What Is My Purpose?

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About

"What Is My Purpose?" is a memorable quote uttered by a robot^[7] from the animated television series Rick and Morty, who is built by the character Rick Sanchez for the sole purpose of passing butter.

Origin

On March 24th, 2014, Season 1 Episode 9 "Something Ricked This Way Comes" of Rick and Morty was broadcast. In the episode, a newly built robot asks Sanchez "What is my purpose?", to which Sanchez replies "You pass butter." Three days later, YouTuber jorthak uploaded the scene to YouTube, where it gathered upwards of 2.4 million views and 1,900 comments over the next three years (shown below).

Spread

On September 21st, 2015, Redditor Reddit__PI uploaded an illustration of the robot surrounded by sticks of butter to /r/rickandmorty,^[1] where it accumulated more than 1,000 votes (95% upvoted) and 30 comments prior to being archived (shown below, left). On May 2nd, 2016, Redditor Pm_Me_Squanch posted a CGI model of the robot, which gained over 16,000 votes (91% upvoted) and 200 comments within 10 months on /r/rickandmorty^[4] (shown below, right).

On August 8th, 2016, Redditor andrewdotlee posted a multi-pane comic in which Rick informs a robot representing Microsoft's Edge browser that its purpose is to "install Chrome" (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post received upwards of 39,000 votes (89% upvoted) and 920 comments on /r/rickandmorty.^[3] The following day, Redditor mepper reposted the image to /r/funny,^[2] where it gained over 147,900 votes (63% upvoted) and 1,000 comments prior to being archived.

On November 5th, YouTuber ESDEV uploaded a video of his 3D printed version of the robot, which gathered more than 1.4 million views and 900 comments over the next four months (shown below).

On November 20th, Redditor MrNubs posted a version a similar multi-pane in which Donald Trump informs Mike Pence that his purpose is to keep him from "being assassinated" to /r/rickandmorty^[6] (shown below, left). On December 9th, Redditor Pm_Me_Ur_Nudes_Gurl uploaded a Bojack Horseman themed version of the image to /r/BojackHorseman,^[5] where it garnered more than 4,800 votes (87% upvoted) and 80 comments in two months (shown below, right).