Rick & Morty

[Corman]

Nearly ten years ago, animator Justin Roiland was forced to stop making his animated web series House of Cosbys after a cease and desist letter from Bill Cosby's lawyers. Roiland decided the next thing he made would be the most blatant violation of copyright he could think of. What he thought of was a thinly veiled, borderline pornographic riff on Back To The Future:

Quote Originally Posted by Justin Roiland

I actually made this as a way to poke fun at the idea of getting cease and desist letters. At the time (October 2006) I had nothing to lose and my original intention was to call this "back to the future: the new official universal studios cartoon featuring the new Doc Brown and Marty McFly" and then I'd just sit back and wait for a letter from their lawyers to arrive. That's actually why it's so filthy. I was just looking to "troll" a big studio. Then, as I began editing the radio play and boarding it, the two characters ended up becoming something different than just a bad impression of Doc and Marty from BTTF. They slowly became two of my favorite characters that I've ever voiced. I backed down on the cease and desist bait and changed the spelling of their names and whatever else I could still change. I mean, it's still ultimately a back to the future joke/ (parody?), but to me all these years later, these two characters have become something of their own.

What they ultimately became is the series Rick and Morty. Roiland voices the title characters, alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his jittery teenage grandson Morty (along with about 50 other incidental voices). Rick has a sort of seminihilistic moral outlook that makes perfect sense for the sci-fi nightmare reality he inhabits. The series premiered on Adult Swim in December, but thanks to the magic of YouTube, here are a few of the best episodes from the recent past (I will periodically refresh the links here because they are bound to get pulled down for copyright violation at some point.):

The Pilot

(updated) - blah blah blah here's everybody.

Rick Potion No. 9

- Some severe body horror for the Cronenbergians out there.

Lawnmower Dog

- Rick and Morty venture into the depths of human consciousness while the family dog discovers sociology.

Meseeks and Destroy

- Never anger a race of suicidal life coaches.

[Sam]

The pilot has indeed already been pulled down, but I just watched "Rick Potion No. 9" and wow, glad I did. That was really fun. If the others are up to that level of weirdness and freaky sci fi thinking, I'm in. Favorite line: "Well Morty, I guess I really Cronenberged up the world." Fantastic!