What to Know About the Followers of Nick Fuente…

After Charlie Kirk was fatally shot last week and federal authorities arrested the alleged shooter, one word has left many people who aren’t terminally online incredibly confused: Groyper.

What are Groypers and what do they have to do with Charlie Kirk?

It turns out it has less to do with Kirk, and more to do with one of his biggest rivals and critics on the far right, Nick Fuentes, whose followers adopted the name Groypers, a variant of the internet’s beloved meme, Pepe.

Some are speculating that Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, was a Groyper, given some of the messages that authorities claimed were engraved on both fired and unfired casings. Robinson’s motives and ideology are unconfirmed as yet, and there is no actual evidence that he has any relationship at all to the Groypers. Despite that, people online, as they do, are speculating.

Such phrases purportedly on the aforementioned bullet casings included, “Hey fascist, catch,” “If you read this you are gay LMAO,” “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?”, and “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao.” What the shooter intended by these phrases is unclear, but some general meanings have bee speculated.

“Notices bulges OwO what’s this?” is a meme frequently used to make fun of furries.

The phrase “Bella ciao” is from an Italian folk song adopted by anti-fascist and anti-Nazi partisans following World War II—but it’s also been ironically co-opted by Fuentes’ followers from time to time, according to reports.

Over the weekend, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox divulged some details about Robinson’s life that paint him as anti-right-wing. Cox previously told the Wall Street Journal that the 22-year-old is “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” and that his partner is currently “transitioning from male to female,” per the BBC.

What exactly is a Groyper?

The Groyper Army is a far-right, online-based movement that advocates for Fuentes, a white supremacist and America First podcaster. As previously mentioned, their mascot is a cartoon frog named Groyper, à la Pepe the Frog; Groyper is used predominantly within extremist groups.

What do Groypers believe?

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the movement is made up of “alt-right, white nationalist, and Christian nationalist activists” who espouse antisemitic, racist, and homophobic views under the guise of discourse about traditional values and family.

Groypers are even more radical than Kirk and his followers, whom they viewed as liberal and a sell-out. In fact, Groypers also broke from Donald Trump for the same reasons, believing that the president isn’t going far enough to bring their white Christian state fantasies to fruition.

In 2019, Fuentes launched the “Groyper Wars,” which saw his followers attack Kirk for “being insufficiently radical,” Newsweek writes. Groypers were tasked with interrupting Kirk’s campus events, critiquing him for not taking a harder stance on immigration, and deeming him a gatekeeper, “accusing him of co-opting Trump’s populist energy while diluting its message,” per the publication.

Fuentes initiated Groyper War 2 in 2024, which saw his followers wage a “digital war” on Trump’s presidential campaign.

Why do some people think Tyler Robinson might be a Groyper?

So far, the most concrete possible connection between Robinson and the Groypers is a Halloween costume. One year as a teen, his costume was, in his mother’s words, “some guy from a meme.” According to Vanity Fair, there’s a Facebook photo from Halloween 2018 of Robinson dressed as that.

The meme he was imitating appeared to be of a Gopnik, a stereotypical lower-class Russian or Slavic man who frequently wears tracksuits and, as the popular meme has it, is often pictured squatting.

To bring things full-circle, there is a meme of Pepe squatting while dressed as a Gopnik, similar to Robinson’s pose in the photo. However, per the page Know Your Meme, “The Pepe the Frog Gopnik image that people are sharing next to Robinson’s costume doesn’t have much to do with the alt-right, and is more pulled from the largely unproblematic ‘Rare Pepes’ era of the Pepe meme.”

In addition to the costume, some have suggested that “Bella Ciao,” the Italian song whose lyrics were found on a shell casing, has been, despite its history as an Italian anti-fascist anthem, ironically adopted by the Groypers.

What has Nick Fuentes said?

Fuentes has responded to speculation that Robinson is a Groyper. On Saturday, Fuentes took to X, writing that he and his followers are “being framed for the murder of Charlie Kirk by the mainstream media based on literally zero evidence.”

“After the Left gunned him down, they celebrated and justified it. They said I was next. Now they are blaming me,” he added, alongside a screenshot of trending items, including “What is a Groyper?”

Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro also pushed back against rumors and speculation that Robinson is a Fuentes disciple in a conversation with Bill Maher, who asked how Shapiro is so sure that Robinson isn’t a Groyper.

“I’m not sure he’s not that,” Shapiro said. He then explained that it was extremely likely Robinson wasn’t a Groyper because he told “his family that Charlie Kirk was too hateful.”

“He was not a Groyper because the Groypers would have said that Charlie wasn’t hateful enough,” Shapiro added.

What is Kanye West’s connection to Nick Fuentes, leader of the Groypers?

Since we’re in the worst conceivable timeline, we have to note that Kanye West has ties to Fuentes. Back in 2022, Fuentes joined Ye and Trump at Mar-a-Lago for dinner. According to The New York Times, Fuentes said that Ye asked him to work on some policy papers because the Donda rapper “wanted us to rewrite the U.S. Constitution and to include in it Hitler’s most severe policies and also his most moderate policies.”

Ye later said that Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” While Trump caught some heat from his own party for dining with the white nationalist, the president later claimed he didn’t know who Fuentes was.