What Pepe The Frog's Death Can Teach Us About The Internet
His creator killed the frog in a comic strip, after the character spent much of 2016 tied to the alt-right. Pepe's sad tale is a modern parable of how awful the Internet can be.
With barely an Internet whimper, Pepe the Frog, the anthropomorphic cartoon character turned symbol of hate, was put down by his creator, Matt Furie, over the weekend, in a single-page comic strip. The final images were of Pepe dead in a casket, with three former roommates paying tribute by pouring some liquor on Pepe's face and drinking the rest.
The demise of Pepe — of the alt-right, neo-Nazis and white nationalists — was as sad as it was unlikely. Pepe, from the start, was to be a good guy. But in the story of his rise and fall, some universal truths about the nature of modern Internet can be found.
