Top Memes from Rick and Morty

About the show

"Rick and Morty" is an adult animated series about mad scientist Rick and his grandson Morty, who travel across many worlds and dimensions. The show's main distinguishing features are its black humor, complex plots with science fiction references, and open-ended finales in many episodes. The show became one of the highest-rated series on adult-oriented channels and spawned a huge number of memes, quotes, and fan art.

The show's memetic quality stems from its structure: new characters and locations appear in every episode, and these are easy to lift out of the episode itself. Short lines, unusual creatures, and individual scenes become standalone images that work even outside the context of their episode.

Creation and premiere

The show was created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. Roiland's characters first appeared back in 2006 in the short "The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti," made for the Channel 101 short-film festival founded by Harmon. After Harmon was fired from the show "Community" in 2012, Adult Swim offered him a new project, and he asked Roiland to pitch ideas for an animated series.

The premiere took place on December 2, 2013, on Adult Swim. Network executive Nick Weidenfeld suggested making Rick the protagonist's grandfather, and this idea became the basis of the show's family dynamic. The show quickly achieved cult status, and some of its lines became recognizable across the internet.

Signature lines and episodes

One of the most famous lines is "Wubba lubba dub dub," which Rick says while drunk. The phrase became a symbol of the show and began to be used in chats, comments, and image captions regardless of the plot of any particular episode.

The title of the episode "Get Schwifty" also turned into a set phrase. Later, a location based on this episode appeared in the game MultiVersus, though sources don't give an exact date for when it appeared.

The most famous meme character is Pickle Rick, from a season 3 episode from 2017, in which Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid attending family therapy. The image quickly became part of internet humor and was widely used in pictures, videos, and merchandise.

Spread

The show spread widely through merchandise: figures of Mr. Meeseeks and Mr. Poopybutthole, Funko figures, clothing, and board and card games. In 2017, the "Rickmobile" merch tour took place. In 2015, a voice pack featuring the characters' lines appeared in the game Dota 2.

Television also became a notable channel: an episode of "The Simpsons," "Mathlete's Feat," which aired on May 17, 2015, featured a gag in the style of "Rick and Morty." DVD and Blu-ray releases began in 2014, and availability on the Netflix streaming service in different regions further expanded the audience.

Origin of the memes and illustration

The origin of individual memes — specific images and captions — has not been established. Reference materials describe the show, its creation, and distribution, but they don't record who first made a particular image or edit, or when. For this reason, the text discusses the role of the show as a whole rather than the original source of each meme.

The illustration is a still from the animated series: a green alien in a business suit and Rick in a white lab coat are sitting in a diner. Other characters are visible in the background, along with a reclining figure in green clothing. The still matches the catalog's description, but the specific episode cannot be determined from the image, so it should not be attributed to any particular episode.