To Be Fair, You Have To Have a Very High IQ to Understand Rick and Morty

About

“To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty” is a copypasta that fans and detractors of the animated television series Rick and Morty use to respond to criticisms of the show. The text, which may have been originally posted sincerely, refers to the high-falutin and self-congratulatory way people talk the show.

Origin

On July 29th, 2017, Redditor Niekisch submitted the earliest known variation of the copypasta in the comments section of a post on /r/CringeAnarchy:^[1]

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎

Spread

The following day, Redditor^[2] trinityjadex posted the entired text in the /r/copypasta subreddit. Within a month, it received more than 870 points (97% upvoted) and 100 comments.

Within the thread, another Redditor credits an Instagram^[3] comment on a @h3h3productions as the source. The post (shown below), which received more than 150,000 likes in six weeks, however, was posted after the /r/CringeAnarchy comment.

Also, on July 30th, the Facebook account dankmemesformillennialteens posted an anti-Rick and Morty meme of the Powerpuff Girls intro with the words “shit storyline,” “no originality,” shit animation," and shit character development." The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,600 reactions, 1,200 comments and 723 shares. Facebook user Ben Smylie responded to the post with copypasta, received more than 160 reactions.

The following day, Facebook^[4] account Difficulty II posted the copypasta (shown below, right), receiving more than 780 reactions, 122 shares and 175 comments.

On September 7th, the Instagram^[5] meme account @dabmoms posted a picture of an elderly man clutching his chest with the caption “Lady: He’s having a heart attack. Is anyone here a doctor? Rick and Morty fan: it actually takes a certain level of intelligence to appreciate the subtle genius of Dan Harmon’s humor.” The post (shown below) received more than 12,000 likes in 16 hours.

Search Interest

External References