Pepe the Frog
Alternative meme created by Aidan Gorneau
- Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character created by artist Matt Furie, and is depicted as a laid-back, green frog with a variety of expressive faces, embodying different emotions and situations. The character became widely popular on the internet, often used in humorous and relatable contexts.However, over time, the image of Pepe the Frog has been used by various online communities, leading to its transformation into a symbol with troubling connotations. Some users on the internet began altering Pepe’s image to convey racist, anti-Semitic, and extremist messages. This dark turn for the meme led to its association with hate groups and online propaganda, which repurposed the character to spread harmful ideologies and incite division. According to the BBC, “racists and haters had taken a popular internet meme and twisted it. Pepe has recently been depicted as Adolf Hitler and a member of the white supremacist KKK.”
Pepe the Frog has also been used by Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign, as well as a childrens book called The Adventures of Pepe and Pede, and alt-right social media platforms to convey racist, Islamophobic and hate-filled themes, according to a federal lawsuit Furie filed. According to the Pepe Wikipedia, “In September 2016, an article published on Hillary Clintons campaign website described Pepe as ‘a symbol associated with white supremacy’ and denounced Trump’s campaign for its supposed promotion of the meme.”
Furie has been vocal about his disapproval of these misuses of his creation. He has made efforts to reclaim and rehabilitate Pepe’s image, working to restore the character’s original, positive intent. Despite these efforts, the damaging versions of Pepe have had a lasting impact, showing how internet memes can evolve and be used in harmful ways that diverge from their original meanings.
- My meme, which has Pepe saying “be nice man,” won’t ever be as popular as the harmful memes, but it can be used as a way of stopping the spread of hateful memes. The reason I don’t think it will ever be as popular is because it doesn’t evoke emotion like the harmful ones do, and will never be virally shared whether the intent is good or not. It is not possible for good news to travel faster than bad news, as bad news, no matter good or bad publicity, will always evoke more emotion out of the viewer, and can have different meanings for different people, while positive news can only become popular if it is spun into a negative connotation to create more publicity.
