How the frog went from right-wing meme to anti-ICE protest symbol

The revolution won’t be televised, but it may have webbed feet and bulging eyes.

It may also have a unicorn horn or chicken feathers.

As protests against the Trump administration continue in cities across the United States, demonstrators are taking on the energy of community costume parades or block parties. They gave salsa lessons, handed out snacks and rode unicycles under the watchful eyes of armed law enforcement officers.

Combining humor with politics—a strategy social scientists call “tactical levity”—is not new. But it has become a defining feature of protests in Trump-era America, embraced by both the left and the right.

One symbol in particular stands out – the frog. Video of a man in a frog suit confronting immigration enforcement officers in Portland, Oregon, went viral and spread to protests across the country.

“This little inflatable frog has a lot of uses,” said LM Bogad, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and a Guggenheim Fellow who specializes in performing arts.

It’s hard to talk about protests and frogs without talking about Pepe, the cartoon character embraced by far-right groups during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

When memes first became popular online, the image was used to express certain emotions. It was later used to express support for Trump, including a famous meme retweeted by Trump himself depicting Pepe in Trump’s signature suit and hair.

Pepe has also been described in right-wing online communities on 4chan, 8chan and Reddit as a member of Adolf Hitler or the violent white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. Online conservatives trade “Rare Pepes” and have cryptocurrencies established in his name. His catchphrase, “Feels good, man,” was used as an inside joke.

But Pepe wasn’t that controversial at first.

Its creator, artist Matt Furie, has been outspoken about his distaste for the way the image is used. In this artist’s world of characters, Pepe is supposed to be just a “cold frog guy.”

The apolitical frog, who first appeared in a series of comics in 2005, is best known for pooping his pants. In the 2020 documentary “Feels Good Man,” which chronicled Mr. Furie’s efforts to take back control of his job, he said his Pepe paintings were inspired by his experiences with friends and roommates in his 20s.

Early in his career, Mr. Furie experimented with uploading his work to emerging social networks, where other users began borrowing, remixing and reinventing his characters. As Pepe spread to more extreme corners of the internet, Mr. Fury tried to disown the frog and even killed him in the comics.

But Pepe is still alive.

“This shows that we have no control over symbols,” Professor Bogarde said. “They can be changed, transferred and reworked.”

Until recently, Pepe’s popularity meant the frog was largely associated with the right. But that changed on October 2, when a confrontation between a protester wearing an inflatable frog costume and a blue scarf and an immigration officer went viral.

Just days ago, Trump ordered the National Guard to Portland, calling the city “war-torn.” Protesters began gathering in groups on a block outside an immigration enforcement facility.

The atmosphere was so tense that an immigration officer sprayed a protester with a chemical agent, aiming directly at the intake fan of the Puffy Frog costume.

Protester Seth Todd responded with a joke, saying he tasted “spicier tamales.” But the incident still went viral online.

Todd’s attire isn’t too unusual for Portland, which is known for its quirky culture and left-wing protests that revel in ridiculous public yoga and ’80s-style aerobics classes, as well as naked bike groups. The city’s unofficial motto is “Keep Portland Weird.”

The frog even played a role in the ensuing legal dispute between the Trump administration and the city, which argued the National Guard deployment was illegal.

While the court ruled in October that Trump had authority to deploy troops, a judge dissented, noting in her minority ruling that protesters “like to wear chicken suits, inflatable frog costumes, or nothing at all when expressing their disagreement with ICE’s deployment methods.”

“Observers may view the majority’s ruling, which accepts the government’s designation of Portland as a war zone, as absurd,” Judge Susan Graeber wrote. “But today’s decision is more than absurd.”

Just a month later, Trump’s deployment was “permanently” blocked by a court, and troops were reported to have withdrawn from the area.

But by then, the frog had become a powerful anti-administrative symbol for the left.

The costume was seen at “No King” protests across the country last fall. San Diego, Atlanta and Boston all have frogs, unicorns, salamanders and dinosaurs. They are found in small towns like Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and in international cities like Tokyo and London.

Frog clothing out of stock on Amazon, prices rising.

What brings these two frogs together, Pepe and the Portland Frog, is the interplay between this humorous, good-natured cartoon amphibian and a deeper political meaning. This is what political scientists call “tactical frivolity.”

The strategy is based on what Professor Bogarde calls an “irresistible image”—often silly, a “disarming and captivating” presentation that draws attention to your ideas without having to explicitly explain them to the audience. It’s the silly outfit you wear, or the symbol you draw, or the meme you share.

Professor Bogarde is both an expert in the subject and a long-time practitioner. He wrote a book on the subject, Tactical Performance: Theory and Practice in Serious Games, and gives seminars around the world.

“You can go back to the Middle Ages – when people were being ruled, they told a little bit of the truth in ridiculous ways, but there was still reasonable deniability.”

Professor Bogarde said the idea behind this approach was threefold.

A goofy costume controlled the optics as protesters faced off against formidable opposition. “If you respond with violence, things will look worse,” he said.

Second, images can set a certain tone for movement insiders and potential supporters. In Portland, “it was like a radical masquerade and we were all invited,” Professor Bogarde said.

Crucially, this strategy can provide political cover for criticism. Sometimes this shows up in the assertion that a political meme is “just a joke” – a defense to critics who think your views are dangerous. But Professor Bogarde said it was particularly useful in situations where government criticism could be dangerous.

He pointed to Serbia’s pro-democracy protest movement Otpor, which in 2000 supported efforts to overthrow Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic through pranks and street comedy. For years, critics of Chinese President Xi Jinping have shared images of Winnie the Pooh online to express their disapproval, and more daring criticism may face censorship.

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong also embraced Pepe, but they were unaware of Pepe’s political stance in the United States.

“Of course, dictators don’t like to be laughed at,” Professor Bogarde said. This symbolism works because “without even giving a speech, you are undermining the authoritarian script.”

Back home in Oregon, a group of Portlanders doubled down on their efforts and capitalized on their viral fame, banding together to form Operation Inflation, which collects and distributes inflatable clothing to protesters.

They created a website where supporters can donate $35 to purchase suits “for community members to wear at ICE protests to help ease (pun intended) tensions surrounding the protests.”

Brooks Brown, co-founder of Inflation Action, said the focus is to “change the narrative the Trump administration tells” that all protesters are part of a violent mob.

“Our job is to set up a different stage and force them to come to our stage,” he said.

Mr Brown said the inflatables had similarities to the civil rights era of the 1960s, when protesters often wore their Sunday best and sat motionless as they were harassed by counter-protesters and arrested by aggressive police.

Mr. Brown said Pepe “was the fascist symbol of 4chan. Now we’re getting it back. It feels good, man.”

By the end of October, his group had purchased more than 350 costumes and planned to set up a “pipeline” to deliver supplies to other cities where inflatables are being used at protests.

Once synonymous with the right, the Portland Frogs are now sometimes referred to online as the “Antifa Frogs” — a reference to the decentralized left-wing movement that opposes far-right causes and has been designated a domestic terrorist organization by Trump.

The meme depicts his battle with Pepe – two frogs fighting for national attention.