The absurdist masterpiece that is Rick and Morty is not merely a story of an old scientist and teenage boy going on adventures together — besides, that was already covered in Back to the Future. This animated show has no rules, no sense of decorum, and certainly finds nothing sacred.
Rick and Morty is treasured for its incessant volley of cultural references and burning satire, having mocked nearly everything, from The Terminator to Mad Max, and everything in between. Season 4 carries on this tradition as brilliantly as ever: here are a few of the funniest parodies that appear in the latest set of episodes.
10 Moe's Bar From The Simpsons
The series often makes allusions to its animated predecessors, including The Simpsons, Futurama and South Park. The dropped hints are not always obvious, however - in some cases, they are only vaguely implied in the background.
For example, in the "Vat of Acid Episode," Morty runs around town doing terrible things and then resetting his life to the point right before. He shoves an elderly person in a wheelchair into the middle of the road, just for kicks — but the wall behind the two of them is a duplicate of the exterior of Moe's bar in Springfield.
9 The Secret Star Wars Candles
Rick has a rabid distaste for the sci-fi genre, constantly claiming that their total lack of accuracy grates his nerves. He mocks Nolan's Inception and Star Trek, but the saga he hates the most has to be Star Wars. However, it looks like his grandson doesn't share his opinion - quite the opposite, in fact.
In "Rattlestar Ricklactica," one can see a pair of candles shaped like R2-D2, everybody's favorite droid (sorry, C3P0.) Morty might genuinely like Star Wars, or this is his way of rebelling against Rick's influence.
8 Movies About Aliens
The entirety of the episode, "Promortyus," including its name (a pun on Prometheus), is a callback to the Alien franchise. Rick and Morty find themselves unwilling hosts of an alien parasite known as the "Glorzo," whose face-hugging capabilities are reminiscent of Xenomorph larvae, literally called face-huggers.
Later, they escape by using Morty's awful attempts on the harmonica to destroy their captors. This is exactly how Mars Attacks (1996) ends — the protagonists play a 1920s Broadway musical number, resulting in the aliens' heads exploding.
7 Morty And Cyberpunk Anime
The metamorphosis of Morty in "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat," from a nerdy loser to a demonic entity, parallels the narrative of Tetsuo Shima from Akira (1988), a timid boy who overcompensates with his newfound powers. If it wasn't obvious enough already, the military calls it an "Akira-type situation," while news organizations call him "Akira boy."
Of course, only Jerry is capable of messing up a basic reference, when he scolds Rick for turning his son "into an Akira." First off, the name he's looking for is Tetsuo, and second, he pronounces "Akira" like he actually knows Japanese.
6 Ghosts Of Different Genres
In "Rattlestar Ricklactica," Rick and Morty enjoy a few snippets of supernatural humor. When Morty's face begins to contort itself in nasty ways after being bitten by alien snakes, Rick rushes to create an antivenom, because apparently "Morty's starting to look like a 90s Japanese ghost."
To be fair, the kid did look like something about to emerge from a television screen. Later, the duo's future versions appear, introducing themselves as the "ghosts of Christmas future," a phrase that originated in Charles Dickens' 1843 masterwork, A Christmas Carol.
5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The nod to the TMNT universe can be found carelessly tossed behind Rick's workbench, in the scene where Rick prepares his "lesson" for Morty in the "Vat of Acid Episode." Haphazardly placed on the ground beside a large circuit board is a cylindrical metal vessel, possessing specific markings along both ends.
This canister is an identical reproduction of the mutagen-containing tube located deep within the sewers of NYC that helps transform a bunch of innocent turtles into superheroes.
4 Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer
Parasite (2019) may have deserved all the praise it got, but Snowpiercer (2013) is just as much of a shining example of cinema. The train running across metaphysical dimensions in "Never Ricking Morty" is likely a parody of the world train Bong Joon-ho's phenomenal film.
They are both inescapable, and the protagonists in each case battle their way to the engine room to face off against the adversary. Also, Rick kills the "Tickets Please Guy" by getting his arm pulled out into the void (in Snowpiercer, rebels are forcibly amputated in this manner).
3 White Men Can't Jump
After Rick modifies Jerry's body and shoes to provide "buoyancy," he walks around town wanting to show off his new ability. He then comes across a bunch of people playing basketball and asks if he can join in, claiming that "this white boy can jump."
The guys around him take offense to the clearly racist remark, although Jerry only says it because he's stupid — and because he's trying to show off his movie knowledge by comparing his situation with the 1992 basketball comedy-drama, White Men Can't Jump.
2 Ghostbusters Promotion
The episode "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" is easily one of the most hilarious in this season, dealing with dragons, magic and the problematic concept of slut-shaming. Rick really wants Balthromaw gone and almost succeeds, until he finds an original Hi-C Ecto Cooler Juice Box in the dragon's hoard.
This drink actually did exist, and it was produced as part of a promotional strategy for Ghostbusters 2 (1989). Given his enduring fascination for discontinued merchandise, Rick instantly becomes best friends with Balthromaw.
1 American Beauty And Jerry
Jerry finds comfort in the gentle art of beekeeping and seems to be really good at it, too. At the end of "Promortyus," however, Summer and her friend, Tricia, are watching him do his thing through the former's window.
This seems innocent at first glance, but then Tricia begins hinting at wanting something more, saying how Jerry's hobby is "kind of cute" and asking "How old is your dad?" before all-out admitting to Summer that she wants to have sex with her dad. A similar scene occurs in American Beauty (1999), in which Angela Hayes expresses a sexual interest in her friend's father, Lester Burnham.
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