I find the story about Pepe really interesting. Especially how much it influenced the US election campaign and how much influence memes have (on some people). I also didn't know that Pepe landed on the list of Hate Symbols (https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/pepe-the-frog) because 4chan users didn't want "their" Meme being used by Normies and they then put Pepe en masse in evil and inhuman contexts. Very interesting.
Review by BronsonBlockedParent2023-09-13T07:05:15Z
I'll talk about the documentary itself, before delving into the deeper subject matter, because there's a lot going on here.
This is excellently made, and does what every good documentary should do: that is, it takes a subject I was not interested in, knew very little about, and made me care. There is a concrete through line with Matt Furie, as we learn more about the evolution of Pepe.
I love how thorough Feels Good Man is, going so far as talking to Susan Blackmore where she shares the history of what a meme is - being a huge fan of Richard Dawkins, I already knew all of this, but it's funny how barely anyone realizes Dawkins created the term. Furthermore, the people who say "meme," in its common use, think it means "joke" or "funny picture." It really illuminates a failing of the culture - maybe more in the U.S. than in other parts of the world - that words don't hold meaning, nothing matters, we're speeding off the edge of a cliff and it will be recorded and uploaded to the internet for views and likes.
So, the core of this doc is about how Pepe the Frog went from an innocent cartoon figure, to a 4chan symbol, to a tool of the alt right.
What fascinated me most is the middle part. I had a very negligible knowledge of Pepe, prior to this. Really, it was when Richard Spencer, and his ilk started to ooze into the media. I had no clue Pepe fell into those hands only after being used as a way of expressing emotions for online outcasts. Look, I spend a lot of time online - more than I am proud of - but I've never fallen into the sphere of the 4chan crowd - I had heard of the site, but knew nothing about it. I could definitely empathize with these young people who, let's face it, have mental-health issues. They build a community, adopt a symbol that holds deep meaning for them, only to see it coopted by the very people they were trying to escape. As a way of lashing out, the 4chan devotees strategically mutated their beloved Pepe to make him anathema to most everyone.
There is far too much going on here to cover in a review, but it's already a longwinded way for me to highly recommend this documentary to everyone.
Just the journey this little frog went through. To start as an artist's happy little cartoon, to being taken by dejected youth, to being used by braindead normies (to use the vernacular), to being twisted into a hate symbol, to ultimately being a meaningless commodity.