The Meme Textbook Part 2: The Language of the Internet | Page 27

In 2011, a new Pepe emerged: “Smug Frog.”
(Fig. 74) It originated on 4chan’s /tv/ board
in a thread mocking the television show The
Big Bang Theory. “Smug Frog” is considered to
be a different frog than “Sad Frog” in relation
to “Feels Guy” because “Smug Frog’s” canon
includes antagonistic towards him, while “Sad
Frog” is often portrayed as a friend. Meta con-
versations about Pepe’s transition from the origi-
nal to “Sad Frog” to “Smug Frog” have devel-
oped, with some putting forward theories about
the change in attitude, ranging from simple
optimism, to the possibility that Pepe represents
the average netizen adjusting to the culture of
4chan. “Smug Frog” was popular on 4chan and
the rest of the internet from 2011 to 2013.
The next iteration of Pepe is “Angry Frog”
which was created in 2014. (Fig. 76) The first
known instance of it was on a /pol/ board
used to complain about recreational alcohol
fig. 60
consumption. The meme transitioned to Tumblr
and a number of warped and otherwise exag-
gerated versions of “Angry Frog” also appeared.
(Fig. 73) It has been frequently used as a
reaction image to represent extreme r