Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever

About

Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit 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, later mutating to include variations in which other popular memes are being explained, such as Big Chungus, 9 + 10 = 21, Ugandan Knuckles and others.

Origin

On November 22nd, 2019, iFunny^[1] user DraculaTepes posted a meme based on a GIF of Donald Trump sharing something funny with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The meme had Donald Trump recall the Rick and Morty scene of character Rick Sanchez revealing that he turned himself into a pickle, with the GIF captioned "I kid you not Jeff, he turns himself into a pickle, he's called pickle Rick." The post received over 4,100 smiles on the platform in five months.

Prior to DraculaTepes' post, on November 18th, 2019, iFunny^[2] user _LL_ posted a GIF caption in which Trump told Epstein about how hilarious he found the Pufferfish Eating a Carrot video, with more GIF captions exploring the "memes being explained" format being posted on iFunny in late November 2019.

Spread

On November 22nd, 2019, Redditor^[3] S4ssM4st3r reposted DraculaTepes' meme to /r/okbuddyretard, receiving over 1,900 upvotes. On November 26th, 2019, iFunny^[4] user sspiderwaifu remade DraculaTepes' meme, with the repost getting featured on the app and receiving over 29,700 smiles in five months. In late November 2019, DraculaTepes' and sspiderwaifu's versions of the meme were widely circulated on Instagram, with the memes being reposted by Instagram users ketaure,^[5] preteeen.adolescense^[6] and other accounts. On December 8th, 2019, Twitter^[7] user @slazo recreated the meme, with the tweet gaining over 740 retweets and 9,700 likes.

The format did not see further spread until on January 28th, 2020, Redditor^[8] DontWeDoItInTheRoad posted a still image of YouTuber Larry Lawton captioned "And I tell ya, he says "I turned myself into a pickle." I'll never forget." The post received over 1,900 upvotes in /r/okbuddyretard in one month (shown below, left). On February 4th, 2020, Redditor^[9] vk000mk74 posted a similar meme based on an image of Far Cry 3 character Vaas Montenegro which received over 6,400 upvotes in the same period (shown below, right).

On February 26th, 2020, Redditor^[10] HugeGoose reposted a meme based on an artwork of 2pac and Kendrick Lamar to /r/okbuddyretard subreddit (shown below). The post received over 10,000 upvotes in one week and was widely circulated online in the following days.

In the following days, the format in which various characters referred to the Pickle Rick reveal scene as one of the funniest moments that they had experienced gained popularity online, with notable posts appearing on Reddit, Instagram, iFunny and Facebook.

Pickle Rick Reveals

Following the popularity of Pickle Rick, Funnies Shit 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^[11] (@_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.

pic.twitter.com/WoxCjlQjtP

— fab 🅙 (@_stickfab_) March 7, 2020

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^[12] gained over 55,600 views and 14,100 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). A March 16th Beanos meme by notkinghill^[13] gained over 118,000 views and 32,600 likes in one week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References