How does a beloved internet meme become a hate symbol?
This is a pretty fair question to ask. After all, given Pepe the frog is not a character devised by the alt-right and the comic he comes from does not really touch on that ideology it makes very little sense for him to be included in Neo-Nazi and alt-right iconography. But yet here we are. Pepe the frog is on the ADL’s hate symbol database and he seems to pop up a lot at political rallies despite having little to do with the subject matter. Why is this? And more importantly, what is being done about it, and what forms does it take?
Let’s find out.
The Origins of Pepe and his rise
The origins of Pepe can be traced back to as early as 2005 with a self-published internet comic called “Boys Club” written by Matt Furie.
The comic itself is about 4 teenage stoner roommates (one of which being Pepe) going about their lives and the shenanigans that follow as a result. It’s very laid back and is mostly focused on the dynamic between the 4 roommates along with stoner humor. Pepe himself is introduced in issue 1 of the comic with his pants around his ankles while peeing saying his signature phrase “Feels good man”. And while I would not call the comic extremely unpopular, it definitely did not blow up like Pepe himself did. Due to the absurdity of his introduction panel and the pretty universal nature of the phrase “feels good man”, Pepe himself began to quickly gain popularity on a lot of early internet forums like Gaia online and even on myspace as more or less a forum in-joke. This was shortly after the comic’s initial release. And at some point during 2008, Pepe made the jump to 4chan after his introduction page was also posted on the /b/ boards.
This is roughly when Pepe’s popularity exploded across the internet at large. He was on Tumblr, 4chan, the original forums he was already on, and almost every other website where images could be posted to some extent.
Due to the versatility of the phrase “feels good man”, Pepe could be adapted to fit almost any scenario. If you experienced a personal victory, you could post a “feels good man” Pepe image. And likewise, if you are feeling ‘down’ you could post a “feels bad man” version of that image. It’s a pretty versatile reaction image. And as time marched on more and more versions of Pepe would pop up, mostly fan creations. “Sad Pepe” appeared in 2012 thanks to Tumblr along with the “Smug Pepe” and a lot of the “rare Pepe” images as well. 2010 to about 2014 was the golden age of these. And while rips of Pepe would still be taken from the comic he originated from, most of what was being produced during this time was made by and for the internet totally separate from Pepe’s creator. And this version of Pepe was so popular, it even caught the attention of mainstream pop culture in the form of being shared by several mainstream celebrities.
The theft of Pepe
As you might be able to guess from the section above, Pepe was never initially a political symbol nor was he ever meant to be political. He was a stoner frog who got adopted by the internet because he more or less represented the internet at large in a very loose way… or at least was flexible enough so that could be possible. Pepe became a cornerstone of internet culture and meme culture because of his versatility. But this versatility also meant Pepe could be used or depicted in almost any situation, ANY SITUATION. And this is where issues begin to pop up. Due to the nature of the internet itself, it’s kind of hard to tell when this shift in Pepe’s use actually began to happen. However, what can be said with confidence is that the shift probably happened between 2014-2016. These were the years when the internet took a more “edgy” turn and dark/offensive humor was the new “cool”. Dunking on feminists was cool, making fun of people you perceived as “cringy” or “weird” was cool, and there was a pretty notable spike in support for right-wing ideology and figures.
Due to the nature of memes like Pepe, their use could be applied to virtually anything which means their context could be changed to suit whatever you wanted it to. And since internet trolling shifted from showing up to a date in a pickle suit to arguing Hitler was not that bad of a guy (but as a joke of course): Racist and Alt-Right versions of Pepe the frog began to appear as well. These could range from Pepe being dressed as a clan member, Pepe’s catchphrase being changed from “Feels good man” to “Kill Jews Man”, and even visual cartoonish depictions of Pepe operating a concentration camp or orchestrating 9/11. This is by no means an exhaustive list as many other forms of racist Pepe exist outside of what I have mentioned. They are plenty. But as the internet itself began to get more “edgy” and Fascism, Nazism, anti-sexism, and racism began to become just “more funny ironic jokes”, the number of these types of Pepe memes began to increase alongside Pepe being used in his normal form.
2015-2016 is when things really begin to get interesting. Donald Trump and his family members tweeted several variations of Pepe during the 2016 election (including the infamous “deplorable” tweet made by Hillary Clinton) which more or less created an association between Donald Trump and Pepe. Several other Alt-right or “regular right” figures also began to use the Pepe meme more frequently, probably because of the Trump association along with the general versatility of the meme format. The Daily Stormer (an alt-right publication known for spreading misinformation and hate) began using it. And its use as a neutral meme began to be eclipsed by people hijacking it in the name of Hitler, Nazism, Fascism, or hate in general.
This is also a good time to bring up Kekistan.
Kekistan is a fictional country created by the alt-right on /pol/ as a method of protest against political correctness and changing social tides. People who subscribe to this movement call themselves “Kekistni” and or claim to subscribe to “Esoteric Kekism” which is a parody religion where they worship a version of Pepe the frog heavily spliced with iconography which calls back to the obscure frog god in ancient Egyptian Mythology, Kek. It should also be noted that the “Kekistani flag” is a modified Nazi Naval ensign that is green instead of red and has Ks in place of a Swastika.
This flag has also been spotted at the 2021 raid of the US capital that occurred on January 6th.
Between Kekistan and the use of Pepe by figures like Trump and later publications like the Daily Stormer and or Infowars: He had been officially coopted by the Alt-right by the time 2017 rolled around. This occurred in a way that was very similar to the theft of other once politically neutral characters and symbols such as “Moonman” (a character from a Mcdonald’s ad) and even the Swastika as it was once a symbol of peace in Buddhist tradition. Nazi’s tend to steal things that do not belong to them and give them new meanings despite those things having no root in hate. And given Pepe was such a large part of the internet and was such a versatile template: it both makes sense and is very sad that this is the case.
Pepe’s creator fights back
Matt Furie, Pepe’s creator, was not unaware of what was going on with his character. He was in fact VERY aware of what was going on. As far back as 2016, Matt would give interviews where he openly expressed his distaste and disgust with how people were using his character. On October 13th, 2016 Matt gave an interview with Time Magazine where he stated “I understand that it’s out of my control, but in the end, Pepe is whatever you say he is, and I, the creator, say that Pepe is love.” The next day he would partner with the ADL and started the “Save Pepe” campaign in hopes of De-Nazifying his creation and instead associating it with love, or at the very least return things to baseline. Matt would also begin aggressively enforcing his copyright over the character by way of his publisher (as Boys Club had been picked up by a publisher and was now being physically printed). The Daily Stormer, Infowars, and various other alt-right publications/sites/stores were hit with copyright violations and had anything that related to Pepe forcefully removed. This all happened over the course of several years but it was a big win for Matt, or at least helped Pepe’s image stop spreading in that direction.
And on May 6th 2017: Pepe officially died… in the comic.
While retaking Pepe’s image was not impossible, between the constant legal battles and the stress of having something you created turned into something so terrible: Matt Furie decided he was going to kill off the character. This was 5 years after the main comic itself ended. In interviews, Matt had stated how doing that felt cathartic and it was his way of dealing with the situation at hand. The death of Pepe did not mean he would never use the character again. But it was a mark of a new era… at least for himself and hopefully Pepe too. The legal battles still trudge on, but that is another beast.
Where is Pepe now?
Pepe still occupies this weird niche where he is both a hate symbol and not a hate symbol. While the efforts of de-Nazifying Pepe have helped, they have not totally fixed the problem. So there still exists 2 camps of people who use Pepe: the racists and not racists. You can usually tell which camp you are dealing with depending on how Pepe is used within the context of how he is posted. If Pepe is depicted as an Egyptian god, Kek is brought up, or you see an abundance of him alongside other dogwhistles: its pretty clear what you are dealing with. Meanwhile, if he is used just as a reaction image to something else or is posted in a context that has little to do with anything discriminatory: chances are you are dealing with a normal person using Pepe for normal reasons. Like the ADL says on its page for Pepe: Pepe himself is not inherently a hate symbol, he is just frequently used as one alongside his normal use.
The many MANY Versions of Pepe
Pepe has gone through a divergent meme evolution as the years progressed. Multiple versions of him exist: all of which are both Pepe and not Pepe at the same time. This section will attempt to list them and explain what they mean and their origin points.
Pepe (the original)
Pepe the frog, in his most basic form, is the quintessential reaction image. He is versatile, is not really assigned to one set idea, and can be used in almost any situation with minimal edits. This is also where all of the other variations come from
Peepo/Apu Apustaja
Peepo (also called Pepo or Apu Apustaja) is a poorly drawn version of Pepe commonly used as Discord or Streamer emotes created sometime around 2017. It was popularized on a Finnish image board Ylilauta but it is also suspected to have ties back to 4chan as well. But unlike its much older counterpart, Peepo is generally limited to emotes/reactions and is often depicted as a much happier version of the original. There are also significantly fewer racist versions of it.
Groyper
Groyper is a version of Pepe that has ALL of its history rooted in the alt-right. Groyper (or the Eastern Toad) was created in 2016 on the 4chan board /r9k/ and later migrated to /pol/ as “a friend of Pepe”. It is unclear how this happened but Groyper was adopted by the “Groyper” movement led by Neo-Nazi figurehead Nick Fuentes and was used as an unofficial mascot on Twitter for the group. But beyond Fuentes, its a general alt-right symbol.
Borpa
This is an EVEN MORE poorly drawn version of Pepe created sometime in 2019 but did not really gain any traction till 2021. There is not much of note here other than this version of Pepe being another emote.
Kek
This depiction of Pepe dates back to around 2016 and unlike the rest is not very uniform in nature. Depictions of this version of Pepe will vary a lot both in terms of art style, general format, and image quality. But what will remain the same is that this Pepe will usually be wearing some form of Egyptian/”Pharoh” attire and will be depicted as some kind of god/esoteric figure.
Rare Pepes
Rare Pepes are more or less just different visual variations of the normal Pepe the frog. These have been around for almost as long as Pepe has and usually range from coloration changes to modifications to the line art to turn Pepe into something else while still keeping enough of Pepe’s original traits to keep him recognizable. “Cheesed to meet you”, “Diamond Pepe”, and the Pepe with the Google Chrome logo are all examples of this in practice. There was also a series of Ebay trolls in 2015 claiming to be selling rare Pepes along with a crypto-based trading card game that came about shortly after.
Well Meme’d
This version of Pepe was rumored to have started somewhere on the /sp/ (sports) board on 4chan but it can only officially be traced back to /tv/.
Dog Whistles often used alongside Pepe
“Kek”: While it originally was the Korean text term for laughter, it is now a word the alt-right commonly use to denote success OR is something meant to call back to Kekistan, Kek (Pepe), or the parody religion attached to Kekistan.
“Double Lightening bolts” (emojis): Meant to reference the SS
“Based”: Something that is authoritative or strong
“Clown World”: A phrase used to describe allowing “extremely stupid things” to exist in society with little pushback. The stupid things in question are racial equality, marriage equality, LGBTQ rights, suffrage, disability accommodations and or services the normalization of those things, and allowing individuality.
“Fren”: a bizarre corruption of the word “friend” commonly used by the alt-right in more memey contexts.
“Normie“: Anybody outside of the alt-right sphere
“Soy boy”: a pejorative used to describe men on the left, specifically LGBTQ men or men who are more passive in nature.
“Troon”: slur for trans people
Why does the alt-right use and steal memes?
Memes are an attractive recruitment tool, humor is in general actually.
Humor often disarms the emotional impact/moral implication of what is being said. If something is “a joke” it puts less moral responsibility on the person saying it. There is a layer of plausible deniability you can hide behind because not every person finds all humor inherently funny. But it also works for normalizing messages and boosting morale within groups by creating a sense of comradery through in-jokes. It simultaneously keeps people engaged while keeping people coming in and normalizing whatever is being joked about. The alt-right hides behind irony because if everything is ironic, there are no real consequences if something happens. And because something is ironic it allows you to expose more people to your ideas without making them feel like they are joining a hate group. It just feels like shitposting among friends or trying to use dark humor. It makes things look not as bad as they actually are. To use an example: saying “I hate people irrationally because I feel entitled to power” is not going to get you friends. Not only does it sound entitled as hell, it also is not going to make people join your side or become entrenched in your circle. However, making a bunch of jokes about how terrible the group you hate is while inviting others to joke with you might result in more people sticking around. And if somebody calls you out, just accuse them of ruining your fun or being sensitive because “it’s just a joke”.
Memes are coopted as easy-use tools of ideological spread. If it was not Pepe it would have been something else. But what made Pepe (and any others) attractive was the fact he was versatile and was constantly being used in many different ways. He did not die out after 2 or so weeks, he kept going. And he is somebody everybody knows even if they don’t frequent forums like 4chan or Reddit. And memes like that are the best to hijack since they stay around. They keep existing and therefore so does your cultural relevance if you use them.
Does using Pepe make me racist?
No, no it does not. The inherent use of Pepe, peepo, or MOST of his other variations does not make you a member of the alt-right or a racist. Pepe is still being used in his original form and not all of his uses are harmful or even have political implications to them. He still exists as the same benign character he was before.
HOWEVER
It is important you know what you are sharing and the words you are saying. If you are sharing the Groyper meme and frequently use words/phrases I used above alongside it: it might be worth it to reconsider what the point of what you are saying/posting actually is. Because an easy way to get sucked into an ideological pipeline is to stumble across one and not recognize what it is. This is not ideological policing, this is a legitimate question: what do the things you say actually mean? What are the messages behind the memes you share or the words you use? If you have doubts about the things you are saying and how those things might come off/what they mean: investigate them. Because groups like the alt-right won’t stop hijacking things like Pepe and changing pop culture slang to prove a point.
You are not racist for using a meme template, but don’t be radicalized by memes because you did not know what to look for. Knowledge is the key to fighting fascism. Being able to identify something or problematic versions of something allows you to not only avoid getting sucked down the pipeline but also fight back against it.
I do History sometimes 
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