Pepe the Frog and its derivatives, Rare Pepes, transitioned into non-fungible tokens with an appearance on the marketplace Counterparty. In an op-ed in Time in October 2016, Furie wrote, “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.” That month, despite adding Pepe to its hate symbol database, the Anti-Defamation League stated that most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context. In a September 2016 interview with Esquire, Matt Furie responded to Pepe’s usage as a hate symbol: “It sucks, but I can’t control it more than anyone can control frogs on the Internet.” Furie’s publisher, Fantagraphics Books, also issued a statement condemning the “illegal and repulsive appropriations.” ![]() denied any knowledge of the frog’s dualistic cross-cultural role. In the image, Pepe stands with Trump, Trump Jr., and other men as a response to Hilary Clinton’s comments that Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.”Ī blog post on Hillary Clinton’s website later criticized use of the cartoon, calling it a “symbol associated with white supremacy.” However, Trump Jr. Notable instances included a parody movie poster of “The Expendables” posted on Instagram by Donald Trump Jr. Despite the relatively innocuous nature of Pepe itself, such associations between the meme and politics solidified even further after Trump won the election. ![]() Variations of Rare Pepes arose during this time that included links to the alt-right movement with themes like Nazi Germany, Ku Klux Klan, and white power. ![]() But Pepe also got dark in 2015, the same year that Donald Trump announced his bid for the presidency, the start of a contentious era in American politics.
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