YMMV / Rick And Morty S 3 E 3 Pickle Rick

• Broken Base: A fun episode that deconstructs Rick as a character completely, or the epitome of a Hype Backlash and a relatively boring episode by itself?
• Crosses the Line Twice: Dr. Wong gives Beth an intelligent, easily understood explanation of why she's focusing on Rick even though he's not present.
  Beth: [Beat] Fuck you.
  Morty and Summer: MOM!
  Beth: Fuck both of you, too.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: While the episode ends with Rick seemingly indicating he won’t seek therapy, later episodes do indeed have him seeking out Dr. Wong of his own volition.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This episode was clearly designed as a parody of John Wick. Within the episode, the Russians release Jaguar with the task of killing Rick using his captured daughter as leverage. In John Wick: Chapter 4, released 6 years after this episode aired, this scenario happens pretty much exactly as described, with the Marquis summoning Caine to kill John Wick using his daughter as leverage.
• Magnificent Bastard: Jaguar is a highly skilled and brutal freedom fighter who was imprisoned at a Russian Agency for his crimes against toppling his oppressive government. Taking a deal to earn the freedom of himself and his daughter, Katarina, he hunts down and goes against the Pickle-formed Rick Sanchez, using his acrobatics and gunship to stand on even ground. Realizing the agency lied about his daughter being alive, Jaguar teams up with Rick and tricks the agency director into calling a helicopter, the two hijacking the plane and blowing up the agency building, with the two of them parting on amicable terms. In The Stinger, Jaguar appears and saves Rick and Morty from Concerto, sharing a nod before he leaves, ending up one of the few characters who gained Rick’s respect.
• Memetic Mutation: All together now: "I'M PICKLE RICK!"
  • Later, the meme above mutated further, with people and characters describing the scene, and calling it the "funniest shit I've ever seen".
• Misaimed Fandom: A lot of people focused on how awesome it was that Rick turned himself into a pickle rather than how shitty it was that he was deliberately avoid family counseling and the difficult work of therapy.
• Never Live It Down: Rick only says "I'm Pickle Rick!" twice in the episode, but the line gets flak for apparently being a Forced Meme. If anything, he said "I turned myself into a pickle" far more frequently. This seems to be rectified with the "funniest shit I've ever seen" meme where characters described that Rick "turned himself into a pickle."
• Signature Scene: Either the scene of Rick slaughtering the rats or Dr. Wong's deconstruction of Rick when he finally shows up to family therapy.
• Squick: Sure, we've seen loads of humanoid creatures killed in the most violent ways in this show, but witnessing rats slaughtered can be a stomach-turner.
• Spiritual Successor: The episode can be seen as this to Ren Seeks Help.^note An especially gruesome episode of a show known for its sophomoric humor in which its Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist who yells a lot (and whose name starts with the letter R) goes to therapy.
• Watch It for the Meme: People now watch the episode due to the meme popularity of "Pickle Rick".