The animated television show Rick and Morty has developed a cult following among millennials since its 2013 release. It follows the format a science fiction adventure series like Star Trek, while simultaneously incorporating elements of a family sitcom like The Simpsons. The show has found enormous success on the internet. With an abundance of discussion on internet message boards like reddit, widespread critical acclaim, and countless memes and Youtube videos about the show gaining millions of views, Rick and Morty has spread through the younger demographic like viral wildfire. In fact, the more hardcore side of the fanbase has made headlines with their controversially impassioned displays at promotional events. I first discovered the show through this increasingly prominent online presence and I was sucked in after just one episode. Like many TV viewers nowadays, I binge watched the entire series within a week. Rick and Morty quickly became one of my favorite TV shows, and based on the sheer amount of word-of-mouth exposure and critical success, I’m likely not alone in holding this show in such high regards.
I was left with the question of why Rick and Morty left such an impression on me, and on so many other viewers. Much of the discussion I’ve had, with friends and online, revolves around the comedic aspect of the show. Comedy is absolutely a drawing factor of the show, but there was clearly something that set it apart from other animated comedies like The Simpsons and Family Guy. There was something that made Rick and Morty decidedly more bingeworthy and thought provoking than the shows it is often compared to. It became clear that this was a question worthy of more in-depth research, and the extensive discussion about the show would help guide this process.
After analyzing the show more thoroughly, and exploring the literature, I found that the format of Rick and Morty is unlike that of any other cartoon. Its science fiction pedigree differentiates it from comparable cartoons by allowing it to develop more serious and thought provoking plotlines and character arcs. Impressively, the show tackles philosophical and scientific concepts while still incorporating them into common family struggles found on comparable sitcoms like The Simpsons. I believe that this unconventional nature of the show is what has spurred such extensive discussion about the deeper meanings behind the plot points and the nuanced nature of the characters portrayed. After extensive research and analysis of characters and plotlines, I’ve found that much of this success can be attributed to the utilization of science fiction.
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What the show does with science fiction is:
1) Facilitate character development
2) Explore Philosophical Concepts
and
3) Appeal to the primetime Adult Swim Audience
Character Development
One of Rick and Morty’s strongest uses of science fiction is to spark meaningful changes in the characters’ outlook and behavior. In an interview conducted by Brian Raftery of Wired magazine, Dan Harmon outlines exactly how this character development process is portrayed in the show. Being a seasoned veteran of the television industry he has crafted a specific story-building process that allows a character to experience meaningful growth within the arcs of individual episodes (2011).
Morty is a perfect example of these points. In the first episode, Morty is portrayed as mentally and socially challenged. However, over the course of the show, his grandfather, Rick, uses his power as a scientist to expose Morty to all kinds of challenging tasks and character testing scenarios, the most formative of which are tropes that reference classic science fiction works.
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Here's an example: the fourth episode of season 2 is entitled “Total Rickall”. The episode uses a sci-fi trope made popular by the 1990 film Total Recall. In the film, the protagonist, Douglas Quaid, has his memory forcibly altered, and can't distinguish between real and fake memories and relationships, leading to an iconic standoff where the Quaid is has to determine who to kill. Morty's family struggles with the same task when memory altering parasites invade their house. Their memories are clouded with happy, but false memories, which hinders their ability to kill off the parasites without killing their real family. Rick can’t think of a solution, but Morty comes to the realization that the parasites only implant positive and happy memories. This realization allows the Smiths to kill the parasites and ultimately saves their lives. This scenario is particularly indicative of Morty’s abilities because he unexpectedly outsmarts Rick, who is repeatedly established in the show as supremely intelligent.
These scenarios show that perhaps it was not Morty’s lack of mental capacity that led his parents to believe that he was dumb, but rather it was his environment that never challenged him to show his natural intelligence. Whenever Rick’s science fiction fueled escapades put Morty in a life-threatening situation, he is able to think quickly and decisively to come up with a solution, which shows the impact that Rick’s sci-fi adventures have on the growth of Morty’s intelligence and, consequently, the development of his character.
Philosophical Concepts
The series routinely introduces the viewer to philosophical concepts that ask questions about humanity’s place in the universe and prods at our lack of understanding for our purpose or ‘meaning of life.’ The show does this by employing science fiction tropes that draw from a brand of speculative sci-fi called cosmic horror, which focuses on a non-anthropocentric view of the universe. Cosmic horror can be described as horror that uses the fear of what is unknown about our existence and the universe to invoke a sense of helplessness and insignificance. Homage to the father of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft, can be found throughout Rick and Morty.
This reference can be seen most notably in season 2 episode 5, entitled “Get Schwifty”, in which a group of moon-sized floating heads surround earth and demand that the people of earth write a hit song or have the entire planet be annihilated.
Alec Opperman, writer for A/V Club Magazine, and Senior Editor at Wisecrack, notes in his video “The Philosophy of Rick and Morty,” that the show uses the ‘Lovecraftian’ trope of “giant floating cosmic entities” seen in his novels The Call of Cthulhu and The Dunwich Horror to ask important philosophical questions. These questions are: “are we significant?” and “what if the universe doesn’t [care] about us?” He follows up these questions by suggesting that Rick and Morty, in true cosmic horror style, “demonstrates just how insignificant humanity actually is” because, for the giant heads, “annihilating a planet is not an act of spite or a cause for concern, it’s just something that you do” (2015). The philosophical questions posed by this episode and others that deal in cosmic horror are deeply rooted in a branch of philosophy called existential nihilism, which theorizes that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.
Appealing to Its Target Audience
Rick and Morty uses scientific concepts and science-fiction tropes to appeal to the prime-time Adult Swim audience, which is a mix of mainstream TV viewers, and cynical counterculture night owls.
Back in 2011, Adult Swim was looking for a less abrasive show that fit within their primetime timeslot between 11pm and midnight. When the network approached the creators, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, and asked them for a new show, they began working on a show that adhered to the wishes of this prime-time subset of the Adult Swim audience, and they did this by using their knowledge of the sci-fi genre to create a show that is both inspiring and humorous to a mainstream audience, and cynical and absurd to Adult Swim’s audience.
Adult Swim’s traditional fanbase does not resemble the qualities of a typical TV audience. Their content is aimed at a demographic that looks for more unconventional programming which can be seen as absurd and parodistic. In his article for Adweek magazine, Anthony Crupi describes this fanbase as “shiftless geeks” who thrive on edgy television and outlandish, sometimes offensive content. Grayson Nowak, in his masters thesis in Film Studies, elaborates on this point by suggesting that the fans “seek a salve to remedy the real world nonsense they face daily” (2010). Roiland and Harmon knew they had to appeal to these fans and the mainstream audience in this primetime slot, and they succeeded by employing science fiction. Nowak further argues that the sci-fi inspired adventures highlight “the binary between the optimism of scientific adventure and the pessimism brought on by the burden of knowledge gained from such endeavors drives this program” (2015).
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To understand this point more clearly, it helps to look at examples from the show. In season 1, episode 6, entitled “Rick Potion #9” Morty expresses his love for one of his fellow classmates, Jessica, and pleads with Rick to make him a love serum that will make her reciprocate this love. The potion works perfectly at first, but eventually spreads like a pandemic, and causes the whole planet to have an insatiable lust for Morty. Rick tries to counteract the potion with a new concoction, but it turns the entire human race except for Morty’s family into “Cronenbergs” as the characters call them (this being a trope from films by sci-fi horror filmmaker David Cronenberg).
This episode provides an example of the duality of science, being a powerful tool for creation, while simultaneously holding the ability to cause mass destruction. The aspect of the plot that deals with the pursuit of love, and the ability of science to make Morty’s dreams of reality can be seen as appealing to a more mainstream audience, while the twisted reality of this dream in practice would appeal to the more traditionally more cynical adult swim audience. This point is reflected later on in the show when Morty discusses the events from this episode with his sister, Summer. In season 3, episode 1, Summer has a newfound admiration for Rick, so Morty shows her the dark reality of this “Cronenberg” world, and tells her “these are the parts or Rick’s adventures you don’t get to see, the parts he leaves behind” (2017). This dialogue presents a dichotomy that reflects the two types of effects that science fiction has on the show’s ability to appeal to mixed demographic of Adult Swim’s primetime slot. Like Summer, the viewer has an admiration for Rick’s ability to harness science and create and destroy at will. But like Morty, the viewer becomes jaded by the realization that this power can also be a burden. This duality that science fiction creates in the show is part of what allows the show to appeal to its target audience, a mix of cynics and dreamers.
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Conclusion
At first glance, it might seem a bit inconsequential to put so much thought and effort into analyzing a cartoon. One might say that there are surely more important things to worry and write about than some wacky late night TV show. But television is entering a golden age, as there are more critically acclaimed series than anyone can feasibly watch. This abundance of high quality content poses an opportunity for TV to move past the stigma of being of lesser quality than cinema, and opens the door for more a more meaningful and thought-provoking TV experience. Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the creators of Rick and Morty, are revolutionizing the animation genre through their blending of genres and incorporation of meaningful storytelling and thought-provoking narratives and concepts. By analyzing this show, we’ve determined that science-fiction has played a key role in allowing the creators to develop a show with these characteristics, and appeal to a more diverse audience than is expected on a network like Adult Swim. Rick and Morty can serve as an example of the potential of animated shows to provide substantial content and still appeal to a diverse audience, and shows that science fiction can be an excellent catalyst for achieving this goal. I believe that it has set a new standard for animation, and will serve as an inspiration and a reference point for future TV shows in the animation genre.
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References
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