Can Pepe the Frog be rehabilitated? Its creator is trying.
Cartoonist Matt Furie wants to wrest control of a meme away from virulent internet cesspools and turn it back into the funny, chill character he created.
We wish him luck, because he's going to need it.
Furie held a faux funeral for Pepe the Frog last month after his creation had warped into an international symbol of alt-right racism and bigotry, but now he's started a Kickstarter campaign to give his character a new life on the page and the interwebs.
Furie first drew Pepe as a "chill-frog dude" in 2006 as part of an ensemble of characters in a series he named "Boy's Club." The frog eventually made his way to the internet, where, naturally he was memed. Then, in late 2015, racists who inhabit certain corners of the internet got a hold of him.
The Anti-Defamation League traced the evolution of Pepe into a hate symbol. "... it was inevitable that, as the meme proliferated in on-line venues such as Sup Forums, oochan, and Reddit, which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery, a subset of Pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes."
Those bigoted memes exploded among fans of President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, to the point that sending a Pepe meme or wearing a Pepe shirt was immediately identified with support for the then-candidate.
Pepe and bigotry became so synonymous that Furie drew Pepe a funeral in May, but he wants a new comic to resurrect his creation.
Furie's Kickstarter is looking for $10,000 to begin again.
"We understand there's no way to fully control the internet or how people decide to use Pepe the Frog," Furie wrote. "That said, the aim of this project is to positively resurrect Pepe through the creation of a brand new comic in the spirit of the original Boy's Club."
Furie faces quite the uphill climb in this regard. The vast majority of Pepe uses these days have an alt-right political bent to them. The meme has also spawned something of a mini-culture around the frog, where even the"OK" hand signal is an alt-right call back to it. There are websites, merchandise and global usages of Pepe as a populist, far-right icon that currently stand in the way of the creator's wishes.
If all goes well however, Furie hopes the book will be done by the end of 2017, and Pepe can go back to being the "blissfully stoned frog" he once was. As of this writing, the campaign has collected about one third of Furie's goal.
Gavin Lewis
I bet people as it is now is still least 30% different than the original
Eli Myers
...
Xavier Brooks
>modern journalism
Not even the subject, with phrases such as "racists" rather than "supposed racists" or "bigoted memes" rather than "supposedly bigoted memes" you can tell they have a serious slant.
Brody James
>implying leftards have the manpower let alone the work ethics and sense of humor to outmeme anyone
Jordan Edwards
>2015
i feel like hes been gassing jews since 12'
Carter Long
The play button gave Pepe a Hitler mustache. Digits too.
Eli Russell
pretty sure the creator knows this is impossible and is just trying to use idiots who are willing to fork out money.
Jose Phillips
too late. the peepee frog is reddit now
Matthew Cook
No shit, but they use our edits to pin it on the harmless little shits over at /r/the_dingus.
Luis Miller
Articles like this are why Sup Forums is filled with shills and redditfags
Jaxson Reyes
>ADL trying to kill Pepe
Fucking Jews love internet censorship and control over what people say. FUCK the kikes
Jaxon Thomas
I wish I could draw for shit, because we are missing a great meme oprotunity here. Kill one Pepe, and two more will grow in there place. We need a two headed Pepe!
Jason Baker
>Matt Furie I don't think about you.
Lucas Hall
They talk about pepe like he didnt start off as a poo poo pee pee character in a shitty diaper fetish comic
Nathaniel Perez
The internet is fucking lame.
Levi Anderson
Oochan? Do they mean the Chan I can't post because the system thinks its spam?
John James
>by giving me ten thousand dollars, I can counter a cultural wave
Ayden Mitchell
this LOL
Jordan Morales
Original Pepe is pretty cool.
But has Matt Furie really created Pepe? How does a 20th century born man create an ancient god exactly? The idea of Pepe has been implanted into his mind. This is one of the comics which proves it. Note how to other character in the comic sarcastically states that the bubble on the pizza is a spider nest. Then Pepe proceeds to show his reality-altering power by actually making that statement true.
Ryan Hall
If Pepe can be rehabilitated, so can Hitler.
Grayson Rogers
...
Hunter Lewis
2
Andrew Gomez
3
Levi Cook
...
Jaxson Baker
...
Joshua Price
Please gib me 1,000,000 shekels to clone Hitler.
Levi Hughes
its funny how we will still own pepe by the end of 2017 without lifting a finger or without doing a single effort to '''''combat''''' that guy
also i bet the alt-right is funding half of his raised money top kek
Josiah Garcia
...
Nicholas Turner
Sharp eye
Levi White
>Implying a literal nobody whose only sole claim to notoriety is losing control of a lame webcomic character could defeat an entire political movement >Implying this won't completely blow up in his face in yet unforeseen but guaranteed hilarious fashion >Implying Sup Forums won't win
Christian Ortiz
SS STORMFUHRER HEINRICH LANDWOLF REPORTING FOR DUTY
Joseph Cox
>Can Pepe the Frog be rehabilitated?
he always has been and always will be, a symbol of hate.
Elijah King
...
Dominic Mitchell
(((Matt Furie))) is just jealous.
We all know Spurdo>Pepe :DDDDDD
Robert Brooks
Post pee pee poo poo
Anthony Collins
here;s hoping retards fund this so we can get more pepe pics.
Caleb Miller
Let's do our own, keep people symbol of hate, but donate the money to something we support. Like abortion clinics in Chicago or Detroit, fuck with the left. Something they'll have to support but benefits us.
Logan Wilson
God I fucking hate this GIF.
Justin Hill
Pepe not people, fucking phone.
Anthony Brown
Hitler incarnate
Henry Hughes
feels expolitable man
Bentley Nguyen
Pepe is a symbol of peace you fucking leaf
Luis Thompson
Autism is strong in you. Take a (you)
Mason Lee
KEK, THIS RETARD DOESN'T REALIZE THAT IT WILL BE WORSE. Everyone will exploit his new pepes. He can't be this dumb, he's probably just profiting of fags.
Jonathan Davis
>more pepes for us he grows stronger only
Brandon Butler
...
Jaxon Ortiz
Pepe is people too
Easton Sanders
>tfw when you just want to post pepe on Sup Forums again without getting >>facebook frog poster
feels bad man...
Lucas Evans
Thanks for the (you) chief, I shall use it wisely.
Cooper Robinson
>faggot creator thinks he has any say in the matter Nobody even uses the original art of pepe
Aiden Barnes
This is why the liberal movement has been so strong for so long.
These shitters will donate billions of dollars of their parents money who's company employees slave wage labor by mostly Mexicans.
It's the cycle of socialism in the U.S.
> Liberal Business owner uses capitalism to get into the game. > Once established, they use legislation to throttle capitalism and give the business owners less competition > Slave minimum wage workers are hired > Company funds the wealth of the entire liberal family, kids don't have to work a day in their life > The kids of liberal families are given money to spend on other liberal movements in order to further the agenda
This cycle will start to implode on itself as liberal families get larger and more money is needed to ensure their children live the same wealthy life without having to work.
Jose Stewart
...
Ian Flores
>Hey, throw money at me for literally nothing
This guy should be the next Democratic nominee :^)
Anthony Richardson
yeah, it embarrasses my eyes for having such shame visited upon them
Nathan Nguyen
>try to kill what you have no power over >try to resurrect what you didn't kill
Carter Hernandez
YOU GAVE ME DECAFFEINATED!?!?
Fucking love that skit.
Xavier Mitchell
They are afraid to say Sup Forums's name.
Dominic Moore
He was dumb to kill off Pepe and now its too late. Pepe has evolved in so many different groups of shitposting that Pepe can never be reclaimed.
Its not just Trump supporters, Pepe has been around for a long time in shitposting. Trump supporters just found it funny and Hillary brought it to the normie attention. Soros hopped on that shit and paid off a few friends in the ADL. So Hillary Clinton killed Pepe and CNN dragged Pepe into the mud with CNN exclusive KKK Pepe. If their wasn't a religion based as Pepe the Prophet, maybe in like 15 years when everyone is posting a new meme. Doubt it though since the ADL made him a symbol of hate and now he is stuck with that label forever or when ever the ADL doesn't exist anymore.
Angel White
>or when ever the ADL doesn't exist anymore.
One day my friend, one day the gas will flow.
Blake Gomez
>Furie's Kickstarter is looking for $10,000 to begin again. Gib me money goys
Bentley Flores
Look at all those shares. It's almost as if nobody cares
Caleb Ward
DO NOT REACT UNTIL AFTER THE KICKSTARTER IS OVER. DO NOT STREISAND-EFFECT HIM INTO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.
His efforts will be for nought anyway, but there's no reason to help him make money.
One his kickstarter is over, hit him with the full force of our memes.
Liam Murphy
...
Gavin Gonzalez
This. Why the hell does he need $10,000 in order to draw some frog pictures?
Xavier Bailey
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Ryder Lee
Time to shitpost like we've never shitpost before.
Juan Cooper
To me, he will always be a symbol of piss and shit.
Christian Moore
An excellent point. Also might I add that by trying to reclaim Pepe, Matt is effectively admitting he's not dead.
Joseph Turner
It died the second Fat Carl of Kebab decided he could make money of it by marketing that Kekistani shit to normies. We still have Moonman though.
Matthew Green
I can only see this working out well for Matt. He'll probably have no trouble at all getting rid of all the Pepes on the internet.
What if the creator dude starts making books where pepe is sacking dicks and is a coal burning tranny fag?
Eli Lee
Matt Furie will never get it.
Most Pepe convey the 4 emotions that drive /pol
Sad Pepe is sad for the state of white country chosing demographic suicide Angry Pepe is angry when the above mentioned insanity is pushed Feels good Pepe feels good when he notices the tide is turning. Smartass Pepe represents the /pol is always right meme, the ability to see the full picture.
