The same way he does everything else, by mistake.
For every competent badass in the world, there are ten undeserving ignoramuses (ignorami?) who somehow manage to fail upwards and pull the ladder up after them. The world of One Piece is no exception. Buggy the clown has no right to be a Yonko. The guy barely has any right to be alive in the first place. He was only christened yonko by a complete fluke. But seeing as how Buddy’s life is a series of complete flukes, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Let’s explore why.
So while Buddy was fleeing from the world government because he couldn’t fight his own hand out of a pickle jar, he teamed up with the actually competent pirates Crocodile and Mihawk in order to ensure his undeserving survival. See, like many undeserving people in the world, buddy has fans who inexplicably love him in the same way people inexplicably love Jimmy Buffet and Dave Matthews. Buddy’s subordinates love him so much that when he asked them to make posters for the newly formed Cross Guild (which includes Crocodile and Mihawk), they put his face DEAD CENTER in the poster. Then they put pictures of Crocodile and Mihawk on either side of him, making it look like he is their superior (lol). This leads everyone to believe that Buddy is the leader of the Cross Guild, which immediately skyrockets him to Yonko status.
Naturally, this doesn’t turn out very well for Buddy, as the other more competent warlords of the world are incensed by his promotion. Anyone else would have been immediately killed for such an offense, but somehow Buddy manages to luck his way out of certain death as well.
Buddy’s the kind of guy that could luck his way into heaven by dropping dead in a Catholic confession booth after giving himself an aneurysm bragging about his deeds to the priest. With his luck, they’ll probably make him the next Messiah. Sorry, Jesus, you just aren’t quite incompetent enough.
(featured image: Toei animation)
