‘Alt-Right’ Icon Pepe The Frog Is ‘Officially Dead’
Image by tumblr
By Sam Kestenbaum May 8, 2017
The online cartoon Pepe the Frog was “killed off” by its creator, seemingly in bid to stop his image being hijacked by the “alt-right.”
Over the weekend, Pepe’s creator Matt Furie posted a comic strip depicting a funeral for the frog character, attended by other characters from Furie’s Boy’s Club strip.
“It’s a clear declaration that Pepe is now dead,” the blogger Marykate Jasper wrote. “The alt-right has killed the joy.”
In September Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of “hate symbols,” joining the swastika and the Ku Klux Klan’s burning cross.
Furie and the ADL attempted an online campaign to “save Pepe” from becoming an “alt-right” icon. It looks like that is over, wrote Rich Johnston wrote on the website BleedingCool.com.
“After an attempt to Save Pepe from such appropriation, it seems that Furie has given up trying,” Johnson wrote.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
