Pepega Twitch Emote: Origin, Meaning & How To Use | Stream Designz

Since Twitch got its start back in 2011, it’s completely changed gaming culture. It’s an amazing site for gamers to all come together, and that’s led to the creation of quite a few amazing memes and terms. Some of these are pretty well-known and have even made their way into general internet culture such as the term “poggers”. Probably the most well-known Twitch meme is Pepe the Frog! Pepe got his start in a comic called Boy’s Club way back in 2005. The comic was posted on MySpace and quickly became a joke in the game Gaia Online. Pepe really started picking up steam when he made his way to 4Chan. People started photoshopping Pepe to make many of the different Pepe expressions we know and love today, and he was frequently used as a reaction picture on many of the iconic 4Chan posts that still get shared around to this day. Once Twitch became the central hub for all things gaming, it didn’t take long for Pepe to come over.  Pepe has become a staple of the Twitch gaming community, and you can always see different versions of his emotes being spammed in streamer’s chats. From MonkaS to PepeLaugh, there are some pretty iconic Pepe emotes, but none are quite as amazing as the goofy Twitch emote Pepega! Despite being one of the most iconic versions of Pepe, quite a few people don’t know how this emote got started or what it means. Have no fear if you’re one of these confused individuals because today we are going to be deep-diving into Pepega and learning everything we can about this interesting emote!

How Did Pepega Start?

Pepega first got its start way back in April of 2018 when a Discord user named adew created it and uploaded it to a Discord channel. The name was first seen when adew was spamming his new creation into Discord and accidentally forgot the second colon in :pepega:. On this same day, Pepega was uploaded to FrankerFacez, an emote extension for Twitch. The emote quickly blew up when a photo of it was uploaded to a subreddit dedicated to a popular Twitch streamer named Forsen. The creator of the post, u/elojudx, announced that the emote had just been added to Forsen’s stream. By the following day, the subreddit was filled with posts making fun of the emote, such as one post by u/BikoPikog where they turned Pepega into a parody of the Ghostbusters. The emote was also constantly being ironically spammed in Forsan’s chat as a lot of his viewers thought the new emote was dumb. Forsen's viewers ended up accidentally creating a new version of the meme when they spammed Pepega with a megaphone! This was supposed to represent Pepega saying “FOOOR SAAAN” (Forsen) in a silly voice.

The idea of giving Pepega a megaphone to say something dumb really caught on and eventually became an official version of the meme known as Pepega Megaphone. While people might have hated Pepega at first, the Twitch community eventually grew to love it, and it has become a staple of Twitch’s emotes!

Pepega Meaning

So we know all about Pepega’s history now, but what does the Pepega emote actually mean? To put it simply, Pepega is generally used as a way to make fun of a streamer after they’ve done or said something dumb. It’s usually spammed whenever chat wants to make fun of the streamer they're watching. If a streamer calls an animal by the wrong name or completely misses something obvious in a stream then you should fully expect to see the chat instantly filled with Pepegas. While this might seem mean, plenty of streamers have great relationships with their chat and it’s usually all in good fun. While going over Pepega’s history we briefly mentioned that there was another popular version of Pepega known as Pepega Megaphone, which is used as a way of saying something in a silly voice. However, did you know that there’s actually a third version of Pepega? As people have used Pepega more and more, a version of him known as Pepega Clap has developed. This version, as you might have guessed by the name, is a combination of the Pepega emote next to the Twitch clap emote. This is usually spammed alongside phrases like “EZ Clap” or “poggers”, and is a way of noting when something is easy. It tends to be used the most when a streamer easily beats someone else in a video game. With how popular Pepega has become, it wouldn’t be surprising if we saw another version of this emote evolve eventually.

How to use Pepega?

As you’ve been reading about Pepega you may have realized that you’ve never actually seen people use the Pepega emote, you’ve only seen the word in chat. This is because pepega is not an “official” Twitch emote. While Twitch has released quite a number of global emotes, Pepega has tragically never been picked to be one. Twitch is pretty picky when it comes to their official emotes as those emotes are seen by every user and are a representation of Twitch as a brand. Since Pepega could be considered mean or offensive, it’s not surprising that Twitch wouldn’t want to associate themselves with it. Luckily, there’s still a way for you to use the emote! The best way to do this is by installing either the FrankerFacez Extensive or the BetterTTV Plugin. Both of these enhance certain features of Twitch or allow you to use custom emotes such as Pepega. Don’t worry if you’re new to Twitch because these are both super easy to set up! After installing the FrankerFacez extension and connecting it to your Twitch account you can configure which emotes you want to see, and you can also upload between 25-50 custom emotes!

If you decide to go the BetterTTV route then you’ll need to download the plugin to your browser and connect it to your Twitch account. Once BetterTTV is all set up then you’ll be able to search through all of the popular Pepe the Frog emotes, including Pepega! Now if you’re a steamer then you may be wanting to get Pepega added to your channel by uploading it as a custom emote. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible. All custom channel emotes have to be submitted to Twitch for approval, and Pepega would break a few of the guidelines they have set in place.

Controversy

Now before you run around with your new knowledge and start spamming Pepegas into the first stream chat you find, there are a few things you might want to know. Back in 2015, there were some alternate versions of Pepe made by various trolls on sites like 4chan which made it seem like the character was part of a hate group. During the 2016 election, the character was once again featured in several popular memes and videos that made it seem like an “alt-right” meme. Despite Pepe himself being totally harmless, the media ran with the story and Pepe the Frog became known as a hate symbol used by alt-right trolls. The news associating Pepe with hate groups actually got so bad that the original creator killed Pepe off in his comic and began suing anyone using the image in a political manner. While the news surrounding Pepe might have died down in recent years, many controversial figures, like Alex Jones of Infowars, still use Pepe to symbolize their political views. This has made companies and much of the public at large wary of anyone who uses Pepe or Pepe-related images online. Additionally, Pepega is one of the more controversial versions of Pepe as many consider it a way of saying someone has a mental deficiency, which is considered offensive. Most people who frequent Twitch don’t view the emote this way, but I’d consider keeping this information in mind if you don’t want to get hounded or possibly reported for using it on other platforms!

Twitch emotes are a fantastic way to build your community while sharing some fun inside jokes. Pepe emotes are among the most commonly used emotes on Twitch, with Pepega being in the top 75 most used emotes across the entire platform! With how many Pepe emotes are out there, it can be hard to keep track of them all. It stinks when you’re in chat watching a stream and see everyone spamming a Pepe emoji that you’ve never seen before and you have no clue what it means. Luckily all the knowledge you’ve gained about Pepega should decrease your chances of being left in the dark when it comes to chat. Now it’s time for you to enable Pepega on your own Twitch account and go mess with some of your favorite streamers!