Rick and Morty: A Blending of Modern Pop Culture (A Hundred Years Rick and Morty)

Critics of Rick and Morty are the first to scream, “Copy cat, copy cat,” about every aspect of the Adult Swim show from the characters to the plot lines to the stylistic aspects. In the most obvious vein, Rick and Morty are subverted characters from Back To The Future and the show even takes its contemporary sci-fi theme from the movie. But to truly understand Rick and Morty and all of the pop culture references, it’s important to start from the genesis of the series.

Rick and Morty was originally a short film on Channel 101 called “The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti.” The short film was filled with crude humor and written by Justin Roiland making it perfect for Channel 101, which was originally co-founded by Dan Harmon. Adult Swim later picked up the show with Dan Harmon, a writer on Community, and Justin Roiland, who voices both Rick and Morty, as the main writers. “The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti” was later changed to Rick and Morty to avoid litigation for copyright infringement from Back to the Future.

Since the airing of the series, critics have complained that the animators stole stylistic elements as well as ripped off characters and storylines. Well, clearly, these points have salience. We can see that here with stylistic aspects from Adventure Time, Ren and Stimpy, and The Simpsons.

 

The Simpsons influenced Rick and Morty so much so that there's even a crossover bit.

We can see influences from Ren and Stimpy in the way Morty displays his emotions, with the upside down W shaped frown.

And the way that that, ugh, *burp* vomit is drawn.

We can also see allusions to Jurassic Park in an episode where Rick builds Anatomy Park inside of a homeless man.

And Pirates of the Caribbean, where Rick pitches a ride inside of Anatomy Park called Pirates of the Pancreas.

An episode “Lawnmower Dog” was an allusion to the 1992 movie Lawnmower Man, a movie where a mentally disabled man takes pills and uses technological enhancements to make him smarter. Through his newfound intelligence, he sees the ways others took advantage of him. In “Lawnmower Dog,” Rick makes the family dog a device that gives him sentience and sees the ways his owners manufactured his subservience (e.g., cutting off his balls) and the dogs then take over the world.

There's a reference to Raising Arizona in the episode “Raising Gazorpazorp,” where Morty fathers a child with a space robot.

Rick and Morty make many references to the movie Zardoz, but the most obvious one is also in “Raising Gazorpazorp.” In Zardoz, Earth is ruled by Eternals, an advanced group of beings who reign over the Brutals, the savage majority of the population. In “Raising Gazorpazorp,” women rule from a far removed Utopia and men live on the ground, in the ruins of the city, fighting to mate with sex robots.

In this scene, Rick and Morty uses the plot from Stephen King’s book Needful Things, in where an old man gives out relics to ameliorate specific problems, like if you can’t run fast enough, have arthritis, etc., but the customers don’t pay with money, they pay with their souls.

In an episode of Rick and Morty, they incept Morty’s math teacher to give Morty good grades. Through a series of events, they end up 6 dreams deep into the inception, where Morty says their actions are stupid and complicated. Rick then says, “It’s like Inception so if it’s confusing and stupid, then so is everyone’s favorite movie.”

Adventure Time, duh. Justin Roiland voices not only Rick and Morty in Rick and Morty but also in Adventure Time he played The Earl of Lemongrab. Some of Lemongrab’s famous lines even made it into Rick and Morty. 

And obviously Back to the Future.

Now I think you get the point.

So why the criticism? It seems there is a certain societal notion that stealing material, or even borrowing or learning from it, is a crime punishable by harsh criticism (or worse, dun dun dun). And why do we feel this way? Maybe since we were little we’ve been told to look at our own papers and never plagiarize so when we see ideas and tropes and dialogue stolen from other shows and put into other ones, it’s a little disconcerting.

But the point of Rick and Morty isn’t to steal material, it’s to remix it, to remediate it, to revive old pop culture references and bring them into a new light for newer generations to enjoy as well. Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland also use these pop culture references and tropes in order to subvert them and criticize the state of media. Stealing material shamelessly is a staple of art, Steve Jobs said it, Pablo Picasso said it. So it must be true, right? But don’t take it from either of those people, take it from indie film maker Jim Jarmusch:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery -- celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from -- it's where you take them to."

Ideas are made concurrently and pop culture isn’t hermetically sealed. It’s made within the sphere of other pop culture, which begets more pop culture, which begets more pop culture. Thus is the cycle of media, and affords people like Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon the opportunity to not only laud and emulate the things they consider good media, but also allows them to criticize media and pop culture tropes.

Taken from an interview here.

Through Rick and Morty, the audience gets the stylistic qualities from popular shows like The Simpsons, Adventure Time, and Ren and Stimpy, but also the optimistic nihilism from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who. Combine those with pop culture references to movies like Inception and Jurassic Park, and Rick and Morty makes for one of the most accessible shows in television. Learning, borrowing, and stealing from other media lead to authentic and enjoyable new media.

And I think if Rick were real and if Morty were worrying about the critics (like we know he would), Rick would say, “Look, Morty. Who cares? The universe is a really big *burp * place and sometimes ideas happen at the same time, Morty. Just gotta go with the flow, Morty, because sometimes stealing material makes better material happen, Morty, especially if the original stuff is shitty, Morty. We’re gonna make all kinds of wonderful things from stealing people’s stuff, Morty.”

 Works Used:
 All screenshots of Rick and Morty taken from http://www.adultswim.com/videos/rick-and-morty/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawnmower_Man_%28film%29