7 Shocking Secrets Of The King Cake Baby Mascot: From Sacred Tradition To NBA's Creepiest Star

Few cultural symbols manage to be both a sacred religious icon and a source of internet-breaking nightmare fuel, but the King Cake Baby mascot does exactly that. As of December 16, 2025, this bizarre figure remains a central, yet deeply strange, part of the annual Mardi Gras celebration, encompassing centuries of history, a lucrative NBA marketing stunt, and even a multi-million-dollar Hollywood lawsuit.

The story of the King Cake Baby is a tale of two infants: the tiny plastic figurine hidden inside the iconic Mardi Gras dessert and the colossal, unsettling, full-size mascot that stalks the sidelines for the New Orleans Pelicans. Both versions are quintessentially New Orleans—a perfect blend of deep tradition and the delightfully bizarre, making it one of the most fascinating cultural entities in modern sports and food history.

The Sacred Origin: From Bean to Plastic Jesus

The tradition of the King Cake itself dates back to the European celebration of the Christian holiday of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, which falls on January 6th, marking the arrival of the Three Wise Men (or Magi) to see the Baby Jesus. The cake's circular shape and vibrant colors are meant to symbolize a jeweled crown and the unity of the season.

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The practice of hiding a small item inside the cake—the precursor to the King Cake Baby—began centuries ago.

• The Original Trinket: The Bean. Initially, the item hidden inside the cake was a simple, uncooked bean. The person who found the bean was considered "king" or "queen" for the day, symbolizing a new year and new beginnings. Some ancient traditions even linked the finder to a sacrifice for a rich harvest, though modern customs are far less morbid.
• The Ring and Porcelain Era. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the bean was sometimes replaced by a valuable ring or other small trinket. The transition to a baby figurine began in the 1940s when a New Orleans baker, Donald Entringer, started using small porcelain dolls, which he intended to symbolize Baby Jesus.
• The Plastic Baby Takes Over. As porcelain dolls ran out, bakers, including Entringer, switched to small, inexpensive plastic babies, which a traveling salesman had popularized. This plastic infant became the enduring symbol we know today.

The Meaning of the Baby and the Finder's Obligation

Finding the baby in your slice of King Cake is a big deal, and it comes with a specific social contract. The figurine symbolizes luck and prosperity for the finder, who is crowned the "king" or "queen" of the gathering.

However, that honor is not free. Tradition dictates that the lucky recipient is responsible for hosting the next King Cake party and purchasing the cake for that subsequent celebration, keeping the Mardi Gras revelry going.

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For safety reasons, most modern bakeries no longer bake the plastic baby *inside* the cake to avoid a choking hazard or liability. Instead, they provide the baby separately, leaving the purchaser to hide it themselves before serving.

The Creepy King: The New Orleans Pelicans’ Nightmare Mascot

The traditional King Cake Baby is tiny and often cute; the New Orleans Pelicans’ King Cake Baby is anything but. This life-size, unsettling mascot is a seasonal co-mascot for the NBA team, making appearances around the Carnival season, typically from the Epiphany (January 6th) through Fat Tuesday.

The mascot, which wears a bib, a diaper, and a crown, has been widely described as "the stuff of nightmares," "super creepy," and "hauntingly weird."

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• The Creator and the Intentional Strangeness. The terrifying mascot was created in 2009 by Jonathan Bertuccelli, a New Orleans native whose father also created the famous Mr. Bingle Christmas mascot. Bertuccelli has stated that the intentional strangeness is "quintessentially New Orleans," a city that "loves the offbeat and embraces something that's strange and embraces something that's fun."
• The Debut and Viral Fame. The King Cake Baby officially debuted in 2014, joining the team's primary mascot, Pierre T. Pelican. Its bizarre appearance instantly went viral, garnering national attention and solidifying its status as one of the most infamous and unsettling mascots in professional sports.
• A Seasonal Star. The mascot is a beloved part of the Pelicans' Mardi Gras celebration. For example, in 2024, the King Cake Baby returned to all home games through early February, continuing its tradition of doling out King Cake to fans and terrifying unsuspecting bystanders.

The $200 Million Lawsuit: King Cake Baby vs. Hollywood

The notoriety of the Pelicans’ King Cake Baby mascot extended far beyond the basketball court when its creator, Jonathan Bertuccelli, filed a massive lawsuit against a major film studio.

In 2019, Bertuccelli filed a $200 million lawsuit against Blumhouse Films and Universal Studios, among others, claiming that the mask used in the popular slasher film franchise *Happy Death Day* was a direct, unauthorized copy of his King Cake Baby design.

• The Alleged Copycat. The mask in the *Happy Death Day* films features an unsettling, oversized baby face with unblinking eyes, a look that Bertuccelli argued was so "substantially similar" to his King Cake Baby that the two were indistinguishable.
• The Local Connection. Adding to the controversy, the first *Happy Death Day* movie was filmed at Loyola University in New Orleans and was set in Louisiana, suggesting the filmmakers had local exposure to the original mascot.
• The Outcome. Bertuccelli sought half of the net proceeds from the original film and its sequel, which had reportedly netted $125 million in profits. While the final legal outcome is complex, the lawsuit cemented the King Cake Baby’s place in pop culture, proving that a local New Orleans tradition could become the subject of a major Hollywood legal battle.

The Enduring Legacy of the King Cake Baby

Whether you are celebrating the Epiphany by sharing a sweet brioche ring or watching a professional basketball game, the King Cake Baby is a symbol that cannot be ignored. It represents the historical and religious roots of Mardi Gras, with the colors purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power) adorning the cake.

The evolution from a simple bean to a porcelain trinket, and finally to the mass-produced plastic figurine, shows a living tradition that adapts while keeping its core meaning of luck, prosperity, and communal responsibility intact.

The New Orleans Pelicans' life-size version embraces the city's unique spirit—a willingness to celebrate the strange, the offbeat, and the unforgettable. The King Cake Baby, in all its forms, ensures that the spirit of Carnival, from the sacred to the scary, continues to roll on. *Laissez les bons temps rouler!*