/lit/ - Literature

The contrast between the schadenfreude and lugubriousness of smug and sad pepe really exemplifies the dualistic nature of 4chan if not humanity in general.

>>7275494
A semi-facetious way to express genuine emotion to an ironic audience

You can't be too "real" on 4chan, so you have to filter your emotions through memes and irony.

>>7275513
>>7275524

Or people like frogs.

>>7275513
>>7275524

Not bad. But one of the things about memes is that they are constantly shifting and mutating in intention and meaning. So while I think you're both accurate, neither of those statements are definitive. In fact, you cannot make a definitive statement about memes. I find it fascinating. I wish someone would seriously write about them.

>>7275543

Even if they change a particular character/meaning remains throughout. We all implicitly accept this, otherwise we simply couldn't talk of Pepe or Stirner without expecting others to share our understanding.

No idea remains static and unchanging, 4chan's meme's aren't unique in that regard.

why is this meme so popular
how has it managed to endure this long?

>>7275543
Pepe occupies an important niche in 4chan culture: the blank slate. Although smug and sad Pepe are clearly predominant, Pepe has overcome his initial meanings and is now a symbol of whatever his user pleases. The reason Pepe has attained such importance is his semblance of inhumanity--the effect of Pepe's user is dulled to the poster but not to his audience, therefore causing less pain to the tortured and allowing him to propagate the Pepe.

>>7275560
People like frogs

>>7275560
>>7275564

Pepe originated from the comic magazine 'Boy's Club' by Matt Furie in which he is a NEET shut-in who is generally uncomfortable with human interaction. Rather than being merely a creepy caricature, Pepe is involved with his roommates in most affairs and is portrayed as happy most of the time. Boy's Club, while incoherent and nonsensical, when taken all at once is actually a very accurate portrayal of the lifestyle of young, post-education men living together in America, as well as the attitude and standards of the 4chan userbase.
[cont]

>>7275605
lmao that last strip

>>7275605
[cont]
Pepe's first memetic appearance was this panel in which he says "feels good, man" about peeing with his pants all the way down. Again I express that he is generally portrayed as happy with himself and a certain amount of naivete in the comic.
[cont]

>>7275524
>>7275513
>>7275543
>>7275564
Just curious what y'all's age is; how long will it take me to write deeply

>>7275617

6 and a half.
-76.
42 light-speed years.
The last Anon met Genghis Khan.

It's like anime. Exaggerated and easily-recognizable expressions that exemplify a given feeling, thus helping frog-faggots who are largely autistic. There's no ambiguity.

>>7275617
you don't wanna be like us kid

>>7275617
lol I wrote this>>7275524
and I'm 21, not sure if serious, but I was just typing regularly and trying to express my thoughts in a succinct manner. I've thought about pepe before though. I'm also not a writer, I'm a philosophy major.

Good luck on your endeavors m8. Just write.

>/lit/ - Literature

Take your frog with you back to your containment board, bottle-pisser

>>7275613
[cont]
A variation on "feelsgoodman.jpg" was this image, subtitled "feels bad man."

Now this meme eventually became to a certain degree ubiquitous with 4chan's "feels" threads, although not quite to the degree that the white mspaint face has. At this point, Pepe became representative of the depressed. Interestingly enough, most identified strongly with Boy's Life's actual representatin of Pepe, feeling the comic as nostalgic and true to their own life in the past.

it was "feels bad man" that eventually led to an mspaint redraw (the template for such images as this >>7275513 which represented a smugness, a superiority to the rest of the userbase which was indulging itself in threads where everyone wallowed in self-pity. This smug pepe has rapidly taken off, as the smugness drew a sharp response and got reactions, eventually making people mad just by seeing the outline, or a few arranged colors.

>>7275632

>allowing yourself to get triggered over it

lol

>>7275617
Chile I just wrote some half-assed blank slate Pepe shit. You should aspire to actually write, not write glorified 4chan fan fiction.

I'm also 20.

This thread and its responses are surely the most embarrassing thing to have ever been posted on here

It's a common occurrence that memes are used for the exact opposite of their intended use.

Pepe used to "feel good," and eventually became "sad frog." "Sad frog" was funny, because it was a complete reversal of "feel good" Pepe. The humor to be found in that reversal is obvious. Pepe feeling bad defied expectations, resulting in sensible chuckles.

Eventually the context of "feel good" Pepe drifted away, and all that was left was "sad frog." I can only assume this process repeated itself recently, but still, without the context of "feel good" Pepe. Pepe became "smug" Pepe, the smugness a sensible counter to sadness. I can only imagine that this process will repeat itself for eternity, the context of previous Pepes dying out as we go. Someone will see "smug" Pepe and try to defy expectations for the same joke, and transform him into "humble" Pepe. That's not to say the self-reference won't circle around and bring back things like "sad" and "feel good" Pepe; but these changes will be without context.

The meme is a disembodied history of contexts, and the creative agents behind them are blind to their predecessors. This is really a natural progression of successful humor. The purpose of the Pepe has always been humor, and will continue to be humor - that is its essential utility.

This is entirely counter to the way reddit uses memes, because the creative agents behind their memes are entirely without humor. There is no purposefulness that is not vanity in the reddit meme, and the context is only an endless snowballing of "jokes" akin to the pun meme that exists on that board. Redditors are completely lost without context, and have yet to evolve past the transfer of ideas through memes, to reach a place where sentiment is communicated rather than bland ideology. reddit cannot speak without context; 4chan cannot speak with it.

>>7275652
maybe until you showed up and got assblasted over a cartoon frog

>>7275652

Not that bad but pretty bad.

>>7275652
ur mum's the most embarassing thing i've ever posted on me pener mate

>>7275653
>Someone will see "smug" Pepe and try to defy expectations for the same joke, and transform him into "humble" Pepe

he became "reeee" pepe you newfag

>>7275635
Props for taking the proper historical approach instead of spouting the typical pseudo-intellectual and inaccurate drivel that /lit/ loves so much.

>>7275635
[cont]
Now I assert that the growth and development of Pepe was such a success because it parallels the growth of the individual as they grow up involved in internet, and imageboard culture.

they look back on their past, when they were naive and happy with themselves, and then when all of their friends move away, and when they no longer are involved with people by default (finish/quit school, move out, friends move on) they find themselves awash. Wasting themselves on the topics of 4chan's boards - mostly very unappealing hobbies that users are extremely invested in. These individuals eventually find themselves numbed (so they claim) to the pain of loneliness or other tragedy and look down on "normal" people for not enjoying and being involved with something to the degree that they are.

These individuals are the side of 4chan that does not grow up, and move either away from 4chan completely, or to the slightly more intellectually mature boards, but stays where they are and surround themselves in their niche interest.

this brings us to...

>they've named the frogman

pathetic

>>7275617
the depth of your writing is not determined by your age.

>>7275630
>>7275624
>>7275631
>>7275640
I'm afraid it is too late for me. I am 23.

>>7275675
>being this much of a newfag

>>7275668
modern-day Pepe, a redraw of the smug redraw. (side note, the color scheme used in Pepe's source material is actually very light green, and Pepe is skinny and only has 3 fingers and toes. The Pepe currently circulating the internet is larger and darker, and while the darker can be attributed to simply not knowing the source material, the fat body is obviously a purposeful stab at the condition and self-respect of the individual Pepe I maintain Pepe represent)

Modern-day Pepe is clearly shown as mentally retarded, and reacts violently to any change in his field of interests with a screech. Although it's use is merely trolling nowadays, it's early use and purposeful use has been a surprisingly passionate lament of the horrid nature of the modern industry, be it anime, video games, television, comics, art, etc. these posts were showing how much everything in their interest has changed, and how much they despise it, yet by posting the frog, it seems that they themselves admit a slight overobsession on their part, as identifying with the character must be an admission of some kind.

This section of Pepe's history becomes the point in this individual's life in which his interest cannot be maintained. The point at which he begins to hate that which he loves, yet he cannot leave it. At this point the individual is matured, yet he has given up on the societal act of maturing. Caught in a vice where his interest no longer supplies him with happiness, yet he cannot see himself joining the "normals" in social activity, he cries out in despair, and when examined it is a truly tragic despair indeed.

I cannot comment on either the meta edits or the so called "poo poo pee pee" memes as they are only a natural circumstance of Pepe becoming popularized by reddit, facebook, etc. and hold very little actual meaning, as those who post them and save them are only commenting on the ubiquity of Pepe, and not USING Pepe to add to their posts.

That's about all I have on the matter. Any questions?

In the chaos of immediate and anonymous individual opinion, the memes reach above us all and form an oversoul that unite us in one and the same spirit. This is the radical theological divide between 4chan and Reddit, viz. 4chan uses memes as a means of a yearning for a transcendent moment of togetherness in the anarchy of the internet, whereas Reddit uses memes as mere "gags" to recycle ad nauseaum and tell their normie friends about. Hence why it considered anathema to talk about 4chan outside of 4chan, because that it is to commit sacrilege against this transcendent moment of togetherness that occurs with memes, and so bring these memes to the normie world is to bring what is sacred to the level of the profane. Reddit does not have this problem because Reddit is essentially a godless society.

>>7275675
pls be bait

Can /lit/ intellectually break down the meme that is spurdo spärde?

ITT:IDK
Pepe is chill.

>>7275703
Finland attempts to use the meme 'pedobear'

Finland fails, but creates something hilarious in the process

This becomes a symbol for all of their retarded humor, and eventually for retarded humor in general.

everybody forgets what it means

it's still retarded but still funny for some reason

>>7275697
Love me.

>>7275699
Why would that be bait?

Is there anything more pathetic than /r9k/ having a frog-friend that they call Pepe?

>>7275628
This tbh

For people who are shit at reading social clues and others' intentions Pepe works well to decipher those

>>7275738
pepe is a comic book character m8

the fact that they tried to name the feels guy is dumb as fuck, but pepe has a name for a reason

For sure, there is an aspect of duality within the average Pepe, however, this is as a result of it's trading card nature, handing the power to the memer rather than the meme. If anything, the constant expansion of types of pepes (resulting in what is called a "rare Pepe") represents something within our own life. Put simply, the Pepe meme represents our struggle to be the best, to achieve greatness against impossible odds, to become a millionaire, to become the most beautiful person alive, or, to find the rarest Pepe. One of the first Marxist memes, Pepe is clearly a meme reflecting the life of the working class, both handing power to the memer, and taking power away, Pepe perfectly reflects the folly of man, the human condition, and the mountain that all men must climb.