He Laughed / Roger Just Laughed

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About

"He Laughed", sometimes translated as "Roger Just Laughed", refers to a manga panel from One Piece in which the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, bursts out laughing after finding out what the treasure named after the series itself actually is. The panel became the subject of various edits, redraws and memes, and its text box has also been added onto images of other characters and people laughing.

Origin

The panel is from One Piece chapter 967, released on January 4th, 2020, titled "Roger's Adventure."^[1] The chapter follows a series of events shown in flashback, narrated from the writings of Kozuki Oden, about his adventures with the Roger Pirates. Oden writes that they had learned about the various mysteries that have been part of the series' lore, such as the Void Century, the Ancient Weapons, the meaning of the D., and found the treasure left by the legendary figure known as Joy Boy, which would be later known as the "One Piece." Oden writes that upon witnessing the treasure itself with his very eyes, Roger laughed, so did his crew and Oden himself who was amongst them.

"We learned about everything in the world. We learned about the "Void Century." We learned about the "meaning of the D. name." We learned about the "Ancient Weapons." I, at least, learned that Wano had connected with the world in the past. But do you want to know what Gol D. Roger, King of the Pirates, did when the treasure he sought was placed in front of his very eyes? He laughed. We laughed as well, to the point where tears started pouring out of our eyes."

The chapter became extremely popular and loved in the One Piece fandom, as it was loaded with new information and memorable moments, referenced multiple backstories and expanded its already establishment lore further.^[2]^[3]^[4] The island where the One Piece is located was confirmed to be named "Laugh Tale," a name that Roger himself chose for it. Prior to this information, the island was widely known in the fanbase (and even by the official translations) as "Raftel."^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Spread

The panel of Roger laughing has been the subject of various redraws, edits and meme templates, particularly in 2022. On Reddit, user _The_Pink_Monster_20 posted an edit in which Roger isn't laughing on r/MemePiece on July 20th, 2022, garnering over 1,000 points in 6 months (shown below, left).^[9] On August 6th, 2022, @sigmarsharks posted on Twitter an edit in which Buggy is laughing instead (shown below, right).^[10] The tweet gained over 18,500 likes and 1,250 retweets in 5 months.

The panel was also featured on the final canvas display of r/place. ^[11]^[12] The edit was made and proposed by Reddit user Gods_Bread on April 3rd, 2021, garnering over 11,000 points in 1 year (shown below, left).^[13] The image was later resized and slightly modified with the help of other members of r/OnePiece, some of them organizing via Discord. ^[14]^[15] The r/place canvas was also mentioned on the official Reddit Recap of 2021.^[16] A redraw featuring Dr. Livesey was made and posted by @TheF1amethr0wer on May 11th, 2022, receiving 780 likes and 155 retweets in 7 months (shown below, right).^[17]