From 1990S Cinema to 2026 Feeds: the Evolution of the 'I\'M In' Meme

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While the hacker trope maintained steady utility, the meme underwent a massive mutation in November 2019. Adult Swim aired the third episode of Rick and Morty Season 4, titled "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty." The episode delivered a blistering takedown of formulaic ensemble crime films like Ocean's Eleven.

In standard heist cinema, recruiting a specialist requires a bespoke pitch. The mastermind tracks down an old partner, lays out an absurdly dangerous proposition, and waits through a moment of manufactured tension before the recruit grins and accepts. The parody hyper-accelerated this rhythm: Rick recruits crew members who immediately drop whatever they are doing, snap their fingers, and declare: "Son of a bitch, I'm in."

Within 48 hours of broadcast, Reddit’s r/dankmemes and Twitter feeds were inundated with screengrabs of Morty Smith wearing a yellow shirt and Rick Sanchez in his garage lab. The line broke away from computer intrusion entirely, pivoting to social peer pressure.

Online communities adopted the phrase to describe impulsive, irrational commitments. When retail traders on r/wallstreetbets organized retail surges around meme stocks in early 2021, the Rick and Morty template served as the unofficial recruitment banner. Someone pitched an indefensible financial strategy; thousands replied with the screengrab. The meme origin story had officially split into two distinct branches of internet humor.