One Piece: Why Does Usopp Lie? Plus, a List of All His Lies in the Series!

Usopp is a One Piece character we could write a whole encyclopedia about. He is certainly interesting, and his inventions deserve a lot of recognition, but the guy’s also known for being the slickest liar in the series. And while we, as the fans, immediately know when Usopp is just selling us a fake story, many of the characters believe his fabrications, which earned him the title of the series’ best liar. In this article, we will tackle that issue and explain it.

Usopp is a liar because that was a way of getting through life for him. He has no powers, and his skills were initially limited, but he has his way with words and has often used that to his advantage. In most cases, though, his lies are obvious and are complete nonsense, but even in such situations, they make up for a good distraction, especially for opponents who are more gullible or naive. This has helped both him and the crew on more than one occasion. On top of that, he is an excellent sham salesman and has been known to sell crap to people, making them believe that they’ve bought a high-end product.

This article is going to be divided into two major sections. The first one is going to explain the origins of Usopp’s lying, which can actually be considered a special power of his. The second one will be a list of all his major and better-known minor lies, as it is impossible to completely list every piece of nonsense that he has uttered in the series. Of course, this article will span the whole series, so if you’re not fully up-to-date with the events of One Piece, we advise you to be careful how you approach certain sections of this article.

Usopp is a liar because it is useful for him to lie

Usopp is a great liar, a talent that comes from lying to the people of Syrup Village while yelling that pirates are coming, in the hidden hope that his father will return from his pirate adventures.

Ironically, some of the lies he told Kaya later turned out to be true. He thus proves to be a good tactician when he manipulates his enemies during his fights. For example, he makes Smack believe that he will pull a rubber band in his face so that he closes his eyes, the time that Usopp can flee.

Another aspect of this is his ability to sell garbage to people, as he is a brilliant snake oil merchant. As we’ve said, Usopp is a skilled merchant, bartering with the people of Skypiea, exchanging rubber bands for Dials. He also had great success with the people of Wano, who bought his oils from him.

When infiltrated as a toad oil vendor in Waland, he is an effective salesman, slicing his arm and then putting toad oil on it to instantly heal the wound. He operates this role of salesman by resorting to scams to sell his products, by slicing his arm with a blade impregnated with fake blood to make believe that he has cut his arm, then by applying the oil on his uninjured arm and thus convincing people that the oil healed the wound.

He is also able, even despite himself, to pass himself off as a powerful warrior through misunderstanding, such as during the freeing of Sugar’s slaves on Dressrosa, which was not done voluntarily and where he became a god for them, now dubbed “God” Usopp. During the Raid on Onigashima, during the Wano Country Arc, Usopp takes advantage of Linlin’s Kings Haki to make it look like it is his and make enemies switch sides and put them under his command. Despite this, he can be tricked, such as when Perona tricks him into thinking she can crush his heart in her astral form.

As you can see, Usopp is quite a skilled liar, but what bothers us here is – why does he do it? Why Does Usopp lie? Well, the answer to this question has never been revealed directly, but the fact that Usopp’s lies are basically a “power” of his, we assume that he had to do it in order to get his way around.

He was not a fighter; he was not even particularly brave, and since he was living in a very harsh world, Usopp had to resort to other means to survive, and lying seems to be a brilliant example of that. Sometimes, though, he lied to make people happy, as he lied to Kaya to entertain her and make her laugh.

Sure, there is the story that he kept lying about a pirate raid because he had secretly hoped that his father would come to see him, but his other lies are completely unrelated to that.

In fact, Usopp used his lies, however ridiculous and obvious, to save himself, usually as a distraction, and that has helped both him and his future crewmates on more than one occasion, especially when he would lie to someone who was very gullible. Also, it allowed him to earn a living, as the garbage he was selling definitely did help his financial situation.

So yes, Usopp became a notorious liar because he was good at it, and it helped him get around in life. He used a power of his to help himself, which makes absolute sense when you look at it like that. On top of that, it is a source of many laughs, as some of his lies are so obvious that they are actually hilarious, more than anything else.

A list of Usopp’s lies

As we’ve said, it is entirely impossible to list down every lie that Usopp has told since his debut appearance, as the manga has more than 1,000 pages (not even counting the non-canon animated adaptations), but here is a list of the bigger and more popular ones, that will tell you just how his mind works and how “good” of a liar he actually is! Enjoy!