“Team Rocket motto” meme: meaning, origin and rare card

What does the “Team Rocket motto” meme mean?

The line announces that a band of lovable losers is back with grand plans that will end in failure. People use it to greet the return of a character, a late friend, a recurring problem or an idea that has flopped a thousand times. The feeling mixes childhood nostalgia, self-mockery and theatricality: you cast yourself as cartoon villains reciting their refrain before blasting off into the sky. It also suits any team starting a slightly ridiculous venture with full awareness, with more flair than chance of success.

Where does the “Team Rocket motto” meme come from?

Team Rocket is a fictional criminal organisation in the Pokémon anime and games, led by Giovanni. It runs Pokémon trafficking, extortion and money laundering. Its best-known members are Jessie, James and Meowth, who appear in the anime so often that they have become emblematic. They are famous for theatrical speeches and elaborate, nearly always failed schemes to steal Ash’s Pikachu. The group shows up as early as the second episode of the series. The French dub opens its motto with a line about saving the world from devastation, and “Nous sommes de retour” (“We’re back”) is the most quoted part, picked up in songs and videos by French-speaking fans. The card quotes the closing line: “to play a bad trick on you”.

How to use the “Team Rocket motto” meme

• Announce your return to a group chat after a long absence, quoting the motto.
• Comment on a problem you thought was solved coming back.
• Caption an ambitious plan you know is doomed.
• Greet friends reuniting for a silly project.

The “Team Rocket motto” card in MyMemeCards

Number	No. 2089
Rarity	Rare
Collection	Memes FR pack
Fame	50/100 · #753 of 3495
Recycle value	10 MemeCoins (30 in Shiny)
Suggested by	@olivier794

How to get the “Team Rocket motto” card

Every pack holds 5 meme cards, the first 3 of them Common; Team Rocket motto comes out of the Memes FR pack as a rare card. The pack odds say what each rarity weighs.

Your first pack is free and needs no account. After that a new free pack lands every 10 minutes, up to 3 waiting for you. You can also buy the card with MemeCoins on the market, bid for it at auction, or trade it — and a double recycles into 10 MemeCoins.

The reprint of the “Team Rocket motto” card

The “Team Rocket motto” card was reprinted as Epic (No. 3,526). A reprint is the same meme printed again, with a number of its own and a higher rarity than its first printing, which was rare. Its face reads “Reprinted card · Higher rarity”.

Every printing is dealt in the packs of the Memes FR pack, each at its own rarity: the higher it is, the rarer the card is to pull. Copies of the first printing already pulled stay as they are, and any printing counts toward completing a set.

MyMemeCards reprints a meme when it deserves more than the rarity of its first printing, such as a classic that became iconic after it came out: the reprint gives it a place among the most sought-after cards without taking anything from the players who already had it.

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