Viral alligator kick meme explained: Are these images real?

An image depicting a man kicking an alligator in the middle of a swamp has gone viral due to the sheer absurdity of the picture. But is this image real? If so, where did it come from? Here’s everything you need to know.

Now more than ever, it feels like the next big meme comes out of nowhere. From a case like Kagurabachi spawning a small-scale cultural movement simply by existing to an image of a blue smurf cat that people thought was AI-generated, it’s hard to tell what will take off next.

However, upon seeing the image of a man kicking an alligator that’s become an overnight viral hit, it’s pretty easy to tell why people love this image so much. It’s a man engaging in close-quarters combat with an alligator; what’s not to love?

But are these images authentic? And, if so, who’s the absolute legend fighting off these alligators?

Viral alligator kick meme images explained

Unfortunately, the image of a man kicking an alligator isn’t real. It’s AI-generated. While it’s a bit shocking just how much better AI has gotten at creating photographs, there’s no doubt that this image is AI-generated upon closer inspection.

The full set of images is even more revealing and shows the story behind the alligator kick: Those swamp creatures stole his pizza.

Considering how drastically the man’s proportions shift between images and the bizarre layout of these images as that gator steals his pizza, the complete series of images is much more obvious than the climax that’s gone viral.

In all fairness, it’s hard to deny just how good that last image is without context. Alternatively, people have been adding their own context to make the image spread like wildfire.

Though it has a few apparent tells, like the gators having bizarre anatomy and the man’s foot being bizarrely smushed as it makes contact with the gator’s snout, this is certainly a case where AI has been good enough to trick many into thinking it’s a real image.