Do you recognize Pepe the Frog? This character’s memes have become ubiquitous within the internet, often seen across several social media platforms. His face has become highly recognizable, but how did he become so famous?
If we take a look back in time we can see that Pepe the Frog is a fictional character that originates from Boy’s Club, a comic book series by Matt Furie. Furie created the character as a black and white line drawing on Microsoft Paint and posted his comic through blogging on Myspace in 2005. In 2008 Pepe become a reaction image and an inside joke on social media, as people began to use his expressive face in conjunction with funny and relatable catchphrases, such as “Feels Good Man”. After some time, internet users added green to Pepe’s head and brown to his lips to add more realism.
Pepe’s popularity began to rapidly grow in 2015 on 4chan, which caused numerous paintings and merchandise regarding Pepe to become up for sale and places like eBay and Craigslist. In 2015 he also became the most re-blogged meme on Tumblr. This popularity continued to grow into 2016 and has been used widely throughout the current presidential debate.
Some popular phrases attached to his reaction image includes Feels Good Man, Sad Frog, Angry Pepe, Smug Frog and Well Meme’d. He is used to represent anger, melancholy, surprise and more. Pepe has accumulated a vast set of looks over time and has really evolved as a character. Pepe has become loved in the meme community and has a Reddit board dedicated to him entirely. It is uncertain how long Pepe the Frog will remain in our social media feeds, but he will always remain in our hearts.
Sources:
http://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-pepe-the-frog-renaissance/
