Matt Furie created the comic series “Boy’s Club”, which stars the teenage monster character Pepe and also others in 2005. This image gained popularity throughout 2008 along with an edited version that reads, “feels bad man.” Many celebrities have used or referenced this meme in the early 2010’s as well. In 2014, rare Pepes were popularized. They were edited images of the classic Pepe character considered as trading cards and were even sold on eBay. Click on the image above for more information.
According to 4chan founder m00t, the “rickroll” phenomenon began on /v/ (video game board) circa May 2007, when someone posted a link to Rick Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released video game, “Grand Theft Auto IV”. Due to the the trailer’s high demand at that time, GTA fans on /v/ fell victim to the bait-and-switch prank and the joke became quite popular on 4chan. This account has been further corroborated by Wikipedia as well as Google Insights, which shows that search interest in “rickrolling” apparently began in April / May 2007. Many pranks were pulled on many notable people in which they were presented with a link to a useful/ relevant seeming site which instead then lead them to this video. A common examle of this is how, on April 1st, 2008, every featured video on YouTube’s front page redirected to the rickroll music video. Click on the image above for more information on rickrolling.
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The History of Memes 