Rick & Morty's Nihilistic Programming
- Paras
- May 26, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2023
Nihilism is defined as:
A viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.
A doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths.
a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility. [1]
Wikipedia further informs us:
Nihilism is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. There have been different nihilist positions, including that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some set of entities do not exist or are meaningless or pointless. [2]
Hopefully you have got a bit of idea about this philosophical concept.
Onto Rick & Morty's Programming of Nihilism then!
1. The Pilot Episode Bomb:
Rick wakes Morty up in the middle of the night, takes him up in his space car and informs him that he has developed a bomb and he's going to drop it on Earth, so we can get a fresh start! This is the perfect summary of Rick's nihilistic beliefs. He values life too little to care about it dying from a bomb.
2. Frank-Freezing:
Morty is in school when he gets bullied by Frank, a schoolmate. Rick appears and freezes Frank in time. Rick needs to go to another dimension to run some errands and urges Morty to accompany him. Morty says that he can't do that as that would mean skipping school but Rick is stubborn and Morty has to relent. Before leaving he asks Rick if they should unfreeze Frank before leaving, but Rick assures him. "He'll be fine."
Moments later, Morty's sister Summer arrives and strikes a conversation with Frank, supposedly her love interest. The frozen boy cannot hear her, let alone respond. He loses his balance and is shattered on the floor. Summer screams, she's traumatized.
Later in the episode, the Smith family minus Summer is talking in the garage. Summer enters and expresses her anguish that Frank was frozen to death in her school. She doesn't know who the culprit is. Rick blatantly replies, "No idea what you're talking about."
This callous and insensitive behavior is interwoven into almost every Rick and Morty episode.
3. Marriage Mockery:
Jerry's parents come to visit on Christmas. They bring a guest: a middle-aged man named Jacob. Jerry assumes that he's just a family friend, welcomes him in and tries to bond with him; despite feeling confused and sad.
At lunch Jerry reaches the height of inquisitiveness and asks Jacob's role in his parents' lives. He says Jacob sounds like their caretaker. The audience thinks along those lines till this time.
Jerry's mother beats around the bush but his father clarifies that Jacob is his wife's lover!
He further elaborates that sometimes he watches them...
Later in the episode, a 'wave of love' causes Summer to get intimate with her boyfriend. This inspires Jerry's mother to smooch Jacob.
Which, in turn, makes Jerry's father do this:
I've never seen a perfect mockery of marriage and monogamy in my life! The characters are made so innocent that we're almost compelled to think that what we're seeing is right. Spoiler alert: IT'S NOT!
Adultery disguised as normal behavior will never sit right by righteousness.
4. A Character for Existential Crisis:
In the Meeseeks and Destroy episode in season 1, Rick gives the Smith family Meseeks boxes that produce them at the tap of a button. These beings exists to fulfill a purpose; which when completed makes way for the Meseeks to go away into nothingness (maybe a subtle hint at nihilism again).
Summer wants to be popular at school, Beth wants to be a more complete woman and Jerry wants to score two strokes off his golf game. Summer and Beth's tasks get completed within hours and they vanish, but Jerry's is a completely different story. Jerry tries but cannot do it no matter how much the Meseeks helps him. Frustrated, Meseeks taps the box and asks the second one to help. When the second one fails he summons a third one; and this goes on for about 30-40 times.
Jerry and Beth go to dinner, leaving the disappointed creatures at home. They put the blame on each other for giving them life and brutally fight amongst themselves.
They eventually arrive at a solution - kill Jerry and maneuver his body to score the two strokes off his golf game! They attack the restaurant where Jerry and Beth are having dinner and hold a woman hostage; the couple hides in the storage room for safety.
The story ends by Beth inspiring and motivating Jerry to complete the task, which he does; thereby making the temporary terrorists go away!
In this scene the Meseeks reveal their purpose behind trying to harm Jerry: they don't want a purpose of their own but just want to fulfill the one given by their 'caller.' This is a subtle nod to the fact that most people in this world are like Meseeks - they just live to fulfill the purpose of the people around them - their bosses, parents, kids, the government and the list goes on and on.
The word 'meseeks' can be read as 'me seek' or 'I seek'. As in 'I seek a purpose to fulfill.' This can mean either 'I seek my purpose to fulfill' or 'I seek another's purpose to fulfill'! This far too deep a deep meaning embedded in an animated comedy sitcom. The series isn't completely meaningless, huh!
Conclusion:
While this series is humorous, insanely creative & enjoyable - I'd know 'cause it is one of my favorites!🤭 - it raises the following question:
Does Rick And Morty subtly program us to be insensitive, inconsiderate, rude, aggressive, domineering, uncompassionate and hurtful towards other human beings and beyond?
In my experience, I subconsciously begin to think like Rick to some extent whenever I'm binge-watching the series. It's not pronounced, but it does exist.
Talk about a program programming!
All I've written is my observation and opinion.
Sources:
[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism
Comments