Pepe: The King of Memes
It is safe to say that almost everyone on the internet has come across a meme at some point of their time on the web. What is a meme? A meme is a form of expression through a image or gif, from time to time people alter these images and gifs to suit their own expression or for a form of humor. Memes have always been around before the internet existed, being found in magazines and other sources of literature. It was the creation of the internet that allowed memes to become a phenomenal though due to the access everyone had to create their own. People were able to create memes in a matter of seconds and all it took was a little creativity and an image for a meme to be born. Memes are shared all over the world which allows people to communicate through this form of social protest on subjects they universally agree upon. The meme shown below was created by someone who obviously does not agree with Mr.Trumps ideology and thus they express their views on him through a meme they created.
A popular meme that has been modified thousands of times is the Pepe meme. Pepe is a frog created by Matt Furie who was intended to be a character in his comics, Pepe has thus gained recognition not as a comic book character but as the worlds most recognizable meme. A reason why Pepe the frog has become such a hit in popular culture could be related to the fact that he’s a cartoon frog. The idea of a cartoon frog being a so famous is so ridiculous that the internet had to make it into a sensation. As of 2016 Pepe is notoriously infamous for being locked up in the “Hate on display database”. As this article explains http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/pepe-the-frog-hate-symbol-adl-1.3782035 , Pepe has become a victim of racism, people have turned this lovable meme into a outlet for hatred.
Unfortunately memes such as the one on the left have started to become a popular trend for Pepe. The Internets most beloved meme has become a outlet for hatred and evil and is most likely not going to stop anytime soon. It should always be noted that Memes, just like any other sort of expression can be used to send out hatred instead of love. Maybe if enough people express and share the memes that show the better side of Pepe then he may some day be released from his online prison. (FYI the “Hate on display database”, is not an actual online prison…)
By Bramooth Yuvarajan
