One of the worst-kept secrets in all of television history is the fact that Adult Swim's Rick
and Morty is filled to the brim with Easter eggs, tongue-in-cheek references, and obvious
homages to all things pop culture.
While co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have imbued the sci-fi adventure comedy series
with a ton of clear film and television mentions, they've also incorporated at least double
that amount under the radar.
Here are some references in Rick and Morty that you may have missed.
"Rick and Morty and their adventures, Morty!
Rick and Morty forever and forever hundred years Rick and Morty things!
Me and Rick and Morty runnin’ around and Rick and Morty time!"
Community
For fans who've been around the television-watching block a few times before, it's hardly a shock
to learn that series co-creator Dan Harmon was the brains behind NBC's Community.
Unfortunately, Community had a troubled six-year run, temporarily losing Harmon as a showrunner
and switching networks before it was finally cancelled.
In Rick and Morty, Harmon pokes some serious fun at the downfall of Community, hitting
the series' soft spots.
In Season 2's "Auto Erotic Assimilation," Rick and his on-again and off-again collective
hivemind lover Unity are watching television, with the events playing out on-screen controlled
by Unity itself.
"Now make them all make fun of the blonde one!
Now make them all do it on the table!
I can’t believe you created a whole show for me.
Now cancel it!
Ok, now put it back on!"
And if there was any doubt, the whole crew appears onscreen a moment later.
Weekend at Bernie's
The 1989 black comedy Weekend at Bernie's follows a pair of low-level suits working
at a New York insurance company who end up spending their Labor Day weekend hauling around
their dead boss, Bernie, and trying to convince everyone he's still alive.
Classic, right?
"Ew."
"Don’t panic!"
Among the bits in season one's "Rixty Minutes," there's a spoof trailer for a movie that centers
around a dead elderly woman being puppeted by her cats.
"What are the kitties to do, but buckle together and work as a team."
"Last Will and Testimeow: Weekend at Dead Cat Lady’s House 2."
Hail to the King
The season one episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes" isn't shy about its inspiration.
It's a sci-fi mash-up of Ray Bradbury's 1962 dark fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way
Comes, in which a mysterious man gives the locals their greatest desires.
It's not exactly subtle.
"It detects and catalogs all your Twilight Zone, Ray Bradbury, Friday the 13th the series
voodoo crap magic."
It's also an obvious riff on Stephen King's classic horror book Needful Things, where
an elderly man runs a very weird, dangerous shop.
But the vintage horror references don't end there.
"I'm here to pick up my undead cat and child."
While the quip may just seem like typical Rick and Morty irreverence, it's actually
a subtle reference to Stephen King's 1983 horror novel Pet Sematary, which follows the
Creed family.
They're plagued by back-to-back tragedies: the accidental deaths of their cat and their
two-year-old son, both of whom disturbingly come back to life as demonic weirdos determined
to kill.
And the Fourth-Dimensional Testicle Monsters from "A Rickle in Time"?
They're a spitting image of the terrifying time-bending creatures seen in the 1995 mini-series,
The Langoliers, based on a story by Stephen King.
"You better keep back!
Man, this will turn your ass into a third trimester fetus from thirty yards!"
Zardoz
Raising Gazorpazorp will likely go down in Rick and Morty history as one of the strangest
episodes the series has ever put forth.
But with all its uniqueness, there were references hidden throughout, like the Footloose tribute
that sees Morty Jr. busting an angsty move in an abandoned warehouse.
And who could miss the Raising Arizona nod in the title?
But it goes deeper than that.
When Rick and Summer pay a visit to Gazorpazorp in the Andromeda system, they see a giant
floating head fly in to drop down artificially crafted women used for procreation.
The head is almost identical to the one seen in the 1974 sci-fi cult film Zardoz, a flick
co-creator Harmon told his Harmontown podcast listeners to watch back in April 2013.
Animal Farm
George Orwell's Animal Farm gets a few carefully crafted references throughout the "Lawnmower
Dog" episode of Rick and Morty.
And in case you're counting, that title is another Stephen King reference.
When the family's pet pup Snuffles gains sentience and decides to take down all of humanity,
he uses his powers to construct a full body suit and express just how angry he is about
the way dogs have grown from wild beasts to humans' playthings.
It's a progression of events that loosely mimics what's seen in Orwell's allegorical
novella.
But that's just surface-level stuff.
There's also this scene where Snuffles decides to change his name.
"Dad, he wants to be called Snowball."
"Well, I’m not calling him that.
That’s ridiculous."
If you know your literature, Snowball is the name of one of the main characters in Animal
Farm.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
There are about a thousand reasons why the noble Birdperson is such a cherished Rick
and Morty character, but even his character is borrowed wholesale from 1980s sci-fi.
The TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century had no shortage of interesting characters,
but it was the alien named Hawk who really stood out.
Hawk, played by Thom Christopher, was a half-man, half-bird warrior who represented the last
of a dying breed of bird people; a background Birdperson himself possesses.
Hawk and Birdperson are similar in appearance as well.
One thing's for certain: we wouldn't put it past Rick and Morty to weave a web as weird
as one that links Buck Rogers to their own multi-dimensional chaos.
Aliens aplenty
Rick and Morty has been riding the reference train from the get-go.
Pause the pilot for just a moment to get an up-close-and-personal look at the visually
complex spaceport sequence, and you'll notice that a number of the silhouettes shown are
actually classic pop culture figures.
Near the center of the frame, are three creatures that look exactly like the wisecracking robots
Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy from the sci-fi comedy series Mystery Science Theater
3000.
Nearby, there's a shadow that resembles the terrifying Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise.
Way over to the left-hand side of the screen, there's a carbon copy of the blippy alien
figure from the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders.
And of course, a gratuitous Ferengi from Star Trek.
Gravity Falls
If you didn't have your peepers peeled, you may have missed a few quick nods to Disney's
Gravity Falls, created by Justin Roiland's friend Alex Hirsch.
Look closely during the scene in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind", and you'll see a pen, notepad,
and mug emerge from a portal: the exact same items Stan drops through a portal in Gravity
Falls' "Society of the Blind Eye" episode.
And during "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez," you can spot an image of Gravity Falls' main
antagonist, Bill Cipher, on an alien computer screen.
Even deeper than that, in the season three premiere "The Rickshank Rickdemption," a Morty
is seen holding what appears to be Journal 3 from Gravity Falls as he walks through the
Citadel of Ricks.
And with so many off-kilter versions of the duo in sight, you may not have spotted a set
of Morty twins in the background: one is wearing Dipper's pine tree hat, and the other has
on Mabel's headband and sports her signature hairstyle.
"And that's the way the news goes."
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