Let's get serious for a moment! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Times “Rick and Morty” addressed real-world problems.
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00:00 "Oh dear God, no. They're codependent! RUN!"
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 times
00:08 Rick and Morty addressed real-world problems.
00:11 "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think I might need therapy."
00:15 Number 10. Discrimination
00:19 Discrimination is sadly still a massive problem in the world.
00:23 Whether it's racial, sexual, or regarding mental illness,
00:27 many are still being treated unfairly for the most ridiculously insensitive reasons.
00:31 "Makes me a little sad to hear a Morty cop calling Morty's animals."
00:34 "Well, it makes me sad to hear another Rick cop buying into his sensitivity training."
00:38 The Ricklantis mix-up addresses this in a deep yet simplistic approach.
00:42 Despite the Citadel's efforts in restructuring their government,
00:45 you see many instances of Ricks and Mortys seeing each other as rivals
00:49 rather than trying to live together.
00:51 "Mortys are raised to be sidekicks. Without a side to kick, they just start kicking."
00:56 We even see how one law enforcement officer treats his fellow Mortys
00:59 with unnecessary force.
01:01 This may be a comedy show playing Rick and Morty's voices up for laughs,
01:05 but this episode hits somewhat close to home.
01:08 "What happened?"
01:09 "Same old story. Mortys killing Mortys."
01:12 Number 9. Teen parenting and abortion
01:15 Raising Gazorpazorp touches on various themes regarding the treatment of women
01:19 across society. However, the focal point of the episode is on teen parenting
01:23 and the chaos it can bring between families.
01:25 "Knock it off, both of you! G-gimme him! Gimme my baby!
01:28 You're both nuts! I'm gonna raise Morty Jr. myself!"
01:31 Morty lets his hormones get the best of him,
01:34 and he quickly finds himself needing to raise a violent alien known as a Gazorpazorp.
01:38 "I gotta tell you something very important, okay? Killing is bad. Bad!"
01:43 "Heh heh. You're a silly daddy."
01:45 "No, Morty Jr., I'm being serious, okay? You need to put your energy into something else.
01:49 I mean, what about dancing? Would you like to learn how to dance?"
01:52 "I would like to dance. I'm the greatest of my enemies."
01:55 In addition to facing skepticism from his own parents,
01:58 Morty grapples with the sudden realization that he might be ill-equipped to responsibly raise a child.
02:04 It's a tale as old as time, and unfortunately,
02:07 many teens still find themselves in similar situations as Morty.
02:11 "I wanna conquer the planet!"
02:12 "Oh, here we go again! Y-you know, who do you think is gonna love you
02:15 if you conquer the planet, Morty Jr.?"
02:17 "Love? That's all you care about! What about weapons? What about domination of the enemy?"
02:22 Number 8. Environmentalism
02:24 Striving to be environmentally friendly and take care of the planet can be a tremendous thing.
02:29 However, a Rick-convenient Mort shows the darker side behind this political topic.
02:34 "They combined the powers of their elemental rings to create me,
02:37 Planitina, conservationist super-person! There's only one solution for Earth's pollution, you!"
02:44 "Pretty cool, huh? I can't believe I actually hung out with Planitina."
02:47 Morty begins dating a superhero, Planitina, a parody of Captain Planet.
02:52 Things take a turn for the worse when she begins committing crimes in the name of Mother Nature.
02:56 "We'll get 'em next time."
02:57 "There's no time left! Can't you hear the Earth screaming? You filthy murderer!"
03:02 "Planitina, stop it!"
03:04 "There's only one solution for Earth's pollution!"
03:07 [Screaming]
03:09 "Oh my God, no!"
03:11 Although on the one hand, it's great that Planitina cares about the well-being of the planet,
03:15 on the other, the lengths she's willing to go to are much too much for us as well as for Morty.
03:20 "This is the only way I can save Earth. The only way I can save you."
03:26 "If that's the only way, I don't want to be saved. Please go!"
03:30 This episode is a dark reminder that even good causes can be corrupted by bad actors.
03:35 Beth and Jerry's broken marriage is addressed within the first few minutes of this episode,
03:42 and it might put your own relationships into question.
03:45 "Will you fix your marriage or get a divorce already?"
03:50 "Well, we tried a couples therapist."
03:53 "That's Earth therapy. You might as well ask a horse to fix a merry-go-round."
03:56 Rick sends the two to an intergalactic couples counseling facility,
04:00 and upon their arrival, Beth and Jerry learn about how they perceive each other.
04:04 While Jerry sees his wife as a bloodthirsty, xenomorph-like queen,
04:08 she sees him as a pathetic, miserable slug.
04:11 "What the hell is that? Take that back! You do not think that about me!"
04:15 "I didn't do anything! They scanned it out of my brain! Can I take it back?"
04:18 "There's nothing to regret."
04:20 "We're dealing with unconscious, unhealthy thoughts."
04:22 "Beth, now we scan for Beth's perceptions of Jerry."
04:27 From there, much of Big Trouble and Little Sanchez comments on how marriage should be more
04:31 of a symbiotic relationship built on communication, rather than accusations and assumptions built off
04:37 conflict. You can even see how it's taken a toll on Morty and Summer in Rickmancing the Stone.
04:42 "I think the divorce is affecting her, and, you know, I don't think this is a great place for
04:45 her to be right now." "Oh, get off your high horse, Professor Ski Lodge!"
04:49 Number 6. Depression
04:51 Throughout The Old Man and the Seat, we see Rick harass an alien named Tony for using his
04:56 own private toilet. "You know what shy pooping is, Rick? It's a pointless bid for control. You
05:01 want to take the one part of life that you truly think is yours, and you want to protect it from a
05:05 universe that takes whatever it wants. It took my wife. It clearly took something from you."
05:10 We quickly learn that he only does it for the sake of not feeling alone,
05:14 before we get a rather alarming glimpse at how Rick truly feels about himself.
05:18 The mocking holograms may be addressing Tony by name,
05:21 but much of what they're saying is obviously how Rick feels about himself.
05:25 "There's our guy. Congrats, Tony. Have fun with your stupid toilet that you get to use all by
05:30 yourself now." This kind of attitude towards oneself is often how those with depression
05:35 feel about themselves. It can be cruel, heartless, and significantly damaging when ignored for too
05:40 long. "All hail his majesty, the saddest piece of garbage in the entire cosmos." Honestly,
05:48 not a subject we would expect to come up after a 21-minute story about two people fighting over
05:52 a toilet. Number 5. Political corruption. Though it's often a theme across a multitude of media,
05:59 the commentary on political corruption is present in a few episodes. "I am selling New York to
06:06 France and giving all of the money to Congress." "Now that's how you do it?" "He became president
06:14 today." From the president's petty feud with Rick to the rise of evil Morty, there have been several
06:20 instances where folks at the top abuse their power to fulfill their own agendas, regardless of how
06:25 many lives it may cost. "A speech about politics, about order, brotherhood, power. But speeches are
06:35 for campaigning. Now is the time for action." Rick and Morty's thanksploitation spectacular
06:42 touches upon this in a post-credits scene where a married couple struggles to buy groceries.
06:46 Heck, we'd even lump Mr. Needful from Something Ricked This Way comes in here, as he uses Summer
06:52 to build Needful Things into an apple-like conglomerate before kicking her to the curb.
06:57 "How much did we make?" "We?" "This is my business. Security!" "You're Zuckerberging me?"
07:05 Number 4. Mental Health and Therapy The need for therapy can be hard for some to accept,
07:11 and the Smith family is no different. While Summer, Morty, and Beth reluctantly go on
07:15 account of recent incidents, Rick goes to an obscene length to get out of going.
07:20 "We have an appointment downtown that was set a week ago and agreed upon by everyone,
07:25 including you." "Oh my god, Beth. Oh, it totally slipped my mind. Geez, oh man, I'm a pickle. I
07:31 mean, I don't know if I can... oh, geez." "Rick, did you do this on purpose?" Let us ignore the
07:36 memes surrounding this episode for a quick second to acknowledge the rather serious topic of therapy,
07:40 or at least seeking therapy. "You are the master of your universe, and yet you are dripping with
07:46 rat blood and feces, your enormous mind literally vegetating by your own hand. I have no doubt that
07:52 you would be bored senseless by therapy." The way Beth and Rick swiftly dismiss and deflect it comes
07:57 from an unhealthy point of view of "I just don't need it," which is quite common in the real world.
08:02 Instead of being open to it, they make excuses, shift blame, and attempt to redirect the
08:08 conversation until they're left facing the cold, hard truth. "She huffed enamel, and we never even
08:13 talked about it." "Well, there was so much more at stake. I mean, that shrink, what a monologuist."
08:18 "Are we gonna go back?" Number three, alcohol use disorder. Alcohol has a pretty heavy
08:27 presence in Rick and Morty, and while it's mostly used for jokes, much of the cast use them as a
08:32 severely unhealthy way to cope with their problems. Beth downs several glasses of wine in rixty
08:38 minutes as she talks with Jerry about their potential mistake in marrying each other.
08:41 "I think in my head I was doing it all for the kids, and now the first kid is going to
08:47 do something with turquoise." "Which is either code for crystal meth or a gateway to it."
08:52 "So we didn't do the kids any favors." Rick, on the other hand, is often seen throwing his flask
08:57 back to tolerate Morty's dumb questions or his own depression, as seen in the pilot and
09:02 auto-erotic assimilation. "My grandkids weren't in that town, right? Are my grandkids alive?
09:07 My drink is empty." It isn't until the first episode of season seven when Rick finally started
09:13 taking care of his problems. All it took to get the ball rolling was an intervention from Mr.
09:18 Poopybutthole in finally getting Rick Prime. Number two, relationship toxicity and guilt.
09:24 We could've shoved Beth and Jerry into this category, but we really want to focus on Rick
09:28 and Unity here. Auto-erotic assimilation is an interesting episode in how it addresses
09:33 unhealthy relationships. "They just put you at the center of their lives because you're powerful,
09:37 and then because they put you there, they want you to be less powerful. Never gonna happen,
09:41 though, right?" Sure, the human and collective hive mind really enjoy each other's company,
09:46 if you catch our drift. However, it's a relationship purely built off of substance
09:50 use and unbridled lust. It isn't love. Unity realizes Rick's destructive influence and has
09:56 to move on from him. "But I know how it goes with us. I lose who I am and become part of you,
10:01 because in a strange way, you're better at what I do without even trying.
10:05 Yours and nobody else's. Unity." It brings Rick to arguably his lowest point in the show.
10:15 Later, in Air Force Wong, Rick and Unity are able to come to an understanding.
10:20 "You can hang out if you want. Come see the kids. I trust you now."
10:26 "That's nice, but I don't trust you." "Fair enough."
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10:47 Number 1. Existential crises and confronting mortality.
10:51 This is perhaps the darkest and most brutally honest moment Rick and Morty has seen in the
10:55 entire show's runtime. Just before Summer can run away, Morty stops her and reveals that he
11:01 is not her brother, but a Morty from another dimension where the world got Cronenberged.
11:06 "We bailed on that reality and we came to this one because in this one, the world wasn't destroyed.
11:10 And in this one, we were dead. So we came here and we buried ourselves and we took their place."
11:16 He delivers an honest truth that many struggle to accept today.
11:20 Nihilistic? Yes, to some degree. Rikki'sty Minutes in general features themes around
11:25 questioning our own life choices, as Beth and Jerry talk about their alternate lives
11:29 and choices they could have made. "I get it. Now that you know you could
11:32 have had it better, you resent me for holding you back." "Well, now that we know you think
11:37 the tables are turning, we know you thought there were unturned tables." "What are you talking about?"
11:42 In the end, the episode does remind us that we make the choices we make. Nothing can change that,
11:47 and we have to accept that truth no matter how much it hurts.
11:51 "Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV."
11:57 What aspect of Rick and Morty's commentary surprised you the most? Did it make our list?
12:02 Let us know down in the comments. "I was in therapy. Don't stigmatize mental health."
12:06 "How rude of me."
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12:15 [Music]