Arthur Jones
Ready Fictions, streaming; BBC 4 Storyville, 26 October
OVER 25 years of the internet, memes have evolved from a one-note online sight gag 鈥� a dancing baby, say, or a cat with an irreverent caption in Impact font 鈥� to a muscular means of communication, capable of nuance and complex irony.
Yet no meme has had as strange and storied a journey as Pepe the Frog. The laid-back amphibian from cartoonist Matt Furie鈥檚 cult hit Boy鈥檚 Club was wrested from that context to become the face of anarchic bulletin board 4chan. The beatific Pepe of Furie鈥檚 comic, with his catchphrase 鈥淔eels good, man鈥�, became sorrowful (鈥淔eels bad, man鈥�) and then, unexpectedly, fascist.
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Feels Good Man, Arthur Jones鈥檚 debut documentary, follows Pepe from the web to Donald Trump鈥檚 White House as a smirking alt-right symbol, and Furie鈥檚 battle to reclaim him.
As 4chan鈥檚 meme culture spilled over into the mainstream internet, with pop stars Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj sharing Pepe memes, the community set out to ward off appropriation by 鈥渘ormies鈥� by making Pepe as shocking as possible.
During the contentious 2016 US elections, Pepe became so associated with racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry that both Hillary Clinton and the Anti-Defamation League defined him as a hate symbol 鈥� much to 4chan鈥檚 glee at being taken so literally.
Yet in among the juvenile provocation (4chan鈥檚 founder was a 15-year-old boy), there was a strand of sincerity. Pepe, like Trump, was being embraced by a fringe but growing far-right movement that masked its intent with irony online.
Furie鈥檚 attempt to capitalise on his creation鈥檚 ubiquity came too late: there is a scene in Feels Good Man where he looks over thousands of dollars鈥� worth of Pepe merchandise that can鈥檛 even be donated, lest it end up with white nationalists.
At the film鈥檚 heart is Furie鈥檚 relationship to his creation as it is repurposed as a hate symbol, collectible art, occultist iconography and even as a cryptocurrency by an implacable internet. Against that, Furie stands as a quirky, quietly principled figure, resolutely trying to 鈥渟ave Pepe鈥�. However, as the film鈥檚 coda reveals, the frog鈥檚 emergence at Hong Kong鈥檚 pro-democracy protests last year shows the hunt for its meaning continues.
