Evil Morty first appeared in Rick and Morty in 2014 as a seemingly ordinary Morty who is revealed to be controlling his Rick. His scenes are scored with a sad piano piece based on For the Damaged Coda by Blonde Redhead, which fans quickly named the Evil Morty theme. The melody spread online in edits about betrayals and hidden villains, then into streaming culture where creators adopted the seven-second cut as a follower alert, including under the name iboOHAs follower alert.