Warning: This article contains spoilers for Rick and Morty season 6 episode 1!
The Rick & Morty season 6 premiere manages to once again make its funniest episode joke a semi-concealed audience insult. As a show made to parody sci-fi tropes and conventions - and to affectionately mock most of pop culture and modern media - the idea that Rick & Morty also takes its chances to rib its viewers only makes sense. By and large, Rick and Morty jokes usually have three main targets: the characters in the show, society at large, and the viewer directly themselves.
However, the third category is the one that show is most careful with. While Morty and Jerry are dunked on ceaselessly by fate and other characters for viewer entertainment, there's an understanding that endlessly riffing on an audience isn't the ideal way to keep one. As such, the jokes Rick & Morty makes at its audience's expense are more infrequent - and sometimes couched in a way where some viewers may not realize they are being insulted at all, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
A prime example of this comes in Rick & Morty season 6 episode 1, as the titular duo wait for their death after the season 5 ending leaves them stranded in a half-destroyed Citadel of Ricks. Morty mentions Evil Morty's schemes have succeeded, only for Rick to respond "Evil Morty? Can we stop flattering this guy? His plan was to monologue and f*ck off, he basically threw a tantrum to announce he was quitting Twitter." While it's a funny line simply in terms of Rick refusing to acknowledge the person who is about to have killed him may have had a good plan, it's also made to affectionately insult the audience for their obsession with the character. This is because Rick & Morty's audience popularized the name Evil Morty - as he was originally just referred to as Eye-Patch Morty - making the line a joke about its viewers instead. Similarly, the continual theorization around what series villain Evil Morty would do next has been the subject of much ribbing - notably in season 4 episode 6 - making Rick's downplaying of this serve as the show meta-textually dunking on its audience for being so obsessed with the character. Perhaps the funniest part about the joke is that Evil Morty appears to have been left in the dust at least for now so that Weird Rick can be the new main antagonist, meaning Rick is also entirely correct about his end goals, and also correct in that all this speculation may have indeed been a moot point if he is never seen again.
Will Weird Rick Become The New Evil Morty?
The quick exit of Evil Morty in the season 5 ending appears to have led into a new overarching villain for the series, as it's revealed that Weird Rick - the Rick responsible for killing the titular Rick's wife and child - is Morty's grandfather. In fact, Rick & Morty season 6 episode 1 focuses far more on Weird Rick than Evil Morty despite the episode's beginning, raising the question as to whether he will replace Evil Morty entirely in both the show itself and in the audience theorization regarding the series.
However, the Rick & Morty season 6 Evil Morty joke serves as a reminder that the character is something of a phenomenon, being so intriguing to audiences that they devised their own name for him and speculated endlessly about him. While it would be entirely in character for him to simply never appear in the show again after he becomes his absolute most interesting to viewers, it would also be a waste given that Rick & Morty season 6 appears to be leaning more into the overarching storyline of the series. As such, while Weird Rick will replace Evil Morty for the time being - and indeed is the more important villain given his ties to Rick's origins and backstory - hopefully he will appear outside of jokes referencing him some time in the show's future.