What Happened Rick? I Thought You Weren't the Good Guy Anymore

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Editor's Note: The following meme contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead.

About

What Happened Rick? I Thought You Weren't the Good Guy Anymore, continued, Ain't That What You Said? refers to a quote from The Walking Dead character Shane Walsh (played by actor Jon Bernthal) in his death scene in which he's confronting Rick Grimes (played by actor Andrew Lincoln), telling him that he's a "better father than him." The scene became a copypasta and meme on TikTok in late 2023, manifesting in fan edits and a photo slideshow trend when it was remixed with the song "Not That I'm Anywhere" by Cities Aviv. In October 2023, two children with funny voices (one being YMC Gigglesaurus) reenacted the scene in Fortnite, spawning more memetic usage.

Origin

On March 11th, 2012, season 2, episode 12 of The Walking Dead titled "Better Angels" aired on American television.^[1] In the episode, Shane Walsh confronts Rick Grimes, saying, "What happened Rick? I thought you weren't the good guy anymore, ain't that what you said?" The scene was posted to YouTube^[2] on October 10th, 2019, by The Doves Nest, gaining roughly 1.4 million views in four years (shown below).

What happened Rick? I thought you weren't the good guy anymore, ain't that what you said? Even right here right now you ain't gonna fight for 'em? I'm a better father than you, Rick. I'm better for Lori than you, man. It's 'cause I'm a better man than you, Rick. 'Cause I can be here and I'll fight for it. But you come back here and you just destroy everything!

In 2023, the scene started to gain memetic usage, predominantly due to a video posted on May 19th, 2023, by TikToker^[2] @mylton.r which was an edit of the scene that remixed Shane's monologue with the song "Not That I'm Anywhere" by Cities Aviv.^[3] The video received roughly 691,400 plays and 72,100 likes in five months (shown below).

Spread

Going into June 2023, the sound^[4] of the aforementioned video gained usage via photo slideshows where users labeled Rick and Shane "Me and bro" and then posed humorous scenarios that'd make them and their friend fight. For instance, on June 21st, 2023, TikToker^[5] @liberalterminator0 posted a slideshow that received roughly 1.4 million plays and 188,600 likes in four months (recording shown below).

On June 27th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @cole.sucks.at.makin.vids posted a video that was just the trend's audio, gaining roughly 260,000 plays and 11,200 likes in four months. The video inspired its own sound^[7] going into 2023, also gaining slideshow usage.

Fan art and redraws of the scene started to surface in photo slideshows. For instance, on September 8th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @theranchking6969 posted a redraw showing Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from Rick and Morty, gaining roughly 1.3 million plays and 246,800 likes in one month (photos shown below).

On October 5th, 2023, TikToker^[9] @mischiviator posted a Fortnite video in which they recreated Shane's monologue and the viral TikTok sound, gaining roughly 990,300 plays and 136,400 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On October 17th, TikToker^[10] @_flossinator_ posted a similar video, gaining roughly 4 million plays and 566,100 likes in two days (shown below, right).

During the same timeframe, Twitch streamer Jynxzi referenced the scene and meme live on stream. The clip was made into an edit by TikToker^[11] @cltn.edits on October 16th, 2023, gaining roughly 308,600 plays and 45,100 likes in three days (shown below).