Groyper

About

Groyper refers to an exploitable illustration of Pepe the Frog resting his chin on interlinked hands, variations of which are commonly used as profile avatars among the alt-right and new right on Twitter and the alternative social networking service WrongThink.

Additionally, Groypers (also known as Groyper Army) is the name of a group of far-right and alt-right nationalists and conservatives critical of the mainstream conservatism and led by political commentator Nicholas J. Fuentes.

Origin

The earliest known use of the word "Groyper" on 4chan was in a post submitted by user "Big Dog Groyper" to the /r9k/ board on February 28th, 2015.^[3] The earliest known variation of the Pepe illustration was submitted to a thread on 4chan's /v/ board on March 25th, 2016 (shown below).^[1] It is currently unclear when the illustration was given the name "Groyper."

Spread

On May 31st, 2017, a 4chan user replied to a thread on /pol/ about Pepe the Frog, saying "Groyper is a toad. He's friends with Pepe" (shown below).

On July 28th, YouTuber Savickas uploaded a video titled "Groyper Mesmerizes you to sleep." Redditor depressingmidget posted a variation of Groyper merged with the character Wojak to /r/wojak^[2] (shown below, left). That month, the @that_groyper Twitter feed^[4] was launched, which highlights exploitable variations of the illustration (shown below, middle, right). Over the next month, Twitter accounts appearing to post content in favor of the alt-right began using photoshop variations of the Pepe illustration as their profile avatar.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Groyper Army

Groypers or Groyper Army refers to a group of far-right and alt-right nationalists and conservatives led by political commentator Nicholas J. Fuentes who are critical of mainstream conservative groups and speakers due to them stepping away from values considered "true conservatism" by the Groypers.^[10][11][12] Those targeted, mocked and/or trolled by the group include Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Dan Crenshaw, Trump Jr. and an American conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA.

The movement takes their name from the meme, with Groyper memes widely used by those associated with the group. Twitter accounts associated with the movement spawned several of notable memes, most notably Nordic Gamer. ^[13]

Groyper War

Groyper War refers to a series of undermining actions taken by the Groyper Army against an American conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA and mainstream conservatives.

On October 29th, 2019, a Turning Point USA event at the Ohio State University was sabotaged by a several attendees who asked Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk provocative, anti-Israel, racist and homophobic questions, including a question referencing Dancing Israelis. ^[14]

On the same day, Turning Point USA CCO Benny Johnson tweeted about the trolling questions (shown below, left),^[15] with Groypers leader Nicholas J. Fuenters responding on Twitter (shown below, right).^[16]

On October 30th, 2019, Twitter user @EdwardBChang made the first tweet referring to this and previous actions taken by Groypers against TPUSA as "Groyper War", with the tweet receiving over 60 retweets and 460 likes.^[17] In the following days, more Twitter accounts associated with the movement made tweets referring to Groyper Army's actions against TSUPA as "Groyper War" including tweets by the movement leader Nicholas J. Fuentes.^[18][19]

In the following weeks, Groyper Army members employed trolling at more conservative events, including Donald Trump, Jr's event at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dan Crenshaw's event at the Arizona State University.^[10]

Search Interest

External References