Not All Pepes, Join The Cause

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog

History
Pepe the Frog was created by American artist Matt Furie. Its usage as a meme came from his comic, Boy's Club #1. The progenitor of Boy's Club was a zine that Furie made on Microsoft Paint called Playtime, which included Pepe as a character.[3] He posted his comic in a series of blog posts on Myspace in 2005.[2][4]

In the comic, Pepe was found urinating with his pants pulled down to his ankles and the catchphrase, "Feels good man" was his rationale.[5][6] Furie took those posts down when the printed edition was published in 2006.[2]

Pepe was used in blog posts on Myspace and became an in-joke on Gaia Online. In 2008, the page containing Pepe and the catchphrase was scanned and uploaded to 4chan's /b/ board, which was described by Motherboard as his "permanent home".[2] It took off among 4chan users, who adapted Pepe's face and the catchphrase to fit different scenarios and emotions, such as melancholy, anger, and surprise.[1] Color was also added, originally a black and white line drawing, Pepe became green with brown lips, sometimes in a blue shirt.[4][5] "Feels Guy", or "Wojak", originally an unrelated character typically used to express melancholy, was eventually often paired with Pepe in user-made comics or images.[6]

Around 2015, as Pepe's usage was increasing, a phenomenon began on 4chan where users would declare certain variants as rare, known as a "rare Pepe". These images, sometimes as physical paintings,[7][8] were put up for sale and auction on eBay and posted in listings on Craigslist.[1][2] 4chan users referred to those who used the meme outside of the website as "normies" in response to the meme's increase in usage.[2] That year Pepe was #6 on Daily News and Analysis' list of the most important memes and was the most reblogged meme on Tumblr.[9][10]

During the 2016 United States presidential election, associations with Donald Trump's campaign, white nationalism, and the alt-right to Pepe were described by various news organizations.[11][12][13] In May 2016, Olivia Nuzzi, of The Daily Beast, wrote how there was "an actual campaign to reclaim Pepe from normies" and that "turning Pepe into a white nationalist icon" was an explicit goal of some on the alt-right.[14] In September 2016, an article published on Hillary Clinton's campaign website described Pepe as "a symbol associated with white supremacy" and denounced Donald Trump's campaign for its supposed promotion of the meme.[15][16] Also, the Anti-Defamation League, an American organization opposed to antisemitism, included Pepe in its hate symbol database but noted that most uses were not intended as such.[17][18] In an interview with Esquire, Furie commented on Pepe's usage as a hate symbol, stating: "It sucks, but I can't control it more than anyone can control frogs on the Internet".[19]