One of the
things that creativity and art forms bring to us is the stimulation of emotion.
Depending on an individual’s perceptions a work of art can either be wonderful
or terrible, uplifting or depressing, and any stop in between on the emotional
spectrum. For some individuals, the cartoon program Rick and Morty has
generated more than a bit of emotional controversy. This controversy isn’t
necessarily due to the content of the program itself but rather the emotions
that that content creates within an individual.
Full
disclosure before this article goes any further, I personally am a very big fan
of the program. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, Rick and Morty is a
program that is part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming.
Adult Swim is an ever-changing series of shows that attempts to tackle more
mature subject matter and content (or juvenile content, again depending on your
perspective).
The show
centers around an elderly genius scientist named Rick and the adventures he
shares with his less than intelligent grandson Morty. Throughout the show, time
travel and interdimensional travel are constant themes. As may also be expected,
there is a strong anti-religion/anti-faith vein running throughout the show as
a function of Rick’s belief in science as the be all end all and the infinite
universes he has access to, showing him anything is possible and that the
universe is just too big and often too horrible for there to be any sort of
deity, and certainly not for any deity that may exist to be a benevolent one.
One of the
main emotional complaints against the show is simply the fact that Rick’s
experiences combined with his atheism paint a very dim and bleak picture not
only of human nature but of alien life throughout the galaxy. The show seems to
create in some people a feeling of hopelessness that somehow gets lost amid the
usual cursing and sexual innuendo.
In
addition, there is a bit of a backlash relating to the extremely troubled
marriage of Morty’s parents, a condition which is played for drama, shock
value, and laughs. Seemingly every episode where the characters make progress
in repairing the trouble between them everything goes back to the way it was
the previous episode and the progress they made is forgotten. To me, this
argument is a little disingenuous. Let’s take the Fox network and its run of
notable animated programs for an example. Throughout the combined runs of such
shows as The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy and American Dad, all of which are
part of the popular culture to some extent through memes and otherwise,
characters repeatedly do disgusting, violent, selfish, and in some cases
illegal things to one another. Despite this behavior, in the next episode
things are right back to normal and the family is right back to loving each
other until the time comes to do more bad things to each other. The fact that
in the case of Rick and Morty this phenomenon goes in reverse doesn’t mean the
show is setting any sort of precedent.
This
sequence extends to live-action television as well, and no one seems to notice
or care. In the lifetime of my television consumption, Everybody Loves Raymond
was one of the most egregious offenders. Seemingly every episode revolves
around some sort of misunderstanding between a man who is constantly portrayed
as being lazy and stupid and a woman who is constantly portrayed as being a
frigid battle ax. They fight constantly about their kids, their sex life, about
the meddling in-laws, about bills, and about household chores. In almost every
episode there is some major heartwarming “let’s come together and never fight
again” moment, and then the following episode everything resets to exactly the
way it was.
I submit
to you dear reader, that it is not the job of content creators to censor
themselves because of how viewers perceive what they create. As with anything,
the market will decide what people tolerate and what they want. If Rick’s doom
and gloom perception of the universe is too much for you to handle you are free
not to watch the show. As for myself, while I can see the reasoning behind the
negative feelings the show might create in some viewers, it is still packed
full of jokes and funny references and can serve as a half hour slice of escape
from the real and ever encroaching depression of real life. Turn on the news
for 30 minutes, and you’ll see almost nothing but a bleak sense of
hopelessness. Shows like Rick and Morty are not for everyone, but for the cult
following that the show has drawn it’s easy to compartmentalize real life
versus fiction.
Anonymous Blogger
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