The Sadge meme refers to a sad, frowning variation of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon frog from a popular webcomic made by Matt Furie that has been imbued with a wealth of meaning over the years.
What does Sadge mean?
The word means “sad” or “depressed,” which is also how the meme is used. Sadge is a version of Pepe in which he has an expressively sad face. That version of him was first seen in a 4Chan thread, according to Know Your Meme. It was not part of Matt Furie’s original artwork; a user took Pepe’s regular slight smile and flipped it upside down.
The word itself could be a gibberish way of saying “sad,” or it could be a combination of the words “sad” and “cringe,” per Reddit user TurntLemonz.
Who invented Sadge?
Pepe has a very storied history, to put things mildly. In Furie’s original cartoon, Pepe is just a guy. Over time, however, his image was adopted by alt-right communities on the internet and Pepe embarked on a shameful era of being a hate symbol. Furie has spent considerable time and effort fighting Pepe’s association with the alt-right, hitting individuals such as Mike Cernovich with cease and desists and copyright takedowns. He eventually even killed Pepe off, but memes are forever.
In recent years, Pepe’s negative connotations have somewhat neutralized—or he’s become a normalized part of our culture as our culture gets worse. Let the viewer decide.
But with a younger generation of users online embracing Sadge, it is likely most of them don’t associate Pepe symbols with anything other than sadness and memes.
How to use Sadge Pepe The Frog
Most people use Sadge when they feel sad, disappointed, let down in themselves or others, or like they’re missing out. Sadge expresses negative feelings and that’s how he’s used.
Spread to Twitch
Sadge is particularly popular on Twitch, but using the meme requires a browser extension, like BTTV and FrankerFaceZ, which allowed users to share different emotes in 2020.
Sadge and the Dearest Brother copypastas
Once Sadge appeared on Twitch, he began to be associated with “dearest brother” copypastas, in which users write about something bringing them “melancholy,” i.e. making them Sadge. For example:
📜 ✍️ Sadge 𝓜𝔂 𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻, 𝓘 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓲𝓷 𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓵𝔂. 𝓘𝓽 𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓲𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓪𝓷𝔂 𝓬-𝓬𝓴 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽
Often the Dearest Brother letters are about a shortage of c-ck, which can also be seen in more elaborate memes. Sadge gets sad about all sorts of things.
Meme examples
Not all Sadge memes still use Pepe, because there are frankly of plenty other sad things online. But the spirit in these memes is the same.
More Pepe the Frog memes:
- What is a Groyper?
- 4chan’s Pepe the Frog is bigger than ever—and his creator feels good, man
- Clinton campaign releases official statement on Pepe meme
- The evolution and secret destiny of frog memes
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