Pepe was almost killed
Now, they're becoming immortalized through NFTs.
Pepe originated in 2005 when @Matt_Furie released a comic called Boys Club. Pepe was a harmless and funny frog character. His name is actually short for pee-pee because he pulled his pants down when he peed lol... Because well... it feels good man.
Pepe became the meme of 4chan in 2009. The community's depressed energy added a dark twist to the happy frog. Pepe's smile was turned upside down as Sad Pepe and "Feels Bad Man" memes spread.
Pepe went viral in 2014 when celebrities like @katyperry & @NICKIMINAJ shared them on insta. But, that's when things took a dark turn...
4chan felt their meme was being stolen. They responded by making Pepe as offensive as possible to repel the normies. Versions of Pepe which depicted rage and horrible things like anti-semitism and school shootings were shared.
Pepe then went political with smug @realDonaldTrump Pepe. 4chan loved Trump Pepe and aspired to get him elected as a revolt against society. Things hit a tipping point when Trump tweeted a viral Pepe meme of himself...
Pepe was labelled as an alt-right hate symbol. Enjoyers of Pepe were called nationalists and racists. Pepe was added to the anti-defamation league’s hate symbol database alongside the swastika.
Pepe was getting cancelled. Twitch servers began banning Pepe. Overwatch, a major esports league, also banned Pepe and Steam removed Pepe emoticons from their directory.
Pepe fans turned to the blockchain to reclaim the meme. The Rare Pepe collection began in Sept 2016 when Pepes became tokenized and tradeable.
The Pepe creator, Matt Furie, also fought back. He released a comic in 2017 about the “death” of Pepe and its revival, aiming to reset the narrative.
The good-meaning Pepe prevailed after a long battle. Pepe even became a symbol for Hong Kong protestors in 2019 to peacefully resist authoritarianism online. Pepe moved from an alt-right symbol to a pro-democracy one.
Rare Pepes also came full circle when Matt created the FEELSGOODMAN Rare Pepe. The collection wrapped up in 2018 but that was just the start of Pepe's NFT journey.
@FAKERARES_XCP started in Sept 2021 as an extension of Rare Pepes. Many more collections have launched since then such as:
Pepe became the crypto Mickey Mouse (h/t @danielgothits).
NFTs matter in this story because NFTs are the fastest, most scalable, most potent layer ever built to finance and transport memes... and they're inherently censorship-resistant (h/t @punk6529).
Pepe and NFTs eventually found their match. But, the journey to reclaiming Pepe's narrative would've been easier if it started as an NFT bc...
Matt would have clear attribution
Pepe art could never be deleted
Pepe's original meaning and purpose could be verified
Ultimately, NFTs enable creators and communities to seize their memes... instead of institutions and politicians.
Thank you for reading!
Gm Gm, Really loving this piece and the work you do here. I also run a web3 news substack for underrepresented creators called Facesofweb3. Would you be open to a recommendation exchange? Our subscribers need to be able to find each other!
Great job, once again!