Roiland and Harmon were not trying to unleash a new, inane catchphrase on the world when they came up with "wubba lubba dub dub." They were actually trying to mock the very thing they accidentally created. The first time Rick uses the phrase, he even calls out comedian and TV presenter Arsenio Hall, who was famous for having his audiences whoop on his self-titled talk show in the late '80s and early '90s.
Not only did the gag backfire spectacularly, but the whole scene was actually written differently than the final animated product. In an interview published by Den of Geek, Roiland explained that the character was originally supposed to perform a famous move perfected by the Three Stooges, which he described as "the Curly spin." Anyone born after the '70s might know this better as the Homer Simpson spin — lying on the ground and running in a circle, while making whooping noises.
When it came to recording time, Roiland didn't quite get that visual from reading the script, so he improvised a few variations on the whooping sound. "Then it became the Arsenio joke," Roiland told Den of Geek, doing an impression of The Arsenio Hall Show audiences whooping for the comedian. Which, in reality, sounds nothing like Rick's now-famous noise, but that's sort of the point. The offhand phrase stuck, and like many catchphrases it began wreaking havoc on the world at large.
