Pepe the Frog

Pepe
Boy's Club character
First appearance 2005 in Boy's Club[1]
Created by Matt Furie
Information
Species Frog
Gender Male

Pepe the Frog is a fictional character from Matt Furie's comic series Boy's Club. It became an internet meme when its popularity steadily grew across Myspace, Gaia Online and 4chan in 2008. By 2015, it had become one of the most popular memes used on Tumblr. Beginning in 2016, his image has increasingly been appropriated as a symbol of the controversial alt-right political movement. Because of the use of Pepe by the alt-right, the Anti-Defamation League added Pepe the Frog to their database of hate symbols in 2016, adding that not all Pepe memes are racist.[2] Since then, Pepe's creator, Matt Furie, had publicly expressed[3] his dismay at Pepe being used as a hate symbol, and is currently attempting to return a more positive connotation to the meme through various means, including a Twitter campaign called #SavePepe.

Pepe is portrayed as a green anthropomorphic frog, having a frog-like face and a humanoid body.[4] The meme's original use has evolved over time and has many variants, including Sad frog, Smug frog, Feels frog, and "You will never..." frog.[5]

History

Pepe the Frog was created by American artist Matt Furie. Its usage as a meme came from his comic, Boy's Club #1. The progenitor of Boy's Club was a zine that Furie made on Microsoft Paint called Playtime, which included Pepe as a character.[6] He posted his comic in a series of blog posts on Myspace in 2005.[5][7]

In the comic, Pepe was found urinating with his pants pulled down to his ankles and the catchphrase "feels good man" was his rationale.[8][9] Furie took those posts down when the printed edition was published in 2006.[5]

Pepe was used in blog posts on Myspace and became an in-joke on Gaia Online. In 2008, the page containing Pepe and the catchphrase was scanned and uploaded to 4chan's /b/ board, which was described by Motherboard as his "permanent home".[5] It took off among 4chan users, who adapted Pepe's face and the catchphrase to fit different scenarios and emotions, such as melancholy, anger, and surprise.[4] Color was also added, originally a black and white line drawing, Pepe became green with brown lips, sometimes in a blue shirt.[7][8] "Feels Guy", or "Wojak", originally an unrelated character typically used to express melancholy, was eventually often paired with Pepe in user-made comics or images.[9]

"My Pepe philosophy is simple: 'Feels good man.' It is based on the meaning of the word Pepe: 'To go Pepe.' I find complete joy in physically, emotionally, and spiritually serving Pepe and his friends through comics. Each comic is sacred, and the compassion of my readers transcends any differences, the pain, and fear of 'feeling good.'"

–Matt Furie, 2015 interview with The Daily Dot[4]

Around 2015, as Pepe's usage was increasing, a phenomenon began on 4chan where users would declare certain variants as rare, known as a "rare Pepe". These images, sometimes as physical paintings,[10][11] were put up for sale and auction on eBay and posted in listings on Craigslist.[4][5] 4chan users referred to those who used the meme outside of the website as "normies" in response to the meme's increase in usage.[5] That year Pepe was #6 on Daily News and Analysis' list of the most important memes and was the most reblogged meme on Tumblr.[12][13]

During the 2016 United States presidential election, associations of the character with Donald Trump's campaign, white nationalism, and the alt-right were described by various news organizations.[14][15][16] In May 2016, Olivia Nuzzi of The Daily Beast wrote how there was "an actual campaign to reclaim Pepe from normies" and that "turning Pepe into a white nationalist icon" was an explicit goal of some on the alt-right.[17] In September 2016, an article published on Hillary Clinton's campaign website described Pepe as "a symbol associated with white supremacy" and denounced Donald Trump's campaign for its supposed promotion of the meme.[18][19] The same month, the two sources for Nuzzi's Daily Beast article revealed to The Daily Caller that they had coordinated beforehand to mislead Nuzzi (particularly about the existence of a campaign) under the expectation that she would uncritically repeat what she was told, with one saying "Basically, I interspersed various nuggets of truth and exaggerated a lot of things, and sometimes outright lied — in the interest of making a journalist believe that online Trump supporters are largely a group of meme-jihadis who use a cartoon frog to push Nazi propaganda. Because this was funny to me.".[20] The Anti-Defamation League, an American organization opposed to antisemitism, included Pepe in its hate symbol database but noted that most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context.[21][22]

In an interview with Esquire, Furie commented on Pepe's usage as a hate symbol, stating: "It sucks, but I can't control it more than anyone can control frogs on the Internet".[23] Fantagraphics Books, Furie's publisher, issued a statement condemning the "illegal and repulsive appropriations of the character".[24] On October 17, Furie published a satirical take of Pepe's appropriation to the alt-right movement on The Nib.[25][26] This was his first comic for the character since he ended Boy's Club in 2012.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Priscilla, Frank (September 30, 2016). "The Strange Internet Journey Of Pepe The 'Chilled-Out Stoner Frog'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Pepe the Frog meme branded a 'hate symbol'". BBC News. 2016-09-28. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  3. ↑ "Pepe The Frog: From Innocent Meme To Hate Symbol". Super Deluxe.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Khan, Imad (April 12, 2015). "4chan's Pepe the Frog is bigger than ever—and his creator feels good, man". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kiberd, Roisin (April 9, 2015). "4chan's Frog Meme Went Mainstream, So They Tried to Kill It". Motherboard. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  6. ↑ Furino, Giaco (August 3, 2016). "Pepe the Frog's Creator Talks Making Zine History". The Creators Project. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Mazur, AJ (August 7, 2010). "Q&A with Matt Furie". Know Your Meme. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Collins, Sean T. (July 28, 2015). "The Creator of Pepe the Frog Talks About Making Comics in the Post-Meme World". VICE. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Haskell, Will (July 30, 2015). "This guy created the frog meme that's all over the internet — here's why he's 'kinda pissed off'". Tech Insider. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  10. ↑ Blevins, Joe (October 28, 2015). "Read This: Could images of 4chan's "sad frog" meme actually be worth money?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  11. ↑ Bergado, Gabe (September 10, 2015). "The rare Pepe trade is booming on Craigslist". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  12. ↑ Nair, Roshni (December 27, 2015). "Best of 2015: 15 memes that won the internet". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Here are the 10 most important memes of 2015, according to Tumblr". Irish Examiner. December 8, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  14. ↑ Sarlin, Benjy (August 25, 2016). "5 Things to Know About the 'Right'". NBC News. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  15. ↑ Dovere, Edward-Isaac (September 12, 2016). "Why Clinton's bad weekend won't rewrite the race". Politico. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  16. ↑ Kampeas, Ron (September 1, 2016). "Do alt-right's white identity politics sanction anti-Semitism?". J Weekly. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  17. ↑ Nuzzi, Olivia (May 26, 2016). "How Pepe the Frog Became a Nazi Trump Supporter and Alt-Right Symbol". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  18. ↑ Chan, Elizabeth (September 12, 2016). "Donald Trump, Pepe the frog, and white supremacists: an explainer". Hillary for America. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  19. ↑ Revesz, Rachael (September 13, 2016). "Hillary Clinton attacks Donald Trump for posting Pepe the Frog meme". The Independent. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  20. ↑ Bennett, Jonah (September 14, 2016). "Here's How Two Twitter Pranksters Convinced The World That Pepe The Frog Meme Is Just A Front For White Nationalism". The Daily Caller News Foundation. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  21. ↑ Smith IV, Jack (September 27, 2016). "Pepe the Frog meme is now on the ADL's hate symbol database. Feels bad, man.". Mic. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Pepe the Frog". Anti-Defamation League. September 27, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  23. ↑ Miller, Matt (September 28, 2016). "Exclusive: The Creator of Pepe the Frog Is Voting for Hillary". Esquire. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  24. ↑ "The Truth About Pepe the Frog". Fantagraphics Books. October 6, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  25. ↑ Wade, Cameron (October 17, 2016). "Pepe the Frog Creator Matt Furie Pens New Comic Showing Pepe's Alt-Right Nightmare". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  26. ↑ Powell, Austin (October 17, 2016). "Pepe the Frog creator's new Trump comic captures the horror of the 2016 election". Daily Dot. Retrieved October 23, 2016.

Further reading

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