Shoot Down That Flag

Submission 2,320

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Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for One Piece; read at your own caution.

About

Shoot Down That Flag, also known as Usopp Shoots The Flag, is a catchphrase and memorable scene from One Piece character Monkey D. Luffy telling Sogeking (Usopp) to shoot the World Government flag, declaring war on them for Nico Robin's sake. The phrase and scene became an exploitable meme in late 2019 on X / Twitter and Reddit in which netizens added flags from different countries or notable institutions in an act of defiance or criticism.

Origin

On February 6th, 2006, One Piece's chapter Chapter 398^[1] titled "Declaration of War" was released in Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine. The chapter features Luffy telling Sogeking "Shoot down that flag" in an act to burn the World Government's flag and the Straw Hat Pirates declaring war to the world. On September 24, 2006, the anime^[2] adaption of the manga debuted the scene.

On May 12th, 2011, YouTube^[3] user @nikentus uploaded the English-subtitled scene (seen below), which amassed more than 3.4 million views and 33,000 likes in 13 years.

The earliest memetic content using the catchphrase and scene was posted on Reddit^[4] by Redditor u/TheRedKitsune on October 9th, 2019, in which the World Government flag was replaced by China's flag being burned down (seen below). The post amassed more than 720 upvotes and 50 comments in five years.

Spread

The "shoot that flag down" phrase and the scene became widely used as a meme source going into the 2020s, especially on Reddit and X, as users edited the original flag for other countries and notable institutions as an act of criticism or protest.

For example, on October 8th, 2022, ImgFlip^[5] user accoladed posted Luffy's quote in the manga over a picture of the United States flag (seen below), which amassed more than 610 views in two years.

On April 13th, 2022, YouTube^[6] user @muffin_delivery_man posted a version of the Shoot that Flag Down meme in which Luffy stares at the LGBTQ+ flag (seen below), amassing roughly 800 views and 40 likes in two years.