Hey Wisecrack, Jared here — in the flesh, this time.
You guys may or may not know this, but Wisecrack Editions take a really long time to make.
And we’ve been wanting to do something where we can quickly react to what’s currently on TV or in theaters,
so we figured we’d try it out with season 3 of Rick and Morty.
And hey, if you like this, let us know.
We’d love to do these on things like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, whoever this Jake Paul person is, you name it.
In Rickmancing the Stone, we see Rick, Summer, and Morty traversing a Mad Max-inspired post-apocalypse.
What struck me most about this episode was an idea that has popped up in previous episodes,
but hasn’t been as fleshed out as fan favorites like “existence is pain” and “everything you believe is bullshit."
That idea - modern alienation.
Through a bright, glowing rock, a mustachioed murderer, and Jerry,
the episode explores another depressing-as-fuck idea:
that society may be slowly destroying our souls.
Welcome to this Wisecrack Quick Take on Rickmancing the Stone.
And, of course, spoilers ahead.
But first, a quick recap:
Rick, Morty, and Summer infiltrate the aptly named Death Stalkers to steal a glowing rock that Rick wants for science.
Morty and Summer use this aggressive world to vent all their confused emotions about their parent’s divorce.
Summer does all kinds of acting out, then falls for a swole dude with a bucket on his head
and eventually goes through her own divorce — allowing her to contextualize her parents' separation.
Morty vents his frustration by living vicariously through a revenge-driven arm,
and eventually realizes he should just let it go.
And Rick acts like a child, kind of.
Early in the episode we hear Rick introduce the idea of alienation,
suggesting that Summer’s tension with Jerry has made her disillusioned,
and the only thing that can make her feel alive is to travel to a place where civilization has crumbled.
Now the clever thing here is that the show not only tackles alienation on a micro level —
the family kind that Summer and Morty experience —
but on a macro level: the alienation of society as a whole.
And through this, the show frames how we lose agency in our everyday lives.
Case in point: Jerry.
I think this quote informs a lot of what’s going on in this episode :
What Rick is not-so-subtly suggesting is Jerry’s complete and utter lack of personal resolve,
power, agency, whatever you want to call it.
He’s a doormat to the world.
This idea of powerlessness informs a lot of Morty’s resentment towards Jerry as evidenced by this...
and this.
But Morty’s bitterness goes much further than Jerry’s failed marriage.
And that’s because, in some ways, Jerry is the everyman of the modern world.
Since the days of the industrial revolution, people have been complaining about loss of control in the modern world.
Instead of having our own trade or farm, many toil away at monotonous jobs.
This loss of autonomy is reflected on by countless authors, scholars, and films,
but we might as well just throw this example at you:
And this is what frames Morty’s anger at Jerry’s powerlessness.
Jerry is the pinnacle of modern stoogery.
His existence as a cog in a meaningless machine is really driven home in the Rickshank Redemption,
where the Galactic Federation keeps everyone compliant and docile through a liberal use of pharmaceuticals.
In other words, Jerry is so bad at being a person, he thrives in a society devoid of freedom.
His inability to assert himself is put on display in every interaction he has with Rick.
Of course, there is a version of Jerry who isn’t, in Rick’s words,
“an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows,”
and that would be Jerry from Cronenberg Earth.
When stripped of the trappings of modern society, Jerry goes from being a useless hack in a loveless marriage,
to a total badass who seems to be keeping his marriage together.
This, in itself, is hilarious.
But with this latest episode, I think Rick and Morty is playing with this idea
that the trappings of modern society are inherently alienating and create Jerrys out of all of us.
After Rick introduces electricity to the Wasteland, it soon resembles a modern industrialized society.
Summer’s violent lifestyle has been traded in for everyday banalities.
She isn’t out murdering mutants, she’s grocery shopping for human bits.
The savagery of the Death Stalkers has been reduced to complaining about recycling.
And Hemorrhage, the murdering machine, is now a good-for-nothing couch potato.
What’s so clever here is the implication that modern comforts are what drive our banal, terrible lives.
With no mutants to fend off, people resort to bickering about trivialities.
Due to electricity, people aren’t murdering each other in the Blood Dome, they’re watching blood-dome.
See, most post-apocalyptic fiction functions as a cautionary tale of how awful our lives might become,
but of, of course, being the darkest show on TV,
Rick and Morty goes out of its way to prove that modern life is its own special brand of soul crushing.
Our comforts eventually alienate us from meaning, creating different kinds of misery.
Or as Rick says about ruining Summer’s marriage:
So, here's an interesting question that's a bit speculative,
but does Summer forgive her father because she sees that modernization turns EVERY man into an actionless lump?
Even if you're a post-apocalyptic badass?
Now I want to speculate a little bit about Jerry here.
It’s likely that Rick will stay the same ol’ uncaring ass he’s ever been,
but I think we’re going to see a lot of character growth in his family members — specifically Jerry.
What if he has a Tyler Durden moment with the Cronenberg Jerry?
What if he, like Edward Norton, goes from being a disaffected modern buffoon to a man of action?
I mean the show has countless references to popular cinema,
and I think a Fight Club shout-out would work perfect for Jerry’s season 3 arc.
But hey — I guess we’ll see as season 3 continues.
Thanks a lot for watching, guys.
If you want to hear more about this week’s Rick and Morty episode,
we actually just released the first episode of the Wisecrack podcast where we talk all about —
you guessed it —
Rick and Morty.
So click the link in the description to check out our podcast and let us know what you think.
We’ve got more Rick and Morty stuff coming out, so make sure to subscribe.
Squanch ya later.
Peace.