Also called Butter Robot · You Pass Butter · Rick and Morty Purpose Meme
The little robot asks why it exists. Rick gives it one mundane job, and the robot looks down in disappointment. Give a tool, gadget, or role a much less impressive purpose than expected.
The robot expects a meaningful answer and gets a narrow assignment instead. The joke works when something capable or expensive is used for a surprisingly small task.
The final panel leaves room for a short reaction. It reinforces the gap between what the subject could do and what it actually does.
The scene is from Something Ricked This Way Comes, the ninth episode of Rick and Morty’s first season, broadcast on March 24, 2014. Rick tells his newly built robot that its job is to pass butter. [1]
Fan art and models followed. An August 8, 2016 Reddit edit recast the robot as Microsoft Edge, assigned only to install Chrome; a repost the next day helped spread the captioned format. [1]
Write the subject and its question in the upper panel. Put Rick’s answer along the bottom of the middle panel and a short disappointed response in the last.
Make the task specific. An elaborate device that only tells the time has a clearer contrast than a vague complaint about being useless.
Original captions to try with this template.
A feature-filled device is assigned the simplest job it can do.
The carefully chosen notebook becomes home to a single practical note.
A general-purpose machine discovers its actual household specialty.
References for this template. Example captions are original.
Records the episode, fan responses, and the 2016 browser-caption variation.
