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Hey, we're getting rekt on today's episode of Else What's with Change, because we're going to be talking about Rick and freaking Morty a show that... For good time. ...characteristically, I avoided when it first aired and then... ...friend of mine told me it was brilliant and I trust his opinion.
But then he came over to my place and he just made me watch the whole first season in one sitting and I was like, I'm hooked. I came to it similarly super late. I didn't get him to Rick and Morty until like halfway into season two. And I only did that because I had mainlineed like all of Steven Universe.
I'm like, okay, now that was cool and sweet and everything. I want something on the complete other spectrum of that. Give me something dark and cynical and adultly humorous and oh boy was Rick and Morty the perfect thing. Yes.
Now, obviously if you're watching this episode, you are probably a fan of Rick and Morty. The show that is created by community developer Dan Harmon and channel 101 creator, Rick, Justin Royland. It's funny you call him Rick because he voices both Rick and Morty. He's Rick and Morty.
And he, if you've ever watched his earlier work, which is all on YouTube, you can go check out what's it's called. Channel 101, you'll see his Doc and Marty sketches, which are way more inappropriate, but you can see exactly where it comes from and where the voices are being developed and how Morty is basically just a really, really exaggerated, really poor version of Marty McFly voice. Yes. And I guess if you follow the logic, Rick is basically just an exaggerated, at least the first season and then towards the end of the first season he changes, but like he becomes so much more.
But it's basically a Christopher Lloyd as Doc voice. It's like someone took the thing where it's like, imagine if Doc was actually a dangerous, crazy person and not like the happy, sunny, fun, kid-friendly, crazy person that he is in the back of the future movies. Exactly. So, yeah, but the creative by that is on Adult Swim, the place that created another show that was dark and rich and humorous and animated that I really loved, The Venture Brothers, which is part of the reason why I avoided Rick and Morty for so long, was because I loved and watched Venture Brothers.
And then it took like five years between seasons and I was like, I don't see what you two are doing that isn't the show. It's not like you're working. It's not like, okay, it's been like 10 years since a home star runner cartoon. But those two got jobs at Disney and do stuff that's literally just home star runner, but not theirs.
I get why they're not doing home star runner anymore. With Venture Brothers, it's like, what have you been doing though? I don't know. I was really into the last season telling, oh it's so funny, they moved to Marvel's New York, they're doing this, that and the other, they got all these killer of Endures jokes and you're like, don't care.
Yeah, I don't. I really don't. They wore out their welcome with me. I dedicated a big portion.
That's the thing. When you're a nerd, when you're geek, when you are big into, especially comics, you have so much head space for so many different universes and so many different genres and, you know, like, I remember getting into them. I remember when the Matrix aired or not when it came out and there was a big subset of my culture that was like all in on Matrix and I'm like, I can take it or leave it. And people were like, what are you talking about?
You love Terminator. You love Predator. You love comic books. You love this, that and the other thing.
I'm like, yeah, I only have so much space up here. I can't dedicate another portion of my brain to Morpheus and Zion and all the bullshit ghosts and shit. I can't do it. Why never come a Fast and Furious fan?
Because I'm like, no, that's one too many sub genres too many for me. Fast and Furious works for me. It's easy for me to not care because I don't care about cars. That's the straight up don't care about cars.
Like, you know, people are like, oh, it's become so much more now. They're like car superheroes now. Right. I don't give a shit about that.
That does not appeal to me. But with Venture Brothers, I felt really like I was actually Tiffany got me into Venture Brothers and I loved it so much. I'm like, this is really cool. And then basically the creators showed us other disdain and contempt for its audience.
And I was like, fuck you too. I don't need to have like encyclopedic dedication to the intricacies of Rusty Ventures, neuroses and what a miserable bastard. Everyone in the show is a miserable bastard. Everyone's flawed and broken and they're never going to change.
But not because they're the Simpson. They can't change. It's because they're never going to change because people don't change. It's a really frustrating, sad universe.
And that's what I like about it. I like it. I like the idea and I like that the fantastic and the humor is legitimately part of me. But at the same time, if the creators don't give a shit about me, if they don't care about the show and the show itself is not a joy to watch, then it's easy for me to let it go.
And I think they got some of that back in the last season. Right. But like by then, they've used up to all of my goodwill for the show. They did two gigantic breaks between seasons.
And you got a special movie there in between as well. Which they didn't need to do. They could have just done the show. It felt it was basically like, hey, and here's the two-part finale that we would have done but we're just doing it as a movie.
But yeah, that's my point is they could have just made the show instead and saved us a year and a half or two years or three years between seasons. With Rick and Morty, it's actually interesting because for me, I'm like, okay, there was a big gap between season two and three. Although not as long as it was supposed to be, they even joked about the gap being longer by Cartoon Network and Adult Swimmer. Like, no, no, no, no, move this up on the timetable.
And it could have been Venture Brother Syndrome. They were like, we can't lose our audience like we did with Venture Brothers. Possibly. But for me, it's in spite of myself.
Like, I can't get enough of Rick and Morty. It's true. It's true. It's made me fans of the other stuff.
It's made me want to go back and watch the channel 101 stuff. It's made me want to go back and watch Keaton Vision and Jack. I'm a fan of Dan Harmon's Harman Town podcast now because of Rick and Morty. Yeah, I absorbed everything that I could of Royland and Harmon and everything.
I was actually a big Harman fan beforehand, or at least I was of the first few seasons of community. I loved community and I liked the humor there and I liked how it made you happy cry. But I, you know, of course, the show fell apart and died. I kind of got why and how Harmon, like, I like bitter, miserable Harmon.
Without the failure of community, you don't get Rick and Morty because it's true. There is some demons in that show that are... It's a direct answer too. And again, if you listen to Harmon a lot, he has this amazing history of being part of shows and being part of projects only to be fired from them.
He was the first couple seasons of the Sarah Silverman show too before he got fired for being too hard to work with. He wrote Monster House and he was apparently going to do more stuff with that studio until he got fired for being hard to work with. Now that's being said, yeah, I can imagine how Dan Harmon can be really frustrating to work with. As he says himself every time, I want it to be good is the problem.
It's like, dude, no one is arguing. I don't think they're fighting with you on making it good. I think it's a question of like opinions about what is good. But yeah.
It's almost like it's this John K. Syndrome too, where it's like, I will take forever to make this done. And that's the thing. And we'll get into our love Rick and Morty and some overview of the first two seasons in a minute.
But I wanted to talk about, did you read the post-Hangover tweet barrage from Dan Harmon apologizing for the delay and kind of explaining why? Yes, yes, I did actually. In fact, he went into that a bunch in Harmon town as well before he did the Hangover tweet. But yes, there's a big gap between season two and season three.
And apparently, though, I didn't hear about this because I stay away from it because I want to enjoy the show. I don't want to be spoiled. I really stay away from the subreddit and all that shit. So I avoided that.
And so I missed the whole apparent drama or supposed drama that there might have been some infighting between Harmon and Royland. That was a popular prevailing theory, yeah. Which is not a hard-to-believe theory given that Dan Harmon's relationships with everyone that he's ever worth on any television show fall apart or are destroyed because of the frustrating personality that is Dan Harmon. Jeez, you should hear some of the arguments between him and his wife during their D&D strikes.
I can't imagine. I don't want to listen to it. They went to some dark places. The man loves the sauce and he's not free to say things when he's at a couple of kettles on.
Yikes. But apparently what happened was they just, they just, they understand the quality of the first two seasons and they want to be as faithful to the level of standards that we have expected from those shows that we are at. So like they wanted season three, two, it's literally just we're taking more time because we're worried that we're not being as talented and as good at it as we should be. And I totally agree that third season slump is a real thing, especially for animated shows.
Unless it's the Simpsons, in which case it's actually even better than the last season, season three to nine are the golden classics that will never be surpassed. Now that said, one of the reasons that really engendered me to Rick and Morty was it was evident to me that the creators of Rick and Morty before I even knew who they were loved the Simpsons. Yeah, absolutely. For me it's like an adult Simpsons show.
I don't mean it's just the Simpsons but this, but like family guys and adult Simpsons or whatever. I think that it's just like these are the people who were raised on the humor that I was raised on his own. And that is kind of spectacular. And it's eating off those jokes.
It's building off of that foundation of humor. And you can tell the Simpsons writers love Rick and Morty because there's actually on like the season one DVD, there's a whole commentary track that's just, hey, here's the current Simpsons writers talking about an episode of Rick and Morty. They really like it. Rick and Morty did the great couch gag for Simpsons, which I think is an amazing like, you know, torch passing moment in a way.
Oh, the couch gag with Rick and Morty is basically like just across over episode. It's worth watching and of course never then checking out the Simpsons afterwards. Just watch the couch gag because literally every reference in that in that couch gag references the seasons that we've talked about in our episode of the Simpsons on Elsewhere's Exchange that are great. Clearly those two were like, no, these are the shows.
You know, it's more like we got to clean this up quick. Any character could walk by. There's like a million characters here. George Bush was their mayor.
It was their neighbor. He really was. So yeah, anyway, there was a big tweet from Dan Harmon said like, don't worry, the show is still good. Everyone working on it and still happy and fine and fine.
He doesn't like episode four though. He says episode four of this newest season is the worst one they've done. It's probably another another TV episode then. Possibly I guess we'll see because I will say I love those the the.
Okay, let's talk about the the infinite TV phenomenon. Yes, it's two. Yeah, the two episodes for both season one episode per season where they just go in the booth get completely fucked up and then just just improv jokes and then make these four amazing animators make it real. Amazing.
It's amazing. And on so many levels, the fact that they do it, the fact that they make the animators create them, how talented the animators are, how that when you think about how I hope there's no communication between the animators and the creators themselves and just go like here's the audio. Do what you want to do. Yeah, you know, I love everything about what they do even if not all the jokes land that to and also to be smart enough to be like, okay, this will be the a story, but we'll have to have a really hard working B story in these episodes to I want to say, and I don't this is not true because I don't know what to be true, but I want to believe that the B stories for the infinite TV episodes are.
The Dan Harmon, like I will die on this hill. We need to do this episode like concession where it's like, we're not going to do an episode, a full episode where Jerry needs to dedicate his penis to some like go intergalactic peacekeeper. Yeah, to save the alien Dalai Lama, but we will use it to fill time in our improv episode or was it summer finding out she was a mistake. Yes, God.
And by the way, like, okay, so let's talk about that for a second just through the improv episodes, even in the episodes that seemingly they don't give a shit about because while I've said they're both brilliant, I think the second one is a little less brilliant than the first. It is, but they even make a joke about that too, saying, you know, when is the sequel ever better than the original thing we nailed it on the first round, but all right. Although the B plot I think is more fun and there and I'm still making jokes from that episode itself. Look at me.
I have a pencil for a dick. Just a Warner Herzog doing a voice for amazing. Shrinkly Piddles. Just amazing.
Truly respected, you know, creator, actor, everything else and they've got him saying complete nonsense. I wonder if him and was it was it Patrick Stewart have like a bet going on like which more respected actor can say the sillier things in their own show. Exactly. I mean, Patrick Stewart is winning by a country freaking Milo Duke says no to no one.
He's done Empire commercials. He's on American dad despite the fact the show has killed twice. He's in and he's poop in the emoji movie, which by the way, no one goes see it because this should be the movie that should kill Sony so that we can get Spider-Man forever. Yes, that's all you have to do.
Just don't see this movie. All you have to do is listen to the voice inside you that says I probably don't want to see that emoji movie and don't see the emoji movie. That's all you need to do. In fact, form gangs, form chain gangs outside the theaters to make sure other people don't see it as well.
But just don't tell your counterculture friend not to see it because he's gonna like do the opposite. He's just annoying. Gary. Yeah, right.
Anyway, yeah, so Rick and Morty. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do?
What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do?
What do you want to do? What do you want to go with that? Oh geez. So I mean, you know, it's in our relationship.
Who's the record? Who's the more? Yeah, I think we just answered that question. Did you say you really give me a hard time over here?
Yeah, I really give you a hard time. You really you're really asking for Joel. That's a hundred years. I got to tell you really quick.
Really quick. A really quick and more story just how it's permeated in my life. It's ruined me. I was at a comic con in Jersey recently, not too recently, but a little while ago.
And there was this. There were a couple of people hanging out and we were on our way out. And there was a girl holding her Morty doll. She had a doll of Morty.
But you can buy what you can buy. It wasn't like a Etsy doll. It was made specifically for my new yoes. And she dropped it.
And she dropped. He fell on the floor and I went, geez. You really, really dropped me on the floor there as I'm walking past her. And she turned around like for a second.
She thought maybe the doll heads that's come to life. Yeah, it was really funny, but it's destroyed me. I'm literally like, I make these references. I fucking the resort was a fucking field joke.
Yeah, which has also been a long running thing from Channel 101 and Harlan or Harman in Royland. They loved our field and Harvey said the only thing he can draw. That's amazing. By the way, quick shout out.
Also, hey, also. Oh, thank you, Master Yoda. You are awesome as well, my friend. But yeah, man, I don't give a fuck.
I'm gonna sort of this fucking field bitch. Give me my fucking inch a lot as unbelievable. It's like, wait, do you guys like Garfield or do you not like Garfield? I can't tell anymore.
I think as a fan of Garfield and friends, but not a fan of the strip, I can safely say that anyone who likes Garfield also secretly hates Garfield. I'll tell you this. Like, I think that Heath Cliff should die in a fire, but I do also like have zero respect, but infinite respect for Jim Davis. That too.
Because Jim Davis, right? He creates this one note joke. It should have lasted like a year. It's a horrible joke.
Fat cat likes food. He shouldn't be eating and amissible to freshly single like failure of a man talks to his cat. That's the joke. And then he turned it into an empire where he doesn't even draw the fucking thing.
He trained dozens of people to all draw exactly like him to keep the strip going. It could go forever. They'll never stop making Garfield. It's amazing.
It is amazing. I guess one of my favorite things too about Rick and Maury, and it's something that Chad has brought up to. It is wonderfully amazingly nihilistic in its way. Like it might actually be one of the darkest shows on television, and yet it completely embraces that darkness and it completely embraces the absurdism of a universe and a multiverse with endless, endless possibilities.
The nihilism fact for me is kind of interesting because I remember people talking about like how the episode with Unity was at the darkest ending ever. In fact, if you look up that ending, it's called the darkest ending of any show. First of all, no, it's not. Second of all, I think that it's actually, I think that their nihilism has gone so far, like it's broken the needle and come out through the other side.
Where Rick understands that no choice he makes matters because there's an infinite number. There's not an infinite number. There's so many of them it makes him irrelevant. But through that it motivates him to make him the most singular among his multiples.
I am the most Rick Rick. And if you'll also recognize the fact that there's this element in the show, there's this persistent theme of ice cream, the rubric and morty. It is one of the few things that gives Rick genuine joy. And he pursues it like people pursue their dream career.
And it reminds me of the Calvin Hobbs strip where Calvin Hobbs are in the woods and Calvin asks Hobbs if he could have one wish. What could it be? And Hobbs was just for a sandwich and then Calvin gives him a really hard time and he's like, I can sandwich, I wish for my own private island and an army and missiles and all this stuff. And then at the end of the strip, Hobbs gets the sandwich and eats it.
He says, I got my wish and it's a little metaphor. But I was like, you know, you should set, I guess like, well, you can set your sights a little lower but more like be realistic about the things you can accomplish. And Rick is like, I can't matter in the universe, but at least I can have ice cream. And there's something beautiful and simplistic and joyful about that.
Ice cream is funny too because it's the end result of chemistry. It's rock salt and cream and everything else coming together. And it's great, but it's also fleeting, isn't it? It will also melt.
It's incredibly fragile. Yeah, but it's also everywhere. And you're never too far from ice cream. It's true.
And even when ice cream is bad, it's still pretty good. It's true. So while there is like this big, this big theme of nihilism, I think there's also an undercurrent of hope, which for me is like the marriage of the royal and in Harmon because if you just gave Roylin nothing, you can see what Rick and Morty's like with no Dan Harmon. It's the Dop and Marty sketches where it's just children masturbating old men.
What? That's what it is. Look it up. But maybe using Kapeato.
But with Dan Harmon, he's like, no, but there is an undercurrent of meaning within it. They are yin and yang. They are ordering chaos in many ways. It's why I can enjoy Channel 101, but why I'm not like rapidly interested in it?
Same. I think that while Channel 101 is a great predecessor to Rick and Morty, without the Harmon effect, you don't have quite the perfection that the show has become. That's why I'm almost a little worried about Dan Harmon's rabid dedication to making the best possible show he has. Yeah, yeah.
Like, I trust the creative process and I trust my creators to be as good as they're going to be. You know, you've written papers before for scholastic endeavors. Most definitely. You know, devil-spaced.
Right, well, of course. But if you're going to work on a paper, you know, I have a little bit of a philosophy where I'm like, this paper is going to be as good as it's going to be. And no amount of me dreading it, worrying about it, or writing note cards and doing all this bullshit is going to make the paper any better. And while it might be structurally better, it might have more cogent ideas if I'm writing it.
And it's from my perspective and it's like, especially if it's in opinion, it's not going to be any better than it would have been if I put 17 hours into it. Or if I dedicated 10 hours to sleeping and, you know, 5 hours to writing and 2 hours to ice cream. You know, like, there needs to be a balance. I think a perfect example of this is in the Mr.
Miessek's episode where when they talked about writing that particular episode, Roylyn was getting really frustrated and agitated, was like, this isn't fun. Writing is supposed to be fun. He then apparently started rolling on the floor like a toddler, go, I'm Mr. Miessek, look at me.
And instead of like getting mad at this, Dan Harmon told the other writers, okay, his name is Mr. Miessek's, we have to work with him on this. Okay, tell us more about Mr. Miessek's.
Exactly. No, like, that's, I mean, you need to be frustrated. You need to be put into a box to find your way out. Yeah.
But that's exactly like, that's exactly the encompassing element that I'm talking about. That's what the show is. The show is just like, it's brilliant because they're not trying to be brilliant. Yes, absolutely.
And in some cases, when fans are like, oh, I love the continuity and the lore and the evil Morty and the council of Ricks and everything else, you know, when you're going to go back to that, Harmon and Roylyn's response, I think is really pro fan where they're like, well, we could do that. Or we could show you some new shit. Or we could burn it all down. Right, exactly.
Indeed they do. And indeed they do. I love the opening of season three. He's like, no more of that.
Like, great, good. Get rid of it. Get closer to all of it, then they destroy it. Yeah, and then they move on.
I mean, like, you know that we're never going to see the alien that Steve Colbert voiced because Steve Colbert doesn't come back to do voices after he does it first. We know that from Venture Brothers. It's true. And in fact, if you ever like look that up, I remember they asked Steve Colbert to come back to play Mr.
Impossible again. And he was like, he was like, oh, and he didn't respond, but his publicist did and publicist did something to the fact that Mr. Colbert believes that he has done all he can with that character. And I'm like, geez, fuck you, wait a while, he's not saying anything.
He's like Jim Morrison in the doors. Man, I already played that show. Yeah, man, I played Mr. Impossible.
Moving on. Yeah. Yeah. But, okay, so now we talk about a little bit.
We talked a little bit about why we like Rick and Morty so much because it's genuine. It's real. It is. But it also that wonderful element of sci-fi fantastic, which we love.
Oh, yeah. And they really mind some great episodes out of it. Like they have the purge episode and the space parasite episode, which I think is one of the best, like, 22 minutes of television I've seen in a science fiction setting. Yes.
That's the thing is that every episode, like, I can throw on any episode of either season and there's no episode where I go, oh, it's this one. It's true. They're all really well put together, really well assembled. Yeah, it's awesome.
I'm like, I'm in all of that. But it's also, for me, it's the Simpsons effect where it's like, listen, season three, four, I don't have to skip an episode. I don't have to skip an episode. I'm hopeful that season three is as good as seasons one and two.
But I don't want them to worry about it. I want them to just keep making the show the way they've been doing. You've already nailed it. Stop drilling.
You've hit oil. Like, you know, I would hate to think that they were like, okay, I mind, you know, I stripped down everything that was me and I formed this amazing season. Now, what am I going to do for season four? Like, no, just do what you do best.
Yeah, don't feel. Yeah, don't let it drag you down. Now, we've seen a couple of, I'm sure you've watched them, the live Rick and Morty readings and improv episodes at cons. Yep, they've been all over the place touring that around.
First of all, it's fun. I love that what's it called. I love that Royal and has no patience for them. Yeah, true.
Especially when they're like, there's an episode where they're like, okay, now we're just going to improv an episode. And Royal and does everything you can to fuck with it. Oh, yeah. I love that.
But I also feel really bad because they usually bring in Chris Parnell and the amazing voice of Beth who's name is gave to me. It's a really good cast Parnell has been having a great like cartoon resurgence ever since he left SNL. He's now like a couple really good gigs. Yeah, but the voice cast for the show is Sarah chalk.
Yes, thank you. But the voice cast for the show is so great. And they're also singularly funny and insightful. They there's no ego bullshit when it comes to the show, but they're always so marginalized and they do the live shit because people just want to watch Royal and do Rick and Morty and have them yell at each other.
Yep, they do. What's they do? But I think one of my favorite characters is Beth. Yeah, there's a lot going on with Beth as a character.
Beth is an amazing character that would exist in a Dan Harmon like rom-com or sitcom or legitimately legitimate thing. Hey, the mod King Moby has jumped in a thousand years. Sal and Jolie. Yes, but animate that.
I want to see that art now of me as Rick and Joel as Morty. We've had some killer fan art. Thanks to MD Kax who really took it upon himself to make what is it? Red Batman.
Yeah, I'm a fan. But I always feel bad that they never get like their due because they're always so great. Summer, her voice actor is amazing. Summer's had a great evolution from just being the kind of mean sister to actually going on adventures and forging her own interesting relationship with Rick that's completely different from his relationship with Morty.
Completely. Yeah. She doesn't take his shit a lot of the time and yet she needs his help a lot of the time. It's true.
Well, she's the perfect teenager because she thinks she is on top of everything. She thinks she knows where she is, but she clearly doesn't. It's the effortlessness that it seems exists in the show is a testament to the amount of work that goes into it. It feels obvious.
Anyone can do a Rick and Morty impression as evident by the last time we were at New York Comic Con and I bumped into all of those ricks. So many ricks. Man ricks. I ran into a council of ricks.
It was just 1000 ricks. I was wearing a Rick and Morty shirt which Tiffany I think had purchased for me at the time at the con. And they were like, oh geez look, somebody's got another Rick shirt. That was fun.
The show makes it seem like it's easy to be Rick, but it's not. I think it's really interesting too that Roy Lane, one of the creators of the voice of both Rick and Morty, he had to fight tooth and nail for that. They did not want him to do the voice of either character let alone both. I had no idea about that.
That's amazing. Oh, him and Harvin have to fight super hard for that. They're like, no, we want to get a more marquee voice after to put on the thing. And of course, Harlin and Harvin both said too.
They think one of the big reasons they didn't want him to do that is they didn't want him to have like Seth MacFarlane power. Oh, I do the voice. I write I'm a creator. I am literally indispensable.
You can never get rid of me. I like when that happens. It's true. But yeah, yeah, it's the voices are amazing.
The cast is spectacular. Let's talk with some favorite episodes. It's hard to pick because they're so good. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I'll let you go first. I'm sure we have many of the same favorite episodes. Okay. Okay.
Mr. Misesy. Misesy and Destroy is I think my favorite episode. I don't I don't want to say it's because like, you know, I mean, like here's the thing.
It's my favorite episode because I can watch any time be it is like the perfect introduction to the show. Yeah, that's the one I knew I was a lifer. It's like, okay, you got me now. Show.
I'm in. That's the episode. I think we showed to Ethan. He was like, well, I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure we have many of the same favorite episodes.
And he was like, well, I'm obsessed with the show now. Immediately we show me seeks and destroy. And he went out. Like, he went home.
He's like, cool. That was a fun show. And then went home and watched all of it and then read about it and became a fan. Like, I think that that's the thing.
It has this kind of amazing infectious quality to it because it's so it's so clever. It really does. I mean, even just the idea of me seeks as characters, what's like, yeah, their creatures born into this world not wanting for purpose. They have a single thing they need to do so they can die.
And when they can't complete that task, it is a hell on earth. Yeah. He just exploded trust me. They're fine with it.
Super OK with it. It's like, look, guys, you need to be really bagged with ease. Yeah, I love how Rick does not give the amount of information they need in order to effectively use what they have properly. He does that every time with everything they do.
It's true. It really is. And you know, what is it? Beth and Summers are equally?
What is it? Beg? You know, I want to be popular. I want to, you know, feel like a more complete woman.
And yet they're able to deal with their problems much easier than they are taking strokes off Jerry's golf game. Yeah. Well, because you can be convinced of your absolution better than you can legitimately develop a skill. It's true.
It really is true. And once again, too, showing that Jerry is forever the wrench into these things. Yeah. Oh, my God.
Oh, the fact that in the episode with the simulations, oh, yes, I don't know which one that is because they all have obnoxiously difficult to remember and difficult to connect to the actual theme. They're all chibers. That one was a M night Shama aliens. Thank you.
OK. But I only know because they're making fun of M night. Right. Yes.
But that's great because you think that it's about Rick. And Morty, but it's actually about Jerry. That's a great episode. That's a great character study for Jerry, where Jerry gets to experience what it's like to actually succeed.
It's fucking sad. My greatest day was all the simulation running at half power. Yeah. The I was actually watching the other day when the Apple E disappears and he just tries to get it.
They regressed it nothing. Oh, sad. It's so sad. Like, it's more sad than Rick being rejected by unity.
Yeah, and trying to kill himself. It's funny. That episode too reminds you that Rick is actually not to be fucked with and that Rick is so smart that like it actually brings a lot of danger. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, you're talking about the episode with the Apple E? Like, yeah, we're we're hands up blowing up the scammers ship and everything. Yeah.
Well, I just want people universe. Oh, yeah. You can't be blew up. Yeah.
Not only is like he really good, but he's also kind of dangerous. Yes. Which they just it's funny. They hint at it.
They have a whole series. And then I think in the first episode of season three, they just outright say he's smart. The universe you can't be fucked with. We have to do like we have to deal with it.
It's kind of amazing. It really is like a Reed Richards type thing, which is fitting because they have the Council of Rick's, which is just totally taken from the Council of Reed's. It's the Council of Reed's, but with like the aesthetic of the Council from Krypton and Doctor Who. That's the thing.
They dress like the Galafrains as well too. It's amazing. Now, people have made that comparison to old man, travels through space in a craft with companions getting into adventures. He is a lot like Doctor Who in a way, but I really fucked up American Doctor Who.
Right. The differences I want to watch Rick and Morty. I've tried with Doctor Who several times. I watched many seasons, but I never clicked with me.
Yeah. I have definitely watched Doctor Who. I think I watched a 10 minutes of one episode and was like, no, don't care about those things you had to grow up with. I really did.
I really needed to be hamsterung by my family and being forced to watch it. And it's a cultural thing too. It's a very like part of the British identity. This is true.
Yeah. No, that's the other thing is that like here's the thing. As an American, I feel like a tool. Cool.
Like, Doctor, I'm like, that's not even for me. I mean, hey, there's like old ass men in British Parliament. We're like, okay, we need to get this meeting done quick because the new Doctor Who's on. Yeah.
I like that. I like a show's influence on the culture where they have to leave with that happens. Yeah. Even to the halls of power.
It's like, no, no, there's dudes in their 70s who have been watching since they were like sick. Exactly. And when they were watching, they were listening to the radio broadcast of the show. That's another one that blows my mind, of course, is is Shwifty.
Oh, yeah. Which is the only one that has nothing to do with any of these titles. It's true. I love that one too, because you get to hear Dan Harmon's Ice T-Boys, which is so on point.
I thought it was actually I see. You made me care more. You just can't go, you know, what is it floating through space, not caring about things. Man, overdeveloped, underdeveloped, a bad song.
Bad song. I mean, we're out of original Fig Newtons. Man, you tell me you were fucking around portals and shit. Apparently when the real Ice T heard about that, he's like, well, why didn't they ask me to be on it?
I would have been on it. You know, why? Because it's funnier to hear a pretty accurate Ice T impression. It's more deprecating from an old ass bearded white man.
Yeah, I bet if you watched it, nops. If you love that, you need it's on YouTube. You need to find a Harman Town, Ice T D and D, where he sees like, okay, I'll be Ice T, but as a dungeon master. All right, so you're in a forest, right?
And there are these goblins and shit, right? It's pretty amazing. See, for that, just get Ice T. I want that.
Yeah, I know, right? Harmon and the other guy that skinny comedian that I like so much do a really, really solid Ice T impression. That's also an episode two based around songs and music, because apparently both Harmon and Roylin love Improving Rap Songs. That's funny.
I didn't know that. Yeah, I'd fairly get Swiftie even to that song that we all love so much wasn't even intended for that episode. That was another project that was just Roylin screwing around. They need like background songs or something.
And he just out of nowhere started saying get Swiftie. It's Swiftie time today. And they're like, that's too perfect. We need to put that in something.
That's that episode is so funny for every reason that you can think of I like Beth subplot. I like the indifference of the heads. I like how like annoyed they get about really good things. It's also an episode about religion.
Yes. I love Keith David play the president and how into how into Shriup. Clarence Bodiker as the vice president or as the evil general. Science fiction royalty in that episode.
Yeah, it's gold. I just love it. I gotta make sure that Rick's got everything he needs to get Swiftie. Get Swiftie was a jam.
Oh, no, all the celebrities were killed. What are we going to do now? Yeah, we have ice tea and this old man also too. That episode is interesting too, because that's working more to using their skills and having an adventure to literally save the world.
Yeah. Yeah. Even after they save the world, they don't become heroes or celebrities. They're just back to life as normal.
And they don't grow. No, no, they don't. That was just another day at the office for them. I like that a lot.
I also like that they don't like to bullshit like the only acknowledgement to the annoying sci-fi trope of like, you know, normal people save the world. We have to keep it a secret is when we're like, can I get a selfie? He's like, Oh, no. That's pretty good.
It's also funny too, because up until that point, I'm like, wait, are Rick and Morty trying to like hide the adventures they're having now? No, no, no, they just don't care. Exactly. No, yeah.
Yeah. There's one every season. Well, it's like, get you, get you empty, right? It's not brilliant.
It's not like actual music. It's just him flucked around. But a, it's really catchy and B, it's really funny and C, even in the show, they acknowledge how not how like not great it is when they do the song and the head just goes, hmm. He doesn't have to boo.
He just is like, okay, that's fair. He is the audience where it's like, all right, they had to think of that on the spot. I'll give it to him. Even the head does.
It's also to, you know, when you unpack the giant heads to there's something in any other context, they would be fucking horrifying. This race that has evolved to this giant head. That has evolved to this giant level where the only thing they care about is entertainment and being entertained and they will destroy whole universes just to get a little excitement. Yeah.
Yeah. Like that's like, that could be a Star Trek episode where they took it 100% seriously. No, totally. I think it is an episode.
Yeah. I mean, great. I was like, people are quoting Mr. Boldups in the comments.
That, that I think was, maybe I don't remember if it was, I think it was music to destroy it. And then it was get shifty. I was like, I'm, I'm sold on the show. Mr.
Boldups. What does that mean? No, no, it's working. So what about you?
What are some of your favorites? Oh geez, I mean, no, it's not. They're all of them. Like, they really are.
I mean, I come back to the purge episode because I'm actually a fan of the purge movies and I like that it's a parody, but it's also kind of a loving parody of it and also kind of acknowledging where it's like, yeah, I mean, we've had this in fiction for a bit. You know, what, what if there was just a crazy kill night? Yeah. Okay.
Plus you get that bit with that idiot reading his screen and more trying to be nice about it. Like, we've all been there. We've all been more to you in that situation. Yes.
And the fact that, okay, I've never, I, I, there's a few things that have made me laugh like through a show, like through a commercial break back to when the show comes back. One of them was when Mr. Burns cripples the Irishman in the flashback. He's got the little strawberry curls and he's in the bumper car and he just keeps crippling the Irishman.
And Mr. Burns laughing all through his life and then being like, no, Smith, what was I laughing at now? No, yes, that crippled Irishman and then getting right back into it. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the light out keeper down the stairs.
And then, first of all, the hilarious, like sound effect of him being like, really, just implowing down the stairs and then going, you're like that? You want me to cut to the three weeks earlier when you were alive? I was destroyed as a person. I was broke in JPEG.
And I, I, I, God damn it. Like it's, but so, there are so few moments where that happens for me in life, but so many moments where it happens to me in this show. That's, that's a great tune now that I stop and think about it. I like that episode too.
Because it's actually quite a character grow up episode for Morty. Yeah. In the fart episode, our times when Morty actually tries to go against Rick and actually tries to do some good and does like the cliche trademark heroic thing. Only every time it blows up in his face in a massive, massive way.
He totally makes things worse. But what's great about that episode is that I think that one seeks to imply Morty has way more Rick in him than he would like to admit. That's true. Okay.
So the analyses of Morty's morality is kind of fascinating because if Morty becomes more like Rick, you get evil Morty. Yeah. If Morty, yeah, if Morty loses the innate morality that he keeps, you know, he becomes something else. Like he's, he's corrupted.
But I really like this proto, like the main Morty because this Morty has a balance where he's like already, it's only been two seasons. He's already on, he already knows like everything about Rick. He, he knows how to predict Rick and counteract him. He knows it's gonna happen.
He's like, he's like, he's like when you're watching American dad and you're like, oh, Roger's gonna help them. This is going to be a result in Roger being a monster. He's gonna fuck everything up. Like Rick, all rarer, I'm sorry.
Morty already knows what Rick's going to do and how he's gonna do it and how it's, it might benefit himself and, and intentionally relate to him. But he knows that it goes against the grain. It's not gonna work. And because of the very few circumstances where he has done the opposite of what Rick said, like you said, and then, and then ultimately had to do what Rick wanted to do in the first place.
Which Rick did you want to do in the first place as well? Like that's the other thing is that Rick's like, if you just listen to me, you'd be, you'd be fine. But you wanted to do, like Morty wanted to go on the adventure. Whereas Rick's like, no, like you go on adventures with me.
When you're not with me, you live a normal life. When you want to do something like that, then you get almost raped by a jelly bean. Which is another holdover from a channel 101 sketch. Yes.
But if you had just stayed at the arcade with me, we would have had a great time. We would have a great time. Like Rick and Morty Prime, as evidenced by that dude on the, on his YouTube channel who was like, who brilliantly pointed out that like in that Blitz and Chills episode, the Rick and Morty that we see the whole episode where they kill Fart and they destroy Gearhead. It is a entire world.
It is a entire world. That's not the main Rick and Morty. That's like one of the tangent Rick and Morty's. And the real Rick and Morty like had an okay time.
Yeah. But yeah, I think they're gonna get into that in the future. We'll see where that goes. But like, Morty going off the beaten path is not beneficial for anybody.
It's almost entirely disastrous every time he tries. Yeah. But I like that Morty also has like the understanding that he needs to do what Rick does. Like when he's like, I have to kill Fart now.
Yeah. Like he knows what to do and he does it. And it's kind of cool. It's a total what would Rick do a moment.
Yeah. Well, he's, I don't even know if Morty thinks that Rick wants to do it. I think he's just like, I have to kill you because you're going to destroy all of us. Mm-hmm.
You know, like Rick wouldn't have even been involved. Yeah. You know, Rick would have been like, I mean literally Rick was like, you know, we'll live until we die, possibly by Heart disease or Vampire. You know, that episode too also features one of my favorite side characters, Crumbopula's Michael, the very upbeat alien assassin.
Hey, I just love killing it. Oh boy, here I go killing again. Which I think what's great about that too and how layered the show is they imply a greater history of Crumbopula's Michael because he has the little heart lock and he opens up and he does like his thing, Creos from Mass Effect Battle Prayer. Yes.