The Feels Good Man trailer tracks Pepe The Frog's hop from humor to hate

By Randall Colburn | July 16, 2020 | 2:45pm

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The Feels Good Man trailer tracks Pepe The Frog's hop from humor to hate

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Matt Furie killed off Pepe The Frog a few years back, a decisive action that set the stage for the cartoonist’s numerous attempts to pry his creation from the clutches of the alt-right. It’s no easy feat, what with the stoner frog’s evolution into bonafide hate symbol having coincided with the increasing politicization of the culture wars. But Furie’s been dogged in his efforts, which are chronicled in a new documentary that explores not only the artist’s work, but also how Pepe leapt from 4chan to the Daily Stormer.

Feels Good Man scored director Arthur Jones the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Our own A.A. Dowd, who caught the film at the 2020 True/False Festival, described it as “a deeply depressing depiction of internet culture” that “works rather swimmingly as a primer on the war for the character’s soul.” That soul, as you can see in the below trailer, is inextricably linked with that of Furie, who’s forced to reckon with his role in what’s unwittingly become one of the world’s most toxic symbols of hate.