美国国家公共电台 NPR What Pepe The Frog's Death Can Teach Us About The Internet

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A cartoon frog died on the Internet a few days ago. His name was Pepe. You might remember him over the course of the 2016 election. He became one of the most recognizable symbols of the alt-right. NPR's Sam Sanders tells us how Pepe lived and why he had to die.

SAM SANDERS, BYLINE¹: Let us begin with Pepe's birth. The year - 2005. Pepe's creator - an Internet artist named Matt Furie.

MATT FURIE: So he's a frog. He's an anthropomorphic frog that lives with, like, a party wolf, a bear-like creature and then kind of a muppety (ph), dog-like creature.

SANDERS: These were all characters in a comic Furie created. It was called "Boys Club".

FURIE: Pepe the Frog is more just kind of like the Everyman. He likes to take naps and smoke weed and, you know, play video games - that kind of thing.

SANDERS: There's this one scene that made Pepe. One of his roommates was making fun of the way he uses the bathroom. And instead of being ashamed, Pepe replies...

FURIE: Feels good, man.

SANDERS: (Laughter) Feels good, man. A star was born. For years, Pepe thrived in the quirkier corners of the Internet. You could make him whatever you wanted - Pepe as "Mona Lisa," Pepe as a unicorn², Pepe in jail, whatever. He was then all that is right with the Internet - fun, communal³, malleable⁴, weird⁵. But then Pepe was stolen by the alt-right.

MATTHEW SCHIMKOWITZ: He eventually kind of got co-opted by 4chan message boards.

SANDERS: This is Matthew Schimkowitz. He's an editor at a website called Know Your Meme. Oh, and 4chan is an online bulletin board.

SCHIMKOWITZ: And they would just kind of put him into various kind of either racist⁶ or anti-Semitic images under a different variation of the meme called Smug Frog.

SANDERS: These alt-right right folks and white nationalists, they eventually got their racist Pepe variations into the presidential election.

SCHIMKOWITZ: Eventually, a popular meme of the Smug Frog with Donald Trump⁷'s hair started circulating online and then, eventually, got retweeted by the Donald Trump campaign.

SANDERS: That made Pepe as hate symbol even bigger. And then Hillary Clinton called Pepe out. There's this moment in a speech she gave last September where she's denouncing the alt-right. And, well, you got to hear it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HILLARY CLINTON: The emerging racist ideology⁸ known as the alt-right...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Pepe!

CLINTON: Now, alt-right is short for...

SANDERS: Did you hear that guy who screamed Pepe? Well, Hillary Clinton's speech kind of did the same thing. It gave the alt-right, and Pepe, a big boost.

FURIE: You know, I didn't notice anything until there was a Hillary explainer that was issued about Pepe the Frog and the alt-right and all that stuff.

SANDERS: That's right. Matt Furie, Pepe's creator, did not realize his frog had turned racist until Hillary Clinton said so. The subtitle⁹ of that Clinton explainer, quote, "that cartoon frog is more sinister¹⁰ than you might realize." Furie tried to take the frog back. He launched a Save Pepe campaign. He even partnered with the Anti-Defamation League to rescue his frog - didn't work. So over the weekend, in a comic strip published online, Pepe croaked¹¹. The strip had images of Pepe in a casket, with his roommates pouring liquor over his face and drinking the rest. Furie says he actually wrote that months ago. And he told me over Skype that he had thought about offing Pepe long before the alt-right stole him.

FURIE: Honestly, I thought about killing¹² off Pepe just simply when he became a meme. When an artist loses control of their creation like that, it's never that great.

SANDERS: But Pepe is still all over the Internet.

So then, is Pepe dead or not? He's never really dead, huh?

FURIE: It's a cartoon character.

SANDERS: Just a cartoon character - or maybe a whole lot more. Sam Sanders, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HOTDAY AND THE DREAMTEAM'S "ITS REAL")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

3 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

4 malleable   

adj.(金属)可锻的;有延展性的；(性格)可训练的

参考例句：

• Silver is the most malleable of all metals.银是延展性最好的金属。
• Scientists are finding that the adult human brain is far more malleable than they once thought.科学家发现成人大脑的可塑性远超过他们之前认识到的。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

7 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

8 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

9 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。

10 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

11 croaked   

v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说

参考例句：

• The crow croaked disaster. 乌鸦呱呱叫预报灾难。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• 'she has a fine head for it," croaked Jacques Three. “她有一个漂亮的脑袋跟着去呢，”雅克三号低沉地说。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。