In an odd twist to the 2016 election, the creator of the seemingly depressed cartoon frog, Pepe, announced that he will be voting for Hillary Clinton in November.
Pepe — the cartoon amphibian from the mind of Matt Furie’s comic strip Boy’s Club — is an internet meme that’s been co-opted by the alt right, white nationalists and internet trolls on 4chan threads, and was recently declared a hate symbol on par with the swastika by the Anti Defamation League.
The meme has even been tweeted out by Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
“@codyave: @drudgereport @BreitbartNews @Writeintrump “You Can’t Stump the Trump” https://t.co/0xITB7XeJV pic.twitter.com/iF6S05se2w“
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015
And his son, Donald Trump Jr., used Pepe as a way of laughing off Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment made earlier in September.
So, what the hell happened?
Well, as it turns out, in an interview with Esquire, Furie said Pepe is an innocent children’s cartoon and the groups peddling his meme don’t share his views at all. He also mentioned he’s voting for Hillary.
“I was a big fan of Bernie, but that fizzled out, so I’m all Hillary 2016,” Furie admitted.
Confused by the media circus around Pepe, Furie had no idea how his cartoon became a symbol of hate.
“I had never heard of the alt-right or any of that stuff — even white nationalism — I don’t know about that s**t,” Furie explained. “Unfortunately, I think [Pepe] is giving this fringe group more attention. They’re just these scattered nihilistic guys, I don’t even know what their intention is.”
Furie went on to say that he blames Trump for all the attention Pepe is getting, when all he tried to do was make a children’s cartoon.
