Or does it just mean I’m not an asshole?
“I know I haven’t really watched a complete episode totally uninterrupted, but I think I’m still on the fence about this show,” I said, casually sidling up to Mike on the couch as the Rick and Morty opening credits rolled.
“Maybe that’s because your IQ isn’t high enough?” Mike replied.
I could tell he wasn’t being serious, but I was absolutely not in the mood for being insulted, even if sarcastically.
“Fuck you!” I shouted, “Sorry I’m not smart enough for this fucking bullshit show!”
He stared at me for a moment, taken aback by my anger.
“… You know… that was a joke?” he offered.
“Yeah, I KNOW!” I rolled my eyes. I stomped away, promptly ending the couch snuggling that had barely begun. I was not amused.
I was in a terribly on-edge, irritable, anxious, running-on-no-sleep mood, and that had a lot to do with my response. Typically, I’d let a comment like that roll right off me. But, in addition to my already foul mood, his comment was especially rage-inducing because it was one I’d heard thrown around all over the place:
If you don’t “get” Rick and Morty, it’s because you’re not smart enough to understand the jokes.
The thing is, though, that argument is stupid as shit.
I “get” Rick and Morty. I get the science, I get the philosophy, I get the jokes, I get what it is about the words or scenes that are meant to be funny. I get the things that smart people assume go over the stupid person’s head.
On paper, the humor is well-constructed. The intellect in me approves of the show in the way I approve when I have exact change, when I notice Oxford commas being employed, when hard-boiled eggs are perfectly cooked, or when I complete a New York Times Crossword puzzle without using the “Reveal Word” tool (which, in fact, I can do at least Monday through Wednesday). The humor in Rick and Morty is tidy. It’s logical. It’s nihilistic and insulting and crude and, yet, it occasionally makes smart social commentary. Stuff that’s all pleasing to the brain.
However, in my opinion, it’s just not really an enjoyable show to watch. It’s not engaging, it doesn’t keep my attention, it’s littered with gags that are definitely not intended for an exclusively Mensa-level audience. The animation isn’t interesting (it’s like a lesser Family Guy), the voices are annoying (no offense to Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke, but maybe they’re just not my thing?), oh and the fans are largely assholes.
Now, not ALL the fans are assholes. I’m wise enough to not make sweeping generalities like that.
If you like Rick and Morty and you don’t act like you’re better than the rest of the world because of it, you’re cool. I like you. We can hang out.
But if you do like Rick and Morty and you question my intelligence simply because I don’t enjoy Rick and Morty, you are an asshole. You can take your Szechuan sauce and shove it.
“Maybe she’s just a boring, unfunny person,” you might be thinking.
I’d argue, “FALSE.”
Well, boring maybe, but not unfunny, dammit. To demonstrate, here’s a list of things I deem funnier than Rick and Morty:
- “The Dinner Party” episode of Seinfeld (all of Seinfeld, really, but this episode is an exemplar)
- The early seasons, let’s say 1–9ish, of The Simpsons
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Freaks and Geeks
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Louis C.K.
- Ellie Guzman
- xkcd
- waitbutwhy
- McSweeney’s sometimes but not all the time
- “I gotta have more cowbell, baby!”
- 2 Dope Queens
- Vitameatavegemin
- All of these memes that make fun of Rick and Morty fans
My first introduction to Rick and Morty was all backwards, literally. We began by searching YouTube and found the Pickle Rick episode, served up in parts. We apparently started with the middle part and not the beginning part, and thus Rick was already a pickle with no explanation as to why. “Is this character always a pickle?” I wondered. Turns out: no (which I discovered when we proceeded to watch part 1 of the episode following part 2). Ah, so they do science stuff and in this episode the science turned Rick into a pickle. Got it. I was willing to watch more.
And so I vaguely paid attention to another couple of episodes while lying in bed at night, and I dozed off no more than halfway through every one.
So when I said, “I know I haven’t really watched a complete episode totally uninterrupted…” I wasn’t exaggerating. I simply wasn’t sure if I liked the show yet because I hadn’t seen enough of it. And what I had seen was sleep-inducing.
After being called stupid for not being certain of my immediate love for Rick and Morty, I made a mental note to sit down and watch a couple of episodes to completion. And I did. I watched exactly two episodes and I’m now certain I’m not a fan of Rick and Morty.
During the second episode, I actually whipped out my phone to play Words with Friends instead because the show alone was not entertaining enough. Again, I’m sorry for being so stupid that the humor was lost me. It’s probably because I’m a girl.
In reality though, I think there’s some genre of humor that Rick and Morty falls into that is simply not my kind of humor. See, I’ve been in this camp before.
In college, all of my friends were obsessed with another cartoon: Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I sat through many an episode in many a dorm room fake-laughing along with all of their real laughs as I tried to figure out why they thought the meatball was so hilarious.
I never really figured it out. And to this day, I still only kind of get it. I mean, I get it in theory, the same way I get Rick and Morty conceptually, but I just don’t really like it.
ATHF is a dumb show. Sure, it’s maybe sort of funny, but ultimately it is dumb. Ditto to Rick and Morty.
And it’s not that I don’t enjoy dumb humor (see my list above). I can even get behind South Park and Judd Apatow movies and the first Zoolander, which is the epitome of dumb.
I guess it’s just this ATHF-Rick-and-Morty flavor of humor that is not my cup of tea. (What is this flavor/genre called, btw? I feel like it must have a name.)
Or maybe I don’t like things that are popular simply because they’re not supposed to be popular but they really are?
…Kind of like stuff hipsters are into?
Is it possible Rick and Morty is the hipster plaid of the cartoon world?
(I hope I just blew your mind.)
I don’t know. Whatever it is, I don’t like Rick and Morty and maybe that makes me stupid, but that’s better than being an asshole (or a hipster).