Warning: This article contains references to suicide and sexual assault.
From the suicide spaghetti to the creation of the giant incest baby, some of the darker episodes ofRick and Mortyhave moments that went way too far. Similar to other adult-oriented animated shows likeSouth ParkandFamily Guy,Rick and Mortyfrequently relies on shock value in its humor. As Summer points out, almost all of the multiversal shows they watch in the interdimensional cable episodes eventually devolve into juvenile violence. Since it’s a cartoon and doesn’t involve real people, it can get away with a lot more graphic content than a live-action show.
But there’s a limit. While most ofRick and Morty’s pitch-black humoris just palatable enough and doesn’t quite cross the line, there are some moments from the show that got way too grim. This can be a line of dialogue that hits a little too hard, like Morty’s nihilistic monologue to Summer while he’s overlooking his own grave in the backyard, or it can be a scene where things get a little too real, like when King Jellybean assaults Morty in a restroom. Even some ofRick and Morty’s best episodeshave sequences that go too far.
10Morty Purges - “Look Who’s Purging Now”
In the season 2 episode “Look Who’s Purging Now,” Rick and Morty discover a planet with its ownThe Purge-style murder-is-legal-for-24-hours tradition. At first, Morty is hesitant to get into the festivities. But when he discovers his inner rage, he’s finally able to purge. And he doesn’t just stop at killing the violent mob coming after them; he also massacres every innocent person who’s hiding in fear and continues to riddle their corpses with bullets long after they’re dead. It’s pretty scary to see the murderous monster lurking just under the surface of this seemingly mild-mannered teenager.
9Psychological Torment From Rick’s Ship - “The Ricks Must Be Crazy”
While Rick and Morty shrink down inside the battery in season 2’s “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” Rick gives his ship the simple instruction to “keep Summer safe.” In following that directive, the ship gets creative in the most sinister ways. After it dices one guy into dozens of pieces and paralyzes another, Summer specifies that she doesn’t want the ship to hurt anyone. So, instead, it uses psychological warfare. When a cop shows up, it clones his dead son and makes him die again in his dad’s arms, which is somehow even more messed-up than any of the violence.
8Morty’s Nihilistic Monologue - “Rixty Minutes”
At the end of season 1’s “Rixty Minutes,” when Summer has spent the whole episode pondering the meaning of her existence after finding out she was never born in most alternate realities, Morty shows her his own grave in the backyard. He gives a long monologue about how life itself is meaningless and nothing matters. It’san iconicRick and Mortyquotethat pretty much sums up the thesis of the entire series, but it’s also pretty bleak and depressing and leaves viewers filled with existential dread.
7Suicide Spaghetti - “That’s Amorte”
In season 7’s “That’s Amorte,” Rick’s famous spaghetti is revealed to be from a very dark source. On a distant planet, people who take their own lives magically have their insides replaced with a delicious spaghetti meal. After learning where the spaghetti comes from, Morty isn’t sure he can continue eating it in good conscience, so he tries to find a compromise. It’s a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the unethical consumption of animal products, butRick and Morty’s writers picked the darkest possible sci-fi stand-in for the meat industry.
6Child’s Play Turns Deadly - “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy”
Rick takes Jerry out to an alien resort in season 3’s “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy.” The entire resort is engulfed in an immortality field, so attendees can mortally wound each other to their hearts’ content and never die — it’s part of the fun. But that fun takes a really grim turn when Rick and Jerry shut off the immortality field without warning. A couple of kids are shown killing each other back and forth for a laugh. After the field is destroyed, one of the kids doesn’t get back up. The other kid will need a lot of therapy.
5Morty Unwittingly Drives A Teacher To Take His Own Life - “Morty’s Mind Blowers”
Rick shows Morty all the memories he asked him to erase in the season 3 episode “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” and it’s easy to see why he wanted some of them erased. In one of these memories, Morty thinks he’s seen his teacher, Mr. Lunas, sneaking around on the Moon, so he tells the principal and gets him fired. A distraught Mr. Lunas takes his own life. Morty is then shocked to find that what he thought was Mr. Lunas on the Moon was just a smudge on the lens of his telescope.
4Simple Rick’s Wafers - “The Ricklantis Mixup”
“The Ricklantis Mixup” is one ofRick and Morty’s darkest episodes in general, because it explores systemic societal issues through the class divide of the Citadel. But the darkest storyline in the episode by far is the one set at the Simple Rick’s Wafers factory. The shocking secret behind Simple Rick’s wafery goodness is that a kind, loving Rick is strapped to a chair, reliving a happy memory of Beth’s third birthday, and his brain chemicals are liquified and planted in the wafers. The multiverse has but one happy Rick, and he’s being enslaved and exploited to create snack food.
3Tommy’s Cycle Of Incest & Cannibalism In Froopyland - “The ABCs Of Beth”
The season 3 episode “The ABCs of Beth” revealed that Rick created a fantasy world called Froopyland to satiatea sadistic young Bethand her childhood friend Tommy got trapped there years ago. When Rick and Beth go into Froopyland to find Tommy, they’re horrified to learn how he survived all these years: he bred with the fantasy creatures, then ate his own offspring. Somehow, the way Tommy presents this information to Rick and Beth — in the form of a campy stage play — makes the cycle of incest and cannibalism even more disturbing.
2Morty & Summer Have A Baby - “Rickdependence Spray”
Season 5’s “Rickdependence Spray” isone ofRick and Morty’s most controversial episodes. It starts off with a solid premise — Morty uses Beth’s horse breeding program as a masturbation machine and an experiment gone awry sends an army of giant mutant sperm across America — but it takes a really weird turn when one of the sperms fertilizes one of Summer’s eggs and creates a “giant incest baby.”Rick and Morty’s audience can handle the shock value of bodily humor, but bringing incest into the mix (and not for the first time) is a step too far.
1King Jellybean - “Meeseeks And Destroy”
The darkest moment inRick and Morty’s history appeared early on in its run. In season 1’s “Meeseeks and Destroy,” Rick lets Morty take the lead on an adventure just so he can criticize his decisions at every turn. Morty wants to go on a less stressful journey than they usually do, in order to prove how much fun it can be, but that plan backfires horribly as they end up in a fantasy kingdom fighting murder charges in a courtroom for giants.
Just as Morty is about to give up, this adventure kicks him while he’s down one last time. In the men’s room of a tavern,Morty is assaulted by King Jellybean, the seemingly benevolent ruler of the kingdom. Morty manages to fight him off, but this long, drawn-out sequence is played completely straight, and it gets way too real. A lot ofRick and Morty’s darker moments have a wry tongue-in-cheek comedic element at play, but this one is just harrowing.
