They say any kind of publicity is good publicity, but we don’t know if that’s true.
Rick and Morty Season 6 on Adult Swim has everything any fan could ask for: clever jokes, the advancement of character arcs, parodies of classic sci-fi concepts, and callbacks to fan-favorite anecdotes. But for all the good it’s doing within the fan base, there’s hardly anyone talking about it in public.
Showrunner Scott Marder initially revealed plans to release a new season of Rick and Morty every year ahead of the Season 6 premiere. This could make anyone worried that production may turn into a cash factory, churning out a product rather than quality entertainment. But co-creator Dan Harmon also teased, “Season [6] is f—cking amazing. It really is a f—cking quality season,” at SDCC 2022 earlier this year. Much to our surprise, critics agree with him, and so do we.
Now that the show’s reached its mid-season hiatus, we’ve enjoyed episodes like “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” “Juricksic Mort,” and especially “Bethic Twinstinct.” Although the show can be quite clever and humorous, we find the human story of the Sanchez family to be the most compelling aspect of the show. And between the witticisms and gags, this season has story progression in spades.
So why haven’t we heard anything about “the most popular animated series in America” this year?
In this day of social media, the height of the show’s popularity is well documented. As is the behavior of everyone who claimed “to be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand” the show. And when looked back on, even the most seasoned fan may find the whole Rick and Morty experience to be soured thanks to the growing perception of the fandom.
The reason we haven’t heard anything is that it’s embarrassing to be a fan of Rick and Morty at this point.
When Rick and Morty first arrived on the scene in 2013, it existed solely outside of the mainstream. Only through word of mouth and online chatter did its diehard fanbase truly began to form. But sometime during the gap between Season 2 and Season 3, people caught up on the show in time for the latter’s premiere, and following that season premiere, the show broke mainstream. Before you knew it, people were assaulting Mcdonald’s employees for Mulan Szechuan sauce, targeting newly hired writers online because they’re women, and official (as well as unofficial) Rick and Morty merchandise was out of control.
Fast forward to today, and nearly everyone who wrote on Rick and Morty (Michael Waldron, Jeff Loveness, and Jessica Gao) now works for Marvel Studios (The Russo Brothers notwithstanding). The multiverse concept, of which Rick and Morty proved tried and true, is officially old hat now, and every character of every medium is currently saying something cruel and/or clever. So not only is it embarrassing to be a fan due to preconceived notions and a bad reputation, but the stuff that made it special isn’t even special anymore. What’s the point of defending something like that, even if you happen to like it?
Adult Swim/Warner Media
Or maybe the show’s officially settled into its second-wave audience. It may not feel like it, but next year will be the 10-year anniversary of Rick and Morty. So it’s possible the show’s reverted back to the good old days, back when the series was young, and only “high IQ” Redditors revealed in talking about it.
No matter how you cut it, though, neither Rick nor Morty is going anywhere any time soon. They’re the adult cartoon of its generation, much like Family Guy and The Simpsons before it. They’re currently in the middle of one of their many fast food collabs, are staple skins in Fortnite, and Morty is in a pretty decent tier list in competitive Multiverse. The two characters are household names (they showed up in Space Jam 2!), and I’m afraid “wubba lubba dub dub” is the new “ay caramba.”
Let’s just hope the quality of the series stays of the same quality as well. Or at least, has a bit more shelf life than its aforementioned predecessors did now that it is over the hump of its popularity.
Rick and Morty, Season 6 Mid-Season Premiere, Sunday, November 20, Adult Swim
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