The Meme Textbook Part 2: The Language of the Internet | Page 26

Pepe The Frog
“Pepe the Frog” was one of the most pop-
ular and widespread of all memes. It has
had several iterations of canon as well
as a politically charged downfall.
The origin of Pepe was as a character in
the graphic novel Boy’s Club, by Matt Furie,
first published in 2006. (Fig. 58) In 2008, a
comic in where Pepe pulls his pants down
to his ankles in order to urinate became a
meme on 4chan’s /b/ board, along with the
expression “Feels Good Man.”(Fig. 92)
This began the reign of the Pepe meme.
As the “Feels Good Man” gained popularity,
a parody of the image, where Pepe’s mouth
is manipulated into a frown and the text is
replaced with the phrase “Feels Bad Man” was
produced in 2009. This was the next wave of
Pepe memes. The meme evolved to become “Sad
frog,” which was often used with the text “You
will never _” followed by some phrase. Fig. 61
is an example of this, as well as the pun based
humor of the internet at the time, where bad
is replaced with Vlad in reference to Vlad the
Impaler, a murderous ruler of 1400s Romania.
“Sad Frog” is commonly associated with the
“Feels Guy” meme, which is a MS Paint draw-
ing of a bald man with a glum expression. (Fig.
60) “Feels Guy” is often featured as part of the
“Rage Faces” meme group but is also known
as a “friend” or “peer” to “Sad Frog” because
of their similar expresssions. The “Feels Guy”
is most popularly used when refering to the
phrase “That feel when no gf (girlfriend).”
“Feels Guy” was made in 2010 and is
still occasionally used today. “Sad Frog’s”
popularity died out after 2010.
fig. 58
fig. 59
26 | Part Two: The Language of the Internet