Top TV Memes: The Best Meme Formats From 'Rick and Morty'

First, it’s time to debunk a myth. You don’t have to have a high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. This isn’t Interstellar, and you don’t need knowledge of astrophysics to comprehend Rick turning himself into a pickle to avoid family therapy. Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty is much less complex than you may imagine: teenage Morty and his inventor grandfather Rick go on adventures through space that often lead to the world getting destroyed in one way or another, causing the two of them to flee into parallel universes to pretend it didn’t happen.

Like Bojack Horseman, this is a cartoon you should never show to kids unless you want to deal with endless crying and questions about the meaning of existence. Rick and Morty is famous for being a hilariously dark show, but it’s also known for sparking countless memes, from 20 Minutes Adventure to Well That Sounds Like Slavery With Extra Steps. In fact, it’s one of the most famous television shows in the meme community. Here are some of the best episodes for finding memes, including some forgotten potential.

Most Popular Memes: Season 4, Episode 3: "One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty"

Yes, two episodes from season three started the Pickle Rick craze and led to a worldwide movement to bring back McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce from 1998. But this more recent episode has a more significant grip on the current internet due to a famous meme, "You Son of a Bitch, I'm In." This quote is a tagline used by every character hypnotized into joining a massive planetary heist, and the story serves to explain Rick’s hatred of the heist movie genre while crushing Morty’s dreams of selling his screenplay.

However, everyone forgot about Elon Tusk, an alternate universe’s version of Elon Musk, who is voiced by the man himself in this episode. Overshadowed by the popularity of the previous meme, Elon Tusk has been unjustifiably cast aside. The fact that Musk voiced the character is enough material for memes on its own — after all, what is one of the world’s richest men doing voicing a character on Rick and Morty? Isn’t his time better spent convincing everyone we live in the matrix or finding a useable nickname for X AE A-XII?

Most Meme Potential: Season 1, Episode 6: "Rick Potion #9"

In this episode, Morty tries to gain the affections of his crush by using Rick’s low-effort love potion. Unbeknownst to Rick, it’s flu season, causing the effects to mutate and spread to the entire world, making everyone obsessed with Morty. Rick solves this by turning the entire population into deformed monsters, then giving up and assuming their places in the nearest parallel dimension.

Rick has some dark quotes in this episode, as well as a brief jab at Game of Thrones that could easily be memed. Valentine’s Day is approaching as well, so this episode’s memes can also profit off Rick’s nihilistic quotes on love, such as, "What people call 'love' is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. It hits hard, Morty, then it slowly fades, leaving you stranded in a failing marriage."

This is a particularly timely episode for memes since the potion’s havoc overtakes the planet as quickly as COVID-19 infects anti-maskers, and Rick’s strategy of fighting fire with even more fire is reminiscent of how 2020 went for all of us … giving us a great walk down the worst part of memory lane. There’s also a memeable (and extremely catchy) song from the dance scene. This comes in two versions: the first a terrible off-beat rap about the flu and the second about the rapper’s desperate plea for Morty to mate with him.

Frequently ranked as one of the best episodes of Rick and Morty, it’s a mystery why this one never took off in the meme community, but there are a lot of places here to look for potential formats.

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