Pepe Lore

About

Pepe Lore, also known as Pepe Animations, refers to multiple Pepe the Frog GIFs and animations made by Pepe's creator Matt Furie as NFTs on his website RarePepes.fun and on Twitter in late 2021. In 2022, the animations surfaced on TikTok and YouTube, primarily using the slowed + reverb remix of Mo Beats' song "Righteous." Many internet users did not know the origin of the animations or lore, sparking curiosity.

Origin

On November 17th, 2021, the creator of Pepe the Frog, Matt Furie, minted his first original Pepe GIF called "Moses Pepe" as an NFT on OpenSea.^[1] Over the course of nine months, the crypto art received over 340 views and nine favorites. Additionally, Furie uploaded the NFT, along with others minted in late 2021, to his website RarePepes.fun.^[2]

On December 16th, 2021, Furie started posting silent animations to Twitter^[3] with the first video showing a businessman-looking Pepe being abducted by aliens after a long day of work. Over the course of eight months, the video received roughly 1,400 likes and 37,100 views (shown below).

🐸 pic.twitter.com/FWc6jvx75k

— Matt Furie (@Matt_Furie) December 17, 2021

Spread

On December 18th, 2021, Furie posted another video to Twitter^[4] of surgeon Pepes discovering a breakdancing Pepe in the heart of the patient they're operating on. Over the course of eight months, the video received roughly 20,600 likes and 314,400 views (shown below, top). On December 22nd, 2021, Furie posted another Twitter^[5] video showing monk Pepes worshipping a Pepe statue, receiving roughly 215,900 likes and 2.9 million views in eight months (shown below, bottom).

🐸 pic.twitter.com/zvQ5PpvAKK

— Matt Furie (@Matt_Furie) December 18, 2021

🐸 pic.twitter.com/gDN2CO4sQa

— Matt Furie (@Matt_Furie) December 22, 2021

On January 7th, 2022, YouTuber sad pepe frog compiled five minutes' worth of Furie's Pepe animations, setting them to the song "Marvel83'" by Golden Dawn.^[6] Over the course of seven months, the video received roughly 1.1 million views (shown below).

Pepe Lore on TikTok

On August 7th, 2022, TikToker^[7] pepeiceimo reposted the abduction Pepe video^[3] to TikTok, captioning it "#pepelore," pairing it with the song "Little Dark Age" by MGMT and earning roughly 50,600 plays and 4,400 likes over the course of three weeks (shown below, left). TikToker pepeiceimo posted many videos on August 7th, 2022, all with "#pepelore" in their captions. The most notable TikTok^[8] pepeiceimo posted on August 7th earned roughly 1.6 million plays and 329,900 likes in three weeks and showed Pepes at a rave dancing to the slowed + reverb remix of Mo Beats' "Righteous" (shown below, right).

TikToker pepeiceimo continued posting Pepe Lore into August 2022, primarily using Mo Beats' "Righteous." Other TikTok pages joined the trend. For instance, on August 23rd, 2022, TikToker^[9] u.funnydonnie posted a Pepe Lore video that received roughly 10.8 million plays and 1.9 million likes in six days (shown below, left). On August 27th, 2022, TikToker^[10] thedelinquents_ used the You Look Lonely video from Blade Runner: 2049 in a meme that stated, "Me observing more Frog lore at 4am." The TikTok received roughly 365,800 plays and 90,300 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

🐸 pic.twitter.com/ESSKALK9jx

— Matt Furie (@Matt_Furie) January 6, 2022

🐸 pic.twitter.com/YhAxc20GYr

— Matt Furie (@Matt_Furie) January 1, 2022

Search Interest

External References