Pepe The Frog

About

Pepe the Frog is an anthropomorphic frog character from the comic series Boy’s Club by Matt Furie. On 4chan , various illustrations of the frog creature have been used as reaction faces , including Feels Good Man , Sad Frog , Angry Pepe , Smug Frog and Well Meme'd .

Origin

In 2005, artist Matt Furie created the comic series Boy's Club , which stars the teenage monster characters Pepe, Brett, Andy and Landwolf. [2] In early 2008, comic in which Pepe pulls his pants down to his ankles in order to urinate is rumored to have been popularized on 4chan's /b/, (random) board, along with the expression "Feels good man."

Spread

Throughout 2008, Pepe was mostly associated with the "Feels Good Man" reaction image. On February 4th, Something Awful [91] contributor Jon Hendren (a.k.a. @fart) posted the "Feels Good Man" comic to the site. In 2009, an edited version featuring a distraught-looking Pepe with the caption "Feels bad man" began circulating as a reaction image on 4chan and the Body Building Forums . On January 25th, 2011, an interview with Furie was published on Know Your Meme , in which he discussed the origins of Pepe the Frog. On June 13th, 2014, the PepeTheFrogBlog Tumblr [11] blog was launched. On July 23rd, the Pepe the Frog Instagram [14] feed was created. On October 25th, the /r/pepethefrog [13] subreddit was launched for content featuring the frog character. On December 7th, a Facebook [10] page for "Pepe the Frog" was created. On December 18th, the PepeTheFrogNet Tumblr [12] blog was launched. On November 8th, 2014, Katy Perry tweeted a picture of Pepe crying with the caption " Australian jet lag got me like" (shown below). [46] Over the next three years, the tweet received more than 17,000 likes and 10,500 retweets. On December 18th, 2014, rapper Nicki Minaj posted an illustration of Pepe bent over and prominently displaying his buttocks with the caption "Me on Instagram for the next few weeks trying to get my followers back up" (shown below). [47] Over the next two years, the post received more than 281,000 likes and 13,900 comments. On October 13th, 2015, Donald Trump tweeted an illustration of Pepe as himself standing at a podium with the President of the United States Seal (shown below). [45] Within 16 months, the post gathered upwards of 11,000 likes and 8,100 retweets. On January 2nd, 2017, the Twitter account for the fast food chain restaurant Wendy’s responded to a user who asked “Got any memes ?” with a picture of Pepe the Frog drawn in the likeness of the Wendy’s mascot. The tweet, shown below, drew criticism and was deleted, causing the account to tweet, “Our community manager was unaware of the recent evolution of the Pepe meme’s meaning and this tweet was promptly deleted.” On January 9th, 2016, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom tweeted a picture of Smug Pepe in a tweet reaction to news about an upcoming meeting between British Prime Minister Theresa May and United States President-elect Donald Trump (shown below). [48] Over the next 24 hours, the tweet gained over 9,000 likes and 6,200 retweets. In the coming days, the news sites The Daily Dot , [49] Vox [50] and IBI Times [51] published articles about the tweet, referring to the Smug Pepe illustration as a "racist meme" and "white supremacist symbol."