If you're a Rick and Morty fan, you probably think you know all there is to know about
the show, from its obscene origins to the fan theories about Evil Morty and truth of
Dimension C-137.
But show creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have admitted that there are aspects of the
show that they'd probably never reveal, leaving dozens of Rick and Morty mysteries unanswered.
So, what do we know about Adult Swim's most popular animated series?
Are you ready to dive in and find out?
"Ummm..."
"Rhetorical question, Morty.
The answer is 'yes.'
You just have to be a genius."
House of Cosbys
Where would the animated television world be without Rick and Morty co-creators Dan
Harmon and Justin Roiland?
Believe it or not, fans have Bill Cosby to thank for bringing the pair together.
Sort of.
"He was a Cosby fan at heart, it's clear.
He searched and found a Cosby hair."
In 2005, Roiland created House of Cosbys, an animated series focusing on a Bill Cosby
superfan who builds a cloning machine to replicate the now-ostracized comedian.
Roiland submitted House of Cosbys to Harmon's Channel 101 film showcase, and the rest was
history.
"I like to explore and I get into stuff.
And maybe I can look around, ya know.
Rudyyyyyy."
Roiland said those early endeavors managed to earn a cease and desist letter from Bill
Cosby's lawyers, but Harmon knew he wanted to work with Roiland in the future.
It was the letter from Cosby's camp that prompted Roiland to come up with The Real Animated
Adventures of Doc and Mharti as a form of protest, which took other beloved characters
and made them do horrible things.
Doc and Mharti, of course, would eventually become Rick and Morty.
"Oh man, my kite's in a tree, Doc.
I'm so sad."
"Don't be sad, Mharti.
We can go back in time!"
Harmon told the Los Angeles Times that when Adult Swim approached him about creating a
series for the network, he was positive a collaboration with Roiland would be perfect,
saying,
"I thought about Justin because he is the Adult Swim brand.
He is the target for a lot of their stuff.
And he's also, like me, really passionate about story and franchise."
"I'm gonna tell you where to stick it.
Because..."
"Got it."
"See, that sounds too sober!"
"No, it doesn't.
It sounds great!"
"I don't believe it"
Spontaneous pilot
Immediately after Harmon and Roiland sold their pitch to Adult Swim, the duo got started
on writing, a move that was spurred by Harmon's involvement as showrunner on the NBC comedy
Community.
With the knowledge that schedules would be tight, Harmon and Roiland knew that time was
of the essence, and so they wrote the pilot in just six hours.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Harmon reflected on that whip-quick first writing
session, saying,
"[Roiland and I] were sitting on the floor, cross-legged with laptops and I was about
to get up and go home and he said, 'Wait, if you go home, it might take us three months
to write this thing.
Stay here right now and we can write it in six hours.'
He just had a premonition about that."
Roiland described the process as "kind of lightning in a bottle," feeling that he and
Harmon needed to get the story out, right then and there.
Suffice to say, countless Rick and Morty fans are glad that they did.
"It's just Rick and Morty.
Rick and Morty and their adventures, Morty.
Rick and Morty forever!
Forever!
One hundred years Rick and Morty's things!"
The accidental catchphrase
What started out as an off-the-cuff remark has turned into an ironic yet iconic catchphrase.
"Wubba lubba dub dub!
Haha!
Yeah!
That's my new thing, I'm kinda like what's his name, Arsenio.
Isn't that, that's what Arsenio used to say on his show."
While Rick first used "wubba lubba dub dub" to punctuate a gag, the true origins of the
phrase are later revealed.
"In my people's tongue, it means 'I am in great pain, please help me.'"
But contradictory to the phrase's troubling true meaning in the show, and much like its
rise to prominence, Rick's "wubba lubba dub dub" was entirely accidental.
"Know what I'm talking about Morty?
Wubba lubba dub dub!
Hahah, Morty… that's my catchphrase.
Remember?
Remember how I cemented that catch phrase?"
The line was a last-minute rewrite, originally intended to be a reference to a bit from the
the Three Stooges, and then later revised to refer to Arsenio Hall.
When Roiland, who voices Rick, hopped in the recording booth, he got confused by all the
changes and decided to spit the line out wrong — on purpose.
He explained the mix-up:
"It was scripted as parenthetical Larry or Moe from the Three Stooges — 'wub wub wub
wub wub.'
And Rick was gonna fall on the ground and do that circle thing they do.
And in the recording, that was a last minute rewrite that I didn't read, and I just didn't
know what the f— I was looking at, and I just did it wrong."
"I thought it'd be funnier if he didn't get it right, ya know.
'Isn't that what Arsenio… isn't that the Arsenio thing?
Wubba lubba dub dub?
Is Arsenio?'"
Of course, the whole "woop woop" thing is a tried and true cartoon tradition… just
with a Rick and Morty spin.
"Whoop whoop whoop."
Mental illness
The timid grandson and the super-genius grandpa pair aren't just rooted in the Back to the
Future trilogy — they grasp onto a darker, more complex foundation as well.
On the Rick and Morty season one DVD commentary, Harmon describes the pair as "an accurate
personification of bipolar disorder," with Rick being the manic "side" of the brain and
Morty, the depressive.
"Aw jeez, Rick."
It makes sense, given how Rick and Morty are able to maintain a generally functional relationship
despite being vastly different.
By the sounds of it, Rick and Morty could very well be two halves of one whole, adding
a mind-blowing notion to the series' already rich, complex universe.
"You're a perfect impenetrable suit of human armor, Morty.
Because you're as dumb as I am smart.
Which is why when I say *BELCH* shut up, it's really good advice."
The classic theme song
Rick and Morty is jam-packed with sci-fi references, from obscure '70s flicks that center around
massive floating heads to movies that star freaky horror insects.
To imbue the out-of-this-world vibes of the genre into every nook and cranny of the show,
Harmon and Roiland turned to two beloved television series when crafting the theme song.
Roiland revealed to TVOvermind that Doctor Who and Farscape were the biggest inspirations,
saying,
"I told [Ryan Elder] I was a big fan of Farscape and that I wanted to combine Farscape's theme
with Doctor Who's theme, and that's basically what our theme song is.
It's this amazing original piece that takes the best aspects of those two themes and mashes
them together."
The end result is a trippy track that Roiland calls "super sci-fi."
What's in Rick's flask?
Fans have long debated what Rick's drink of choice is, including delectable-sounding galactic
cocktails like "super seed juice" and "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster" from Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy, and even 200-proof alcohol.
But Harmon has a wildly simple theory, saying,
"I tend to assume vodka."
Harmon's fully aware that such an earthly drink seems out of character for Rick, as
he could easily use sci-fi tech to augment anything he sips, but Harmon believes Rick's
addiction to his flask "anchors his identity," saying,
"I think the reason he doesn't do that is because he's a little afraid he'll lose sight
of who he is."
So we sort of know which drink Rick is tethered to…
"I have a lot of vodka."
"I'll take one of those."
...but will we ever know why he started drinking in the first place?
Short answer: no.
According to Harmon, Roiland has argued that revealing that part of Rick's backstory would
be "very shark-jump-y," likening it to finding out the Fonz from Happy Days "didn't always
wear leather jackets."
"Cuz I'm the Fonz!
Ayyy!"
The worst episode
Ask any Rick and Morty fan what their favorite episode is, and they might tell you "A Rickle
in Time."
The episode has popped up on numerous "best of" lists, held in high esteem for its co-existing
timelines, overlapping possibilities, and nuanced commentary on morality.
But there are two people who weren't so keen on it: the guys in charge, Harmon and Roiland.
Before "A Rickle in Time" became a fan favorite, it was a daunting project for the co-creators,
as it was the introductory episode after a 15-month hiatus between the first and second
seasons.
Roiland confessed to Rolling Stone that the whole process was "just brutal," and that
it nearly defeated him and Harmon, saying.
"It broke us to a certain extent.
We were so close to something amazing and we never really got there from a structural
standpoint."
Harmon agreed, admitting that he and Roiland genuinely thought it would be the worst episode
of the second season, saying,
"It went off the deep end conceptually and got really over-complicated.
We're pretty convinced that the first episode might be the worst for that reason."
Considering the episode's focus on uncertainty, it's actually kind of ironic that Harmon and
Roiland were sure it'd be a flop — and were proven completely wrong.
"Oh no, what are you doing?!"
"I'm not sure."
"I'm really uncertain about everything, even kicking your ass!"
Harmon's divorce
During production of the show's third season, Dan Harmon was going through a divorce from
his now ex-wife Erin McGathy, a podcast host, artist, and comedian.
The pair became engaged in December 2013, and married in what appeared to be a hilarious,
unique, and love-filled wedding at Los Angeles' Natural History Museum the following November.
Less than a year later, however, McGathy dropped a bombshell on Twitter, confirming she and
Harmon were splitting up.
While divorce in any circumstance is difficult, there's something devastating about Harmon's
from McGathy in relation to Rick and Morty.
After the series' end credits, a series of silly splash screens appear, one of them being
Harmon's own "vanity card" that reads "Harmonious Claptrap" in scribbly, child-like handwriting.
In the first two seasons of Rick and Morty, the slate features clay versions of Harmon
and McGathy snuggled up on the couch, watching television, with a cat on their lap and a
dog panting happily on the floor.
Post-divorce, there's a new vanity card that shows Harmon sprawled out on the same couch
alone, with a bottle of liquor in his hand and booze strewn about the floor.
It's an image harrowing enough to break your heart.
Ladies room
For the first two seasons, the Rick and Morty writing staff was predominantly male, and
was described as a "very, very tiny little writers' room with a lot of heavy lifting
from everybody," but the series' group of scribes knew they needed a shake-up.
"You think it's efficient to get rid of women?"
"You ever see a line for the men's room?
Do you hear me, Summer?"
Season three saw the first "gender-balanced" writers' room in the show's history, and both
Harmon and Roiland credit female writers for playing a massive role in how the third season
panned out.
Not only did they help ease self-doubt behind the scenes and contribute to a renewed creative
energy, the female writers also allowed room for everyone to pitch ideas for Beth and Summer
storylines.
Harmon explained,
"When you have a mixed room, it's not about the women going, 'Here's a bunch of secrets
about women.'
It's more about everyone being freer to just pitch randomness.
So the result is you see cool stuff happen with Beth and Summer this season."
"Thanks, girls.
You know, you girls are really *BELCH* something, I'll tell you that.
You know, when we first got here, I was like…
*BLECH."
"Get them a ship, now!"
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