The cob planet featured in season 2 of Rick and Morty is certainly bizarre, but why is the husk-filled world so terrifying to Rick? Originally created as an animated parody of Back to the Future by Justin Roiland, Rick and Morty has since garnered much acclaim from critics for its originality, creativity, and uniquely zany brand of humor. The bulk of this comedy primarily stems from the genius and subsequent adventures of scientist Rick Sanchez (voiced by Justin Roiland), whose Machiavellian ego often lands him and his grandson Morty (also Roiland) in bizarre, intergalactic scenarios.
Rick and Morty season 2, episode 10, "The Wedding Squanchers," is no exception to this trend. "The Wedding Squanchers" sees Rick and the Smith family evaluate an Earth-like planet for potential habitation, only to discover that everything on the planet is "on a cob." This discovery immediately causes Rick to panic, who then hurries the Smiths back onto his ship for a swift departure.
Why the cob planet is so terrifying to Morty's grandfather Rick is equal parts an absurdist joke and a molecular analysis of how a purely "cobbed" world would function. At a 2016 San Diego Comic-Con panel, Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Roiland expand on Rick's reaction to the cob planet by giving examples of impractical "cobbed" entities, essentially making every day tasks a physical and logistical nightmare on the planet. The pair's response again plays into the original spirit of the cob planet joke, which in essence is funny purely because of its absurdity as opposed to containing a hidden, deeper meaning.
Harmon and Roiland's cob planet examples during the aforementioned Comic-Con TV panels are as hilarious as they are bizarre, including a cobbed Jack the Ripper, a cobbed justice system, and a cobbed arcade machine that spits kernels. Their comments seem to suggest, therefore, that the cob planet freaks out Rick on a molecular level after he sees the ant under the microscope, with everything on the planet eventually and inevitably becoming part of a series of identical cobs. Assumedly, over time, this would have also happened to Rick and the Smiths, causing the family to become cobs of themselves.
Yet while it is tempting to go down the rabbit hole of ever-replicating cob examples, the real explanation for why Rick is terrified of the cob planet is far simpler. Rick's reaction to the planet is Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's sense of humor encapsulated - making the absurd funny without explanation or provocation. In essence, a man as brilliant as Rick Sanchez being terrified of such a silly absolute that "everything is on a cob" is a self-contained joke even before applying the science of the cob planet to other creatures, places, and characters. While various threads on social media have repeatedly dissected the ramifications of a cob-based world since "The Wedding Squanchers" first aired in 2016, Rick's reaction to the cob planet in Rick and Morty season 2 is simply absurdist humor at its most basic - and funniest - level.