About

The Best Pirate I've Ever Seen refers to a series of exploitable video remixes in which a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curst of the Black Pearl in which a character remarks "That's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen" is paired with humorous footage, generally of nautical activity.

Origin

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Commodore Norrington refers to protagonist Jack Sparrow as "the worst Pirate he's ever heard of" multiple times. However, after Sparrow pulls off an incredible commandeering of one of Norrington's ships, one of Norrington's crew says "That's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen."

Spread

On September 20th, 2017, YouTuber DumbDump posted an edit of the scene such that after the line is spoken, it cuts to a clip of a man navigating rapids on multiple stacked rafts. The video gained over 1.3 million views (shown below, left). This sparked a surge in similar edits. Two days later, YouTuber Inflatable Man posted an edit that gained over 107,000 views (shown below, right).

The format continued to be popular on YouTube over the following year. Notable YouTubers contributed to the meme. Grandayy posted an upload with Phil Swift from the Flex Tape commercial, gaining over 190,000 views (shown below, left). Dolan Dark posted an edit that used VSauce, gaining over 212,000 views (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References