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You don’t have to be incredibly bright to be racist. In fact, you can be righteously stupid and still get a membership card with the “I Look Down on Anyone Who Doesn’t Look Like Me” Club. And it’s the shield of ignorance that allows them to think, speak & act in ways that are so mind-numbingly phony & hypocritical that sometimes, you almost think it’s an act. Like, we’ve become nothing more than just one big The Truman Show. But then you have what happened today with Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty to serve as a harsh reminder that sometimes, there isn’t some grand conspiracy. Sometimes, people are just really s****y human beings. Since it’s the end of the week, Adult Swim’s Dan Harmon & Justin Roiland-created series shared some series-themed fan art on Instagram. In this case, it was an impressive piece from Artist Nick Davis (@ndartlife on Instagram, where you can check out a gallery of some truly amazing art) depicting our dimension-hopping duo as Black. When the number of comments broke past 600 within the first hour, we think you can figure out that some of the responses weren’t exactly friendly.
And here’s where the mash-up of ignorance and stupidity rears its ugly head because the show’s established from the very beginning that infinite dimensions meant infinite variations for everyone. That means we have dimensions where our dimension-hopping duo can and are pretty much anything. Even if you’re someone who didn’t catch that fact all of the other times it was mentioned & shown, didn’t S05E02 “Mortyplicity” make that crystal clear? And yet, for some reason, they can never really explain why they’re okay with Rick and Morty being made out of living wood but not okay with them being Black (other than “that’s not racist!”), like it’s some kind of “line-crossing” thing. Here’s a look at Davis’s artwork that was shared by the Adult Swim series’ Instagram account earlier today. And because we want to end things on a positive note… following that, we have a look back at the sixth season and the moments when Jerry Smith (Chris Parnell) proved himself the season’s rockstar. Seriously. You’ll see…
Rick and Morty Season 6: Those Jerry Smith-Defining Moments
Here’s a look at those five game-changing, Jerry Smith-defining moments from the sixth season of the Adult Swim series (including episode director/writer) that we believe make a pretty strong case for Jerry being the season’s all-star:
S06E01 “Solaricks” (Jacob Hair/Albro Lundy): That moment when Jerry sees what life was like for his second season self… and he doesn’t like it. The way Jerry opens up to Beth after leaving the house (with a great & very Jerry goodbye speech) showed us that maybe… just maybe… Jerry was learning a little something about himself.
S06E03 “Bethic Twinstinct” (Douglas Einar Olsen/Anne Lane): Jerry’s willingness to explore his sexuality isn’t new to this season, but the way he was able to shift from being a “cuckold beta” to someone so sexually in control that it frustrates both Space Beth & Beth into a threesome wasn’t something we saw coming heading into the episode.
S06E04 “Night Family” (Jacob Hair Rob Schrab): Look, sometimes Jerry takes positions that leave him twisting out on a limb by himself. And 98.73% of the time, he deserves to be left out there. But this time around, Jerry’s willingness to break from the family and actually look to bond with Night Jerry not only speaks to his want to connect with someone but also very well kept things from getting far worse.
S06E05 “Final DeSmithation” (Douglas Einar Olsen/Heather Anne Campbell): Short of a major “Rhett Con” (you’re welcome), we refer to this episode as… “The Moment When Rick & Jerry Became Friends.” Sure, there were any number of moments we can point to during their adventure that we could point to, but I would rather direct your attention to Rick slapping Jerry and his subsequent apology. First off, the apology threw us for a loop but more than that? It felt like Rick slapping Jerry was Rick venting his frustration over finally realizing that he actually does give a crap about Jerry (I know, right?).
S06E08 “Analyze Piss” (Fill Marc Sagadraca/James Siciliano): And there is no better episode to end our case with than the one that set up Jerry to fail on so many occasions… but he didn’t. Sure, it wasn’t the best look when he tried taking down Pissmaster as he attempted to save the planet, but in his defense? He had no way of knowing that Rick was attempting to save Pissmaster’s honor (while not admitting that it also allowed him to get back into a “game” he has a love/hate relationship). And while his arrogance ended up being his own worst enemy, the episode didn’t end with the feeling that Jerry had taken any steps back. Because that “pink flamingo” fight against Pissmaster (regardless of how tragic the fallout from it was) was the most honestly confident we’ve seen Jerry smith so far. No false bravado, a sense of what his limits are, and a willingness to step up to defend his family were nice traits to see. Hell, we even got a rare moment of pride from Summer in her father.
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