Matt Furie Takes His Stoner Character Pepe the Frog Back From Alt-Right
Matt Furie created the cartoon character Pepe the Frog in 2005 as a kind of peaceful stoner animal for his comic “Boys Club.” By 2008, the frog had become a meme at 4chan….
Now Furie wants his comic frog back. After years of letting it slide, Furie has lawyered up and sent demand letters to several alt-right personalities, including white supremacist Richard Spencer, Mike Cernovich, and the subreddit “The_Donald.”
Last month, Furie took legal action against a man in Texas who created an Islamophobic version of Pepe for a children’s book. That matter reached a settlement. Now, Furie’s lawyers have spoken to Vice about his determination to reclaim ownership of the image and the demand letters they have sent out.
“[Furie] was very serious when he said that we wanted to make clear that Pepe was not the property of the alt-right and couldn’t be used by the alt-right,” Furie lawyer Louis Tompros told Vice. “We’ve asked them to take [the images] down. That hasn’t happened yet, but they’re very much on notice. We plan to take action if they don’t.”