Pepe the Frog was originally a character in a comic by Matt Furie. Furie first brought Pepe to life in the comic strip Boy’s Club in 2005 and after gaining popularity on sites like MySpace and 4chan in 2008, Pepe has become one of the most popular (and controversial) memes in internet culture today with many variations and even ‘rare’ Pepe illustrations. The meme eventually made its way to Twitch and various Pepes were made into Twitch emotes that are still quite popular on the platform today. In this article, we look at some of the most popular Pepe Twitch emotes and what they mean.
MonkaS
The Twitch emote is Pepe the Frog with bulgy sweaty eyes and an anxious expression. The emote is widely used during tense moments, for example during close tournament games. The emote has multiple variants including MonkaW and MonkaThink. The origin of MonkaS on Twitch chat can be traced all the way back to 4chan in 2011. There was a thread submitted in /lit/ that year which featured the emote and it was later added to the FrankerFaceZ Twitch extension.
Find out more about MonkaS here.
MonkaW
MonkaW is another popular Twitch emote available on Better Twitch TV (BTTV) and is a variation in the ‘Monka’ Pepe meme series. MonkaW is basically a more zoomed-in version of monkaS which is in turn based on Pepe the Frog. MonkaW has some controversial origins, find out more about MonkaW here.
MonkaHmm
MonkaHmm is another variant of the super-popular Monka Pepe series of Twitch emotes and is used to express ‘thinking’ or even suspicion. Among Us streamers saw MonkaHmm spammed in chat, when trying to figure out the imposters. According to SteamerFacts, the emote was first uploaded to BTTV in 2018.
MonkaGIGA is a variation of the series available on FrankerFaceZ or BTTV, and is generally used to express fear or shock.
Pepelaugh
PepeLaugh features Pepe with a wide mouth grin and squinted, teary eyes, similar to the crying laughing emoji. The emote is also popular with Forsen fans. PepeLaugh emote is also often associated with the phrase ‘Here it comes’.
Pepehands is a variation available on BTTV, and shows Pepe crying with his hands held out in front of him. It is usually associated with sadness or misery.
POGGERS
According to Know Your Meme, POGGERS is a Twitch Emote featuring an illustration of Pepe the Frog with a surprised expression, which is used to express excitement or celebration in a similar manner to the PogChamp emote. Like MonkaS, it is one of Twitch's popular emotes using the frog character.
COGGERS
Poggers is a Pepe-themed Twitch emote of Pepe with a surprised facial expression used to express excitement or pleasant surprise, which was inspired by the PogChamp emote. COGGERS and POGGERS can be used interchangeably. Find out more about Coggers here.
Feelsbadman
Feelsbadman is used to express disappointment or sadness. A happy variation in this series is Feelsgoodman which denotes happiness, the opposite of Feelsbadman. Both these emotes are available on BTTV. The phrase ‘feels bad/good man’ is also used by Twitch streamers to express the respective emotions.
Widepeepohappy
WidepeepoHappy is part of the BTTV FrankerFaceZ collection and features a squished version of Pepe with wide eyed and a wide open-mouthed smile. Due to the compressed image it gets the name ‘Widepeepohappy’.
Copium
Copium is a combination of two words, namely cope (a way of dealing with difficult emotions) and opium (a sedative drug). The copium emote shows Pepe breathing using a mask connected to a ‘copium’ air tank. It generally refers to the use of the fictional drug to deal with failure and loss. Sometimes the emote is also used sarcastically to poke fun at others. Find out more about Copium here.
Pepepains
PepePains is a BTTV emote which shows Pepe making a face of disgust, usually used to express cringe at something.
Controversy About Pepe Memes and Twitch Emotes
Initially, Pepe the Frog became an extremely popular internet meme and Twitch emote but was later co-opted and morphed by certain alt-right political groups to propogate anti-semitic messages. Since Pepe’s rise in popularity among neo-nazi fringe groups, the meme has been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s Hate Symbol Database as a hate symbol. In the streaming community, the emote is not seen as controversial, but using it in other forums might not always be ideal.
