Pepe the frog is from the Boys Club, a comic or children's book; I don't know, it just had a couple talking animals. The first picture of him with the feels good man caption was very silly and took off from there. Unfortunately pepe became a hate symbol after 15 years.
Pepe has a weird history. I hate that people used him for hate because he's just a silly little guy. I don't know if he's still viewed as such in popular culture.