Pickle Rick

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About

Pickle Rick refers to a series of images and references to the episode of Rick and Morty entitled "Pickle Rick," which sees the character of Rick being turned into a pickle.

Origin

On July 22nd, 2016, Adult Swim uploaded an exclusive sneak preview from San Diego Comic-Con of the third season of Rick and Morty to YouTube. ^[1] In the clip, Rick is shown as a pickle-shaped being, who murderers a rat and steals its brain. The video (shown below) received more than 3 million views in one year.

Spread

About nine months later, on April 1st, 2017, before the surprise premiere of Rick and Morty season three, two teaser trailers of the series aired. In the clip, Morty turns Pickle Rick over on his garage tool bench, and Pickle Rick declares himself "Pickle Rick." The Rick and Morty Instagram ^[8] account uploaded a clip of the scene to recieve more than 104,000 likes and 458,000 views. That day, YouTuber^[2] Spazz DHN uploaded the video (shown below) to YouTube, where it received more than 200,000 views in four months.

Following the premiere of the preview, fans of the series uploaded pictures of "Pickle Rick" to the /r/RickAndMorty subreddit.^[3]^[4]^[5]

On August 4th, Redditor ^[6] Special_Chef posted a side-by-side picture Pickle Rick and Larry the Cucumber from VeggieTales with in the thread "You vs the guy she tells you not to worry about." The post (shown below, left) received more than 25,000 points (87% upvoted) and 200 comments in three days.

The next day, Redditor^[7] ILikeToDickDastardly posted a photo of numerous Pickle Rick's with the caption "I want to pickill myself" in the thread "When you hate pickle rick memes but need to be relevant somehow." The post (shown below, right) received more than 575 points (93% upvoted).

On August 6th, the episode premiered, leading to further exposure of Pickle Rick and inspiring fan art of all kinds. That night, Twitter ^[9] published a Moments page featuring memes and discussion of the episode and characters.

The episode was also a major topic of conversation on 4chan, where it inspired numerous threads on the /tv/ board.^[10]^[11] On August 4th, an anonymous 4chan^[12] user posted a picture of Pickle Rick dabbing and the comment "PICKLE RICK IS IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT" in the /co/ board. The image (shown below) received more than 390 comments in three days.

Pickle Rick, Funniest Stuff Ever

Pickle Rick, Funniest Stuff Ever refers to a series of memes in which various characters recall the Rick and Morty scene of scientist Rick Sanchez revealing that he had turned himself into a pickle as the pinnacle of comedy. The format gained popularity as an ironic meme in late February 2020.

Pickle Rick Reveals

Following the popularity of Pickle Rick, Funnies Stuff Ever memes, meme format in which Morty flips a pickle over to reveal various characters other than Rick gained popularity online, primarily on Instagram. On March 6th, 2020, Twitter and YouTube user Stickfab^[13] (@_stickfab_) posted the earliest known meme utilizing the format; in the meme, Morty reveals that the pickle is just a pickle (shown below). The video received over 129,000 views, 4,800 retweets and 20,000 likes on Twitter in two weeks.

In the following days, the format gained a notable presence on Instagram, with other characters replacing Rick's face on the pickle. For example, a March 12th, 2020, Mesa Que Más Aplauda meme by Instagram user pgodcomedy^[14] gained over 55,600 views and 14,100 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). A March 16th Beanos meme by notkinghill^[15] gained over 118,000 views and 32,600 likes in one week (shown below, right).