What is Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever?

It is a meme format where various characters recall the Rick and Morty scene of Rick turning into a pickle as the funniest thing they've ever seen, played completely straight for ironic comedy.

Where did Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever come from?

iFunny user DraculaTepes posted the first version on November 22, 2019, using a GIF of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein captioned "I kid you not Jeff, he turns himself into a pickle".

What does Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever mean?

The joke mocks over-the-top reverence for a worn-out Rick and Morty gag by having unrelated characters treat it with cult-level enthusiasm; the template later expanded to mock-explain other played-out memes like Big Chungus and Ugandan Knuckles.

How do you use Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever?

Pair a serious still or GIF of any character with a caption breathlessly recounting the Pickle Rick scene, often starting "I kid you not" or "I'll never forget," a convention set by DraculaTepes' original and the Larry Lawton variant.

Is Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever still popular?

The format peaked in February and March 2020 with viral posts on r/okbuddyretard and Instagram, and is still referenced as a classic okbuddyretard-era ironic meme rather than being in active rotation.

Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever

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Published October 8, 2026

Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever is a meme format where characters solemnly recall the Rick and Morty scene of Rick turning himself into a pickle as the single greatest moment in comedy. First posted in November 2019 by iFunny user DraculaTepes using a Trump and Epstein GIF, the format went ironic-viral in late February 2020 and spawned a wider template for mock-explaining other played-out memes.

rick and morty memes ironic memes ifunny memes internet meta memes subreddit origin memes

Overview

The joke works by having a character breathlessly recount the Pickle Rick reveal from Rick and Morty as if it were the funniest thing ever committed to film. Posts pair a straight-faced still or GIF with a caption like "I kid you not Jeff, he turns himself into a pickle, he's called pickle Rick," treating a dumb cartoon moment with cult-member reverence1. The humor turns on the mismatch between the delivery and the thoroughly worn-out Rick and Morty gag the characters are gushing about.

The template quickly broadened into a "memes being explained" format, with characters giving the same breathless treatment to Big Chungus, 9 + 10 = 21, Ugandan Knuckles and other beat-to-death memes4. r/okbuddyretard became the main engine, where the layered irony of fawning over universally mocked jokes was the whole point3. A spinoff format where Morty flips a pickle over to reveal non-Rick characters followed in March 20209.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

iFunny (origin) / Reddit (viral spread)

Creator

DraculaTepes

Date

2019

On November 22, 2019, iFunny user DraculaTepes posted the first known Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever meme, a GIF of Donald Trump sharing something funny with Jeffrey Epstein captioned "I kid you not Jeff, he turns himself into a pickle, he's called pickle Rick"1. The post pulled over 4,100 smiles on iFunny over the next five months.

Four days earlier, on November 18, 2019, iFunny user _LL_ had posted a similar GIF caption in which Trump raved to Epstein about the Pufferfish Eating a Carrot video2, part of a short-lived "memes being explained" trend on iFunny that month. DraculaTepes swapped in Pickle Rick, and that specific variant was the one that stuck4.

How It Spread

The same day DraculaTepes posted, Redditor S4ssM4st3r reposted the meme to r/okbuddyretard, where it pulled over 1,900 upvotes3. Days later, iFunny user sspiderwaifu remade the GIF caption, getting featured on the app and racking up around 29,700 smiles. On December 8, 2019, Twitter user @slazo recreated the Trump and Epstein version, with the tweet picking up over 740 retweets and 9,700 likes5.

The format went quiet for roughly two months. On January 28, 2020, Redditor DontWeDoItInTheRoad posted a Larry Lawton still captioned "And I tell ya, he says 'I turned myself into a pickle.' I'll never forget," clearing 1,900 upvotes in r/okbuddyretard6. On February 4, 2020, user vk000mk74 posted a Vaas Montenegro version from Far Cry 3 that hit over 6,400 upvotes7. The real breakout came on February 26, 2020, when HugeGoose reposted a 2pac and Kendrick Lamar artwork edit that cleared 10,000 upvotes in a week and spread across Reddit, Instagram and Facebook8.

The follow-up "Morty flips the pickle" format started on March 6, 2020, when Twitter and YouTube user Stickfab (@_stickfab_) posted a video in which Morty reveals the pickle is just a pickle. The clip pulled 129,000 views, 4,800 retweets and 20,000 likes in two weeks9. Instagram picked it up fast, with pgodcomedy's Mesa Que Más Aplauda edit on March 12 pulling 55,600 views10 and notkinghill's Beanos version on March 16 getting over 118,000 views and 32,600 likes in a week11.

Timeline

2019-11-18

IFunny user _LL_ posts the Pufferfish Eating a Carrot GIF caption, an early "memes being explained" precursor.

2019-11-22

DraculaTepes posts the first Pickle Rick version on iFunny; S4ssM4st3r reposts it to r/okbuddyretard the same day.

2019-12-08

Twitter user @slazo recreates the meme, pulling 740 retweets and 9,700 likes.

2020-01-28

Reddit variant using a Larry Lawton still appears on r/okbuddyretard.

2020-02-04

Vaas Montenegro version by vk000mk74 clears 6,400 upvotes.

2020-02-26

HugeGoose's 2pac and Kendrick Lamar edit hits 10,000 upvotes, pushing the format mainstream.

2020-03-06

Stickfab posts the first "Morty flips the pickle" video on Twitter.

2020-03-16

Notkinghill's Beanos flip-the-pickle video pulls 118,000 views on Instagram.

Pickle Rick, Funniest Shit Ever

Overview

Gallery

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (11)