The origin
Matt Furie created Pepe as a relaxed character in his 2005 comic Boy's Club, and the drawing spread as a reaction image through the early 2010s.
How it spread
From 2015 it was heavily adopted by far-right groups online; the Anti-Defamation League added it to its hate-symbol database in 2016, noting that most uses remain non-political. Furie has campaigned to reclaim it.
What it means
The clearest case of a meme's meaning being seized against its creator's wishes — and of how hard that is to undo.
Follow the source
Short editorial summary written by Random Access Memes from the sources above; the wording is ours, not theirs. Every link was checked for a live response on September 13, 2026.
