Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 7, “Big Trouble In Little Sanchez,” introduces us to Tiny Rick, a miniature version of Rick Sanchez created when he transferred his mind into a younger clone of himself to “get embroiled in some youthful hijinks.” But Operation Phoenix proved a failure, as Tiny Rick’s different hormone load lead him to endanger Ricks’ real body, leaving it to rot in hyperbaric quantum fluid. Still, while Tiny Rick had to be destroyed, perhaps one part of his legacy might live on. Rather than Rick’s “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” Tiny Rick’s catchphrase was “Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop,” and it might just be time for all of us to switch over to the younger, hipper way of saying things.

Rick and Morty Season 2: Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop Vs. Wubba Lubba Dub Dub

Youth is alluring. So we construct new categories like teenagers, young adults, and yuppies to stretch the aura of youth well into our decaying years. It’s so potent that even the ultra-cynical Rick falls under its spell in Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 7.

“Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop” also has the advantage of novelty. Slang, catchphrases in particular, have a short shelf life. Eventually “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub” will die. Since it’s a catchphrase from Rick and Morty Season 1, we probably should’ve moved on already. As a reference it will inevitably go the way of the Monty Python quote, less a fun thing to say and more a shibboleth that exposes someone who has sacrificed prudence and creativity for a rote nerdery.

So “Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop” has youth and novelty going for it as a catchphrase. But does it have they staying power to be the new “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub”?

There is something we so often forget about youth in fetishizing it. Youth is derivative and youth is malleable. Youthful creativity pillages the pop culture indiscriminately and has poor choice. Who doesn’t have a favorite movie or album that now feels like an embarrassing remnant of much more impressionable days?

Rick and Morty Season 2 gets this, giving Tiny Rick youthful energy but an inability to build new things for himself. This makes Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop” look like a pale shadow of “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub” and a desperate bid for relevance from a youth trying to build a creative identity out of pieces of adulthood and mature artistry that they don’t fully understand.

And while Tiny Rick in Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 7 “Big Trouble In Little Sanchez” is quite a bit more self-assured than most teens, he is still vulnerable to peer pressure and craves validation from people Rick wouldn’t deign to spit on.

With apologies to Tiny Rick, RIP, Rick and Morty Season 2’s “Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop” ultimately fails by embodying both everything alluring and everything contemptible about youth. “Wubbie Lubbie Doop Doop” is not the new “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub.”