Since then, Furie has expressed his dismay at Pepe being used as a hate symbol and has sued organizations for doing so. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) included Pepe in its hate symbol database in 2016, but said most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context. Originally an apolitical character, Pepe was appropriated from 2015 to 2016 onward as a symbol of the alt-right movement. Since 2014, ' rare Pepes' have been posted on the 'meme market' as if they were trading cards. Different types of Pepe memes include 'Sad Frog', 'Smug Frog', 'Angry Pepe', 'Feels Frog', and 'You will never.' Frog. By 2015, he had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. The character became an Internet meme when his popularity steadily grew across websites such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan in 2008.

Designed as a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body, Pepe originated in Furie's 2005 comic Boy's Club. Pepe the Frog ( / ˈ p ɛ p eɪ/ PEP-ay) is a cartoon character and Internet meme created by cartoonist Matt Furie.