Rick and Morty‘s most dramatic episode has now spawned a meme for life’s most dramatic twists and turns.
Meme accounts on Instagram and YouTube are splicing savage moments from iconic TV shows, video games, and movies with Blonde Redhead’s song “For the Damaged Coda,” from their 2000 album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. The intro culminates in a haunting, choir-like vocal track that plays every time the biggest bad in the Rick and Morty universe gets up to his bullshit, making it the perfect score to demonstrate how heartless humanity can be. For example:
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In these cases, “For the Damaged Coda” functions kind of like the Grand Theft Auto “Wasted” meme, but for sick burns. In fact, some are taking the meme to its full, bodily-harm-inducing conclusion and slapping the song right onto Wasted-fail compilations.
Their appearance on Rick and Morty episodes Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind and The Ricklantis Mix-Up catapulted Blonde Redhead into the Billboard charts for the first time. “For the Damaged Coda” punctuates scenes in which Evil Morty, the only true challenge to Rick’s absurd intelligence, reveals small pieces of his master plan. Evil Morty is ice cold. He’s willing to murder his allies as quickly as his enemies. When fans realized what he was up to for the first time, it was like having the wool pulled from over their eyes, revealing the harsh realities of a cold and indifferent universe. Now that feeling is encapsulated in 15 seconds of an 18-year-old indie rock song.
On Reddit, r/MemeEconomy is split about whether to invest in “For the Damaged Coda”, but naysayers should think twice before shorting Rick and Morty‘s explosive fan base. Also, it’s a good meme! It’s not only fun because it allows people to highlight fiery devastation in slow-motion and black and white, but because it connects to our inner conspiracy theorist, certain that the source of our problems—from a sneaky blue shell in Mario Kart to an inconstant fiancé—is the work of a shadowy figure pulling all the strings. In 2018, that’s almost a comforting thought.
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