Pepe (TOW #13)

     It is hard today to go on the internet without coming across a meme in some form, and anyone who is savvy with current internet cultures knows that one meme reigns supreme: Pepe the frog. Pepe is a cartoon frog created in 2005 as a character on the cartoon Boy's Club. The cartoon depicts the typical life of a twenty some year old american. The cartoon was relatively small and Pepe did not have any kind of great claim to fame. He spread relatively slowly throughout social media, but by 2015 Pepe was the most common meme on almost all platforms. Obviously Pepe is popular, but why does he have such a broad appeal?

     It is hard to say why Pepe has become so popular, but I would argue that it is due to his incredibly emotional depiction and easily emphasized features. Pepe comes in many iterations but his most common form is sad Pepe. This instance of Pepe features the frog looking down with a mix between sadness and emotion in his eyes. This complex level of emotion is shown through the details put in the eyes. The eyes are looking down and slightly furrowed, but they also seem distant and are made so to look reflective like dears are building in them. This meme is typically paired with a caption depicting a sad event, or more specifically a disheartening realization of the future. This is a key part of the life of an early twenty year old, it is the beginning of true adulthood and independence.

     I think it is also important that Pepe is a frog. Although he possesses a fairly humanoid form Pepe is still a completely different creature. This makes him seem a little more distant. This creates a tone of a sort of self depriving humor. It highlights both the way that there are many things that can make you upset when you are young but also how in hindsight they are greatly insignificant.

     Like any part of the internet Pepe has been appropriated for many less than savory causes. He has been used by alt-right antisemitic groups to promote Neo-Nazism, racism, and white supremacy. This is a wholly unjust and quite frankly irrelevant use of the image and is not true to its original intent.