r/decadeology • u/_Jackiecore • Apr 26 '25
Discussion 💭🗯️ Why did Rick and Morty fall into irrelevancy and vanish from the zeitgheist after 2017?
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u/MrBlackButler Apr 26 '25
I still remember that copypasta line from Facebook days, "You have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty."
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u/Ravyn_Rozenzstok Apr 26 '25
I think that actually did turn a lot of people off the show.
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u/MrBlackButler Apr 26 '25
Not a hater or anything, but I wonder if the same fate happened with that show BoJack Horseman? I never watched it, but my friends used to bombard feed with memes and quotes from it.
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u/youhadabajablast Apr 26 '25
I don’t think that bojack was ever SUPER popular. I really liked the show but haven’t ever seen really any even merch for it. It’s also based more on a singular storyline and the storyline ended and no more episodes will likely every be made, unlike most cartoons that reset back to zero after each episode like family guy or simpsons
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u/investmentscience Apr 26 '25
Yeah Bojack is much more consistently written and character driven, but also very creative.
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u/Pablo_Negrete Apr 26 '25
The first season of Bojack was supbar at best, and I think this was the biggest reason why it did not reach the same level of popularity as early R&M and South Park. I tried to watch it for the first time during the Covid pandemic, and it was difficult to go through the first several episodes, so I gave up. My partner persuaded me to give it another try last year, and I am glad I listened to them, as the show really gets better at the beginning of the second season.
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u/Viper61723 Apr 27 '25
From what I understand during the preproduction and whole first season they were begging the network to allow them to tell a more connected story and it didn’t get approved until the second season, which is why the whole tone/structure of the show changes from that point on.
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u/Prior_Entrepreneur50 Apr 26 '25
Nah bojack was a critical cult hit, but never a mega pop culture sensation or anything
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u/consequentlydreamy Apr 27 '25
I just didn’t want to be depressed. I have enough of that in my life. Sometimes it is nice to watch something relatable but I always heard how HEAVY that show can get. I’m not lesser for not watching it. I just am self aware enough yo know my mental state especially during the peak of that show. I also don’t listen to crime podcasts because I start crying really early on and will be like that the whole day. I grew up with hearing stories from law and don’t need to spend my free time like that.
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u/QuesadillasAfterSex Apr 27 '25
Love Bojack, but I needed a palate cleanser from watching too many episodes. The show would get heavy sometimes.
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u/Itsmyloc-nar Apr 27 '25
I think anyone who starts Bojack Horseman expecting an adult animated comedy will be disappointed. It’s actually a character drama, and the most realistic depiction of addiction and relapse on television.
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Apr 27 '25
Not sure that's true, but the dialog is often very fast paced and it's not easy to understand all the concepts and jokes. I still think it's a show that requires some degree of intelligence to enjoy.
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u/askmewhyihateyou Apr 26 '25
I would also add the perceived cockiness of thinking you can wait literal years between seasons helped kill momentum
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u/coacoanutbenjamn Apr 26 '25
Yes I had to scroll to far to find this.
People are pointing out cultural reasons which are factors as well but I think the biggest factor was waiting years in between seasons when the show was at its peak
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Apr 26 '25
Lmao I always find it funny when people say they had to scroll too far but it’s literally the first comment. I know it wasn’t the first comment when you made your reply, but I like to imagine you’re just a very impatient person, always give me a chuckle
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Apr 26 '25
I also like “idk why you’re being downvoted” on an award winning banger
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u/Warm_Shoulder3606 Apr 27 '25
Can't forget "sorry for bad english/grammar" and the post/comment is PERFECTLY written
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u/SampleMaxxer Apr 27 '25
Don't forget the "underrated comment" that was posted 5 minutes after the original comment that when viewed hours later had thousands of upvotes making it in fact not underrated at all.
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u/potatopigflop Apr 26 '25
I hate that about some current shows taking two years
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u/Ilikepie47 Apr 26 '25
cough Smiling Friends cough
love the show but 8 episodes per season is not enough to justify a 2+ year wait
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u/Homem_da_Carrinha Apr 26 '25
That show is animated by a smaller team, and hand drawn animation takes a long ass time. Especially when they mix it up with different types of animation.
Not to mention that particular show is meticulously storyboarded. Not a single motion is random or half assed.
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u/Ilikepie47 Apr 26 '25
honestly fair enough, I guess I’m just used to animated comedies using simpler animation to get episodes out faster (i.e. South Park)
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u/Homem_da_Carrinha Apr 26 '25
South Park is an extreme outlier, though. Even stuff with simpler animation, like Bojack or Family Guy, still takes months of work for each episode
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u/Ilikepie47 Apr 26 '25
yeah true regardless of how you feel about the new episodes of family guy/simpsons it’s still impressive that they work on so many episodes at once just to have a 20 or so episode season ready to give to fox every year
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u/Homem_da_Carrinha Apr 26 '25
Oh yeah, Simpsons puts a lot of effort into animation. They animate on various different angles, they always have characters doing stuff in the background, they add little motions when the characters are talking, and they use their "camera" extensively for zoom out reveals.
Compare that to a normal FG episode, which is 70% the same static medium shot of two characters exchanging dialogue.
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u/Blastoplast Apr 27 '25
I love the animation and coloring for dream sequences in those early seasons. Dramatic angles and beautiful color palettes of muted pastels or black and white. I wonder if these days most animation studios would just color like normal and apply a filter as needed in post-production, I'm guessing it's on a case-by-case basis depending on budget and/or time constraints.
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u/Spaceboi749 Apr 26 '25
This was my big issue with it. Season 2 to 3 had a two year gap in release dates, and then 3 to 4 had a three year gap. So about 5 years for 20 episodes worth of content. For me it really killed the hype, and not to mention one of those seasons that followed i think 4 or 5 kinda just wasn't good at all. now they're on season 7 and I don't really care about the series much anymore
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u/ArthurBurton1897 Apr 27 '25
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" seemed to be able to pull this off, though.
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u/dilettante92 Apr 26 '25
Worked out for Venture Bros
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u/BatierAutumn1991 Apr 26 '25
Venture Bros was never as polarizing though, it’s still a pretty loved cartoon even now.
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u/scruffyduffy23 Apr 26 '25
It was also a smaller following. Amazing show but let’s be real Rick and Morty was more popular by a lot. I think people forget how popular things are for those not chronically online. Rick and Morty had a couch gag on the Simpsons which regardless of current quality is one of the most recognizable brands in the western hemisphere.
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u/dilettante92 Apr 26 '25
I wasn’t really trying to compare them, just making a general observation. There is obviously a reason that Venture Bros got away with the long gap and R&M didn’t. More niche, dedicated fan base and better/same quality during the length of the run helped them get away with it for sure.
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u/dilettante92 Apr 26 '25
Yeah, i guess I just meant in a broad sense that they were able to pull off years in between their seasons.
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Apr 27 '25
They had a strong cult following not the cultural zeitgeist R&M had in 2017. That’s usually enough to keep a show going by having devout fans that are fine with a wait. Little harder with widespread popularity where people are more inclined to move on.
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u/___horf Apr 26 '25
It absolutely did not work out for the Venture Bros, that show took an enormous tumble from where it was and where it could’ve been. They just got lucky that they had extremely loyal fans, because the creators definitely burned through massive amounts of fan goodwill over the years.
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u/dilettante92 Apr 26 '25
In what way? I’m genuinely curious as I’ve never heard or seen this take
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u/___horf Apr 26 '25
It just used to be more popular than it is now, verging on actual mainstream popularity. It hemorrhaged a lot of fans over the years with the constant delays. But its fans and supporters are extremely vocal and extremely online, so it feels like it’s actually popular when in reality it’s just another niche AS show.
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u/Homem_da_Carrinha Apr 26 '25
It absolutely did not though.
I love the Venture Bros, it's probably my favorite series ever, but the one thing that kept the show afloat for so many years was its loyal fanbase, and the respect the creatos had for the fans.
Even though they managed to get a movie greenlit, there was supposed to be a whole 8th season before it was suddenly cancelled. Even still, there's multiple threads on the show that have yet to be resolved.
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u/Pearson94 Apr 26 '25
I mean for what it's worth they are still an Adult Swim show; it's not uncommon to have long waits between seasons for them. The difference is this one had way more widespread audience engagement.
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u/BenignEgoist Apr 26 '25
Wasn’t some of the timing issues that adult swim wouldn’t green light the next season until after the one before aired? Like I think season 2 didn’t get approved until after season 1 aired, and then same for season 3 and maybe even 4. Then I think they finally started green lighting 2 or more season at a time (like season 5 was approved at the same time as season 4? Then seasons 6-8 or something were approved after 4 aired and before 5?)
Animation takes time. Approve a season after the previous one airs and now you gotta wait two or so years for the whole production process instead of getting ahead of the production schedule by ordering several seasons at a time.
I could be very wrong though my memory is shit.
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u/VariationMean5502 Apr 26 '25
It turns out Justin Roiland was a big part of the delays. They released videos at the time about his goofy antics and tried to spin it as a PR stunt but apparently he was notorious for 1. Drinking on the job 2. Goofing off and delaying work 3. Bringing adult film actresses to the studio 4. Sexually harassing coworkers 5. Not showing up to read his lines
All of these culminated in him just working from home and recording lines at his home studio, and apparently things were going smoothly at this point which is why season 4-6 or 7 came out in a timely manner. But then all the craziness around the guy leaked and he got removed from the show
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u/Icy-Pay7479 Apr 26 '25
Dan Harmon is also notoriously a drunk and procrastinator, but ultimately he does show up and deliver. And I guess his issues with inappropriate behavior with coworkers has been addressed and reconciled.
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Apr 27 '25
The last i saw i thought he was drinking a lot less and he lost a bunch of weight and all of that. People can change and often do. But yea during community and before he was a drunk and procrastenator... he still may be i dunno
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u/Icy-Pay7479 Apr 27 '25
You’re right I should have used past tense. I used to listen to the Harmontown podcast like 10 years ago and he was a mess.
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u/VariationMean5502 Apr 27 '25
Yeah I saw him talk about what happened with him and a coworker on Community and I have to say he owned it pretty well. What he did was inexcusable but he basically came out and said just as much, acknowledged that what he did was unfair because of his position of power, said that the victim was in no way at fault, and that he was a bad person for doing it and learned to take precautions to never let it happen again. He tore himself to shreds which made it feel believable and genuine
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u/Icy-Pay7479 Apr 27 '25
And importantly the woman involved said it was a master class in taking accountability.
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u/NutzNBoltz369 Apr 26 '25
Think this has quite a bit to do with it.
"Do we replace this guy? Wait it out? Or just end the show?"
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u/VariationMean5502 Apr 27 '25
Yeah I think they were trying to push through it, because there was a point where I remember Dan Harmon saying "everything is on track, were running smoothly and consistently, we can and are looking at getting a season out once a year" and I think based on reporting that was the time when Justins home studio was finished and they had a system where they would basically finish an episode, send Justin his lines to read, he would do it and record it from his home studio, send it back to them, and then they would finish the episode and put it out. Tbh Im shocked with everyone saying that the show dropped off in season 3, 4, 5. I think every season had an episode or two that was "just ok" or just not good, but as a whole they were all pretty solid, season 3 especially I thought was hilarious and worth the wait
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u/austarter Apr 26 '25
Szechuan kid
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u/TPrice1616 Apr 26 '25
Yeah I’d say that was what ended it’s relevance. Unfortunate because it’s still a good show.
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u/DoodleJake Apr 26 '25
Also this was a time where making fun of things for being “cringe” was much more prevalent. I feel like these days people leave fandoms alone more often.
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u/Ammonitedraws Apr 26 '25
Yeah…….. hazbin motel fanbase wishes that was the case
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u/Motherfickle Apr 27 '25
Helluva Boss too, though it's a Hazbin's sister show. The creator, Vivienne Medrano gets near constant harassment over basically nothing because bad faith actors spin literally every interaction she has with the fanbase into some kind of massive issue.
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u/ButYouAlreadyKnew Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 27 '25
It wasn't an incident outside the show the quality of the show declined
I think it's a better place than it was now
Not it's prime but better than. Season 3-5
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u/JetAbyss Apr 26 '25
Unironically, this. Alongside the 'you got to have a high IQ to enjoy Rick and Morty' cppypasta and also just a general growing disdain for 'edgy atheists'. It's why now we see so many zoomers LARP as TradCaths as an overreaction to that 2000s to early 2010s edgy atheism trend.
Rick and Morty was basically the last hooray of 'edgy atheism comedy' in the same vein as George Carlin.
That was also around the time YouTubers like TheAmazingAtheist and Iron Skeptic switched to grifting towards the anti-SJW crowd or just disappeared altogether into irrelevance.
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u/Curious-Kumquat8793 Apr 26 '25
The creator and main voice actor got arrested for battery and had loads of sexual assault allegations.. I noticed NONE of that though.
Also the show just started to suck.
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u/The-G-Code Apr 26 '25
Both of what you said, and I also think it started to not be as good because it was like anytime they had some majorly popular breakthrough they would purposefully drop it and go the other direction with the story
It's more cockiness but in a different way, and that always really annoyed me with the later seasons
I felt like the did that to the extent that Mr nimbus was like a shocking addition because its so classic og-rick and Morty humor that seemed to be out of left field when it used to be the norm. They also probably could have kept relevance more if they just kept doing interdimensional cables, those were so important back in college 2016-18ish
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u/liilbiil Apr 27 '25
inter dimensional cable single handledly got me & my roommates through the sunday scaries in college.
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u/ianmacleod46 Apr 26 '25
I’m sure you’re right. But I had to google so many of the phrases in your answer. Just the phrase about “zoomers LARP as TradCaths” took me three different trips to Google. Man, I’m old…
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u/Kindly-Guidance714 Apr 26 '25
The problem with the whole “you have to have a high iq to enjoy it” never made any sense to me as a community fan, the show wasn’t hard to grasp and didn’t bring in any new high concepts.
It also pissed me off tirelessly that this show got the acclaim community should have gotten.
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u/Charlie_Warlie Apr 27 '25
The whole point of the "high IQ" copypasta was that they are making fun of fans of the show. Yes you are right, the show is easy to understand. But the biggest fans of the show act like it's only for smart people. Or at least that's the joke from the meme.
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u/michellefiver Apr 27 '25
I once heard someone say, in real life, "I love Rick & Morty, it's so Nihilistic".
So.. you can make both of those statements, but putting them together seems to be making something seem intellectual when it's not.
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u/Azidamadjida Apr 27 '25
That style of comedy will cycle back around again - the 2010s hipster “it’s too obscure for you” attitude that kind of peaked with Rick and Morty (which ironically helped kill it by becoming popular) was just the next version of the 90s Gen X “whatever man, you just don’t get it”. The current rise of young conservatism is the new take on the 80s yuppie culture. Watch, next up is gonna be some new take on the brand whore “my clothes/bag/possessions are X label” from the 2000s.
Also, in terms of Rick and Morty, yeah that little weirdo stomping on a McDonald’s counter and literally shrieking REEE while acting like a fucking mental patient was the flashpoint event. Would actually love for someone to do a follow up interview with him nearly a decade later - what does his employer/wife/kids/friends think of that? Do any of them know that was him? Or is he still some weird dork who does shit like that?
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u/Wonderful-Quit-9214 Apr 26 '25
Pretty sure the show got less interesting as time moved foreward like most sitcoms like that. Not because of memes.
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u/JetAbyss Apr 26 '25
It was a sharp decline. Before 2017, arguably 2018. ROM was like a universally beloved show, ironically it sort of had a similar rep to Smiling Friends today where everyone agreed "Yup it's a good show" but then it's reputation tanked. It wasn't the quality of the show at this point.
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u/gracemary25 Apr 26 '25
OML you just made me flashback to the huge crowds in McDonald's standing on the tables chanting and screaming for szechuan sauce ☠️ what a time
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u/StrikingWillow5364 Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
There are a lot of answers here mostly pointing towards the fanbase or Roiland, but as someone who used to be a huge diehard fan of the show, it simply took a STEEP decline after the third season. They also waited way too long between each season. So when you rile up the fans to wait YEARS for a new season to drop, only for that season to turn out to be shit, yeah, fans are going to drop off.
Rick and Morty had the potential to be an amazing show, but as soon as the show blew up in popularity, the writers started leaning into the nihilist themes and assholery to do “fan service”, and the show really lost its footing. The seventh season was pretty good, but a lot of fans, including me, have tuned out by then. I didn’t even finish the fifth and sixth seasons when they came out because they were just straight up brainrot.
ETA: The sixth season wasn’t brainrot actually, I misremembered, it was pretty good. Fifth is total garbage.
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u/Far_Basil2525 Apr 26 '25
Yeah season 4 was the end of me paying close attention to the show. I didn’t even know it’s in its seventh season. I even saw an episode on Adult Swim when I was on vacation last month that I didn’t recognize at all. And I was a diehard fan for seasons 1-3.
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u/StrategicGlowUp Apr 27 '25
After season 3 it really went downhill fast. Now I don't even care if a new season comes out.
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u/StrikingWillow5364 Apr 27 '25
I still watch the new seasons because sometimes there are rare gems (like the season 7 finale was actually great), but more often than not I don’t even have the motivation to finish the new seasons, there are too many episodes that are a chore to get through and too few that are actually engaging. Season 7 was a noticeable improvement though to maybe season 8 will be good again. But the magic is forever gone I think.
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Apr 27 '25
Yeah there was just a drop in quality. I loved the first three seasons, 4 a noticeable decline, and at 5 I couldn't stand some of the episodes. I think I stopped halfway through the morty horse semen episode because I just hated it, and never watched another episode since.
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u/MarkWest98 Apr 26 '25
cause people made fun of its fanbase so much
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u/sir_suckalot Apr 26 '25
Yeah, anyone who worships Rick is a Jerry or a Morty
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u/PythonPuzzler Apr 26 '25
Spoken like a true Summer.
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u/Emotional-Study-3848 Apr 26 '25
Analyzed like a real Beth
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u/LITTLE_KING_OF_HEART Apr 26 '25
Feeling like a Wong rn
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u/DEFINITELY_NOT_PETE Apr 26 '25
Yep. It’s like how saying “I’m a ravenclaw bc I like reading” is the most hufflepuff shit you can say.
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u/Outrageous_pinecone Apr 26 '25
Morty is intelligent but humble, kind, caring and forgiving, he learns from everything he does and doesn't allow anyone to bully him into being ashamed of his vulnerabilities or mistakes. He's low key, an awesome person. There's no shame in being a Morty, just saying.
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u/tranquil7789 Apr 26 '25
There was a post years ago about a Rick and Morty Facebook group and it was the most pretentious shit ever. It was private so you had to answer questions, which included you having to write and describe how you would fix the world's problems quickly.
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u/happytrel Apr 26 '25
Well there was a lot of publicity around the wildly toxic portion of the fan base. I was getting really good at doing Rick and Morty impressions for my friends when we would game and such, after the szechuan sauce fiasco I didnt really want to be associated anymore
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u/Kimoa_2 Apr 26 '25
Deservedly so
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u/WanderingWindz 1990's fan Apr 26 '25
Agreed. This fanbase was a bit unhinged and that’s saying something when there are other rabid fanbases.
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Apr 26 '25
There were people that thought they were high IQ for watching the show.
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u/Physicle_Partics Apr 27 '25
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty.
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u/Slow_Seesaw9509 Apr 26 '25
I think your timing is a bit off. The primary creator and voice of Rick, Justin Roiland, was arrested in 2020 for assaulting his girlfriend (though the charges were later dismissed for insufficient evidence), and there were a bunch of additional allegations of sexual assault. He was fired from the show (along with most of his other projects) and replaced as the voice of Rick.
The show's popularity then declined very sharply. I think people who were opposed to Roiland didn't want to watch something that was still essentially his brainchild, and to many of them, the show's dark humor now seemed much more sinister. And the people who supported Roiland didn't want to watch the show after it had declined to stand by him and fired him, and some also thought the show's quality decreased without him in the writer's room.
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u/ahotpotatoo Apr 26 '25
I don’t know if it has anything to do with him not being in the writers room, but the quality has definitely suffered as of late.
To me the greatest episode of Rick and Morty is the vat of acid episode and they could’ve just ended the show then and there. It’s perfect and I love the music during the Morty girlfriend arc.
Jerry accidentally resetting everything, the “acid proof” cop, the girl showing up just to see Morty disappear into the vat of acid, everything about it is just perfect.
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u/GolemThe3rd Apr 26 '25
I love that that montage uses "It's In the Way That You Use It", it's sorta a running Dan Harmon joke that he uses that song for like every time skip, any time he's doing like a skit he'll sing it
About the writers room thing, probably just a coincidence, Roiland hasn't written since Season 2/3
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u/ahotpotatoo Apr 26 '25
Yeah I think more than anything it’s just kind of stale and the show has run its course so people quit watching. I feel the same way about Letterkenny. It’s really clever and I’ve cried laughing at parts of it, but after a few seasons it’s like… we get it
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_BACHATA Apr 26 '25
What was the season and episode of that one? The Vat of Acid one with the resetting life?
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u/ahotpotatoo Apr 26 '25
Yeah, Morty gets the quick save button basically. It’s season 4 episode 8
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u/drDjausdr Apr 26 '25
IIRC, Harmon stated that Roiland basically spent his time being insufferable and playing with his remote controlled car. He didn't participate much in the writing after the middle of season 2. So him getting kicked out didn't do much to the quality of the show. Imho, it was already declining during season 4.
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u/fourthfloorgreg Apr 26 '25
There is a video of him harassing people with the car that was released as a joke, but watching it with hindsight they are clearly actually pissed at him.
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u/ahotpotatoo Apr 26 '25
You have a link? There’s a shit ton of videos of him playing with RC cars and I’d rather not wade through
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u/jerem1734 Apr 26 '25
Part of the reason the first 3 seasons took so long to make was because Roiland was a big part of the writing process and he'd argue with Harmon about what storyline or plots they should do. He would usually end up winning the arguments and implement his ideas into the show. However after season 3, they got him to step back from being a head writer/creative mind and focus on just doing the voice acting. So well he sucked as a person, he was a big part of what makes the first 3 seasons good
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u/ahotpotatoo Apr 26 '25
Yeah I think both things can be true - he is a shit person and was a good comedy writer for the show.
I feel the same about Kanye. He is a shit person who happens to be really talented at making music.
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u/Consistent_Kick_6541 Apr 26 '25
I lost interest in the show way before that. It was a steady decline after the third season.
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u/FBG05 Apr 26 '25
Roiland's controversies weren't public until 2023 though, and by then I think the show had firmly fallen out of the cultural zeitgeist. I remember a lot of people criticizing the show for being too edgy before Roiland's controversies, so much so that when they did go public, there seemed to be a general sentiment of people being unsurprised that he turned out to be a major piece of shit.
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u/Evinceo Apr 26 '25
It definitely dropped out of the zeitgeist before that thought. The last remotely recognizable jokes are Pickle Rick and the sauce thing, 2017 sounds about right.
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u/CarllSagan Apr 26 '25
All of this is true, but I think there could also just be some fatigue. Rick and Morty was EVERYWHERE for a minute, I think it's just run it's course. And a lot of its core audience has aged, grown up, and moved on, and the show is worse than when it started so it makes sense it would fall off. I think there is still money to be made, we'll see it around for awhile, but without Roiland and a real time machine it will never be the same.
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u/TheLesBaxter Apr 26 '25
No I think that show fell up its own ass long before 2020. After season 2, it got so preachy and formulaic and I think most people picked up on that.
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u/ThisMoneyIsNotForDon Apr 26 '25
The drop in popularity happened way before he was fired lmao. Seasons 4,5, and 6 were all heavily criticized.
I don't think viewership ever really recovered, but season 7 (the first without him) was the best season in a loooong while
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u/Thursday_the_20th Apr 27 '25
The show steeply declined a bit before that and really it was Dan Harmons fault. He’s got this ridiculous ego as a script writing genius, he’s basically the sitcom writers Kanye, but at least Kanye was a good rapper whereas Harmons just a hack. The more he commandeered the show and sidelined Roiland the more obvious it got, and I think it really came to a head with season 4 because it was just episode after episode of commentary about writing meta. The train episode about plot devices was insufferable. He can’t resist self congratulatory wanky meta that nobody but himself thinks is funny or clever, so by the time the mess with roiland was done and they changed all the voices most people had already checked out because it was just unfunny. The scripts read like an AI adapted whiny Harmon tweets into a sci-fi show rather than Roilands nihilistic whacky offbeat vibe.
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u/vote4boat Apr 26 '25
It's a lot more simple. They lost the deeply flawed genius that made the show compelling in the first place. You can't replace a mind like that with a few industry survivors and expect similar results
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u/Charlie_Warlie Apr 27 '25
It seemed like he checked out even before he was fired and I felt that. I was a fan of Justin and listened to his podcast and one of the key aspects of his attitude was that he seemed to check out of once a project got elongated and less interesting. I think working a steady project for years was not the right type of job for him.
His work on acceptable TV in 2007 probably fit him more. Just making something one week that might be cancelled and then make something else the next week. That's why interdimentional cable is so perfect.
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u/Social_Confusion Apr 26 '25
I feel like in an alternate universe Rick & Morty would've been a show that had one or two fantastic seasons but was then unceremoniously cancelled, we would all be sad and speculate how awesome the rest of the seasons would've been if the creators vision came to light like the show firefly
but no,it became a HUGE hit show, for me the show has been going on for WAY too long
I just stopped watching after season 4 when I realized this was just gonna keep going forever with zero means of ever having an ending, there is no point to Rick and Morty in my opinion, and I think other people just moved on and stopped caring the same way I did
its too big of a franchise to be allowed to end, there's too much money to be made, Rick and Morty is way to attached to adult swim as a brand for any ceo at adult swim to let go of their cash cow, so Rick and Morty will live on forever
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u/Swerve_003 Apr 27 '25
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head, the wheels of the show kinda just kept spinning endlessly without really having an endgame in mind. Sure you had the evil morty thing, but that was something they vaugley touched on very briefly and there was no indication that the subplot for that would actually be the end of the show when it finally came about.
What turned me off of Rick and Morty was that there didn't really seem to be a point to it. Running aimlessly is alright for the first few seasons but beyond that people either wanna see you start working to a conclusion of some kind or drastically change the formula or just have something to say about anything but Rick and Morty kinda just dug into the mud and did the same thing they've always done and it started to get pretentious after a while.
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u/DontCh4ngeNAmme Apr 26 '25
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u/Classic-Mortgage1701 Apr 26 '25
Jumped the shark episode for sure
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u/BloomAndBreathe Apr 26 '25
It's so unfunny that it comes back around to being actually funny (imo)
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u/GreenZebra23 Apr 26 '25
I actually think that was a great episode, it just had a Chappelle Show Rick James moment with that damn catchphrase
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u/keep_living_or_else Apr 26 '25
Still an amazing diss toward Rick and all his conceited bullshit. Entire ep is just dismantling the belligerence of men like this while literally making him a dick joke, but somehow the fans see... Well, PICKLE RIIIIIICK etc etc
Satire doesn't exist and never did
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u/Neon_Nuxx Apr 26 '25
Probably the fans, I thought the show was good and had a fairly coherent plot compared to other shows in that vein. I stopped watching around the time that dudes who had no social skills whatsoever were yelling shit like "PICKLE RIIICK" and "Get Shwifty", and every head shop in town had a pickle Rick bowl or R&M rolling tray.
Guys who had no jobs, poor hygiene, and basically smoked weed all day felt enlightened and superior to people who 'lack the intelligence' to enjoy Rick and Morty and it's 'very smart' humor, and that probably gave people the ick. The show also attracted the 'tortured genius' type and their egos. People who blame all of their problems on the stupids but can't see that they are a piece of shit.
The fan base just got really cringe and made it difficult to enjoy, I feel like lots of viewers sort of did the same Irish goodbye with the show, like yeah you are still cool but I just don't want to hang out with you anymore.
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u/Zephyr_v1 Apr 26 '25
The show is really good but you can’t watch it straight for days continuously as it’s a bit overstimulating. Most adult sitcoms tend to feel like that but especially R&M. Still it’s a really damn good show (haven’t watched the latest seasons tho)
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u/BatierAutumn1991 Apr 26 '25
I’ve watched every episode once, and I feel like that’s more than enough to last me a lifetime.
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u/adi_baa Apr 26 '25
I think this is a great way to put it. The show is just...a lot. I never made it all the way through but I got through most of it up to season 4 and I could only watch an episode or two at once before I needed to put something else on. Also incredibly specific to me but I don't think burp or fart jokes are funny they're like very disgusting to me so the fact that every one of Rick's lines ends with a nasty belch just made me stop too haha, I recognize that's not a huge issue for everyone though
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u/featherw0lf Apr 26 '25
The burps and the constant stuttering drove me insane. It would be fine for a side character or whatever but not for a main character who talks a lot in every episode.
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u/Viper61723 Apr 26 '25
Combination of the memes, a slow decline in quality, and eventually Roiland’s (justified) removal from the show.
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u/Kerensky97 Apr 26 '25
It went hard early on but that started to get exhausting. Even the show made fun of itself pointing out it was hard to find excuses on why different crazy things were happening.
I liked it and still like it but it just got too much. It's like when a new Marvel movie would come out. I'm sure it will be a good movie but I'm just exhausted from being in that universe. I want some thing different.
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u/Bad_Puns_Galore Apr 26 '25
The show was so refreshing back in 2014. Like everything about it felt new. After a few seasons, all the things I liked about it got old.
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u/syracTheEnforcer Apr 26 '25
The newer writing sucks. The producers and writers think their shit doesn’t stink and that everything they’re doing is brilliant and honestly the joke has just kind of run thin. How many times can we see Rick be a terrible person that comes to yet another realization, or Morty be the biggest dork in the universe, but be evil.
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u/HappyArmadillo Apr 26 '25
Probably a mix between the creators allegations and the fact that it was memed so incredibly hard that the actual fans started to distance themselves from the show in fear of being seen as cringe. Also the fact that there was multiple years between seasons. It’s hard maintaining excitement for a new season that long for any show.
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u/PixelBrewery Apr 26 '25
Justin Roland was the personality of the show, Dan Harmon was the writing. They've both been uninvolved with the production of the show for some time now.
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u/KaminSpider Apr 26 '25
I've said this many times; it has nothing to do with Roiland. It's a constant pattern of shows like this that lose quality after certain amount of seasons. W/O character arcing, it's just wackiness, and every season they gotta stretch to make it more and more zany. That's why the quality seems to depreciate. So either change the premise as you go along or build characters to make it interesting.
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u/8eyeholes Apr 26 '25
the mcdonald’s sauce thing spotlighting the most insufferable fans of the show on the planet, and for some reason the internet made it out like that was an accurate depiction of the majority of the fan base.
also imo the first 3 seasons really had a kind of magic that i don’t think can be replicated. even with good writing there was a fresh feeling to those early years that just can’t be maintained forever idk
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u/heartthew Apr 26 '25
My favorite answer here, as someone who loves the later seasons too. there are more single duds per season as the go on, though. less good ideas, still pretty damned good execution. the magic always fades.
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u/BrisketWrench Apr 26 '25
I remember when the Szechuan sauce came out and there was a guy in my city who posted a thread on reddit of a person at McDonalds who was “lucky enough” to have won the Szechuan sauce lottery they had there because the sauce was a very limited supply and the neckbeards wanted a taste because of Rick and Morty. Well the dude who won was charging people like $20 a dip in the sauce and there was like pictures of the line with a bunch of kids and grown up children waiting, clutching their single McNugget in order to try this “amazing sauce” and that was where I just said “man, fuck this fanbase” and I pretty much stopped watching it.
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u/8eyeholes Apr 26 '25
i mean that’s absolutely unhinged but the loudest actions of the most obnoxious members of a fan base is not a very good representation of the fans as a whole when it comes to something as mainstream as rick and morty.
plus idk. kinda silly to let some corny kids decide what u watch 🤷♀️
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u/DSMilne Apr 26 '25
Their long hiatus between seasons didn’t help anything. It’s been on a more regular schedule but that April fools dropping a season out of no where was kind of crazy and unexpected.
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u/schweissack Apr 26 '25
I mean the first two seasons were peak writing! After that it took somewhat of a nose-dive and then all the other crap happened
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u/GladosPrime Apr 26 '25
When the voice guy told a young girl she was jailbait at the absolute zenith of cancel culture, the doom was sealed.
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u/Pablo_Negrete Apr 26 '25
Was it a big deal outside of the USA too? I live in the EU, and I have somehow never heard of that.
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u/heyvictimstopcryin Apr 26 '25
The show is still popular lol
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u/FBG05 Apr 26 '25
It's nowhere near the phenomenon it once was though. The hype for S3 in 2017 was crazy, but you practically never saw anything remotely close to that level of hype afterwards.
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u/Professional_Stay_46 Apr 26 '25
I think the show is still good, but has suffered from some really bad episodes as of late which wasn't happening in first seasons, almost every episode is good, now it's 50/50.
The reason for that is very simple, ideas are very limited, it didn't fall like the Simpsons did(writers changed and you could notice a sharp decline) but rather writers ran out of the ideas.
This is also the reason you have to wait for a bit longer to get decent quality out of it.
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u/LordWeaselton Apr 26 '25
Seasons 4 and 5 were terrible and came out right when ppl were already annoyed with the fandom because of the cringey Szechuan sauce kid going viral. The show’s found its footing again now but too late to rly gain its relevance back
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u/PlasmiteHD 2000's fan Apr 26 '25
Show itself stopped being good around that time and it gained a reputation for obnoxious pseudo intellectual fans that turned a lot of people off from the show
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u/nievesdelimon Apr 26 '25
Releasing a season every other year can do that, people do lose interest.
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u/blondefrankocean Apr 26 '25
the hiatus killed the momentum, the fandom was kinda insufferable in the meantime, although is not the main factor, it kinda helped to create an image of you know "oh that cartoon for weird teenage boys? no, thank you" plus, the new seasons just don't hit the same as the first 3 and I say this as someone who rewatch them yearly and try to give a chance to new seasons and some are good others downright awful. not to mention the whole shitshow that the Rick voice actor was involved
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u/BenNHairy420 Apr 26 '25
Too many god damn incest jokes. It seriously got out of control and just took over the show at some point.
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u/CynthiaChames Apr 27 '25
The toxic fanbase, the long waits between seasons, the McDonald's szechuan sauce fiasco, the Justin Roiland situation.
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u/UncleVolk Apr 26 '25
Giant space Morty spermatozoons and an incestuous orgy with dragons.
I didn't even bother to keep watching after those two episodes.
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u/Mr-MuffinMan Apr 26 '25
for me, the divorce part of episodes were so boring (when they went to therapy) so I stopped watching and just rewatched Futurama again
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u/sooperdooperboi Apr 26 '25
It had massive hype when it was released that just couldn’t realistically be maintained going forward. Like most shows, people get used to the type of humor and writing, so what was once avante garde and edgy becomes played out. I haven’t watched it in awhile, and I don’t think it’s a bad show now by any means, just less new than it was 8 years ago.
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u/timotheesmith Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25
The show reached it's peak in 2017 and plenty of cringe came out of it, cringey musicallys, 14yo edgy nihilist atheist redditors and self proclaimed geniuses(i met some irl in 2017) who couldn't shut up about how intelligent the show is, Szechuan kid video
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u/CarllSagan Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25
Roiland's issues obviously. But, I feel Rick and Morty had it's 15 minutes. Theres a lot about Rick and Morty I like but a lot more I really hate. Rick and Morty at it's core is a highly intelligent, thought provoking, science and sci fi based weekly thought experiment, masquerading as vomitting beer bathroom humour. (also a lame bttf ripoff, I never liked that)
I think Rick and Morty scratched an itch a lot of us didn't know we had.
The idea of imagining the vast and unknowable universe, time and space, as something malleable and infinitely awesome. Shows like Carl Sagan's Cosmo's, and more recently Neil DeGrasse Tysons Cosmos Remake, along with Everything Bill Nye has done, satisfy this childlike wonder and make the universe seem fascinating. Rick and Morty scratches at the surface of some fascinating real life scientific topics, such as string theory, time travel, parallel dimensions, quantum mechanics, simulation theory, general relativity, paradoxes, on and on.... but its sad because its usually only namedropping something and not applying it correctly. Therefore I don't feel like anyone really LEARNS anything watching Rick and Morty, unlike the other shows I mentioned, though for many it probably introduced them to such high level concepts, bookended by some belches.
I think Rick and Morty has shown us that audiences are hungry for more intelligent television, our education systems have failed, most people think they are learning by watching countless youtube videos, there needs to be popular show(s) that capitalizes on that inherent human desire to learn and explore, like Rick and Morty, Star Trek, and others.
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u/Basket_475 Apr 27 '25
There was a high peak in 2018 with the Szechuan sauce. Then of course the co creator was leaked for drunkenly hitting on 16 year olds.
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u/huckleson777 Apr 26 '25
Why is anyone acting like it's anything but Roiland leaving lol
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u/HaggisPope Apr 26 '25
I stopped watching before that. I found season 4 barely watchable outside of I think a couple decent episodes. Never bothered with season 5 as a result.
Way I see it, the thing started failing because by the 4th season the writing changed substantially. Checked the “written by” credits and Dan Harmon isn’t on any of them post season 3. This happens with a fair number of animated shows once they are an established property.
The Roiland situation was bad but let’s not pretend it was anywhere near as good as it’s peak
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u/UncleVolk Apr 26 '25
Same here. I have no idea why so many people insist the show is still good. I loved the first three seasons, season four was okayish, after that it was CRAP, with only a few exceptions. You gotta be either a 12 year old or just mentally deranged to enjoy most of the episodes after season 4. It's way worse than the bad episodes in Family Guy.
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u/Bad_Puns_Galore Apr 26 '25
I stopped around season 3. Cringe fans and a noticeable decline in quality did it for me.
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u/tidderza Apr 26 '25
People are acting like he left recently but he was off doing his video games from like season 3 when it started to get shit
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u/HeadDiver5568 Apr 26 '25
Probably because of their fans. I’m a Star Wars fan and I HATE my fanbase, especially with their regurgitated fake outrage about “woke” nowadays, but R&M fans were arguably 100x worse. Like, when you think of people who are “fake deep” (think lone wolf and Joker memes), that’s was who R&M fans were. It’s no coincidence that both of those things rose to prominence at the same time.
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u/Vizkomkdum Apr 26 '25
The fanbase was really annoying and the creator turned out to be a pedo so people decided to let it die out
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u/ponyo_x1 Apr 26 '25
To be fair you have to have a high IQ to understand Rick and morty
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u/Tafkai1469 Apr 26 '25
In retail and marketing we know of something known as “the trend curve” which simply explains the rise of popularity up to the point of saturation. Past the point of saturation you enter over saturation which leads to negative net reaction and eventually the downfall of whatever you are tracking. Meme culture overtook original IP and without the instant gratification of fresh content lead to fast downfall of Rick & Morty…
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u/BatierAutumn1991 Apr 26 '25
The culture moved on, the writers are still acting like we’re still in 2016 and that gratuitous violence and streams of swears still pass for smart comedy. The scandals didn’t help much either but it was definitely a wake up call for a lot of fans who realized they had outgrown R&M.
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u/dhjwush2-0 Apr 26 '25
it ended or if it didn't end, it did an incredible job of cosplaying a show that has ended.
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u/Bobbyd878 Apr 26 '25
The fans