Before Pepe the frog was officially declared a hate symbol earlier this week, we were all under the impression that memes were universally adored by all corners of the internet. None of us could ever have imagined that a lowly cartoon frog who started off as a Matt Furie illustration could achieve the same level of stigma as a swastika. Unfortunately when good things land in the hand of those with ill intentions, in this case right wing and alt-right trolls, the fun police will take away the toys for everyone.
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What people don’t seem to realise is that Pepe was one of the good guys. In a world where everyone is scrambling to get more than 15 minutes of online fame, there are so many other iconic meme figureheads that have indecently dabbled in the dark side during their former years. And here they are.
Doge
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We have all heard that pit bulls can often be terribly vicious animals if raised by the hands of an imbecile, but nobody assumes that the adorable shiba inu dogs could ever be that terrifying. Those people would be wrong, as the cartoon-like canines are incredibly intelligent, cunning and quick. Doge himself was a little rascal before becoming the adorable nerd we know him as today and had taken a massive steaming turd on his owner’s carpet mere hours before this iconic photo set was shot.
Dat Boi
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If anyone knows the hardships of the grind to stardom, it’s Dat Boi. As a college student, he pursued a seedy stripping career alongside his studies to wrangle himself out of debt before dropping out and working at the local Looney Poons joint full time. It was at his second strip-unicycle job where he was scouted by a gold account Redditor who saw the raw talent in this frog’s elegant peddling, muttering “O shit waddup” to himself under his breath.
Pedobear
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Unsurprisingly, pedo bear is a paedophile. The reason you haven’t seen or heard from him in years is because he is currently serving time behind bars for inappropriately groping a minor.
Side Eying Chloe
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What you thought was an innocent girl side eyeing her parent’s decision to take her to Disneyland is actually an expression of sheer guilt. For Chloe has been to Disney before, where things took a very deadly turn indeed. Hopefully nobody will match her DNA to the knife left at the crime scene.
Bad Joke Eel
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Once a fairly decent stand up comedian, things started to go downhill for the bad joke eel after a nasty brush with a particularly deviant heckler who cornered him after a small home town show. BJE saw red and isn’t sure what happened next but he’s fairly sure that he might’ve accidentally killed the guy. If he had hands to write an autobiography, we’re pretty certain it wouldn’t be too dissimilar to the absurd pennings of CJ De Mooi.
Arthur’s Fist
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You really don’t want to know where that’s been.
Yee
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If you have ever played a Dingo game, the franchise of a library of extremely terribly made Playstation releases from where the “Yee” meme originates, you’d know that they are more of a horrendous Disney rip off animation than an actual interactive experience. Unsurprisingly they weren’t able to hire professionally trained actors so instead they cast a group of ex-cons who were desperately seeking employment after finishing their sentences. The yee dinosaur has not yet divulged what sinister act originally landed him behind bars but judging by his poor conversational skills, it was probably diabolical.
Awkward Seal
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The adorable ocean mammal that most of us will recognise as the awkward seal meme wasn’t always so bashful and shy. He was once a particularly loud and vocal laddy, but after mistakingly shouting sexually inappropriate phrases at a group of attractive lady seals from the window of a moving vehicle, a nearby bull seal who happened to recognise him from earlier in the day sent a strongly worded email to his manager and got him fired. Awkward seal mostly kept his mouth shut from then on.
Hide The Pain Harold
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The pain you see in the eyes of this man isn’t as innocent as you think. In this photo he is on the phone to the authorities after realising that he’d bludgeoned his poor wife to death with a hammer, the evidence in which you will see at the top of this article. That old Harold is a truly nasty bloke.
Feeling miffed that your favourite internet meme wasn’t included in this list? Here’s what your meme style says about you.
