With the hit animated show, Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon have demonstrated that cartoons can be both goofy and mind-bendingly profound. As you'd imagine with a zany sci-fi animation dealing with parallel dimensions, anthropomorphic pickles, and gerbil-butt people, this Adult Swim show has no shortage of amusing facts and trivia behind it. Given its unique, often boundary-pushing nature, there's bound to be a slew of interesting details that come with it.
With this list, we'll comb the multiverse and beyond, as we examine some of the most obscure and interesting tidbits surrounding Rick and Morty. So without further ado, here are 10 facts and trivia to tide you over while waiting for new episodes of season 4 to finally hit the airwaves.
It's Peculiar Satirical Origins
Most recognize the obvious Back to the Future parody of Rick and Morty's leads. Though this wacky cartoon originated from an even goofier, more blatant parody called The Real Animated Adventures Of Doc and Mharti. This came on the heels of the conclusion of the short-lived Bill Cosby spoof, House of Cosbys, in which a cease and desist letter from Cosby's attorney forced the show's creator Justin Roiland to try something else.
The result? A crudely animated Back to the Future spoof in which Doc Smith urges Mharti to give him oral sex in order to solve his problems. Who would have thought that such a juvenile original concept would morph into the nuanced cartoon Rick and Morty became?
A Trio Of Animation Tools
It's amazing what just a few design and animation tools can pull off. The Lavish, imaginative Rick and Morty is in fact, tag-teamed by a trio of software. This includes Toon Boom Harmony, which, as you'd imagine, handles the animation. The background art, meanwhile, is filled in via Adobe Photoshop, while post-production and touch-ups are handled in Adobe After Effects.
So basically, anyone that has these 3 kits at their disposal can replicate the show or create an equally dynamic animation.
Rick And Morty's Other Inspirations
Outside of the Back to the Future nod, Harmon has stated that much of the inspiration behind the themes and comedic tone of Rick and Morty stems from "British-style storytelling." This is in contrast to the more traditional American family TV stories.
Specifically, Harmon has described the cartoon as a mix between The Simpsons and Futurama - with its focus on family life as well as science. Meanwhile, Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy serve as the main comedic and thematic influences. It certainly makes sense, given their wacky brand of humor and sci-fi themes that border on the surreal.
Time Travel Is (Mostly) Off-Limits
You may have noticed that in Rick and Morty, just about every mind-bending philosophical and sci-fi concept has been explored, at least to a degree, except for time travel.
Well, there's a reason for this - as Roiland and Harmon have noted in interviews that this premise has been done to death already. Additionally, there's the factor of this dicey concept only further adding confusion and convoluted traits to the already chaotic show. This is demonstrated by the showrunners in the season 2 premiere, "A Rickle in Time," where things go increasingly haywire. For the record though, they have stated that time bending in some form is not out of the question.
A Justin Roiland Cameo
In an ironically fitting "fourth wall" moment, show creator Justin Roiland briefly finds himself in the cartoon realm of Rick and Morty, during a short bout of the season 2 episode, "Get Schwifty."
A cartoon version of Roiland makes a cameo appearance during the scene in which Principal Vagina ties up a few apparent blasphemers to balloons, all of whom are meant to be sacrificed to the heads in the sky. He's the man wearing glasses with a sign draped over him marked "thief."
We Almost Got a Squanch-Focused Episode
According to the DVD commentary during the season 2 episode, "The Wedding Squanchers," the showrunners wanted to flesh out the backstory of the peculiar character known as Squanchy. An episode centered around this cat-like creature, in addition to some more world-building on planet Squanch, was apparently conceptualized but was scrapped. Instead, remnants of this premise were used for an early scene of the aforementioned episode.
Still, there's always the chance we'll learn more about this bizarre critter, and why he's somehow able to balloon in size upon consuming an unknown green liquid.
The Pilot Was Pitched And Written In A Day
Despite the long breaks in-between episodes of Rick and Morty nowadays, this was ironically far from the case when it came to the breakout pilot episode. In fact, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland had hashed out and sold their pitch, and wrote their initial pilot all within the course of a single day.
Roiland claims he and Harmon were sitting on the floor of the unfurnished Community office following Harmon's firing from that show. During this time, Roiland told him that it may take three months to write this thing if they headed home, and to "stay here right now and we can write it in six hours."
The Curious Case Of The Szechuan Sauce
You know a show is culturally influential and relevant when it singlehandedly coaxes a major fast-food chain to roll out the release of a food item thanks to a one-off reference. As it happens, the McDonald's Szechuan Sauce was brought back thanks to the collective request of Rick and Morty fans. As Rick himself explains, this uniquely sweet, zesty McNugget sauce was churned out for a limited time to promote the release of Disney's Mulan in 1998.
To the surprise of many, McDonald's answered the requests in late '17. However, this was only for a single day, and demand was initially so high that it was very hard to come by, even prompting scalpers to stand in line for hours and sell it for hundreds of dollars on eBay! Thankfully, it was re-released in much larger quantities in early '18. Such is the power of Rick and Morty...
The Canine Origins Of The Theme Music
The distinct sci-fi-tinged Rick and Morty music may sound tailor-made for this animation's motif. Yet, as it happens, this music is actually recycled from an earlier project from Justin Roiland, the animation called Dog World. This cartoon was initially pitched to Cartoon Network, but it never saw completion, hence the project only existing only in animatic form today.
You can certainly see remnants of inspiration from this show-that-never-was in the season 1 episode of Rick and Morty, "Lawnmower Dog." In fact, when Rick mistakenly calls Morty's dog "Ruffles," this is a reference to the would-be human pet in Dog World.
Roiland's Beer-Induced Voice Performance
As it happens, the voice behind Rick is at least partly authentic in both his tendency to drink and his sporadic belching. These periodic burps, which often occur to Rick in mid-sentence, are often the result of Justin Roiland tossing back beer during recording sessions. This doesn't just coax these comedic belches, but also allows him to portray a wackier, free-and-loose character who's prone to amusing ramblings.
It certainly shows commitment in providing authenticity - though our guess is that Roiland doesn't mind going the extra mile in this case.