Later in the election, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. In October 2015, Trump retweeted a Pepe representation of himself, associated with a video called "You Can't Stump the Trump (Volume 4)". ĭuring the 2016 United States presidential election, the meme was connected to Donald Trump's campaign. Some of the variants produced by this had Nazi Germany, Ku Klux Klan, or white power skinhead themes. Appropriation by the alt-rightĪs early as 2015, a number of Pepe variants were created by Internet trolls to associate the character with the alt-right movement. According to Inverse, it was one of the most-reblogged memes on Tumblr in 2015. The Daily Intelligencer called it Tumblr's "Biggest Meme of 2015". In 2015, Pepe was #6 on Daily News and Analysis 's list of the most important memes and the most retweeted meme on Twitter. Users from 4chan, Reddit, and elsewhere attempted to prevent mainstream usage of the meme by "making Pepe as shocking as possible". 4chan users referred to those who used the meme outside the website as "normies" (or "normalfags"). These images, sometimes as physical paintings, were sold on eBay and posted on Craigslist. As Pepe became more widespread, 4chan users began referring to particularly creative and unique variants of the meme as "rare Pepes". In 2014, images of Pepe were shared on social media by celebrities such as Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. There, it has been known as shangxin qingwa (傷心青蛙), or "sad frog". Versions of the meme appeared on Chinese social media, such as Baidu Tieba, as early as 2014. That same year, the "Smug Pepe" variant emerged.
The "sad frog" variation entered usage on Tumblr by 2012. "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. Color was also added originally a black-and-white line drawing, Pepe became green with brown lips, sometimes in a blue shirt. "Feels bad, man", a sad variant of the frog's "feels good, man" catchphrase, also became associated with Pepe. The meme took off among 4chan users, who adapted Pepe's face and catchphrase to fit different scenarios and emotions, such as melancholy, anger, and surprise. In 2008, the page containing Pepe and the catchphrase was scanned and uploaded to 4chan's /b/ board, which has been described as the meme's "permanent home". Pepe was used in blog posts on Myspace in 2005 and became an in-joke on Gaia Online. Furie took those posts down when the printed edition was published in 2006. In the comic, Pepe is seen urinating with his pants pulled down to his ankles and the catchphrase "feels good man" was his rationale.
#Ha gay meme origin gif series
He posted his comic in a series of blog posts on Myspace in 2005. The progenitor of Boy's Club was a zine Furie made on Microsoft Paint called Playtime, which included Pepe as a character. Its usage as an Internet meme came from his comic Boy's Club #1. Pepe the Frog was created by American artist and cartoonist Matt Furie in 2005. –Matt Furie, 2015 interview with The Daily Dot Each comic is sacred, and the compassion of my readers transcends any differences, the pain, and fear of 'feeling good'." I find complete joy in physically, emotionally, and spiritually serving Pepe and his friends through comics. "My Pepe philosophy is simple: 'Feels good man.' It is based on the meaning of the word Pepe: 'To go Pepe'. Pepe remains a recognizable and familiar sight on social media platforms like 4chan, Twitch, Reddit, and Discord, where images are modified into custom Pepe-based emoji. Furie has welcomed the use of Pepe by Hong Kong protesters. Despite being used in a political context, Pepe the Frog's use in Hong Kong is not perceived as being connected with alt-right ideology. In 2019, Pepe was used by protesters in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Since then, Furie has expressed his dismay at Pepe being used as a hate symbol and has sued organizations for doing so. The Anti-Defamation League included Pepe in its hate symbol database in 2016, but said most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context. Originally an apolitical character, Pepe was appropriated from 2015 to 2016 onward as a symbol of the alt-right movement. Since 2014, ' rare Pepes' have been posted on the 'meme market' as if they were trading cards.
Different types of Pepe include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never." Frog. By 2015, it had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. It became an Internet meme when its popularity steadily grew across Myspace, Gaia Online and 4chan in 2008. Pepe originated in a 2005 comic by Matt Furie called Boy's Club. Pepe the Frog ( / ˈ p ɛ p eɪ/) is an Internet meme consisting of a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body.