The creator of Pepe the Frog, whose smiling green cartoon mug has been embraced by the alt-right movement and Donald Trump supporters this election, is voting for Hillary Clinton.
“I’m voting for Hillary for sure. I was a big fan of Bernie, but that fizzled out, so I’m all Hillary 2016,” artist Matt Furie told Esquire in an article published Wednesday.
Furie first introduced Pepe to the Internet in “Boy’s Club” cartoons in 2005 as a mischievous frog that looks perpetually stoned. Only later was it picked up by Internet trolls using the online community 4chan, who took the character to a whole new oftentimes inappropriate level, which Wednesday earned it a place on the Anti-Defamation League’s list of hate symbols.
The artists blames the recent escalation of Pepe-related material, some of it racist and anti-Semitic, on Trump’s candidacy.
“I’ve seen outrageous stuff involving Pepe online before, but I try not to dwell on it. I blame Trump for all of this, because he kind of looks like this smug Pepe meme. Now it’s just this runaway train,” he said.
Furie laments that his name is now attached to the meme his amphibian creation has become on the Web, but admitted there’s not much he can do to reclaim his copyrighted character.
“Pepe the Frog is copyrighted by me. But, I’m not sure if copyright laws have caught up to the wild west of the Internet,” Furie said.
When asked whether he could create a Clinton-equivalent character to Trump’s Pepe, Furie said it was “really weird” that his work has become part of the national political conversation.
“Someone sent me a clip of Hillary addressing Pepe and the affiliation with white nationalists, and someone in the crowd yelled ‘Pepe!'” Furie said. “So that for me is just very strange that on either side — Trump or Clinton — had to sit down at a meeting and decide what are we going to do with this Pepe thing? It’s funny that it’s become part of the national debate. It’s really weird.”
