In simpler times (aka 2005, the height of the Bush years), Pepe the Frog was a ne’er-do-well stoner, whose frequent munchies often resulted in acid reflux attacks. Created by artist Matt Furie for a comic book called Boy’s Club, the affable frog and his friends reveled in scatological humor and other juvenilia. It wasn’t pathbreaking or insightful by any stretch, but it was hardly creeping fascism.

Pepe’s popularity jumped in 2008. That year, a page from Boy’s Club showing Pepe peeing with his pants pulled down made the rounds on 4Chan, and his accompanying catchphrase, “feels good man,” quickly became ubiquitous on the website’s infamous /b/ board. In time, Pepe’s sunny optimism would grow more complex, as anonymous web users developed a range of emotions for him, including Sad Frog, Smug Frog, and Angry Pepe. Stripped of his pre-recession innocence, Pepe would never be the same.

Before he became an alt-right icon, Pepe unwittingly became a sought-after commodity. In 2014, 4chan users began trading customized Pepe macros, calling their creations “rare” Pepes. The inevitable backlash saw collectors flood the web with huge batches of “rare” Pepes to depreciate the market, but not before someone almost sold 1,200 Pepe images on eBay for $99,166, or more than $80 a Pepe.