Pepe – Just a Funny Frog? A Visual Meme Caught Between Innocent Humor, Far-Right Ideology, and Fandom

A fringe mainstreamed, or tracing antagonistic slang between 4chan and Breitbart before and after Trump

“…The questions are particularly relevant as the alt-right is a relatively unique, insurgent far-right political movement that rose to international attention in 2015 with remarkably little in the way of a centralized organizational structure, and for whom the circulation of memes and internet jargon was fundamental to its success (Hawley, 2017). Most emblematically, the memetic subcultural icon of "Pepe the Frog" became notoriously associated with this school of thought during the first half of the 2010s and achieved widespread attention (Lobinger et al, 2020). Arguably, however, among the alt-right's most significant accomplishments was the extent to which their antagonistic slang succeeded in framing political discussion.…”

A fringe mainstreamed, or tracing antagonistic slang between 4chan and Breitbart before and after Trump

“…The questions are particularly relevant as the alt-right is a relatively unique, insurgent far-right political movement that rose to international attention in 2015 with remarkably little in the way of a centralized organizational structure, and for whom the circulation of memes and internet jargon was fundamental to its success (Hawley, 2017). Most emblematically, the memetic subcultural icon of "Pepe the Frog" became notoriously associated with this school of thought during the rst half of the 2010s and achieved widespread attention (Lobinger et al, 2020). Arguably, however, among the alt-right's most signi cant accomplishments was the extent to which their antagonistic slang succeeded in framing political discussion.…”