Rick and Morty

• Main
• Characters
• Laconic
• Recap
  • S01
    • E01 Pilot
    • E02 Lawnmower Dog
    • E03 Anatomy Park
    • E05 Meeseeks and Destroy
    • E08 Rixty Minutes
  • S02
    • E05 Get Schwifty
  • S03
    • E08 Morty's Mind Blowers
• Trivia
• YMMV
• Fridge
• Quotes
• Crowners
  • Awesome
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Rick and Morty is an [adult swim] original that premiered in December 2013. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the series is based off of "The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti", a short on Channel 101 parodying Back to the Future.

Rick Sanchez, an alcoholic Mad Scientist, constantly pulls his grandson Morty into crazy sci-fi trips and wild scientific experiments. Morty's parents keep the old man around half-begrudgingly, as long as Morty stays in school. Besides, they have their own problems to solve.

Tropes used in Rick and Morty include:

• Alcoholic Dad: subverted with Rick (he is Morty's Granddad).
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Mr Poopy Butt-hole talks to the audience.
• Body Horror: in "Rick Potion No.9".
• Call Back: In Season 2 Episode 2 ("Mortynight Run"), a few scenes later after playing "Roy", Morty crashes the craft into K. Michael. In a call back to a customer asking 'Roy' about a particular type of carpet, Morty emerges from the craft, confusedly saying "We are out of off-white Persian."
• The Cameo / Couch Gag: In the Couch Gag for The Simpsons episode "Mathlete's Feat", Rick and Morty crash into the family's living room, killing them in the process, and Morty is tasked to revive the Simpsons in a cloning facility from another universe, while Rick fools around in the house.
  • Many critics have said the Couch Gag was more memorable than the actual episode.
• Catchphrase:
  • Rick: "Wubba_Lubba_dub-dub!" (Translates as "I am in great pain, please help me.")
  • Beth: "Get a job, Jerry"
• Cliffhanger: Season 2 finale.
• Cosmic Horror: frequent encounters with, due to inter-dimensional travel.
• Crapsack World: as of "Rick Potion No.9", Morty's family no longer inhabit their original dimension, after the cure to the love potion turned everyone on Earth (presumably) into hideous mutants or "Cronenbergs". Everyone, that is, except Morty's the 3 generations of Morty's immediate family, a fact which is handwaved as they all survive intact.
  • "Rest and Ricklaxation" when the world is turned into a toxic version of itself.

[World is toxified] Vicar: God is a lie, we made him up for money! [World returns to normal; vicar ceases licking the nipple of a male parishioner] Vicar: God is not a lie...

• • Shout Out to David Cronenberg and his Body Horror.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Season 3, episode 1.
• Downer Ending: Season 2 finale.
• Elseworld: Rick, with his portal gun or his flying car, has the ability to travel through infinite dimensions and universes, making this trope a natural occurrence in the show.
• Establishing an Unreachable Baseline: In "Morty's Mind Blowers", irked by Morty's insistance on using a level (a crude instrument by intergalactic standards), Rick builds a machine that creates a surface with "true level". After stepping on it, Morty (sarcastic at first) experiences orgasmic pleasure from standing. And then Summer takes him back to a normal floor...

Morty: Everything is crooked! Reality is poison! I wanna go back! I hate this!

• This prompts Rick to remove that memory from Morty's mind.

• Fridge Horror: multiple. See YMMV.
  • What happened in "Froopy Land" in "The ABCs of Beth". The horror.
  • Jessica and Morty's off-screen extended family (as well as the entire human population of the Earth) are rendered into hideous mutants.
  • What is buried in the Sanchez's garden.
  • Selective breeding of dogs from a dog's (Snuffles) perspective.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most episodes are named with Rick puns ("Total Rickall" and "The Rickshank Rickdemption", for example).
  • Some of them are also a Shout-Out to movie titles.
  • They are often lame/ (YMMV.
• Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: Jerry.
• Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: this trope is subverted in Season 2 Episode 1 ("A Rickle In Time"):

Rick: Man, that guy is the "Redgrin Grumble" to pretending he knows what's going on. [Summer and Morty laugh] Rick: You like that "Redgrin Grumble" reference? Well guess what? I made him up. You really are your father's children. Think for yourselves. Don't be sheep.

• Mad Scientist: basically Rick
  • Mad Scientist Laboratory: in the Sanchez's garage
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: subverted with Beth.
• Moral Event Horizon: what Tommy got up to in Froopy Land.
• Rickursive Reality: in "The Rick's Must Be Crazy", Rick's car battery is composed of a "microverse". In order to fix it, he has to enter it, whereupon he discovers that one of his creations ("Zeep Xanflorp" voiced by Stephen Colbert) has designed a similar device called a "miniverse", which he and Rick enter only to discover yet another iteration.
• Mind Screw: just about every episode - especially "Morty's Mind Blowers". (Events so extreme that they had to be erased from Morty's memory, a selection of which are recalled in this episode).
• Parody: see
  • "Interdimensional Cable" - random cable programmes, such as "Ball Fondlers" (A-Team spoof?)
  • "Get Schwifty" - TV talent shows, the X Factor, The Voice etc
  • "Look Who's Purging Now" - The Purge (Look Who's Talking Now).
  • "Rickmancing the Stone" - Mad Max (Romancing the Stone).
• Post Modernism: references both reality and other fictions, and is aware that is is fiction. Frequently Breaks the Fourth Wall.
• Refuge in Audacity: every episode pretty much.
• Scavenger World: An universe inspired by Mad Max is featured in "Rickmancing the Stone".
• Shout Out: frequent ie. David Cronenberg, Freddy Kruger, David Bowie, Ice T
• Talking Animal:

Snuffles: Where are my testicles, Summer?

• Time Travel: Averted. Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon have both stated that they won't be using time travel in the series.
  • And contradict themselves in "A Rickle In Time" when a time-travelling testicle monster turns up...