To a lot of people, Patrick Fabian is most well known these days for playing Howard Hamlin in the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, which concluded with its sixth and final season last year. However, 2022 also saw Fabian receiving attention for a much different reason. The actor shot a Cameo video that referenced the anime One Piece, and now the actor has shared with CinemaBlend what he thought about the video going viral online.
For those who want the entire history of The One Piece is Real meme, I’ll direct you to Know Your Meme for the full breakdown. Basically, what you need to know is that this was already a popular meme revolving around a character from the One Piece anime named Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard. Before dying, Whitebeard exclaimed to the world that the title location where Gold Roger’s treasure resides along the Grand Line, which protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and so many pirates in that world have spent years searching for, did, in fact, exist. Cut to last August, a Reddit user named DeanDealsMang shared a Cameo video he had made for someone called “Kid named Finger” where he got Patrick Fabian to say “The One Piece is real!” in his own unique way. Check it out:
@nv_haha ♬ The one piece is real Howard Hamlin - NV
Not only did the original Reddit post get a lot of upvotes, but it in turn led to people taking Patrick Fabian’s audio and mashing it with the original The One Piece is Real meme, and there were even some fans who even combined the meme with Better Call Saul material. So while speaking with Fabian about his performance as Harvey Dent in the animated DC movie Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, I asked the actor how he felt about his One Piece video going viral, and he responded:
It’s so funny, talk about unintended consequences, right? I clearly, clearly had no idea what that was, and I thought it would just be fun. ‘Cause somebody thought it would be fun, and I thought I was doing an inside joke for somebody. And then it became what it became, then I found out what it was. It was extraordinary to watch it go. And it was also extraordinary to watch it go one way, and then I guess somebody referred to me as ‘this guy,’ and then the Better Call Saul fandom came back and they said, ‘This guy? That’s Howard Hamlin!’ And then people started doing all these Howard Hamlin memes. I mean, honestly, I’m a father of two, two dogs, I have a Toyota Highlander, I live in the Valley in Los Angeles, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden this thing is swirling around me. This really reminded me of the power of the internet, and thankfully, it was just sort of a fun, crazy car ride for a little bit. But it did remind again of like, ‘Man oh man, things can get out of hand pretty quick on the internet, can’t they?’
Patrick Fabian gained a lot of fans for his time as Howard Hamlin on Better Call Saul, and he’s even been recognized for starring in Saved by the Bell: The College Years (albeit as the wrong character), but now there’s a section of the internet that chiefly knows him as The One Piece is Real guy. After I brought up how I wasn’t aware of the meme until I saw the footage from his Cameo video, which exemplified how popular it was, Fabian said:
I mean, just nuts… Guess what? When I die, hopefully they’ll mention Better Call Saul, but I can guarantee you they’re gonna mention the One Piece.
Although Patrick Fabian does have other projects coming up besides Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, including The Other Zoey, The Way We Speak and The Hereafter, with Better Call Saul over, The One Piece is Real meme could indeed be the main way online chatter about him is generated for the foreseeable future. Looking to the One Piece anime, if you’re interested in streaming seasons of the long-running show, you can do so with a Hulu subscription or Netflix subscription, as well as on the Crunchyroll and Funimation platforms. Netflix is also home to the upcoming live-action One Piece series adaptation, which boasts a sprawling cast.
As for Patrick Fabian, you can hear him voicing a 1920s version of Harvey Dent when Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham is released on Digital, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray on March 28. HBO Max subscribers can also view Fabian’s previous animated DC outings as Hank Henshaw/Cyborg Superman in the movies The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, which were part of the DC Animated Movie Universe timeline.
