Rick and Morty is a delightful, innovative show. But it has a problem — it's fans. For some reason, this animated show attracts the worst of the worst of fans both on and offline. There are many hard and solid facts to back up this statement. But first, let's just say: #NotAllFans. Certainly, not everyone who enjoys the Cartoon Network show falls into the toxic category, but there is something about this animated comedy that attracts a certain kind of fan.
This is the fan who views the show not as simple satire or absurdist comedy with deeply unlikable characters, but as a bible for life and a handbook for how to behave, and this is the problem. Like overly religious people who proselytize for anyone who can hear them, these toxic fans of Rick and Morty miss the point entirely. People, it's a cartoon, a television show, fictional, and certainly not aspirational, never meaning for its 'protagonists' to be idolized.
First the basic facts, and then we will dive into them. Fans of Rick and Morty harassed, threatened, and doxxed two female writers on the show. Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the creators of Rick and Morty, have spoken out about the show's toxic fans' behavior, unafraid to mince words about how much they hate these fans. When the show ran an episode about McDonald's Szechuan sauce, the company responded by bringing the popular condiment back. Fans went wild and not in a good way — especially when a specific McDonald's franchisee didn't have the sauce in stock.
These toxic fans identify with Rick, and that's frightening because he is not the protagonist they think he is. He's actually a selfish, narcissistic monster. Rick thinks he can be as sh*tty to people as he wants just because he's intelligent. We all know people in our lives like this, and they are difficult to deal with and utter bores with their sense of self-importance.
Rick & Morty Fans Doxxed Female Writers
Fans of Rick and Morty are so intense about their feelings for the show and its characters that they frequently let it spill over from television to real life — with some real and dangerous consequences. In 2017, the fans of the show were not happy with the direction that season three was taking. Rather than waiting it out like patient, normal, fans of a television show, these gross creatures instead blamed their dislike of the storylines on the female writers who were added to the staff after two years of an all-male writing staff.
They complained on Twitter and then took their fight to 4Chan, where these fans posted the personal information of Rick and Morty's female writers. This is called doxxing and these pathetic fans hoped to frighten the show's female writers into quitting their jobs and restoring what they felt was their right to an all-male viewpoint.
Szechuan Gate
In a 2017 episode of Rick and Morty, the show reflected on a 1997 promotion from McDonald's for the animated feature film Mulan. The chain briefly offered something called Szechuan sauce (it's either purposefully and pointlessly spelled wrong, or is just the result of idiocy). In the episode in question, Rick said, "My mission for this season Morty is to get that Szechuan sauce back." This dumb series of references about a condiment caused riots thanks to the show's truly unhinged fan base.
McDonald's decided to bring the sauce back in a few select locations as a whimsical tie in to Rick and Morty. Fans flocked to McDonald's locations across the country and flipped out when the stores didn't have it in stock. Police had to be called out to several McDonald's locations to calm the unruly and whiny, demanding crowds. This is not normal behavior. Rick and Morty is a television show — a cartoon.
The Creators Have Slammed Their Fans
Rick and Morty's creators are well aware of the toxicity in the show's fan base, and how the fans are ruining their beloved show. Co-creator Dan Harmon sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly during which he called out the fans doxxing the show's female writers, saying "I loathe these people. They fu*king suck." He went on to call the toxic fans knobs, saying they "want to protect the content they think they own — and somehow combine that with their need to be proud of something they have, which is often only their race or gender." He continued: "They represent some sh*t that I probably believed when I was 15.” Ouch.
What is it About Rick and Morty?
Rick and Morty is a brilliant show, no one is disputing that. It is full of satire, pop culture references, and sci-fi concepts. But there's something about it that attracts an ignorant, hateful fan base of whiny boy losers (it's a small contingency, hopefully; again, #NotAllFans). Maybe it's the cynical nihilism at the heart of Rick and Morty which so many fans respond to in this current, hopeless period of human history. Mostly, it is the fact that they miss the point and take the show, its characters, and its storylines as some sort of guide to life.
Rick in particular is revered by this subset of Rick and Morty fans that are, to put it bluntly, immature and completely lacking in self-awareness. Rick is a psychopathic narcissist and, ironically, a cautionary tale of the very thing these fans idolize him for. They confuse an antihero for a hero; it's as if a Dexter fan suddenly became pro-serial killer. They are missing the point, and the result is perhaps more dangerous than mere stupidity.