The primary villain of the third saga of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece -- the epic “Sky Island Saga” -- is Enel (also referred to as Eneru). A powerful god of the floating island, Skypiea, Enel possesses incredible lightning-based powers thanks to his eating of the Rumble-Rumble Devil Fruit, making him seem like one of the most powerful villains to date.
However, Enel soon found that his powers didn’t work on Luffy, who was blessed with rubber abilities thanks to the Gum-Gum Fruit. Enel’s absurdly shocked face in reaction to the revelation was iconic -- enough that it’s become a common meme. So let’s take a look at the best memetic uses of Enel’s face.
10 Enel Squarepants
The “Enel Face” meme evolved in a pretty interesting way as it ended up fusing with one of the most prolific meme machines of the 21st century: the cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants. Someone on the internet once Photoshopped Enel’s face onto Spongebob for a meme, and the image has become a frequently used meme unto itself. Occasionally someone will realize that the face comes from One Piece, resulting in memes like this, but you can’t blame anybody for assuming it was just lifted from one of those Rage Comics that used to be all the rage on Reddit.
9 The Original Surprised Pikachu
This meme, parodying the motivational poster you’ll find in classrooms and the worst workplaces on Earth, directly references the events One Piece and thus the context for Enel’s face. But what makes it more than just a literal representation is that the text of the meme expresses the situation in terms of the Pokemon video games. This ends up drawing a pretty funny comparison with Pikachu, whose own surprised face has become a popular meme.
8 It's Eminem
One Piece fans who are versed in non-Japanese pop culture may be quick to notice that Enel looks remarkably like rapper Eminem. Like Marshall Mathers himself, Enel’s got pale skin, blond hair, and a tendency to wear durags.
It may not be a coincidence, either -- creator Eiichiro Oda is a noted fan of Eminem and has reportedly based numerous One Piece characters on celebrities and other characters throughout pop culture.
7 Surprises Are Not Fun
Several One Piece fans have use the “motivational poster parody” motif to make Enel memes, including this hilariously blunt one. The joke is just “surprises are bad,” without any context for what surprises. Is the creator referring to all surprises or just unwelcome ones? How do they feel about surprise parties? The world may never know, but this meme is extra funny due to its presentation. The black border and extreme zoom of Enel’s face create the absurd and scary effect of Junji Ito comics. Enel may as well be reacting to an unexpected spiral.
6 Laughing At Dad Jokes
Despite existing since the dawn of civilization, corny “dad jokes” have become easy meme fodder over the past decade or so. They’re usually mildly amusing puns that are family-friendly, but rarely elicit much beyond a mild chuckle, if even that. This meme, based on the idea of buttering up pops for some cash, is pretty broad and universal but does a great job recontextualizing Enel’s surprised face as a laugh.
5 Discovering Fanfic
For many participants in fandom, fanfiction is a way to creatively express love for characters, a story, or a world -- or even to make relationships happen that wouldn’t happen in the source material. Other fans look at fanfic based on its negative or mockable aspects, like amateur writing or even sexual content. This judgmental motivational poster meme takes the latter approach, turning Enel’s face from one of surprise to one of abject horror.
4 This is a JoJo Reference
At first glance, you might think this meme was a misspelled joke about Tony Danza’s catchphrase on Who’s the Boss?, but it’s actually about the popular anime, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
A villain in the fourth part of JoJo’s, Diamond is Unbreakable, Angelo found himself turned into a rock by hero Josuke. What’s ironic about the use of Enel’s face here is that Angelo was also defeated by rubber, as his water-based powered were thwarted by a rubber glove.
3 Another Eminem Meme
If the other Eminem meme was not enough, then here’s a visual example. The creator of this meme has crudely but effectively Photoshopped an image of Slim Shady to look like Enel, complete with absurdly long earlobes. But the meme goes the extra mile for a joke by adding an image of Luffy using his Gum Gum powers to stretch his earlobes, defeating Enel once again.
2 Gum Gum Inc.
As a stylish cartoon band co-created by Tank Girl’s Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz is extremely nerd-friendly. One of their biggest singles is the extremely danceable “Feel Good Inc,” which includes a vocal sample of one of the featured rappers, De La Soul, delivering a very interesting laugh. Typically the “Spongebob Laughing Collage” meme is used in different contexts, but this one is just incredibly accurate.
1 Pica Pica
This is a delightful Enel face meme because it makes reference to later, unrelated events in One Piece. The hulking, extremely Fist of the North Star-like Pica was a major villain of the Dressrosa Saga, but his imposing figure was undercut by his hilariously high-pitched voice. Obviously, most characters would try not to react to the incongruity of Pica’s body with his voice, but Luffy famously couldn’t help himself and began laughing uncontrollably.
