baby edit over the "papa" audio, inspiring absurd, brainrot memes sharing the image and similar edits of other Squid Game characters holding babies. The meme garnered significant virality in July 2025. Papa Squid Game was also combined with the Gi-hun Bunny memes.

Origin

On June 18th, 2022, YouTuber^[1] Sanabel Kids posted a video titled, "papa papa papa hh / Sound Effect Troll," garnering over 294,000 views in three years. The audio consists of a baby saying "papa" repeatedly over a slow piano melody.

On September 5th, 2023, Squid Game actor Lee Byung-hun, who plays Front Man, posted a selfie to Instagram^[2] from the seat of his car, garnering over 67,000 likes in two years.

On January 16th, TikToker^[3] @velvetnovel posted a video consisting of several blown-out edits of the photo, adding various accessories to the actor, garnering over 1.1 million views in six months.

This sparked a niche trend in January 2025 in which TikTokers^[4] upload similarly blown-out edits of Squid Game actors, sometimes referred to as HyperByunghun.

On January 23rd, TikToker^[5] @dark_hedgehog posted a video in which he shows himself scrolling through a wall of images on his phone, each image being an edit of Lee Byung-hun's head, taken from the Instagram selfie, pasted onto a cartoon character's body, holding a baby with actor Lee Jung-jae's head (who plays Seong Gi-hun), garnering over 1.3 million views in six months. The video is set to the "Papa" audio.

This is the earliest known video to share what is now known as the "Papa Squid Game" edit set to the audio, although it may not be the true original.

Spread

The meme garnered viral spread over the following months of 2025 as TikTokers and Squid Game fans began editing the Papa Squid Game image into memes.

For example, on January 27th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @iamjustsebbz posted a meme using the Papa Squid Game format in which edits of Papa are shown flying around a field on butterfly wings, garnering over 560,000 views in six months.

On February 1st, TikToker^[7] @fawerciasqi started posting photoshops of other Squid Game characters on the same baby-holding body.

The memes became increasingly popularized in late June and throughout July 2025. For example, on June 29th, TikToker^[8] @pikaoo.o posted a meme editing Papa Squid Game into a clip from Squid Game, garnering over 5.4 million views in just over a week.

On July 2nd, TikToker^[9] @vega.revamp posted the raw Papa Squid Game image and sound, garnering over 13 million views in a week.

On July 4th, YouTuber^[10] Idrawwithmouse posted a meme in which they recreate Papa Squid Game in Dress to Impress, garnering over 594,000 views in six days.

On July 5th, 2025, TikToker^[11] @xssume posted an animation featuring Papa Squid Game finding his baby in a dumpster in an alleyway, garnering over 10 million views in five days.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References