Disclaimer: If you only watch the One Piece anime, this post contains several upcoming spoilers.

2015 was a disproportionately heavy year of reading for One Piece fans. Dressrosa, the longest arc in the series to date, required a prolonged finale to tie up its loose strings, Doflamingo’s and otherwise. Characterized by chapter-long executive sendoffs, Luffy’s latest warlord clash (and its ten minute intermission), the political ripple effect Doflamingo’s fall had on the New World, and our introduction to an ancient elephant, the density of this year’s plot spared little time for the humorous whimsy that has been such a mainstay.

As a result, ranking my favorite running gags of 2015 proved a much tougher task than last year. Running gags are one of the aspects I love most about One Piece. They hearken back to the recurring sketches of Mad TV and Saturday Night Live that I grew up watching on Sunday mornings with my parents, who videotaped the episodes since I wasn’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. Running jokes give me a sensation of being “in” on the joke, which I feel to be an intimate way of connecting with an art form.

Rather than focusing solely on running gags (as there are few), I’m also going to highlight the best “one-liners” One Piece delivered in 2015. While the increase in tension and anticipation this year hindered the prevalence of recurring jokes, the number of self-contained chapters allowed many one-off jokes to shine.

Without further adieu, the top three running gags and top five standalone jokes of 2015!

Running Gag #3: Grannies with Gumption (Chapters 785 & 802)

These two may be separate jokes, but Eiichiro Oda’s collective grandmother humor this year deserves some recognition.

Collapsed, her fate seemingly sealed by the constricting birdcage, our first granny had all but given up hope of saving herself. It appeared that granny’s time had come, but I bet she lived a full life, and now, so must her granddaughter. What a commendable sentiment.

Not so fast, my friend. King Riku’s got some inspiration to sprinkle on those tired legs of yours. Time to run, lil’ missy!

The idea of a pirate crew taking New World navigational instruction from Gambia’s grandmother just takes the cake. What do we do about hail as big as your head? Use it to remove undesirable gum. Wounded by said hail? Apply sugar. And under no circumstances pick a fight with nature.

Solid folk wisdom, granny. You can be my navigator any day.

Running Gag Runner-Up: Minks Dig Bones (807 & 809)

Whereas Usopp became a god on Dressrosa, Brook became a savior to the Minks on Zou — and a delicious savior at that.

Wanda’s “dead comrade” reveal was predictable, but at least it culminated in this Zoro face. I imagine Brook escaping and hiding from the jaws of drooling Minks these past few days like its own humorous take on one of Oda’s survival games. Even Duke Dogstorm cannot remain composed in his presence.

Looking forward to more of this one in 2016.

The Top Running Gag of 2015 was … Bounce Man! (784, 785 & 786)

Joker’s first impression of Fourth Gear? High comedy.

That sure flipped on a dime, but the jokes did not stop there. Onlookers would describe this epic battle as Doflamingo being overpowered by…a rubber ball?

“Can’t he stop bouncing around?” you ask, no-name citizen of Dressrosa? NOPE.

CAN’T STOP, WONT STOP. Kicking Mingo’s ass, that is.

Seeing Doflamingo battered around like he was the one made of rubber was gleefully satisfying, and the smiles this beat down produced made it all the easier to laugh along with the crowd at Luffy’s absurd transformation. Gear Four is great because it’s just as humorous as it is serious. Oda really knocked it out of the park with this reveal. This gag stole the spotlight of the year for me.

Onto the standalone jokes!



#5 Anyone who thought Trafalgar Law might ACTUALLY be dead (779 & 780)

Just kidding. Nobody believed that.

#5: All the Feels (796)

Dressrosa ran us all through a gamut of emotions. A tearful reunion with Sabo, the drama encapsulated by the birdcage, and the elation of Fourth Gear and the end of Doflamingo’s reign of terror describe just few shades of the spectrum of feelings this arc has involved. In the thick of the action, Luffy didn’t have time to let any of that soak in. Consequently, we get this fantastic mess of a panel.

Luffy’s always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeves, but this is a little overboard. Oda’s become more experimental in recent years in combining multiple facial expressions in a single panel, and it’s made for some highlight-of-the-chapter quality jokes, like this one.

#4: Law & Luffy’s No-Carb Regimen (786)

What originated as throwaway joke about Law not wanting a sandwich has culminated in a feud between Supernovas. I present to you, anime viewers, the most absurd cover page in ages.

What makes this joke is how plausible it is. We know from Luffy’s time on Whiskey Peak that food and hospitality is not to be rejected, so I can totally envision Law’s stubborn resistance of bread irritating Luffy. Luffy’s gone into Second Gear, so his insistence that Law meet all his daily food group needs is coming at the cost of his own life! And potentially others, as that monkey certainly did not comprehend the seriousness that is to bread, or not to bread.

#3: Don’t Cramp My Style (800)

Luffy wants to be the Pirate King, not some big shot. What’s not to get?

To Luffy, who merely wants to be as free as a man can, there’s nothing contradictory about it, but his ignorance as to why it should inherently be contradictory is rather humorous. The puzzlement of his newfound armada was priceless.

This face is what really sells the moment. Rarely does Luffy appear quite this offended. Who knew that Luffy had any notion of aesthetic other than that mechas are the height of cool? I’m not sure you could get this kind of reaction out of Luffy again even if you refused to share your meat with him.

#2: The Paramythic Diet (782)

Trebol’s new weight loss diet may be the envy of all the New World: trim the slime. The Stick-Stick Fruit user had us all fooled — Luffy included — prior to revealing that he was not a Logia class Devil Fruit user at all, but in fact a Paramythia user coated in his own snot.

While the sticky substance provided Trebol with some misdirection and pseudo-protection, it also required him to, well, live the most disgusting lifestyle imaginable. Hardly worth it in my esteemed opinion, but to each his own.

That Oda seemingly retconned Trebol’s ability does detract a little from my enjoyment of this joke, but I think the pros of changing the fruit outweighed the cons here, since merely using Haki to defeat a Logia Trebol would not have been as memorable.

#1: Thrills to Die For (795)

This isn’t the kind of joke that has a setup and a punch line. But it is the kind of joke that separates One Piece from the pack. The most fearsome character to date is revealed, and true to the series, he’s just a little off kilter.

The great lengths Kaido goes through to see whether or not he can be killed are awesome, fearsome, and yes, comical. That someone can take his mortality so lightly to the point of free falling from a sky island is insane, but I could not help grinning throughout this chapter.

It’s hard not to appreciate that Oda can match the menacing reveal of one emperor, Big Mom, with the equally humorous reveal of another. The drama certainly helped to elevate this joke, for while it may not be the joke one typically laughs out loud at, it is the kind of joke that has one talking long after it’s been told, making it my number one of the year.

That’ll wrap up my humor recap for 2015. If I left out your favorite joke, be sure to let me hear it in the comments or @renfield89!