Edmond Dantes is the central character of Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo, first published in serial form in the 1840s, in which a falsely imprisoned sailor escapes and returns as the wealthy Count to exact revenge on his betrayers. His laugh has become shorthand online for that cold, calculated payback, and short clips of it are reused in meme edits, reaction videos and dramatic montages where a character turns the tables. Its staying power comes from the story itself, one of the most retold tales of revenge in literature and film.