That Space Jam cameo isn’t Rick And Morty selling out, it’s Rick And Morty being sold
Rick And Morty goes corporate with surprising frequency, but for once, Rick's not in on the joke
TV Features Rick and Morty
Rick Sanchez wants your money. That’s not a secret—in fact, it’s a point Rick And Morty had returned to again and again, across its now five seasons on the air: There is no principle, friend, or family member that the gleefully amoral super scientist will not betray for a juicy enough incentive, or a big enough pile of cash. The mercenary attitude of the show’s central character extends well outside its universe, too: If you want Rick Sanchez to yell “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!” while telling millennials to shove Hardee’s hamburgers in their faces—or show up to add some inexplicable Adult Swim cred to your new Space Jam movie—it’s pretty easy to pull off. Just pay the man, and make it happen.
Series co-creator/star Justin Roiland, who not only voices every enthusiastic ode to Old Spice or Pringles that tumbles from Rick’s puke-stained mouth, but who also writes pretty much all of Rick And Morty’s surprisingly numerous ad spots, is clearly aware of the loophole at work here. By crafting a character of functionally infinite cynicism, Roiland has created a paradoxically perfect pitchman: Rick can say anything, tell his ravenous audience to buy literally any product, and never slip out of character—so long as it’s clear he’s only saying this stuff because someone paid him to say it. Or, as Roiland put it in an interview with Collider last month:
Rick is the type of person that would see right through any fucking advertisement and who these big corporations are, the whole corporations weighing in on socio-political stuff. It’s just so fucking ridiculous. It’s funny to me, and Rick is somebody who would see right through that shit. It’s like they just want money. That’s all they care about. So I’m trying to keep all of that in mind while writing these commercials.
The end results are ad campaigns that feel effective in direct proportion to how checked-out their star sounds. An Instagram promotion that sees Rick effusing about the interactive wonders of the “Rickstaverse” constructed experience comes off as positively moribund, for instance, while the Old Spice spot, where Rick literally counts his ad money while reading from a sheet of provided copy, feels totally of a piece with the show. (After all, this is the series that’s had its heroes canonically hang out with Logic to promote his album, and beg Nintendo to send them shit—to say nothing of the enormously strange situation that bled out into real life when Rick waxed poetic about McDonald’s Mulan-themed Szechuan dipping sauce in the season 3 premiere.)
You can’t even really fault Roiland (or co-creator Dan Harmon) for trying to find a way to balance getting paid with maintaining the show’s own sensibility: They’re beholden to their corporate masters, after all, who are the ones actually selling ads that it’s then on Roiland to make feel authentically inauthentic. And it’s hard to deny that setting up a merch-filled Rickmobile to roam the country, or writing a crooning birthday song for Kanye West (apparently commissioned by Kim Kardashian for her now-ex husband), does feel like something Rick would do, provided the price was right.
So why, given all the fast food endorsements, Pringles ads, and pickle-branded seltzer waters, does the sudden appearance of Rick and Morty in the new Space Jam movie still feel like some sort of nadir, a threshold crossed? It’s not just that the real Rick would come up with something way nastier than “dum-dums” to label the Tune Squad with after inexplicably returning the Tasmanian Devil to them. (Oh, for a version of A New Legacy that was rated PG-13, with the solitary “fuck” reserved for Roiland’s belch-filled ramblings.) No, the real problem with the scene, which went viral on the internet this weekend, is that Rick isn’t in on the joke. There’s no wink to camera, no allusions to a paycheck, no acknowledgement that his and Morty’s appearance is just one more empty IP gesture in a film so filled with them that it blocks out any other creative impulse that might try to bleed through. For once, Rick isn’t cheerfully selling out; he’s being sold. Space Jam does what not even the Galactic Federation, the Citadel Of Ricks, or the fully mustered might of the Wendy’s corporation could do: It tames Rick Sanchez C-137.
191 Comments
I think Iâm just tired of Rick and Morty. Like, the show is technically good in the sense that it still gets some good jokes out every now and than but the show is just not interested in actually growing the characters past the point they already are. Which is frustrating because they keep teasing the idea of character growth but it always goes nowhere, the characters always revert to their jaded, selfish, and nihilistic selves who see no problem with outright genocide because nothing matters. And I have no problem with the show being a jokey joke show where nothing matters but you canât do that and tease a deeper lore without some character growth. The showâs nihilistic ethos makes it virtually impossible for this to happen because if there was growth, theyâd have to not be selfish assholes. The show is not ATHF or Solar Opposites.
This sums up my feelings about R&M. Got some good jokes but always hits the reset button on the character and story development harder than Star Trek Voyager. If youâre not going to see through Rick becoming a better man, donât waste my viewing time pretending he will.
The character doesnât always have to become a better person for the character to grow and develop (see Walter White). The shows best feature (infinite timelines and infinite version of the same character) is also one of the things that holds it back the most. Thereâs no true consequence to anyoneâs actions. I mean, so many shows hit pivotal moments with character deaths. But when someone in R&M dies, they just pull another version from another timeline. You can only do that so many times before it gets stale.
Youâre done with Rick and Morty to the extent that youâll continue to show up to every AV Club post about it to comment on how problematic it is and how morally superior you are for not watching it.
Iâm saying itâs getting repetitive. Iâm still watching the show because it is still landing jokes for me occasionally. I just donât find it as exciting as it used to be because itâs stuck in arrested development because the showâs ethos doesnât engender character growth that the show keeps teasing.
I honestly donât remember you saying you werenât going to watch it either. That guy who went after you earlier is just a douche. Your comment was very well said, and basically summed up my feelings.
Also, for the record, youâre morally superior regardless of which cartoons you choose to watch, Laserface. Keep fighting the good fight!
Yah but it’s good even for replay value, I just watch it over again and R and M keeps on giving. The jokes I didn’t notice the first time around I notice the second and third time finally. The show and it’s references, well it’s actually deeply layered. The jokes.  Their multi layered. Only a certain kind of brain may notice that concept though. Your only looking at the surface it seems.Â
Now now, need to get all defensive just because someone doesnât adore the giant sperm cartoon.
âYouâre not allowed to criticize things I likeâMinors shouldn’t be allowed to access the internet.
 He’s not claiming moral superiority he’s sharing an opinion you disagree with, just say that without weird nonsense accusations.
Nailed it.
Iâm too lazy to paste the Mr. Gotcha âAnd yet you participate in society, how interesting! I am intelligentâ comic. Please find it yourself.
ooh I had never seen that before and I love it.Â
Dont be so mad about someone not liking what you like.Â
Im starting to lose interest after this season. Between the frankly psychotic hardcore fans and the fact it feels like autopilot due to 70 episodes being forced to happem, I’m just not having it. Sure there are good episodes and jokes but, ehh.
I enjoyed the first 2 seasons but then a friend of mine wouldnât stop sending me random Meeseeks and Pickle Rick memes and YouTube edits and I was like, âThanks, I hate it. Iâm done.â
Maybe you just have no idea what truly funny writing is.
Oh please, it is and always has been a fun romp for 30 minutes of time, once a week. Watch it or donât, but maybe chill the hell out? The people who write the show put a lot of time and effort to create it each week. All for our entertainment and consumption.What do you do with your time? Post on AV blogs? Sounds like millennial griping and wasted time âLaserfaceâ…
I remember there was that episode in season 2 where Rick reconnects with an old lover, loses her again, and then nearly commits suicide at the end. My interest in the series piqued here, as it seemed like these wacky characters we watched have fun space adventures in the first season had some dark personal trauma to untangle. I was excited! And then absolutely nothing came of that.
I quit watching not long after that. I think after S2E3 is when I realized the show had no intention of living up to its promise. Also I looked around at the fanbase and noped
I guess hurtling towards 50 has itâs advantages (except, yaâ know, one foot in the grave) as I have no idea about fanbases, I just judge a show on itâs own merits, and could give a damn about being associated or not with a particular fanbase. Iâve heard this criticism before though, and I just think itâs the worst.
Iâm a coupla weeks behind, but I couldnât disagree more. The characters have been steadily evolving since the start of season 3 at least. Weâre slowly watching Morty outgrow Rick, to the point where heâs carrying entire episodes and leaving Rick in the B-plots – which highlights all the more how Morty is rejecting Rickâs nihilism.Itâs mostly Rick pushing back on that, which is why the dynamic between him and his family keeps changing the more he himself fails to grow. This isnât subtext, itâs pretty explicit, so idk why people keep insisting the characters arenât changing – is every pundit just laser-focused on Rick?
Yeah, it seems like everyoneâs ignoring all the other charactersâ growth. Morty is now a total badass, capable of murdering countless beings and driving stories (while wrestling with that in a way Rick doesnât). Beth and Gerryâs marriage has shifted and evolved. Summer now has her own space adventuring with Grampa dynamic, etc. Rickâs still a deeply broken asshole, but thatâs the premise of the show.
I think people are hung up on the idea that Rick is the âmain characterâ, much like the rabid fans who see him as an aspirational figure. Thatâs why people keep regarding his toxic cynicism as the showâs thesis, even with author-insert characters like Doctor Wong practically shouting at the camera that youâre not supposed to agree with him.
Thatâs what Matt and Trey used to say about Cartman and his fans. Too bad they, themselves, have drunk some of that particular Kool-Aid.
This đ
Itâs more that their endpoint so far is to be more hyper-competent and âbadassâ. Beyond that the show isnât interested in having the Smith family actually grow as characters because that would require questioning the showâs nihilistic ethos.And that would be fine if the show didnât keep constantly teasing the illusion of character development and never actually followed through.
I think itâs a weird take to suggest that the show isnât interested in challenging its own nihilistic ethos when nearly every other episode highlights why itâs bad. Just because the recent episodes have been more action oriented doesnât mean they now respect the ethos more, itâs likely that theyâre simply padding out these future seasons with stuff thatâs a bit more episodic since they signed that 7 season deal.Â
It seems to me what youâre mean when you say character growth is the characters having a worldview you approve of. I was using badass as shorthand, but Mortyâs personality and world view are totally different than the perpetually scared, confused child he was in season 1. Summer is not the vapid stereotype she was in s1. Youâre welcome to not like the direction theyâve gone in, or dislike what you think is the shows philosophy, but in response to the events of the show, the characters outlooks and personalities have changed. Thatâs character growth.
âWhen is that Walter White fellow going to stop making meth?â
You might want to watch the past couple of episodes before committing to some of this. They were very obvious retreads of character beats and dynamics weâve seen before, and a lot of the jokes were really lazy and hackneyed. Personally, I feel like weâve only seen genuine character changes up through season 3. Starting in season 4 when the original family dynamic was restored, only Beth has seemed to experience any kind of meaningful character growth, and as I recall, that was mostly limited to the last two episodes of the season. Itâs early in season 5, so I wouldnât really expect any major changes or whatever this early on. But I would like something a bit different than âMortyâs horniness has gotten us in trouble again,â which has now been a major part of the story for three out of the past four episodes.
Yeah, pretty much this. The growth is especially apparent ever since Summer gets more to do, because sheâs taking after the absolute worst parts of Rick – the selfish, enabling, reckless hedonism. Mortyâs more accustomed to violence and shit but thatâs played more like getting accustomed to earthquakes in California – heâs still relentlessly idealistic and takes more after Rick in that Rick is lethally determined when he gives a shit, and Morty always does. People complain about âEvil Mortyâ being a tease but that entire character is such an antithesis to the supposed main character that Iâm not surprised they arenât willing to pull that trigger.Hell, episode 7 (which is fantastic and I think will redeem a âcontroversialâ episode in many peopleâs eyes) which leaked in Canada pretty much disproves the âthese characters canât growâ and âthe serialization is a mythâ claims while also being one of the showâs top 5 episodes.Itâs especially weird for me to get hung up on the showâs nihilism because the series explicitly rejects Rickâs brand of it every single time. Season 4’s finale in particular hammers it home that heâs so hateful and doesnât care about anything because heâs a coward, not because he glimpsed some eternal truth. The show mocks Jerry because heâs pathetic and lame but it concedes that heâs also right – he doesnât have any ambition beyond living a relatively satisfying life and the show pretty much spells out that this is how you should approach the idea of existence having no meaning.
I feel a little bit like R&M fans share some of the same space as Fight Club fans. Like I’m sorry but the smart thing you like is enjoyed by a lot of people who aren’t in on the joke. And it’s kiiinda a self-own. You’ve tried to parody a toxic view by engaging with it and here come its adherents.
Oh itâs 100% that. A big part of the R&M fandom thinks they are Ricks – which isnât even anything aspirational to begin with – and theyâre not even Jerrys, because they donât even have the ounce of self-awareness he has.I think itâs reached its peak by season 3 and invading McDonaldâs to get some of that Szechuan sauce which was fucking hilarious to me because Rick, the character they idolize so hard, harps on that you shouldnât be a sheep and follow your own path, yet they completely disregarded that to follow a stupid marketing meme like idiots.Or maybe the fact that Pickle Rick became such a meme even though a) itâs said maybe two times in the entire episode and b) the episode flat out spells out that it isnât cool at all because it just means Rick would rather craft an elaborate version of suicide by cop than work on himself.Itâs a fucking shame in general because at the end of the day itâs just a funny show with a lot of cool ideas that also likes to make a jizz or fart joke and it feels like the whole stupid hubub around it only made talking about it harder.
Every fandom has its fair share of horrible people, even when the show/movie isnât dealing with complex morality. It constantly amazes me how many racist, sexist, bigoted people are fans of Trek, Doctor Who and X-Men, despite all 3 banging the audience over the head with âbigotry is badâ messages.
Iâm not sure if Morty is rejecting Rickâs nihilism so much as becoming a mini-Rick. Like heâll murder people now for the sake of a girl and not give a shit but if that girl murders other people out of a sense of idealism, THATâs what messes him up.
I am not replying specifically to your comment and I acknowledge that my post is literally inherently hypocritical but I die reading these comments… Like, are you seriously sitting here in the comment section of a cartoon review site, complaining about how you are underwhelmed by the showâs development? Seriously? Nothing else going on in your life or in the world that you might want to be involved in? Imagine Rick imagining you sitting there typing your little âcritiqueâ for this non-publication!!!!! I enjoy all of these rantings but itâs a sardonic enjoyment, like, âWhat kind of fucking losers are inhabiting this planet?âSeriously?
Iâm kinda there with you. Itâs just getting to the point where itâs annoying and tiresome, rather than being transgressive and funny. Iâm just kind of over the cynicism and meanness of it, and I miss the earnestness of like, say, the best days of Futurama, which was just as clever (smarter, actually) but had a real beating heart to it instead of just snide jokes.
I really have to disagree, Morty and Summer are becoming more rick like while Rick himself is becoming less so
I think I made it through 4? 5? episodes. Too much child abuse. The one where Morty gets raped and then Rick kills the guy as though thatâs all it takes to heal that just made me ill.
The whole thing made me ill.
He technically attacks morty, never actually successfully completes the attack. Not to nitpick but there is a huge difference in the context.Â
I donât think the show treated it like Rick doing that was bandaid. IIRC, Rick killed the Jellybean King once Morty had already hopped in the portal meaning Morty wouldnât have even known about it. It was one of the moments in the show that showed us that Rick DOES care about Morty, heâs just in no way equipped to help him deal with his emotions or trauma since heâs a self hating suicidal nihilist.
My memory is faulty, but I don’t think Morty actually got raped, but nearly?
Itâs a cartoon
it was attempted, Morty kicked the shit out of King Jellybean. But yeah, if that was too much for you, youâre not going to like the show.
I like it better than you, but I agree on the reset button. Rick can grow and still be narcissistic and arrogant. People donât change that fast, but we can see more of the struggle.
Its a sitcom. Characters are not supposed to grow in sitcoms. Thatâs the whole point of sitcoms for the characters to revert back to the way they always are at the beginning of the episode without really learning anything with excruciatingly slow overall character growth through the seasons. Thatâs literally, every single sitcom. Rick and Morty is no different.
Loki apparently stole the only writer who had any ability to create an arc.
Ok…. So youâre mad Rick and Morty is realistic (in this sense)? Most people seem like they wanna grow or are growing just to get back to their same toxic bullshit. Seems to me maybe you need some character development. Or just piss off. Either way.Â
Aside from your broader point, I wonder if this season in particular has suffered due to so many writers jumping to “Loki” and the broader MCU.
I donât know, I think Morty has grown pretty much. From a kid who did anything Rick told him to, to a kid willing to take charge himself, even if it means defying Rick.
I think itâs exactly that character development youâre after that ends up killing shoes off. Once difficult and ruthless characters are given more humanity (though, one could argue selfishness and ruthlessness are probably more common in humans than anything else) they lose their edge. It happens in so many shows. I remember watching the wonderfully unsympathetic Moira in the first season of Schittâs Creek and subsequently despairing at how the whole show became way too sentimental by the end. We knew the characters too well and the only way to keep us from hating them, according to the show at least, was to make them more recognisable. To pacify them somewhat. I donât want this to happen to Rick. It is exactly his lack of the more noble of human qualities that makes the show work.A sentimental Rick is a tranquilised Rick. The guy is a nihilist who knows that nothing ultimately matters. Giving him too much to care about fundamentally changes his character. And that fundamentally changes the show. But, I guess none of it actually matters in the end anyway, right Rick?
I donât know what ATHF means, but I agree. Solar Opposites actually has done a lot of really good work.
Too bad a comedy doesn’t actually need character growth to be good eh?
Wow, first world problems.âIm so sick of Rick and Mortyâ âit soo depasseââ I say thereâs not enough Rick and Morty and itâs fun and entertaining. The only thing I hate is having to wait a year for 10 episodes.I find it as a great replacement for losing Futurama my all-time favorite. I which Disney would get off their butt and and start making some new Futurama already
Athf is garbage. Literally talking garbage
Rick and Marty is the poor mans Venture Bros. Always has been. I still like it but itâs full of itself and it gets old real quick.
Amen, finally somebody speaking the truth. Their shtick has just gotten old and tired at this point, honestly…Iâm personally obsessed with Solar Opposites now because of how hilarious their season 2 was. Itâs clearly not intended to really go anywhere except to be a parody on pop culture, TV/movies (from unknown to some of the alltime greats like Arrested Development) – all the while remaining meta to the point of excess by poking fun at Hulu whenever they get the chance, and giving zero fucks about if it ruins the “narrative” of the episodes one bit…because they’re basically just slapstick single episodes of comedy which aren’t meant to be taken seriously as a series…shit, in the final episode of season 2 the whole thing was about character development, and ended with them learning that there’s no point in developing their characters…solar opposites is headed the right direction these days, while Rick and Morty definitely isn’t; but thats just my opinion…
It makes a good joke once in a while but is is getting old, for sure
I was too young to see Simpsons during their prime in the 90s (especially during Bartmania) but I imagine it didnât feel much differently than this. Itâs pretty fascinating to me how such a strange show developed such a massive following â and how theyâre able to directly inject the showâs cynicism into so many of the ads. Definitely agree with this article that this appearance feels like the first time they were beholden to actual restrictions. Iâm sure this is the first of many more instances that this will happen down the line. But for what it is Iâm always a bit tickled to see these two dummies show up in completely random places.Â
20 million people watched every episode of the Simpsons in the 1990s. 5 million watch R&M. And there were 82 million fewer people in the US in 1990. Rick and Morty on cable has a tiny following compared to the prime time broadcast of The Simpsons.They really aren’t easily compared.Â
Who still measures success based entirely off of broadcast TV ratings? *checks username*Ah
I wouldnât judge success by that, but certainly the proliferation of Simpsons toys, albums, t-shirts and other memorabilia was far, far more than what we have for Rick and Morty given it was consumed by so many more people.
millenials killed the megahit show that defines an era, what with their thousands more entertainment outlets and endless internet!
Unfortunately, when youâre talking about a comparison to something liek Rick and Morty to the Simpsons, broadcast TV ratings is one of the only ones we can use, just because itâs one of the only metrics that existed in both times.Canât exactly judge Golden Age Simpsons by Youtube viewcounts.
I do find it funny that ratings today that make a show a major hit would have gotten it cancelled in the â70s.
Itâs not really a measure of success so much as it is about cultural ubiquity. The Simpsons had a greater percentage of the population regularly watching, basically, so a greater level of cultural ubiquity. Though, honestly, cultural ubiquity is a much more difficult thing to quantify in an era where your access to entertainment is a lot more diffuse than it used to be. If you watched a new episode of The Simpsons, you were watching Fox on Sunday – or Global on Sunday if you were Canadian – while if you watch a new episode of Rick and Morty, there are a multitude of different places where you might be watching it. Thatâs a pretty fundamental difference, so you are right that itâs kind of silly to base it entirely on broadcast TV.
Hahaha. How the fuck else should we measure TV shows from the 90s? Amount of streams? Well…you managed to get a few dumb fucks to click like so thatâs all that matters.
Hahaha. How the fuck else should we measure TV shows that originally ran during the 90s? Amount of streams? Well…you managed to get a few dumb fucks to click like so thatâs all that matters.
Who measures a tv shows popularity by how many people watch it? Yeah thats how it works genius. Dont be mad your show isnt that popular.Â
I finally got around to watching Rick & Morty earlier this year and became a fan (at its best, I think it is pretty great), but Iâd agree that it is much more of a niche/underground thing than Simpsons, which -cliche aside- really was a cultural phenomenon (and I am old enough to have watched Simpsons pretty much from the beginning).
Itâs impossible to compare both things on a one to one basis, just because the eras are too different. Tastes are too fractured today, so itâs impossible for any show to have the cultural saturation of the Simpsons. So in that sense, it doesnât work.However, in its time the Simpsons represented a stance of pop culture/the world as we understand it/overall attitude, that is very much in line with what Rick and Morty is today. So that they would sell out for merch, really isnât that different. I think itâs completely valid for somebody to say that this reminds them of the Simpsons doing something similar, because reminders arenât only understood to be âThe exact same thing in every conceivable wayâ and can simply function as things that remind people about other things.
One key difference is that The Simpsons worked on more levels than R&M and never set out to exclude anyone. It was straight up constructed to cast as wide a net as possible. People watched it for its low-brow humor. People watched it for its HarvardCrimson smarty-pants humor. People watched it for the James L. Brooks family sitcom stuff. People watched it for the animation. Some fans enjoyed all the elements but were aware that others did not. But whatâs interesting is there was never – that I recall – much hostility within the fandom toward the people who didnât âgetâ everything. There was maybe condescension but never outright hostility, and this was Gen X, the people who invented âhow dare my favorite band get popular and sell outâ. I remember telling a young R&M fan that I had a female friend who was very active in the Simpsons fandom in college and he was outright shocked that she was even welcome, let alone treated well. R&M was always going for a niche audience because thanks to the nature of tv today it canât cast the same wide net. And having a niche audience comes with its own problems. But even though many of its fans might despise capitalism while wearing R&M shirts, itâs always been a money making machine just like The Simpsons. Itâs just that the smaller numbers can create an illusion of purity.Â
Those are pre-streaming numbers. Thereâs so many shows these days competing for the same limited amount of attention that Iâm not sure many culutural phenomenons on that scale happen anymore. The audience is too split.
Our fractured culture is different and I would argue that the Simpsons will never be duplicated again but R&M is HUGE for a very large portion of the population in modern terms.
What matters is the number of entertainment options available to the audience, and what they choose among those.Comparing TV ratings from 40 years back to streaming ratings is silly.
Almost nothing will ever get simultaneous viewer numbers like that again. There were a couple dozen cable channels, maybe a half dozen broadcast, and far fewer people had cable than did in the 00s. The most popular shows routinely did 8 digits viewership because there was nothing else on.Now a slightly larger audience is split literally millions of different ways. A show is a success if it gets numbers that would have got it canceled 30 years ago. The only thing that has come close is Game of Thrones. We are in the age of the long tail and nothing short of civilizational collapse will reverse it.
Lmfao.Letâs not forget that most R&M fans are like me and usually torrent episodes or find random online streams. I donât pay for cable, Iâve got no way to watch the new season as itâs not on Hulu (where I normally watch it).
Simpsons didnât do many ads when it was at itâs most popular. I mean, the Butterfinger ones were by far the biggest, but most of their ads didnât start coming until the late 90s. By the late 90s, people had already started talking about how much better it was in the past. (Yes, weâve been dealing with almost 25 years of people complaining about The Simpsons.)
I donât think The Simpsons ever cynical. And Iâm not sure Bartmania compares to the popularity of Rick and Morty because The Simpsons were always marketed as a family sitcom and Fox knew the potential was there to market Bart and his sisters to children.
The whole reason Blue Shirt Bart came about is because the show was so early in production when Fox started granting companies the licenses to make Simpsons merchandise that the showrunners hadnât settled on whether or not Bart would wear an orange or blue shirt. The first Simpsons toys to come out were dolls sold at Burger King within the shows first season.
Maybe what they injected into those ads was Bartâs attitude, but Iâm not sure that was cynical. It was a just a late-80s/early-90s update of a troublemaking kid trope that had been around for decades in cartoons. It certainly wasnât the same sort of meta joke that the Rick and Morty advertisements are. The Simpsons ad campaigns (most notably Butterfinger) were basically just little cat and mouse games where Homer tries to steal Bartâs Butterfinger and Bart either outsmarts him or one of the sisters outsmarts them both.
I think Rick and Morty would be more comparable to Beavis and Butt Head and South Park. Both of which – while massively popular – were either so mired in controversy or at a place in time where cartoons for mature audiences were still such a confusing concept to the American public that companies didnât want to risk the controversy that might come with associating their brands with those shows.
Itâs hard to imagine, but there was a genuine moral panic over Bart Simpson when the show first debuted. Youâd think nobody had ever heard a kid say âeat my shortsâ before.
nvm, kinjaâed
I think the difference between this and The Simpsons hitting it big was that Rick and Morty became popular and THEN got a wave of merch and ad tie-ins. With The Simpsons, both things happened at once: Fox licensed the show for merchandising before the first episode even aired. Part of what fed Bartmania was that there were tshirts and dolls of him all over the place within weeks of the showâs premiere.
Another big difference: The Simpsonsâ creators and writers had virtually no control over the merchandising, so itâs easier to separate that stuff from the show. Of course, on the show they parodied this with running gags like how Krusty is a huge sellout who puts his name on every product imaginable, or this sequence which feels like it sideswipes the Butterfinger campaign by mocking the general concept of âcartoon characters shilling candy.â
On the other hand, Rick and Mortyâs co-creator personally writes every ad the characters appear in, so it feels more like part of the show, so it makes sense to discuss it in that context.
Tiny nitpick. The Simpsons started three years before it became its own show. It was on the Tracy Ulman Show starting in 1987.
I feel like at one point the show was refusing to do any merchandise? I remember Matt Groening adamantly stating at one point that any merch being sold were bootlegs that they didnât have anything to do with.
To be honest, The Simpsons were all too eager to sell out at the peak of their fame, which, I guess I canât take too much issue. Not everyone can have the superhuman will to turn away all that money like Bill Watterson did. And his creation still ended up being merchandised anyway, after a fashion…
But there used to be a bit of self-mockery even in The Simpsons — the fake promo in one episode for âThe Simpsons go to Delawareâ implying that if that ever happened the show clearly had run out of ideas.
And there was still tons of bootleg Simpsons shit in 1990-1992
I really hope he doesn’t break decades of silence to announce on YouTube that he has concerns about stolen elections and vaccines. That would be awful.
Scott Adams already cornered the market there
Let alone Wattersonâs superhuman ability to retire at thirty-seven. Â THIRTY-SEVEN!
I actually watched the Tracey Ullman Show and I remember thinking that the funny little cartoons in between the sketches were the best parts. Eventually I figured out they were made by the same guy who did the Life in Hell comic strips. When I heard they were gonna make a whole TV show out of them, I was excited because I knew it would be good. I didnât quite anticipate it to turn into a massive cultural event within months.
rick and morty is good but comparing them to the simpsons SPECIFICALLY during their golden era throughout almost the entire 90’s is cute. my personal cutoff is season 12 before becoming unwatchable and what has become of it since is indeed a slow and oerversely cruel tragedy but it was UNFUCKWITHABLE till like 97.
They reeeeeally don’t show up as often as some people seem to think.
Thatâs a shame, and honestly pretty strange. If I understand the plot of this movie, it sounds like itâs the algorythmic villain of the film that has split up the Tune Squad and is responsible for soullessly mashing WBâs properties together – so even if the movie itself is a soulless commercial, youâd think thereâs plenty of room for Rick to make a crack about how terrible this is without breaking the movie. Maybe itâs just because Roiland writes all the ad spots but didnât write this, I suppose.Â
This show has a surprising aptitude for drawing you in just enough to be truly grating.Fans aside, quality slump aside, the mix of quality and hatefulness seems designed to find your fucking limit and nurture your irritation. If it was never any good or was as hollow as The Simpsons, youâd just feel apathetic. The whole âcynicism pretending to be self-aware cynicismâ is a lot worse. At least Space Jam is being honest about whoâs cashing the checks here.
Self aware is never an excuse to keep doing. Ok cool you acknowledge the problem, now stop.Â
At a certain point ironically selling out just looks like selling out with a little lip service. I mean, good for Roiland for making a character thatâs useful for corporate shilling, I guess.
Its an old adage. How ironic can you keep shilling until your just shilling? Its like ironically liking a band for years. Is there a different between being ironic and actually just liking it?
Until you get paid the first time. Thatâs it. It stops mattering immediately.
Itâs not; it doesnât matter, nothing matters.
No, there isnât. Anybody who ironically enjoys something, simply enjoys it. Also see facial hair. There is no such thing as ironic facial hair.
The irony of joking about Watterson of selling out when he famously didnât compared to Michelangelo being commissioned by every rich patriarch in Italy, going to war with the syndicate over that very matter. Especially when the fourth panel is directly lifted from a Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strip.
For a bit more context, this cartoon is not a response to Watterson directly, but to this:http://www.zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice/Nooneâs suggesting Watterson sold out, and the fourth panel is an explicit homage (as is the way the whole comic imitates his style, much like the other homage that it is skewering).
See that makes more sense (and is also quite the lovely strip).Â
FWIW the Shortpacked strip really overreacts to the Zen Pencils strip IMO. The Zen Pencils one isnât as hysterical as made out; no oneâs accusing anyone of being evil, itâs clearly just that the protagonist is unhappy in the corporate world and is taking a chance to fulfil what he wants to do.A bit simplistic, trite and unrealistic? Perhaps. Worthy of that amount of bile? Nah. Itâs just a âfollow your dreamsâ motivator.
I think Shortpacked plays up the reaction a little for comedic effect, but the Zen Pencils strip and (and accompanying blurb) drip with privilege; and is part of that larger culture of âhow dare you sell outâ.
Dripping with privilege? Oh, fuck you. That strip was simple and beautiful. If you can’t appreciate that you should give up. Fuck you again.
I mean sure, the Zen Pencils one shows its privilege, I wonât argue that, but the Shortpacked parody is still just a screed. It just gets the target a bit misaligned IMO.
I agree. It feels pretty strawman-y. Wattersonâs point was just âsometimes itâs better to do the things that make you happy even though American society will constantly pressure you to make the more profitable decision.â Which, you know, is true.
And while itâs fine to point out that not everyone has that choice, any cartoonist with a national profile is not choosing between extensive merchandising and the breadlines.
It seems like there has to be a middle position between âa true artist is never allowed to profit from their workâ and âitâs classist and elitist to suggest that commercialization could ever have a negative affect on art,â but itâs the internet, so…
But he did work for money just like the others.
Meh.
LMAO thank you so much for posting this.
Just because youâre fucking the goat ironically, doesnât mean youâre not a goat-fucker.
see also: all of the product placement on 30 RockIt isnât even a new gag, except there werenât explicit commercials with Jack and Liz and the gang, just commercials with Tina Fey basically being âLiz Lemon.â
Wayneâs World did it and I donât think they were the first either.
Now that I think about it, thereâs no way Mel Brooks never did it, right?
Merchandising!I donât remember if he ever used a specific product for a joke but I wouldnât be surprised if he did.
Spaceballs leaned very heavily onto the subject
Definitely, but I think everything in Spaceballs was fictional.
Spaceballs the towel.
Rick and Morty is technically a Warner Bros property, FYI.
Why. Why are you doing this to me AV Club? I didnât want to see the movie and see all the soulless cross-brand advertising but now you go and put it up front with a property I actually enjoy? Dammit, guys.
Itâs not like AV Club put Rick and Morty in this turd movie, but I do wish they hadnât told me though.
Dont do it, I went in to laugh at the inept marketing memes and it’s just not worth it, it’s bad, and not fun bad, just bad bad.
Donât sweat it, Rick and Morty are in the movie literally all of ten seconds. Rick speaks two sentences and then leaves.
I really love Casablanca but I feel no remorse about skipping this celluloid seizure.
Assume some cooperation was contingent on the 70 ep pickup and honestly it’s a nothing burger.Â
It doesnât help that the editing makes it feel like a Family Guy parody by people who have never watched Family Guy.That clip is unedited, BTW.Â
that looks like 3 different merry melodies smashed together
jfc, who is this film even for?
People who like going âI recognize that thing/reference/cameo!âSeriously, out of all the positive takes I saw of this movie on Twitter, the one recurring element was that âIt was fun picking out all the cameos and references!âSay what you will about Ready, Player One, but that film at least wove its corporate pandering into the plot. Â
Wow, Hollywood has finally made a movie so shitty that someone positively referenced Ready Player One.
Just because I love bringing it up, hereâs author of Ready Player One Ernest Clineâs incredible poem:Nerd Porn AuteurIâve noticed that there donât seem to be any porno moviesthat are made for guys like me.All the porn Iâve come acrosswas targeted at beer-swilling sports bar dwelling alpha-malesMen who like their women stupid and submissiveMen who can only get it up for monosyllabic cock-hungry nymphoswith gargantuan breasts and a three-word vocabularyAdult films are populated with these collagen-injectedliposuctioned womenMany of whom have resorted to surgery and self-mutilationin an attempt to look the way they have been told to look.These arenât real women. Theyâre objects.And these movies arenât erotic. Theyâre pathetic.These vacuum-headed fuck bunnies donât turn me on.They disgust me.And itâs not that Iâm against pornography.I mean, Iâm a guy. And guys need porn.Fact.âLike a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein,âGuys need porn.But I donât wanna watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.I want porno movies that are made with guys like me in mind:Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the worldis a woman who is smarter than you are.You can have the whole cheerleading squad,I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.Oh yes.First I want to copy her Trig homework,and then I want to make mad, passionate love to herfor hours and hoursuntil she reluctantly asks if we can stopbecause she doesnât want to miss Battlestar Galactica.Summa cum laude, baby!That is what I call erotic.But do you ever see that kind of a woman in a contemporary adult film?No.Which is why Iâm going to start writing and directing Geek Porno.I shall be the quintessential Nerd Porn Auteur.And the women in my porno movies will be the kindthat drive nerds like me mad with desire.Iâm talking about the girls that used to fuck up the grading curve.The girls in the Latin Club and the National Honor Society.Chicks with weird clothes, braces, four eyes, and 4.0 GPAs.Brainy articulate bookworms, with MENSA cards in their pursesand chips on their shoulders.My porn starlets will come in all shapes and sizes.My porn starlets will be too busy working on their PhD to go to the gym.In my kind of porno movies the girls wouldnât even have to get naked.Theyâd just take the guys down to the rec room andbeat them repeatedly at chessand then talk to them for hours about Heisenbergâs Uncertainty Principleor the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies.Buy stock in some hand cream companiesbecause there is about to be a major shortage.And Iâm not just talking about straight porn. Oh no.There should be fuck films for my nerd brethrenof all sexual orientations.Gay nerd porn flicks with titles like âDungeons and Drag-queens.âThis idea is a fucking gold mine.I am gonna make millions,because this country is full of database programmersand electronics engineersand they arenât getting the loving they so desperately need.And you can help . . .If youâre an intelligent woman is interested in breaking into the adult film industry,and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalkerâs home planet,then you are hired.It doesnât matter if you think youâre overweight or unattractive.It doesnât matter if you donât think youâre beautiful.You are beautiful. . .And I will make you a star.
what the fuck did i just read
I love when people bring up this fucking garbage fire of a “poem”.
I saw this before out of context and assumed it was satirical. Seems to be one of those things where just knowing who authored it really changes how it reads.
I donât like misogynistic porn says the guy who describes women as âvacuum-headed fuck bunniesâ, and âobjectsâ, before saying all cheerleaders are dumb.
Is this a poem?
Look, we got a Gundam vs Mechagodzilla fight out of it whilst Legendary continues to decide if chucking Pacific Rim into the Monsterverse is a good idea or not.Â
A comparsion to Ready Player One where its the positive example. Dear god…
Umm, it made sense in Ready Player One actually, so you canât call it pandering. This movie is literally pandering personified. Big difference.
People who liked Ready Player One.
Lebron James
kids today LOVE Casablanca references. 1940s films are all the rage
No one.
Feels like it will make a hell of a Rifftrax?
Well, that was terrible.
Oh fuck that looks TERRIBLE
âYou know how kids share 3-5 second clips on Tik Tok? Well, what if we made the ENTIRE movie out of 3-5 second clips?â-Warner Brothers CEO, probably.
HOW is this unedited?!
What the absolute shit.Â
Wooow…. I do not have any desire to see that.
Wow! That makes me want to kill myself! Thanks!
This is a real scene? From an actual film?What the fuck.
Oh they watched it. They just don’t know what they’re doing.
It feels to me you overanalyzed R&Mâs appearance. Who cares. They had some good lines. I do agree however that the show is losing some momentum. Not because of lack of character growth. Come one thatâs the point. They care about eachother, which shows now and then. But they dont change. Thatâs the point. Its the lack of multi episode-story so feels kinda lazy writing.Â
So much hand wringing over a commercial cartoon character being commercialized. Get over it. This show sold out a long time ago.
Seriously. You can buy basically anything Rick and Morty branded, itâs been this way for years. Itâll be a decade soon. https://www.spencersonline.com/thumbnail/pop-culture/television/rick-and-morty/pc/4655/c/323/3427.utsI mean shit they sell holographic gauges.
maybe the writers deserve some credit for crafting a character so well defined that even people who think theyâre in on the joke are still thrown for a loop because the cartoon character always acts like heâs too good to shill for fish sticks. the only difference between a box of pop tarts with spongebob on it and one with rick is that some people think thereâs a difference.
R&M is becoming the Garfield or Dilbert for people that think theyâre free thinking iconoclasts but just want merch to buy.
Every quote Justin Roiland makes has his sounding like a twelve year old who just discovered swearing. He’s not funny, he’s not cool, he is a shill. It’s a shame that a show that had such a good start instantly crashed and burned the moment Justin got a taste of fame. Let’s stop pretending it’s genius when celebrities act like idiots. They are just idiots who did a cool thing once or twice.
So wait, your argument is Rick should have told the kids watching Space Jam to go fuck themselves then laugh about getting paid for it? This collective groan about the âsoulessâ ip-mashup makes no sense. It is basically a 5 minute montage in the setup of the story. You see a big crowd of characters in the finale but nothing happening here is different from the references and movie parodies WB animation have been doing since the 40s. The 90s cartoons we canât stop talking about did it constantly.
Rick and Morty, Mad Max, Matrix, Clockwork Orange…Who is this movie for?
Righhhhhht….. That’s a really long way to say Justin Roiland will do anything for moneyÂ
Right….. That’s a pretty long way to say Justin Roiland will do anything for money…Â
Porky Pig said it best, cuz!
I do genuinely believe that the bulk of people who got the show popular donât care about the knit-pickings of their marketing ventures, ESPECIALLY when the mainstream mindless bilge of Big Bang Theory and Marvel do everything they can to rake money in hand over fist.As someone whoâs been studying the workings of the industry, and these individuals in particular, I really think youâre missing several pretty obvious facts just to drive your point (which is your job, I know). One being that this is the most creatively experimental and successful show on television ever (being signed for 13 seasons after its second) and like Ryan Reynolds with Deadpool, they know that the money is in the ads. Thatâs why Ryan literally is making ads for people now đ and if these creatives who are backing several independent creative projects of their own are getting the big advertiser money instead of Warner Bros or some market agency then thank the fucking gods. This article is so willfully ignorant of the structure and those normally in Roilandâs place, itâd be laughable if it wasnât disgusting. Quit demonizing creatives getting a buck, just like how Scar Jo plays in Ghost in the Shell, then turns around to do Marriage Story, so they can back their ventures, especially when itâs far more tasteful than the disconnected shills pitching you timberlands with the tag line âYouâre never gonna be able to retire, why should your boots?âDo some actual fucking reporting and investigation of the industry instead of this reference-heavy drag piece. This is embarrassing.I made an account JUST to tell you this.Seriously, look up what they’re doing in their free time, what projects are they backing with this ad money, they’re not buying yachts, they’re paying animators a profitable wage and helping other creatives get projects off the ground. You could be talking about Wendy Williams getting jealous about a teenager on insta and you would legitimately be doing more for the creative community as a whole.
Rick and Morty is a tv show, it sold out in the act of being madeNow please shut the fuck upÂ
I will put this as simple as I can RICK IS PART OF THE WARNERVERSE. The show is owned by TimeWarner due to it being on adult swim. It makes full sense to show him.
People are so upset about the new Space Jam. I would care but itâs a movie for children and the original Space Jam sucked but I was too young to know better. This doesnât seem any more gross than Ralph Breaks the Internet. Â
Is it a kidâs movie? I watched it with my kids and the whole getting the toons back segment went right over their heads. Itâs probably bad parenting, but they donât know Casablanca. They shouldnât know Game of Thrones, Mad Max Fury Road (the most shocking scene is Wile E Coyote huffing spray paint as on of the War Boys), or Rick and Morty.Â
I can think of a list of about 15,308 things off the top of my head that concern or anger me more about the state of humanity and civilization than the fact that Rick and Morty are in another commercial-tie-in cameo.(15,309th on the list is a possible epidemic of Hep A transmitted by 3D glasses in theaters, for those who are curious)
Considering how the 3D fad has once again dried up, your ranking may be a bit high.
xzxZ
https://www.diaphragmvalve.net
On another note, I liked Space Jam a lot
This movie is pure hot garbage.Â
Bold of you to assume it was Rick C-137 đ¤ˇââď¸
Now Iâm an 80s kid, born and raised in Chicago, grew up on/with Looney Tunes, Michael Jordan, the one and only Space Jam, and morals. Lol. Anyway in caption underneath Rick and Morty pic it reads âbadger thingâ. How can you be fortunate enough to wwrite material that millions will read and youâre gonna get that wrong and not call him the Tasmanian Devil like he is, you should have respect for that character even though he is a cartoon because those cartoons help mold millions of us and were always therefor our eentertainment.
Thatâs what Rick calls Taz in the movie.
Iâm just incredibly sad that the Iron Giant has apparently been reduced to mere fodder for the âHey, Remember This?â mill.
Are we really discussing the artistic purity of a Warner Media, LLC property?
God what a pile of unabashed crap this abomination is. Just, ugh. Probably one of the most soulless, pathetic movies ever made.
Iâll watch it anyway. I thought the first Space Jam sucked so Iâm up for watching the new Space Jam. The only thing good about the first one was the soundtrack and maybe Bill Murray. Rick and Morty cameo? Okay. Too many folks overthinking this shit.Â
You do know that so call âweied badger” has a name, it’s Taz
And Rick calls Taz a badger thing in the movie.Â
Um not being sold or selling out. Warner bros owns hbo and adult swim. Meaning they pay the creators of Rick and Morty and they own Rick and Morty so they can put them wherever they want. And laserface1242, Rick and Morty is the best adult cartoon to exist. Every single episode is good. My entire family extended and nuclear, love the show and laugh throughout the show. There are way more good jokes than here and there.Â
Actually caring about this would be embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as writing an article about it. Did you giggle to yourself when you came up with captioning the Tazmanian devil as a âbadger thingâ or are you actually retarded and donât know itâs a real animal? And to the people in these comments, literally no one cares what you think of the show or any other show. Your opinion is worthless and doesn’t change anyone’s mind.Â
The writer didnât make that up. Rick calls Taz a badger thing in the movie. If people didnât care then they wouldnât be reading and commenting on the article.