Yar, there be spoilers ahead. Sail forth with caution.
Rick and Morty is a hit. It’s been renewed for a third season, they’ve got voices in Dota 2 and a successful mobile game, and it’s arguably one of the best adult animated shows on TV right now. I’m enamored with the show’s originality, sharp humor, and subversion of not only sci fi, but modern comedy. The only aspect that makes me really uneasy is Rick. Surprisingly, my issue stems not from his burps, weird drool/puke thing on his mouth, or occasional casual misogyny. Rick makes me uncomfortable because he’s a constant living monument to attempting to embrace the meaninglessness of his life and it not going well.
When I was in high school, I started having nights where I’d sit up in bed being absolutely terrified about dying. Not imagining all the ways I could die every day, but trying to imagine being dead and failing. Coping with your mortality and the cosmic unimportance of your short time on earth is pretty heavy stuff, especially for someone who can’t drive yet. Eventually the time I spent scared of not living got shorter and the nights I was aware that my brain is probably not capable of imagining death grew further and further apart. I’m still not over it entirely. Even as recently as two months ago I was doing breathing exercises at 3AM because nobody needs this shit on a Tuesday night.
Rick Sanchez is an atheist who doesn’t have a “planetary mindset.” Intellectually, he doesn’t value life, understands his place in the universe as without meaning, and has seen firsthand exactly how large the multiverse is. He travels through different timelines effortlessly, kills tons of aliens at the drop of a hat, and generally doesn’t give a SINGLE FUCK.
But there are still times in which Rick shows a more human side. He cries over footage of his memories with Morty, turns himself in to police so his family has a shot at a better life, and even makes the choice to sacrifice himself to save Morty. In the episode with Unity, Rick attempts because he’s heartbroken that Unity dumped him. This is a man who’s buried his own corpse from an alternate timeline so he could assume that identity and keep living and he’s still shattered over a girl/boy/species/parasite.
He clearly has feelings.
What do we get when we put together the two largest aspects of Rick’s personality — his intellectual self and his, often suppressed, feeling self? A man who simultaneously understands how fragile and unimportant life is to the universe and values the life of those around him. A living contradiction whose brain is constantly fighting its chemical instincts. He’s a fucking mess. A selfish, alcoholic nihilist whose actions are constantly disrupting the lives of those around him.
And that’s what makes me uncomfortable. In their reality, Rick is the smartest man on Earth, a dangerous galactic criminal capable of almost anything and even he can’t reconcile the fragility of life. It makes for an interesting, dynamic character, but one that resurfaces my unresolved feelings about my place in spacetime.The dichotomy of believing our time ultimately doesn’t mean much, but having your emotions tell you otherwise is difficult to reconcile and you’re not helping Rick.
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As New York Comic Con gets bigger and bigger, it becomes impossible to take it all in, and no matter how well we plan for it, inevitably things don’t work out. Here is our breakdown of one of the fastest going conventions in the United States.
Thursday goals included attending the 88MPH: A Celebration of Back to the Future, a panel about DC Comics imprint Vertigo’s new #1s, attempting to get into the Viz Media/Musashi Kishimoto panel, and finishing out the day at MootCon4 to talk to people about the Game of Theories webseries. While not an entirely adventurous schedule, the sheer amount of people made it impossible to navigate the exhibit hall (or the smaller, craft/creator filled area called The Block) in a timely manner. New York Comic Con was wall to wall cosplayers in different Doc & Marty costumes (and a TON of Rick & Morty costumes as well), some so well done, several double takes were needed to make sure we didn’t accidentally walk by Christopher Lloyd himself. We had to slowly step our way to the Image booth where we met up with comic creator Ivan Brandon for a scheduled interview, before attempting to make headway toward the Funko booth, hoping to get our eyeballs on some of those exclusives! There were many promotional life-size POP! figures to promote the upcoming Smuggler’s Bounty, and it was difficult to tear ourselves away and re-evaluate our plan as the hour grew late. It was here our paths split, with Tushar checking out the Games and Education panel, Kaitlyn calling it a day, and Leia preparing for a long evening of line waiting to spend an hour in the same room as Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, before preparing for day two.
As the weekend progressed, we saw the floors even MORE packed than before and our weary correspondents loaded up their schedule with panels. First, however, Kaitlyn and Leia wandered over to the Audible booth to try out the immersive Locke & Key experience via Oculus Rift, before an interview with Sean Lewis and Benjamin Mackey, newbies in the comic industry. Artist Alley was a sight to behold this year, with greedy fingers reaching for art prints on our way to interview Justin Jordan, and get some stuff signed.
Now despite the name “New York Comic Con,” non-comic media, like television, was there in force too. The folks at Adult Swim were up to their old tricks again with roundtables for Venture Bros, Robot Chicken, and the new miniseries airing soon, Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter. (You can check out our preview at Adult Swim at NYCC – Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter). Getting to meet TV personalities like Jon Glaser, Stephanie March, Breckin Meyer and the crazy duo of Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick went exactly as we thought it would go. Antics upon hijinks upon gut busting laughter. It was tough to get through the whole thing without addressing Stephanie March as anything other than “Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot,” but ultimately composure was kept and we found that she, along with the rest of the Adult Swim actor corps, were super cool and friendly people.
TV wasn’t the only non-comic media to make a splash this year. Video games made their presence felt too. If you had (like we did) a bit of trouble getting through the main entrance to the con floor because of a pure sea of concentrated humanity, you were probably going by the Capcom booth. Lining the booth was an army of Street Fighter enthusiasts, and it WAS possible (but not probable) to slither your way in to get a crack at seeing some gameplay from Street Fighter V. The game played faster than its predecessor Street Fighter IV, and you could see some of the classic cast like Karin making their return from the Alpha/Zero series of Street Fighter games. There was a tournament going on as well, so there was always the chance that if you went in to get schooled, it would be public on a lot of large screens.
Square-Enix decided to take the quieter route and had a media suite set up a Shop Studios, just a couple blocks away from the Javits Center. It was nice to get away from the bustle of the con floor for guided demos of their games to small groups of people, and the fact that they fed us definitely did not hurt the experience. Making the rounds through Shop Studios we saw the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (check out our preview here), Hitman, Just Cause 3, and the finale to Life Is Strange with Episode 5. The biggest and friendliest surprise though was that Lara Croft: GO wasn’t the only appearance our girl Lara Croft made that day. The full playable demo of Rise of the Tomb Raider looked and played absolutely great.
The Star Wars franchise decided to take an in between approach, setting up their Star Wars Battle Pods outside of the con floor but still inside the Javits Center, making it easy to get to and a beacon of the force as people entered the building. The battle pods let you take command of a few different vehicles from the Star Wars universe, from going on a Death Star bombing run in an X-Wing to trying to hang on for dear life on a speedbike on Endor. Either way, the ride was complete with vibration and pod shakes that one would presumably feel taking your X-wing out of the hangar.
Our last day was spent tying up loose ends, such as taking photos of the creepiest cosplay we could find, picking up more stuff to give away to you guys, and making our last stop at the phenomenal Women of Marvel panel, before shambling off home.
Be sure to check out our other convention coverage and we hope to see you guys in the future! We can’t wait for next year, and leave you with this awesome cosplay video from our friends, SneakyZebra.
In case you haven’t already, don’t forget that we are giving away a bunch of stuff for those of you who didn’t get to attend! Enter below.
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Round 2 of our Rick and Morty Press Hour! After speaking to stars Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell, we were able to chat with the hit sci-fi cartoon’s creators, Justin Roiland (who also voices both Rick and Morty) and Dan Harmon (the creator of Community), to talk about what’s to come on season two and the release of the first season’s DVD. Speaking of, any chance we’ll see more Rick and Morty puppets like we saw on the promotions for the DVD?
Justin: I don’t think so, I mean it was really just an experiment. My sister’s boyfriend was on that that Jim Henson Creature Challenge show as one of the contestants and he’s just incredibly talented and makes the weirdest, eeriest, and most unsettling creatures. I pitched it to Adultswim they were into it as a as a way to promote the DVD. I was thrilled because they were going to make a couple of creepy Rick and Morty puppets out of the deal and so I said let’s just let’s lean in and use these things. I recorded a ton of stuff and we filmed like full day of bunch of ads and a bunch of exclusive content for websites. I think it would be bazar to do a show with them as puppets. It would be confusing, I think, for people who are familiar with the show. I think people would be like “What the fuck is this?”
Dan: Stop motion?
Justin: Yeah, could be. There’s all kinds of potential to do different mediums.
Dan: If you did it as a special. Basically what we did with Community, I could see you doing a Rick and Morty Christmas Special in a different medium.
Justin: We do have a show where there is infinite multiple realities so there could be an episode that starts 2-D. So Rick’s like “Hey Morty, you have to check out this reality.” And Morty’s like “What is it? Oh this is hacky!”
Well it’s certainly something we’d be interested in. What else? What about a crossover like we saw on Family Guy/The Simpsons?
Justin: We don’t have anything planned but we’re fans of a lot of different animated shows. It could be interesting to do something if it felt right. I don’t know, it’s hard. You do those crossover things and there’s just so many cooks in the kitchen at that point. Is it going to be right? We got Matt Groening and Al Jean and a bunch of The Simpsons guys to do a commentary track for the DVD. That’s where they first asked us to do a couch-gag for The Simpsons. So the script is submitted and we’re in the process right now of figuring out the production pipeline. That’s a tiny little crossover of Rick and Morty with The Simpsons which is insane to me, growing up as a kid being a fan of the show. That’s the closest at the moment.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed. What about something we can for sure look forward to like guest stars in season two?
Dan: We got Stephen Colbert to do a character and Werner Herzog.
Justin: We have some great Battlestar Galactica folks, Keegan Michael Key, Andy Daily and a bunch of Mr. Show guys. I feel like every episode there is someone…who are we forgetting because there’s another big one?
Dan: I don’t know, I can’t remember.
Justin: REAAAL Big one. We’ll think of it later and email you.
No email yet, fellas. But you can tell us about creating the tags at the end of the credits.
Justin: A lot of those come organically. This season especially. We had production barreling behind us so we had to move and think about what we had in the episode and what would be a funny call back. In season one, we’d know right away what the tag was going to be, but every episode has a tag. It’s a cool and fun thing that we want to continue to do and keep people through the credits. Not that there’s any reason to keep people on the hook. I love it. It’s like Ferris Buller at the end of the credits and all he does is yell at you to leave but it’s so great and such a treat.
Call backs? Well can we expect any to our favorite episodes in the first season in season two?
Justin: We’re being really careful not to bring popular characters back just for the sake of bringing them back. We want to really make sure it’s an organic reason
Dan: I’m a little worried about the curse of Community, which is that if you do a call back or exhibit some continuity, even if it’s not deliberately inside and even if it functions on its own, all the critics say “there’s this thing it’s called ‘the Human Being’ or ‘Annie’s boobs.'” Somehow the culture gets created that the show isn’t for new viewers which isn’t true. I watched that happen to Community. This show would be fine to watch the first episode of the fifth season. I kind of feel like if there’s no Meeseesks Box in the second season then there can be one in the third.
Justin: We really had a focus forging ahead and continuing what we did in season one because the world and universe and multiverse is so huge. Not to say that there isn’t any going back at all, but that isnt out focus. We really wanted to do fun awesome great points of entry episodic episodes with sprinkles of continuity in the background.
The guys were nice enough to get into their process for writing a season.
Dan: The early process was that we had a list sci-fi tropes, so we’re interested in teleportation, invisibility, rocket boots. We made a list of domestic tropes: divorce, credit card debt, training the dog, and stuff like that. We thought earlier that we need to stick to template of pairing those two columns each episode.
Justin: Which you know we still do from time to time. It’s funny, season one, when you look at it now, it is driven by Rick sort of crazy inventions. Whereas season two is a little more like open, it’s a little bigger. There’s still Rick’s inventions and stuff but it’s not really like “Jerry, here use this!” and it just reeks havoc. Dan’s right, we did write a list while thinking “What are cool Sci-fi things that we could do?” The Meeseeks Box being one of the most fresh ideas but there’s freezing time, X-Ray vision, and flying, a bunch of stuff we didn’t even get to in season one.
Dan: Ghost Goggles!
Justin: Ghost Goggles! Season 3!
And perhaps our favorite part of our time with Justin and Dan, the guys get real technical about whether we’ll ever see a Pirates of the Pancreas Ride.
Justin: It’s so funny because, not to get nerdy on you, but that is technically the world they left behind so Ethan…
Dan: But he would still have Pirates in the Pancreas. Everything about the new world is identical except just right before they died. In the new world they solved the Cronenberg problem just randomly probably and then they blew themselves up.
Justin: It’s so funny to me to imagine that back in Cronenberg world there’s a Cronenberg Ethan with Annie and all these people inside of him going “What the fuck happened?” and still working away on the theme park. Not that we’ve gone back there.
Dan: We spent a lot of time breaking down stories where Morty goes back to Cronenberg or something. It’s like there’s a certain ratio of sweat to joy where the sweat column gets above a certain level and you know it’s not Rick and Morty any more and it’s now fanfiction or some BBC drama.
Don’t ever change, guys. Be sure to check out season two of Rick and Morty next year!
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We saw so much at New York Comic Con this year and it was hands down one of the best conventions that we’ve covered. We were lucky enough to sit down with the creators and stars of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty and learned all about season two of the multiverse-spanning super-hit.
Sarah Chalke (Beth) and Chris Parnell (Jerry), who finished recording for season two, were first timers at Comic Con and were excited to learn about convention staples like con-funk and the dreaded con-plague (which has felled several of our Sub-Cultured writers already) as well as meeting fans in bathrooms. Both actors had a lot to say about their respective characters, the grounding and responsible adults in the admittedly fantastical show. However, big things are happening to the Smiths in season two and Sarah and Chris delighted by bantering in character.
Sarah: We get to get in on the crazy in season two
Chris: Yeah, we get to go on some adventures on other planets and go to other dimensions on other planets.
Sarah: We have a lot of trouble in our marriage and so Rick suggests that we go for couple’s therapy off-planet.
Chris: Everything goes really smoothly.
Chris: In season two I sort of fight for Pluto still being a planet. The denizen’s of Pluto really appreciate that so they bring me to Pluto and they sort of hold me up on a pedestal and that’s kind of fun and good for Jerry. He needs to be built up and supported. And it’s good for me, Chris Parnell, because I need that too.
Sarah: It’s sort of like work and doubling as therapy.
Chris and Sarah also had a lot to say about their characters’ marriage and growth in the next season:
Sarah: Well, right from the pilot we kind of have a terrible marriage. I’m a horse heart surgeon and he thinks that’s not really a doctor and I find that unbelievably offensive. It kind of just goes downhill from there in season two and that’s why we go off planet for couple’s therapy. But there’s some real moments of tenderness in this season.
Chris: There are indeed. It’s messed up, the marriage, but there’s some genuine affection.
Sarah: Off-planet they kind of get to envision and create mythological creature of what is going on in your subconscious of how you see the other person. So neither of them know what is going to come up. So Jerry, to Beth, is a spineless worm-man while he sees her as a giant warrior-queen-cyborg. I got to do a bunch of Xenobeth voices and I don’t know what they’ll end up picking. That’s one of the funnest things about this show. There’s really no limits to where it can go and what you’ll get to try as an actor. If you’re on a set and you ask to do another take there’s like one hundred crew members waiting for you but in the sound booth you can do one line ten different ways in under a minute. It’s such a fun and creative way to get to work, especially in a show like this where the characters are actually going to other galaxies.
Chris: I don’t know if we go to other galaxies, that’s a long way. We go to other planets, other star systems and dimensions but not galaxies.
Sarah: Well Beth isn’t as bright as Jerry because even though she is a surgeon it’s just for horses.
Okay, Smart-guy Jerry, but did you get a job this year?
Chris: Uh, I don’t think he’s gotten a job thus far. Not that I recall. I think he’s still struggling with that. She’s got her job though, thank god.
Sarah: Yes, keeping the whole family afloat.
Ah, family. Beth’s soul-sucking leech of a family. Will Beth finally break free of them or learn to find satisfaction in her brood? What’s funnier?
Sarah: I mean, there’s definitely been a lot of humor in the tragedy that is their marriage and that it’s not going well. I’m rooting for them. If they divorce, well between the two, I’m the one to go. They’re keeping Parnell. I had to audition from a weird cabin in Canada over the phone with Justin and Dan to get this job, so let’s go with together.
Well we’re glad to know that Beth and Jerry are getting in on that adventure action!
Chris: Yes, oh yes.
Sarah: We do. That was kind of one of the things that Justin and Dan wanted to explore more in the second season, taking the show a little more interplanetary.
Chris: But not intergalactic.
What do the stars want to see for their characters going forward?
Sarah: I would say more of the times we got to go to other planets. It’s awesome.
Chris: I would like…
Sarah: Not galaxies. Planets.
Chris: Thank you. We could be in other galaxies. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made such a point of that. It’s possible I guess. It’s just so much further away. You know, I’d like for Jerry to have some opportunities to be a stronger figure just because it’s more fun to play a variety of things. Anything that’s different than the meek little struggling, insecure Jerry is…
Sarah: And I’d like Jerry to stay as meek as possible in his meek box.
Chris: Not his Meeseeks Box.
It’s shocking to think that despite their steamy chemistry, the two record separately.
Sarah: We always record separately. But sometimes Justin will do both voices. That’s like my favorite thing is to hear him, it’s insane. I remember hearing both voices and then finding out that he did both of them.
Chris: I didn’t know either.
Sarah: I knew he was Rick but I didn’t know he was Morty. It’s bonkers. He’s ridiculously talented.
Chris: Justin directs the sessions almost exclusively. We do Archer solo. It’s like at these kind of things that we get to see each other so it’s really fun but having recorded show where it’s every body, it’s just takes up the whole day and doesn’t make it any better, I don’t think, unless it’s really improv based.
Both Chris and Sarah have played some other well-known characters like Cyril on Archer and the insecure Elliot on Scrubs . What is it like to play such different characters?
Chris: I guess the difference is that Jerry has got a family and he’s supposed to be helping to support the family, which he doesn’t. And then Cyril is just more on his own and caught up in his own thing. That’s a really incomplete and unsatisfying answer to your question.
Sarah: I think that’s what has been fun about Beth is playing someone so strong and kind of a bitch and just treats Jerry like shit. I think that owns what you look for like doing something totally different than what you’ve got to do before. More than that is animation, it is the funnest way to work. I’ve always been so obsessed with the art of animation. I’m so fascinated and when I come to record, they’ll take us upstairs to see the storyboards and process and how it changes. Sometimes in animation they’ll actually video you recording and they’ll use the movements of your mouth when they draw. I mean, I was a lot more like Elliot and a lot came from my life and the writers would use it in the next episode. I had an art smock that doubled as my bib at the lunch. The wardrobe department one time was like “Do you mind wearing *this* because we’re running out of scrubs in your character’s line.” And I did, and then I fell asleep on a sharpie. So there was a little bit of me in her.
But what about the important question: Any chance of seeing Chris or Sarah on Community Season Six?
Sarah: I would love to! I love that show.
Chris: I would love to as well. They have such a tight cast, I don’t know if there’s room for me.
Sarah: Jerry…There isn’t.
Chris: Sorry. Sorry, Beth
Sarah: Keep your dreams where they belong. Squashed.
And now the most important question: Do you look at your dogs differently after the Lawnmower Dog episode?
Sarah: Totally! I have a chocolate lab named Lola because she walks like a woman and talks like a man. She’s like this tiny lab who’s the runt of the litter, this tiny little nugget with this really deep bark. My neighbor’s thought I had a rottweiler. She was from this charity event during the first season of Scrubs. She was being auctioned off to support children with autism. I fell in love with her as did everyone else in the room so the bidding was insane. Finally I gave up at the end and the whole cast put their hands up and got her for me. She was our Scrubs mascot and would come to the hospital every day.
Chris: So sweet. I’m not being facetious. I’m being sincere.
Sarah: I don’t trust it. I’ve seen sincerity.
Chris: You wouldn’t know sincerity if it bit you in the ass.
Sarah: Fuck you, Jerry.
Thanks Chris and Sarah for sitting with us! Check out part two of our interview with Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland in a bit and be sure to check out season 2 of Rick and Morty in summer of 2015
Rick and Morty and Cosmicism
Steven Universe comes to Funko
Fictional Feasts– Ice Cream Sunda(y)
How Steven Universe Helped Me Like Things Again
Cerulean City Comic-Con Announces Guest Line Up!
