What is Awooga Luffy?

It is a reaction image and clip of Monkey D. Luffy's eyes and tongue popping out during his Gear 5 fight with Kaidou in One Piece episode 1071.

Where did Awooga Luffy come from?

The scene aired on August 5th, 2023 in episode 1071 of the One Piece anime, animated by Toei.

What does Awooga Luffy mean?

It is used as a cartoonish shock or thirst reaction, which is why early captioned versions paired it with the slang word 'gyat'.

How do you use Awooga Luffy?

Post the still as a reply reaction to something shocking, or edit the clip into a TikTok with a bass drop like @xlerate_ did.

Is Awooga Luffy still popular?

It peaked in August 2023 on X and TikTok and still circulates as a reaction image among One Piece fans, though less often than at launch.

Awooga Luffy

2023reaction imagesemi-active

Published November 3, 2026

Awooga Luffy is a reaction image and clip from episode 1071 of One Piece, which aired on August 5th, 2023, showing Monkey D. Luffy's eyes and tongue bulging cartoonishly during his Gear 5 fight with Kaidou. Within a day, X and TikTok users were pairing the still with the slang word 'gyat' and comparing the gag to a Brazilian video meme called Marcelo Me Empresta 100 Reais.

anime manga reaction memes facial expression memes thirst memes animation memes

Overview

Awooga Luffy covers two linked formats from the same six seconds of animation: the still image of Luffy with his pupils shoved forward and his tongue hanging out, and the short video of him flailing through Kaidou's fire breath. The still works as a shock or horny reaction, which is why the earliest captioned versions paired it with the slang word 'gyat'2. The clip itself is used as the punchline in TikTok edits that cut Luffy's bug-eyed scream over music drops or thirst traps3.

People quickly tied the gag to older bug-eyed meme traditions. On X, user @Lazulilaska argued that Toei's animators were nodding to the Brazilian video Marcelo Me Empresta 100 Reais, in which a man screams 'O Que?' as his eyes shoot out of their sockets1. That theory kept circulating alongside the straight reaction posts and gave the format a second life as a cross-cultural reference joke4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

One Piece anime (source) / X and TikTok (viral spread)

Creator

Toei Animation; first viral still posted by X user @RoyReadsManga

Date

2023

Episode 1071 of One Piece premiered on August 5th, 2023, continuing the Wano arc fight between Luffy, in his new Gear 5 form, and Kaidou in dragon form6. During the exchange, Toei animators drew Luffy deflecting Kaidou's fire with floppy rubber-hose movements, at one point popping his eyes and tongue out while yelling 'What?!'6.

Later that same day, X user @Lazulilaska posted the clip next to the Brazilian 'Marcelo Me Empresta 100 Reais' video and suggested the shot was a direct homage, a post that gathered over 2,000 reposts and 11,000 likes inside a week1. The YouTube upload of the fight scene documented the exact animation that fans were screenshotting5.

How It Spread

On August 6th, 2023, X user @RoyReadsManga posted a clean still of the eye-popping frame, which reached over 1,100 reposts and 17,500 likes in the next two weeks2. Replies to that thread turned the image into a template, and a version captioned 'gyaaaaaaaaaaat' by user @Sean09711499 circulated as a reaction image through the rest of August4.

TikTok picked the clip up on the same day. User @xlerate_ posted a music mashup using the scene that hit roughly 1.6 million views and 327,000 likes in two weeks, while @xlufffyy's caption edit of the same frames pulled around 1.2 million views and 271,000 likes3 6. The Brazilian-reference angle kept the gag alive among Portuguese-speaking fans, who kept reposting the Marcelo comparison next to the Luffy frame1.

Timeline

2023-08-05

One Piece episode 1071 premieres and features the Gear 5 eye-pop scene during the Luffy vs. Kaidou fight.

2023-08-05

X user @Lazulilaska posts the Marcelo Me Empresta 100 Reais comparison, racking up thousands of reposts in a week.

2023-08-06

X user @RoyReadsManga posts the still that becomes the main reaction image.

2023-08-06

TikTok users @xlerate_ and @xlufffyy post edits of the clip that each pass a million views.

2023-08-08

A 'gyaaaaaaaaaaat'-captioned version by @Sean09711499 spreads as a reply reaction on X.

How to Use This Meme

To use the still, people typically crop the frame of Luffy's bulging eyes and tongue and caption it with a one-word reaction such as 'gyat' or 'what', or paste it as a comment reply when something shocks or thirsts them out2. For video edits, a common convention is to sync the eye-pop frame with a bass drop or a punchline cut from another video3.