Over the past nine years, Rick and Morty has proven itself to be one of the most thought-provoking series airing to this day. With its fair share of humor that is a bit blue, the show also has an enormous amount of heavier themes. The characters’ adventures are also more focused on philosophical ideologies than scientific exploration. However, science is a huge part of the show as well, as it correlates to humanity and their own discoveries. There seems to be this deviation from religion and more focus on human achievement, or the achievements of Rick Sanchez himself.

Rick as a character experiences a turmoil of trauma, both physical and psychological. Each of these traumatic events, like losing the family from his original world, made him the mere sociopath he is today. Exhibiting viewpoints that contrast anything even remotely religious, Rick is the God of his own universe. But by having access to everything and anything, he’s always on the search for a purpose. This animated series is filled with this type of philosophy. It continues to exhibit existentialist thought processes, nihilistic viewpoints, and just a touch of absurdity.

Existentialism

Rick and Morty digging graves in Rixty Minutes
Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Rick is perhaps one of the quintessential personifications of existentialist ideologies. He exists only for himself, and thinks only for himself. However, there is doubt within his own self as to his ability to be so free in this world. Since he has ultimate power by having resources readily available, he does not turn to any higher power other than himself for answers. However, ironically, when braced for death by plummeting through space, Rick does pray to God, until he figures out his own way to escape his own demise and mocks God upon his return home. What is fascinating is his embrace of religion when he is trying to escape death; then when he has fully escaped, he turns his back once again on the idea of it.

Rick does a variety of things just because he can. Perhaps one of the most prominent antics from the character is during season three, episode three, entitled Pickle Rick. Why exactly does Rick turn himself into a pickle? There may be a truly complex answer hidden underneath the idea that he did it just because he could, and took out an entire mercenary group in the process… just because he could. However, Rick seems to enjoy distracting himself with these explosive endeavors because when he is not Rick the scientist God, he is just Rick the father and grandfather. This seems to frighten the character, who frequently attempts to end his own life, or at least have an existential crisis, when left to his own thoughts.

In the second episode of Rick and Morty season four, entitled The Old Man and the Seat, Rick has his own toilet sanctuary bombarded with traps and ways to capture anyone who tries to invade his paradise. However, things take a depressing turn when this invader becomes a sort of motivator for Rick to take a good look at himself, which inevitably happens when Rick’s traps come to haunt him when he sits on his own toilet. Holograms come to life that mock Rick’s willingness to isolate himself from the world. It is ironic that this character’s largest strength is his mind, but it also the thing he fears the most.

Nihilism

Rick and Morty at a diner with the Sanchez family
Warner Bros. Television Distribution

From the very first season, Rick and Morty has pursued the idea about nihilism that seems to reject all meaning to life. The titular characters seem to jump from universe to alternate universe as often as someone fills up their gas tank. However, it does leave a scar on them both. In the eighth episode of season one, entitled Rixty Minutes, Morty confesses to his sister Summer that he is not originally from their universe. Upon their initial arrival, they had to murder their doppelgangers and bury them in the backyard. The fact that this high school boy has to in fact live just a few feet away from his own dead self is quite the eye-opener for this series. This, and seeing a vast universe of equally suffering creatures, has warped his perception of reality and life itself.

Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everyone’s gonna die. Come watch TV.

A small quote like this leaves a huge impact on the audience as to the show’s point of view on the universe. However, what solidifies Morty’s point is that their life in fact does go on. Whether they have dealt with the trauma or not, the episodes just reset themselves for the most part; life cruelly goes on. We may see a glimmer of emotions that briefly come through, but they are either masked or buried deep into the subconscious, because after all, everything is meaningless in nihilism.

Absurdism

Rick and Morty with the alien creatures in Rick's car battery
Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Rick and Morty is no stranger to plot points and sequences that invoke offbeat, funny moments with absurdist themes. However, everything in this show does come with its own meaning. In the sixth episode of season two, The Ricks Must Be Crazy, Rick takes Morty to a world within their own… car battery. However, that miniature world is living as we would, but their sole purpose is to power Rick’s devices. They go deep into the miniature universes and their own miniature universe to reveal this cycle of capitalist way of life that essentially makes us look at our own society.

The overall purpose of these alien creatures living in Rick’s car battery is in fact to power Rick’s car battery. Rick is the god of their world, and he does not care at all about them, in fact he sees them as disposable. When Rick and Morty actually arrive to visit these creatures, he greets them jokingly with a double middle finger. What does that say about our own world?

The miniature inhabitants (including Zeep, voiced by current king of late night talk shows Stephen Colbert) have just as much knowledge of what is outside their universe as we do. While we may not be dwelling inside a car battery, there is a lack of understanding where we turn to religion as help, security, and understanding. Rick and Morty embraces this lack of understanding, rejecting convenient answers, wallowing in its own nihilism sometimes, but using it to their creative advantage.