Honestly I thought this was a somewhat shit article, but I thought it might spawn some thoughts about the cartoon and fandoms and shit anyways. Here's my rants:
Honestly I feel like this is a pretty shallow reading of the show, which is ironic given that this piece considers it dumb. I've yet to see any rise in "I'm a piece of shit" defenses either, it's not like the trumps, weinsteins and abu bakr al-baghdadis of the world are openly flaunting their flaws. Lastly, I'm not sure that the piece has identified what drives the "bad fandom", since things like Steven Universe, My Little Pony and Undertale, while advocating very different values and the first one a conception of masculinity incompatible with Rick's, have had notoriously toxic fandoms as well. The biggest difference seems to be the god damn Szechuan sauce debacle, which couldn't have happened without the help of the McDonald's itself and will probably remain one of a kind event.
The problem with R&M is mostly how it makes Rick both cool (on shallow reading at least) and practically indestructible in face of his own poor judgement. He's free in a way that the mediocrities of the family Sanchez can't compete with and must appeal to those as well who are trying to find salvation in technological progress (the future lanyard types). It's sort of like war movies, anti- or prowar, might do more to solidify the idea that violence is the answer or that it's meaningful. The reality of being blown up by a roadside bomb after a few months of low level activity would be terribly anticlimactic and contrary to the demands sense of drama.
I think the edginess of the show is kind of an original sin of animated sitcoms from The Simpsons onward. Rick is sort of a dark Lisa Simpson, the citizens of C137 and Springfield are both fumbling, incompetent morons. Both shows have gratuitous violence (in a way that I guess supposedly satirizes it but fails to do so), family members abusing each other without much of a consequence, plots that are homages to past media (classic film with Simpsons, classic scifi with R&M), celebrity guests. I wonder if a good reading of the things at hand is that adult animation needs some fresh blood and explore new territory.
‘Rick and Morty’ and The Rise of The ‘I’m a Piece of Shit’ Defense
Moonside OP wrote
Honestly I thought this was a somewhat shit article, but I thought it might spawn some thoughts about the cartoon and fandoms and shit anyways. Here's my rants:
Honestly I feel like this is a pretty shallow reading of the show, which is ironic given that this piece considers it dumb. I've yet to see any rise in "I'm a piece of shit" defenses either, it's not like the trumps, weinsteins and abu bakr al-baghdadis of the world are openly flaunting their flaws. Lastly, I'm not sure that the piece has identified what drives the "bad fandom", since things like Steven Universe, My Little Pony and Undertale, while advocating very different values and the first one a conception of masculinity incompatible with Rick's, have had notoriously toxic fandoms as well. The biggest difference seems to be the god damn Szechuan sauce debacle, which couldn't have happened without the help of the McDonald's itself and will probably remain one of a kind event.
The problem with R&M is mostly how it makes Rick both cool (on shallow reading at least) and practically indestructible in face of his own poor judgement. He's free in a way that the mediocrities of the family Sanchez can't compete with and must appeal to those as well who are trying to find salvation in technological progress (the future lanyard types). It's sort of like war movies, anti- or prowar, might do more to solidify the idea that violence is the answer or that it's meaningful. The reality of being blown up by a roadside bomb after a few months of low level activity would be terribly anticlimactic and contrary to the demands sense of drama.
I think the edginess of the show is kind of an original sin of animated sitcoms from The Simpsons onward. Rick is sort of a dark Lisa Simpson, the citizens of C137 and Springfield are both fumbling, incompetent morons. Both shows have gratuitous violence (in a way that I guess supposedly satirizes it but fails to do so), family members abusing each other without much of a consequence, plots that are homages to past media (classic film with Simpsons, classic scifi with R&M), celebrity guests. I wonder if a good reading of the things at hand is that adult animation needs some fresh blood and explore new territory.