Pickle Rick is the Season 3 Rick and Morty gag where Rick Sanchez turns himself into a pickle and shouts 'I'm Pickle Rick!' after Morty flips him over on a workbench[1].

Where did Pickle Rick come from?

Adult Swim first previewed the pickle version of Rick in a July 22, 2016 SDCC clip on YouTube[1], with the full episode airing on August 6, 2017[4].

What does Pickle Rick mean?

It's a catchphrase from the show; online it's used both sincerely and as ironic shorthand for the 'funniest shit I've ever seen'[5] type of Rick and Morty fan.

How do you use Pickle Rick?

Common uses include posting the flip scene as a reaction, dropping the 'I'm Pickle Rick' line, or applying the flip-reveal template popularized by @_stickfab_[3] to swap the pickle's face with another character.

Is Pickle Rick still popular?

It became a classic Rick and Morty reference, with the flip-reveal format keeping the joke circulating on Twitter and Instagram years after the 2017 airing[3].

Pickle Rick

2016catchphraseclassic

Published September 21, 2026

Pickle Rick is a Rick and Morty character and catchphrase from the show's third season, in which scientist Rick Sanchez turns himself into a pickle to duck a family therapy session. The scene became one of the show's most-referenced moments after its August 2017 airing, spawning catchphrase edits, dabbing reaction images, and years later a wave of ironic 'funniest stuff I've ever seen' jokes.

rick and morty memes catchphrase memes ironic memes fandom discourse memes 2017 memes

Overview

The meme runs on two overlapping formats. Early posts leaned on the reveal itself: fans shared the garage-bench moment where Morty flips a pickle and Rick declares 'I'm Pickle Rick!' as an all-purpose catchphrase1. Reaction images pulled the dabbing pose, screenshots from the preview clip, and image macros pairing Pickle Rick with other pickle or cucumber characters.

Around February 2020, the joke curdled into an ironic self-own. Users began labeling the pickle scene as 'the funniest shit I've ever seen'5, mocking the sort of Rick and Morty fan who treated the gag as a comedic peak. A parallel flip-reveal format popularized by Twitter user @_stickfab_ in March 2020 replaced Rick's face on the pickle with different characters3.

Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube (Adult Swim) / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2016

The pickle version of Rick first surfaced on July 22, 2016, when Adult Swim posted a Season 3 sneak preview from San Diego Comic-Con to YouTube1. The clip shows Rick as a pickle-shaped creature killing a rat and stealing its brain, and it pulled more than 3 million views in its first year4.

Nine months later, on April 1, 2017, Adult Swim aired two teaser trailers for the surprise Season 3 premiere. One clip contained the now-iconic bench-flip in which Morty rolls the pickle over and it shouts its own name. YouTuber Spazz DHN mirrored the trailer that same day, where it pulled over 200,000 views in four months2.

Pickle Rick

Overview

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (5)