Pepe the Frog

Pepe the Frog is a <a href="/facts/Comics/KeDK1haL">comic</a> character and <a href="/facts/Internet_meme/f1fL5oT3">Internet meme</a> created by cartoonist <a href="/facts/Matt_Furie/Bx3f9kjJ">Matt Furie</a>. Designed as green <a href="/facts/Anthropomorphic/foTf9q24">anthropomorphic</a> <a href="/facts/Frog/IxYhbeda">frog</a> with a <a href="/facts/Humanoid/hTPy3T6J">humanoid</a> body usually wearing a blue tee-shirt, Pepe originated in Furie's 2005 webcomic Boy's Club. The character became an Internet meme when his popularity steadily grew across websites such as <a href="/facts/Myspace/dES860Ro">Myspace</a>, <a href="/facts/Gaia_Online/h3p2sm1b">Gaia Online</a>, and <a href="/facts/4chan/eSLuYvUN">4chan</a> from 2008 onwards; by 2015, he had become one of the most popular memes on 4chan and <a href="/facts/Tumblr/QRMD7RbY">Tumblr</a>, and he currently remains one of the most popular memes in the world, as well as a popular <a href="/facts/Emoji/Qkp7gwBH">emoji</a> on social media, <a href="/facts/Discord/Q10BXbo3">Discord</a>, and <a href="/facts/Twitch_(service)/mpXWXcTj">Twitch</a> chats.
Different types of Pepe memes include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never..." Frog; the most popular sentences associated to him are "Feels Good Man" (a quote from his original Boy's Club appearance, which became the character's <a href="/facts/Catchphrase/N54QWsYr">catchphrase</a>) and its opposite, "Feels Bad Man", meant to respectively express joy and sadness. Since 2014, "Rare Pepes" have been posted on the "meme market" as if they were <a href="/facts/Trading_card/M7WDA1Vd">trading cards</a>.
Although originally an apolitical character in Furie's works and its original internet popularity, Pepe was appropriated from 2015 onward as a symbol of the <a href="/facts/Alt-right/h4XtmDca">alt-right</a> <a href="/facts/White_nationalism/xh1ehEAl">white nationalist</a> movement. The <a href="/facts/Anti-Defamation_League/oSCrg8fy">Anti-Defamation League</a> (ADL) included Pepe in its hate symbol database in 2016, but said most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context. Since then, Furie has expressed his dismay at Pepe being used as a hate symbol and has sued organizations for doing so; the history of Pepe and Furie's attempt to dissociate the character from the alt-right were covered in the 2020 documentary film <a href="/facts/Feels_Good_Man/IDp3ePeV">Feels Good Man</a>. In 2019, Pepe was used by protesters in the <a href="/facts/2019%25E2%2580%25932020_Hong_Kong_protests/6Faorbj9">2019–2020 Hong Kong protests</a>; conversely to its western political use, Pepe the Frog's symbolism in Hong Kong is not perceived as being connected with alt-right ideology, and was welcomed by Furie.

Pepe the Frog open-in-new

Pepe the Frog