Pepe’s Political Hijacking (2015-2016)

Around 2015, a small group of online extremists began using Pepe imagery to spread political messages. They drew Pepes wearing Nazi uniforms, MAGA hats, and KKK robes. The mainstream Pepe community was horrified. Most of the millions of people who had loved and shared Pepe had no political agenda — they just liked the frog. But the appropriation accelerated.

By 2016, the situation was bad enough that the Anti-Defamation League formally classified Pepe as a hate symbol. Mainstream news outlets ran stories about how a cartoon frog had become a tool for online hate. Matt Furie was devastated. The character he had created as a gentle stoner frog had been weaponized in ways he never imagined. The damage to Pepe’s public image would take years to undo — and arguably has never been fully reversed.