Sundance review: 'Feels Good Man' chronicles the birth of a toxic meme

‘Feels Good Man’

★★★1/2

Playing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 92 minutes.

No more screenings are scheduled.

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The hijacking of a cartoon character, and the late political awakening of its creator, are explored in director Arthur Jones’ lively documentary “Feels Good Man.”

Matt Furie was your average offbeat San Francisco cartoonist when he created “Boy’s Club,” a comic book about four slacker friends. The wide-eyed innocent of the quartet was a frog called Pepe — a name, Furie admitted years later in a deposition (shown in the film), inspired by how small boys refer to their penises.

Jones details how the character and his catchphrase, “feels good man,” leapt to the internet chat group 4chan, where anonymous users tried to out-offend each other to get clicks. When girls and women started adapting the character, 4chan users took it back, making increasingly misogynistic versions of Pepe. From there, it was a short step to racism, xenophobia and full-blown white supremacism.

The beauty of Pepe, some experts interviewed here note, is that his memes were weaponized irony. Pepe memes could say the most horrific things, but if anyone called the posters on it, they could answer back with, “Chill out, it’s just a joke..”

Furie acknowledges in the film that he was incredibly naive about the whole thing. First he tried to shrug it off. When the Anti-Defamation League listed Pepe as a hate symbol, on par with a swastika or Ku Klux Klan cross, Furie tried to mount a positive retaking of the character, with the #SavePepe hashtag campaign — but the alt-right swatted down that effort easily.

With colorful animation, Jones illustrates how Pepe morphed from Furie’s original intent to a talisman for internet-obsessed losers and a rallying symbol for racists. Jones also interviews a wealth of experts, including an occultist (?!?), to sort out what it all means. Mostly, though, “Feels Good Man” is a revealing profile of Furie, a family man and artist trying to make sense of the firestorm he didn’t even know he was lighting.