How Right-Wing Icon to Anti-ICE Symbol: The Remarkable Evolution of the Frog

The resistance may not be televised, but it could have webbed feet and bulging eyes.

Additionally, it could include a unicorn's horn or a chicken's feathers.

While protests opposing the government continue in American cities, protesters are adopting the energy of a local block party. They've provided dance instruction, given away snacks, and ridden unicycles, while police observe.

Combining comedy and political action – a strategy researchers call "tactical frivolity" – isn't novel. However, it has emerged as a signature characteristic of protests in the United States in this period, used by various groups.

A specific icon has proven to be particularly salient – the frog. It started when a video of a confrontation between a protester in a frog suit and ICE agents in Portland, Oregon, spread online. And it has since spread to rallies nationwide.

"A great deal at play with that humble blow-up amphibian," says an expert, a professor at University of California, Davis and an academic who studies political performance.

The Path From the Pepe Meme to Portland

It is difficult to talk about demonstrations and amphibians without mentioning Pepe, an illustrated figure co-opted by online communities throughout an election cycle.

As the character initially spread on the internet, its purpose was to signal certain emotions. Later, its use evolved to endorse a political figure, including a particular image shared by the candidate himself, depicting Pepe with a signature suit and hair.

Images also circulated in digital spaces in darker contexts, portrayed as a historical dictator. Participants traded "rare Pepes" and set up cryptocurrency in his name. Its famous line, "feels good, man", became a shared phrase.

But its beginnings were not as a political symbol.

Its creator, the illustrator, has been vocal about his unhappiness for its co-option. His creation was meant as simply an apolitical figure in his comic world.

Pepe debuted in an online comic in 2005 – apolitical and best known for a particular bathroom habit. In 'Feels Good Man', which documents the creator's attempt to wrest back control of his creation, he explained the character came from his experiences with companions.

When he began, Mr Furie experimented with sharing his art to the nascent social web, where the community began to copy, alter, and reinterpret the frog. As Pepe spread into the more extreme corners of online spaces, Mr Furie attempted to distance himself from his creation, including ending its life in a comic strip.

But Pepe lived on.

"It proves that creators cannot own imagery," says the professor. "They transform and be repurposed."

Until recently, the popularity of this meme resulted in frogs were largely associated with the right. But that changed recently, when a confrontation between a protestor dressed in an inflatable frog costume and a federal agent in Portland, Oregon went viral.

This incident followed an order to send military personnel to Portland, which was called "a warzone". Activists began to assemble in large numbers on a single block, just outside of an ICE office.

Tensions were high and an immigration officer used irritant at a protester, targeting the opening of the inflatable suit.

The individual, Seth Todd, reacted humorously, remarking he had tasted "spicier tamales". But the incident became a sensation.

The costume was not too unusual for the city, known for its unconventional spirit and left-wing protests that revel in the ridiculous – outdoor exercise, 80s-style aerobics lessons, and nude cycling groups. A local saying is "Embrace the Strange."

This symbol became part of in the ensuing legal battle between the administration and Portland, which claimed the use of troops overstepped authority.

While a ruling was issued that month that the president was within its rights to send personnel, one judge dissented, referencing in her ruling the protesters' "well-known penchant for using unusual attire when expressing their disagreement."

"Observers may be tempted the court's opinion, which adopts the government's characterization as a battlefield, as merely absurd," the dissenting judge wrote. "Yet the outcome is not merely absurd."

The action was stopped legally just a month later, and personnel are said to have left the area.

Yet already, the frog had transformed into a powerful symbol of resistance for the left.

The costume appeared across the country at anti-authoritarian protests that fall. Frogs appeared – and unicorns and axolotls and dinosaurs – in San Diego and Atlanta and Boston. They were in rural communities and big international cities like Tokyo and London.

This item was in high demand on major websites, and saw its cost increase.

Controlling the Visual Story

The link between the two amphibian symbols – is the dynamic between the silly, innocent image and underlying political significance. This concept is "tactical frivolity."

This approach relies on what Mr Bogad calls a "disarming display" – frequently absurd, it acts as a "disarming and charming" display that calls attention to a cause without needing explicitly stating them. It's the goofy costume you wear, or the symbol circulated.

Mr Bogad is an analyst on this topic and someone who uses these tactics. He's written a text on the subject, and taught workshops around the world.

"You could go back to historical periods – under oppressive regimes, they use absurdity to express dissent a little bit and while maintaining plausible deniability."

The idea of this approach is three-fold, Mr Bogad says.

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