You gotta get schwifty... You gotta get schwifty in here...
Get... Schwifty?
Hey guys, I’m Dev and I can’t believe season 3 of ‘Rick and Morty’ is finally here.
He's a spy. Blow him up, I'm gonna go take a shit.
Justin Roiland’s demented masterpiece is the biggest animated smash since ‘South Park,’ but it didn’t happen overnight.
Roiland made a ton of twisted cartoons and live-action shows before he finally hit it big with ‘Rick and Morty.’
I admire you, Rick.
And his road to the top wasn’t easy.
He had to eat a lot of schleem and learn to like the taste of it.
So before the Sanchez family shows us what they got,
Let’s take a look at Justin Roiland's rise to fame.
Holy shit! This guy's taking Roy off the grid!
Roiland grew up on an almond orchard in Manteca California.
After college, he moved to LA with the hopes of breaking into TV.
In 2001 he got a gig as a PA on a reality prank show called ‘Ultimate Revenge,’ hosted by baby Ryan Seacrest.
Also starring Justin Roiland, Ben's roomate. He's tired of Ben being Mr. Abnormal.
Roiland’s job was mostly behind the scenes, but they dragged him in front of the camera every now and then:
With his foot in the door, Roiland spent most of his nights working on cartoons and short films with his friends.
‘Tiger Wizard Suitcase’ was the first cartoon he ever made, back in 2003.
Roiland called this twisted Narnia parody one of the purest things he’s ever done.
There was no intended audience and no real reason for making it, other than the fact that he wanted to.
Please! We all knew Lucy was very sick. It was only a matter of time before something like this would happen.
And it's only a matter of time before I become... A pop star!
And even in Roiland’s earliest work you can see shades of Rick and Morty in his improv dialogue,
Let's hope this magical cream does what it's supposed to!
[gibberish and nonsense words]
Over-the-top vulgarity,
Without all the goddamn bullshit on f---ing TV bullshit you f---ing ass bitch!
And obsession with funny-sounding nonsense words.
What the hell are these crazy googas?! That's what we're calling them, right?!
Roiland and his buddies were getting frustrated.
They were killing themselves making all these messed up cartoons, but no one outside of their friends and family ever got to see them.
That’s where Channel 101 came in.
And now, the freedom of Channel 101.
Before he created ‘Community,’ Dan Harmon had a hard time selling his shows to a network.
He and his friend Rob Schrab wrote a pilot called ‘Heat Vision and Jack.’
It was a corny action parody starring Jack Black, with Owen Wilson as his talking motorcycle.
Jack Austin-- Astronaut. Exposed to inappropriate levels of solar energies. Sunlight makes him the world's smartest man!
I KNOW EVERYTHING!!!
The leaked episode developed a cult status over the years.
Give me directions to the Sunken Pleasure.
Uh, I'm from out of town, buddy, I really can't help ya. Push on.
It’s one of those legendary produced but not picked up pilots, like Chris Elliot’s “Action Family” and Adam West’s “Lookwell”
With all due respect, I did three episodes on this kind of thing.
'Heat Vision and Jack' would fit right into a post-’Tim and Eric’ world, but the cheesy-on-purpose humor was way ahead of its time for 1999.
Press record!!!
Fox passed on it, and Harmon and Schrab were pissed.
So they created their own short film festival called ‘Channel 101.’
There are many advantages you have when making a Channel 101 that you wouldn't have if you were making a regular TV show!
It was a breeding ground for fresh talent and clever new shows.
Chad Vader debuted there,
'Yacht Rock’ taught us all how to be smooth,
and The Lonely Island’s ‘O.C.’ parody ‘The ‘Bu’ is what got them noticed by SNL.
The name is Frazzles!
Justin Roiland wanted in on the action, too.
In 2003, he started submitting a ton of shorts.
His first was a live action show called 'Friends and Lovers.'
The way his mouth moves looks just like Rick’s today, especially when he burps.
[belches] Hey, Rick... Morty! Morty is the word.
[belches]
They made other live action shorts like 'Googas,' 'The Mountain,' and '2 Girls, 1 Cup: The Show.'
And Roiland submitted too many insane cartoons to count.
Like 'Hilarious Jokes' and 'Toro and Moro.'
But his breakout show was House of Cosbys
He was a Cosby fan at heart, it's clear! He searched and found a Cosby hair!
He spent ten long years and bult a cloning machine, and now he's accomplished his wonderful dream!
To make a House of Cosbys. It's a House of Cosbys!
Growing up, Roiland had no idea what an asshole Bill Cosby would turn out to be.
Each Cosby is getting worse than the last, y'see. Jesus, you're right, Cosby 1.
Like a lot of 80s kids, he was a huge fan.
So he threw Cosby into a parody of the Michael Keaton movie ‘Multiplicity’
I've been working since I was twelve years old! It's break time!
There wound up being dozens of Cosby clones with their own special traits.
Curiosity Cosby. Mood Swing Cosby. Butt Naked Cosby.
But no Cronenberg Cosby.
You got a whole planet of Croenenbergs walking around out there, Morty.
While making the fourth episode, Roiland got a bad case of bronchitis that slowed down production.
Instead of going with the original script, they threw it out and shot an episode where everyone just sits around and watches interdimensional TV.
Well that was informative, but not in the way I was hoping. This intergalactic TV receiver brings up more questions than answers.
Pretty cool, huh Morty? I thought it was cool...
I don't give a f--- what you think, Jerry!
Almost ten years later, Roiland would use the exact same premise for ‘Rixty Minutes.’
Seems like TV from other dimensions has a somewhat looser feel to it.
Yeah, it's got an almost improvisational tone.
After the fourth episode premiered, the show finally got the attention of Cosby’s lawyers.
They sent cease and desist letters to Roiland, Harmon, and everyone that hosted the videos.
Great Scott!
Roiland was in a foul mood after the Cosby fiasco.
He made his next cartoon as a deliberate attempt to get another cease and desist letter.
The main characters were blatant ripoffs of Doc Brown and Marty McFly from
‘Back to the Future,’ only drunk, profane and having sex with eachother.
My chapped, bloody testicles, Mharti! I need you to lick them! Oh my god, what? You need me to lick them?
Yes, Mharti! It's the only way to fix our time travel car!
I saw that. It's pretty rough. Lick my chapped, sweaty testicles, Morty!
Dan Harmon described it as a pornographic vandalization of these beloved characters.
Hey, don't worry...
It was a big hit at Channel 101, and even though the lawsuits never came,
Roiland fell in love with the voices he came up with for Doc and Mharti.
I don't think so, Mharti! That ain't how it works here, Mharti!
If this man coming to plant trees in your yard sees you sucking on my balls, something scientific and magical will happen!
With his new notoriety, Roiland started pitching shows to networks.
And in almost all of them, he uses voices that are pretty damn close to Rick and Morty today.
They’re in 'The Palonis.'
I hurt my hand! Marty, you idiot!
'Relative Insanity,'
I should be out living my life, not slaving over you guys all the time! So does that mean you'll stay and help us?
and 'The Unmarketables.'
Hello there, I'm Poopy Butthole Pooerson. You can call me Dirty Wet Poopie, Poopie Sloppy Pooerhole.
But none of these shows ever got picked up.
Meanwhile, Dan Harmon was having his own problems with the networks.
After he was fired from ‘Community’ after 3 seasons, Adult Swim approached him to make an animated series with a more primetime feel.
He wasn’t a cartoon guy, but his old Channel 101 buddy Justin Roiland fit the bill.
See where we're going with this?
At the time, Roiland was making a living mainly as a voice actor.
He played Blendin Blandin on ‘Gravity Falls,’
It's Blendin! Blendin Benjamin Blandon!
And the Earl of Lemongrab in ‘Adventure Time.’
[long sustained scream]
Roiland was skeptical about pitching another show after being turned down three times in a row.
But he agreed to Harmon’s offer, and together they banged out the first draft of the ‘Rick and Morty’ pilot in just six hours.
And the rest is history.
Unless you count time fractures and parallel universes.
15 years ago, Justin Roiland was holding a boom mic for Ryan Seacrest.
Now, he’s got one of the hottest shows on television.
He’s even got his own VR game studio, Squanchtendo!
What are you doing in my place? This is my tree place! This is my tree world! Who the f--- are you to be in this place?
He’s a pretty big inspiration to me,
and to everyone behind the cameras here, too.
So Justin, from all of us:
I LIKE WHAT YOU GOT. GOOD JOB.