Feels Good Man

Feels Good Man (2020) is Arthur Jones's documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. It traces how a harmless cartoon frog from an indie comic became one of the most contested symbols on the internet.

Artist Matt Furie drew Pepe as a mellow, good-natured slacker. Then the image slipped its leash — memes, message boards, millions of reposts — and by 2016 the alt-right had claimed it, landing the frog on hate-symbol lists. The film follows Furie's fight to reclaim his own creation and unpacks how the web grinds meaning into something its maker never intended. Meme scholars, lawyers and anonymous board-dwellers fill in a portrait of digital culture.

It broke out at Sundance with an editing award — a rare case where a documentary about a meme plays like a thriller about losing control. Worth a watch for anyone trying to understand where internet wars come from. Stream Feels Good Man (2020) online on iFILM.