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The resistance won't be broadcast, yet it might possess webbed feet and protruding eyes.

Additionally, it could include the horn of a unicorn or a chicken's feathers.

While rallies against the leadership persist in US cities, protesters have embraced the spirit of a neighborhood dress-up party. They've provided salsa lessons, distributed snacks, and performed on unicycles, as police watch.

Mixing levity and political action – a tactic researchers refer to as "tactical frivolity" – is not new. However, it has emerged as a hallmark of protests in the United States in recent years, embraced by various groups.

A specific icon has emerged as especially powerful – the frog. It began when a video of an encounter between an individual in a frog suit and ICE agents in the city of Portland, became an internet sensation. It subsequently appeared to demonstrations across the country.

"A great deal happening with that little inflatable frog," states a professor, a professor at UC Davis and a Guggenheim Fellow who focuses on political performance.

The Path From the Pepe Meme to Portland

It is difficult to discuss demonstrations and amphibians without addressing Pepe, a cartoon character adopted by extremist movements throughout an election cycle.

When this image initially spread on the internet, its purpose was to express specific feelings. Afterwards, it was deployed to show support for a candidate, including a particular image endorsed by the candidate personally, depicting the frog with a signature suit and hair.

The frog was also portrayed in certain internet forums in offensive ways, portrayed as a historical dictator. Online conservatives exchanged "unique frog images" and established cryptocurrency using its likeness. His catchphrase, "that feels good", became an inside joke.

Yet its beginnings were not as a political symbol.

The artist behind it, artist Matt Furie, has been vocal about his disapproval for how the image has been used. The character was intended as simply a relaxed amphibian in his comic world.

Pepe debuted in an online comic in the mid-2000s – apolitical and best known for a particular bathroom habit. In 'Feels Good Man', which follows the creator's attempt to wrest back control of his creation, he explained his drawing came from his time with friends and roommates.

Early in his career, the artist experimented with uploading his work to the nascent social web, where people online began to borrow, remix and reinvent his character. As Pepe spread into the more extreme corners of online spaces, Mr Furie tried to disavow the frog, including ending its life in a comic strip.

Yet the frog persisted.

"It proves the lack of control over icons," says Prof Bogad. "Their meaning can evolve and be reworked."

Previously, the popularity of Pepe meant that amphibian imagery became a symbol for conservative politics. This shifted on a day in October, when a confrontation between a protestor wearing an inflatable frog costume and an immigration officer in Portland, Oregon captured global attention.

The event came just days after a decision to send the National Guard to the city, which was called "a warzone". Demonstrators began to gather in droves on a single block, near an immigration enforcement facility.

Tensions were high and a officer used a chemical agent at the individual, directing it into the opening of the puffy frog costume.

Seth Todd, the man in the costume, quipped, saying it tasted like "something milder". Yet the footage spread everywhere.

Mr Todd's attire fit right in for the city, renowned for its quirky culture and left-wing protests that delight in the absurd – public yoga, 80s-style aerobics lessons, and unique parades. The city's unofficial motto is "Embrace the Strange."

This symbol was also referenced in subsequent court proceedings between the administration and Portland, which claimed the use of troops overstepped authority.

While a ruling was issued in October that the administration was within its rights to send personnel, a minority opinion disagreed, referencing in her ruling the protesters' "known tendency for using unusual attire when expressing opposition."

"Observers may be tempted the court's opinion, which accepts the government's characterization as a battlefield, as merely absurd," Judge Susan Graber wrote. "However, this ruling is not merely absurd."

The order was "permanently" blocked just a month later, and troops withdrew from the area.

However, by that time, the amphibian costume had become a powerful protest icon for progressive movements.

The inflatable suit was spotted in many cities at anti-authoritarian protests that fall. Amphibian costumes were present – along with other creatures – in major US cities. They were in rural communities and big international cities abroad.

The frog costume was backordered on major websites, and became more expensive.

Shaping the Optics

The link between both frogs together – lies in the interplay between the silly, innocent image and a deeper political meaning. This is what "tactical frivolity."

The strategy relies on what the professor terms the "irresistible image" – often silly, it acts as a "appealing and non-threatening" display that calls attention to your ideas without directly articulating them. This is the unusual prop used, or the symbol circulated.

Mr Bogad is an analyst in the subject and an experienced participant. He's written a text on the subject, and led seminars internationally.

"One can look back to the Middle Ages – under oppressive regimes, they use absurdity to express dissent a little bit and still have plausible deniability."

The purpose of this approach is three-fold, he says.

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