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Only The Real Rick and Morty Can Save Us.
I’ll start by saying that my intention here is not to get anybody on the site to become a regular viewer of a raunchy SciFi cartoon, but I recommend reading the post below – and if you have time, watch the clips I carefully picked (in total, they shouldn’t take up more than 8 minutes). Rick and Morty is a show about God’s dislike for the blindly religious; meaning, of course, bureaucrats.
If the Right has a demographic to play “get out and vote!” with, it’s young, unmarried, mostly white men (but definitely not all), aged 18 to 40. Perhaps it’s an issue that 22 years could span a single political demographic, but mine is an iPad generation; it is what it is. Anyway, those are our votes to lose. Of the group I’ve described, the easiest way to identify them is to point out that the majority of them play video games; they probably discovered internet porn before even having a girlfriend; and their choices of popular entertainment are likely disconcerting to the rest of polite society. I’d guess most of these have seen a fair share, if not all, of the series South Park, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Archer, Workaholics, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, and Rick and Morty. Each has some merit, most are liked for the wrong reasons. Bob’s Burgers might be the best, but Rick and Morty is the most important. It’s a show about a genius and his grandson. The title is a play on “Doc” and “Marty” from Back to the Future.
Rick is the smartest man in the universe. He is practically all-knowing and all-powerful, perhaps lacking only in clairvoyance. He’s considered a terrorist by the Intergalactic Federation (a government made up of mildly intelligent mosquitos), who, according to the often duplicitous Rick, hope to take over the Universe. The burden of his obsessive mind fuels raging alcoholism and often leads him to the conclusion that nothing matters. His partner is his grandson, Morty. The former is constantly dragging Morty into life-threatening adventures, and while Rick is often irritated with his grandson’s foibles, it becomes clear to the viewers that Morty is a genuine necessity. I’ll add two clips below to get us started: The first is the opening scene of the series, which fittingly encapsulates the show’s arc, particularly Morty’s development of confidence in order to hone in his grandfather’s seasonal insanity.
Note the jokey Christian overtones in the clip above. I doubt the creators are religious, but they aren’t dummies. I assume, if nothing else, they know secular stories don’t cut it. This second clip (from much later in the series) will give you a taste of the terrors that Morty is exposed to by spending time with his grandpa:
The thing about Morty is that his brushes with a seemingly cold and uncaring universe never completely diminish his decency, only his naiveté. Though the youngest member of the Smith family, a stultified nuclear unit, he becomes its leader. His father is the weak, often pathetic, Jerry – the greatest object of Rick’s ire; Morty’s mother is an alcoholic herself. She’s clearly intelligent, but embittered by her loss of options that came after marrying Jerry and carrying her eldest child instead of following her father’s seeming-tendency to put inconveniences out of the head and move on; then there’s Summer, Jerry and Beth’s firstborn. Her arc began later in the series. Initially, she was a typical self-obsessed teenage girl, but as she began to be included in Rick’s adventures, she’s developed into a character of equal importance. (It was Summer who was first to be told about one of Morty’s most disturbing revelations.)
The show really gets going in the last episode of the final season, wherein Rick is framed for murdering other Rick’s from other dimensions. This crime is “naturally” under the jurisdiction of The Council of Ricks, another government formed by the Ricks who lack our Rick’s independence. It becomes clear to us that they are no less of a problem to our world than is the first government we encountered.
Our culprit surprises us though… it’s the Anti-Morty. (By the way, in this episode, our Morty is deemed the “One True Morty” by his fellow sidekick captives.)
Alright, now that we’ve got the gist, I can bring us to the show’s most frighteningly eerie episode. The show’s third season opens up with Rick escaping from the Intergalactic Federation, but on his way out, he discovers that the Council (of Ricks) have kidnapped the real-Rick’s Morty and Summer. Rick’s wrath leads him to destroy both the Citadel of Ricks and the Bug Government. To what extent the latter survives, we aren’t exactly sure – and I haven’t seen the latest season of the show, but I believe the bugs make a return – but the Citadel, being made up of surviving geniuses and their submissive sidekicks, was bound to return. We discover their fate later in Season 3.
The episode continues to show dissatisfied Rick’s, working menial jobs despite their equal capabilities to their superiors, and all of the Rick-less Mortys, living in squalor and turning to crime. In the center is a an honest Rick-cop, who hopes to make a difference, and a highly competent Morty in a highly unlikely Presidential run. At the debate, candidate-Morty makes a convincing case for the fact that the Ricks and Mortys who dislike the system outnumber the few who do. (The entire campaign and speech is cleverly done, it allows the show’s bipartisan audience to see the candidate of their admiration in this 2017 episode… before ripping the rug from under our feet.) After candidate-Morty wins the debate, his just-fired Campaign Manager discovers some unsettling truth. Then he sets out to assassinate the potential frontrunner.
It’s no mere sitcom. It is situational, and it’s funny, but this show takes us way out of the house. The irrationality of love and family is pointed out, but redeemed; its multiverse is used to suck in the nerds, but mostly done to expose us to the nearly unlimited, yet daunting, opportunities that come from freedom; and the reality, and complicated nature, of Good and Evil are laid bare. For any of you who know smart young men that are finding a hard time living up to their potential, I recommend asking if they know Rick and Morty. You may find that this minor knowledge of something that interests them will foster some confidence in you from them. And I’ve found that guys like that really could use some adults to talk to.
I’ll hope to see you guys in the comments. But until then, as they say in Canada… “Peace Oot!”
Published in Culture
I’m with you there. I don’t care that much about television series. I think this show has a bit more to offer than the rest. It’s smart, but not exactly art.
As far as popular entertainment goes, I think the golden eras of the various art forms were between the ‘30s and ‘80s. I wasn’t alive for any of it! So I gotta make due.
The 1980s mark the end of American culture. Everything since then has been remake, deconstruction, or parody.
Change my mind!
Weezer is pure ’90s.
Oh no, did you think I was a guy too? Don’t feel bad if you did, you’d be the second in the last week. Since 1999, although I reserve the right to identify as a non-binary, pansexual otherkin when I feel like it.
Rick and Morty has some good moments, true, but overall it doesn’t hold a candle to The Venture Bros. However, it’s a shame that you have to wait four years for a new season of VB to air…
I’ll have to check that one out. I know the name, and I’ve seen the animation, but I don’t believe I’ve ever caught a full episode.
You should write a post! (If you do, be sure to dis mine…)
Still looking for a rap battle?
I like trivial battles.
Atlantic article about the show from a couple of years ago.
If I were more linguistically flexible (and smarter) that’s the article I’d have written.
It’s a really good article. The Atlantic can be very hit and miss on pop culture stuff; good sometimes, but also in some cases a word salad of intersectionality speak, or otherwise just clearly written by someone who is painfully out of touch/unaware in any depth of what they’re writing about (it has to be pretty bad if I notice that an article looks like it was written by Steve Buscemi’s private eye character in 30 Rock).
They’re onto us!
They’d like to think that.
Well, Samuel Block, I’m in S1 E8.
It’s hard to believe I’m watching this stuff.
But it is pretty funny.
Sometimes there’s a glimmer of profundity. “A real man stands by his woman.”
Oh, wow! The Kronenberg episode? The show can be downright shocking. I think it’s at the end of season one that Morty starts to get wise.
But there have been plenty of times when I’ve found it hard to believe I’m watching it too.
That’s one of the few episodes I will not rewatch, I barely made it through the first time.
With your warnings it wasn’t all that shocking. That one had the glimmer of profundity.
The one with the sex robot–that was where it was hard to believe what I was watching.
I love that episode, especially when Morty Jr. is shown at the end to have written a Philip Roth style book about his childhood, and is being interviewed by a Charlie Rose-is interviewer. It’s also the first sustained interaction between Rick and Summer, which was fun.
I think the episode with Unity has that similar spark of the profound. There are a lot of great (and inappropriate jokes), and ridiculous scenarios, but the heart of the episode is the love (?) between Rick (avowed individual) and Unity (a soul sucking collective). Rick had, up to that point, always acted with casual disregard towards his personal relationships, at the beginning of Season 3 he even made up a sob story about his family life in order to escape the galactic government’s simulation, the most we as viewers saw was his affection for Birdperson and Mr. Poopy Buthole (so glad that character has such a dignified name). But watching him turn away from his family after having an inane conversation with Beth, head into the garage, and begin the process of killing himself was such a gut punch. The scoring on that scene was out of this world.
The weed whacker at the end is the best.
Haha. No stopping Jerry! My guess is that he’ll come through in the end. He actually does kinda save the day at the end of Season 4 (just watched it).
“Think for yourself. Don’t be sheep.”
“Sometimes science is more art than science, Morty. A lot of people don’t get that.”
I’m guessing you’ve hit Season 2. This is when the show really starts going somewhere.
It’s true.
Yeah, I’m in S2.
Intelligence? 😁
“Total Rickall” was superb. One of the best episodes of sci-fi ever.
That one was a blast!
Does it have three-breasted women?
I think that comes later.