Rick and Morty has returned for the final episodes of the sixth season after a lengthy hiatus, and the series’ first episode back made a major shout out to one of South Park’s wildest moments! Rick and Morty has plenty of experience with taking on all kinds of wild ideas and situations over the course of its seasons thus far, but the Adult Swim animated series has knowingly been in the shadow of other major adult animated mainstays like The Simpsons, Futurama, and South Park. As the series continues to explore its ideas, it’s going to run into an issue where some of its ideas may mirror another series.
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Rick and Morty has definitely made references to their other animated hits in the past when one of its ideas seems close to something that has been done before, but this was taken to the next level when the titular duo escape the bounds of the fourth wall and end up in a Metanarrative world where they are soon beaten up by Jesus Christ. It’s here that Morty can’t help but call out the fact that Jesus Christ beating people up has happened in South Park already.
What Does Rick and Morty Say About South Park?
When Rick and Morty end up in the meta reality space outside of the series in “Full Meta Jackrick,” the returning Season 4 villain Story Lord ends up using Jesus Christ to beat the duo up. It’s such a weird swerve that Morty can’t help but say, “You’re using Jesus to beat us up? Have you seen South Park?” The real joke here, however, comes soon after as Rick declares this as a “good” call out and the kind of meta wordplay that he likes because it keeps them accountable for it.
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This moment in particular is likely referencing the South Park Season 16 episode, “A Scause for Applause,” where Stan Marsh ends up being such an inspiration that people of the town being wearing wristbands and it becomes more about the statement fashion piece than the original causes themselves. Because it was originally a satire of the Lance Armstrong steroids incident, Jesus Christ ends the episode by taking human growth hormone and destroying the wristband factory in a rage.
It’s a pretty wild call out to another wild moment, but it was all in service of telling Rick and Morty’s main story of critiquing their own use of metanarratives in the series thus far. What did you think of Rick and Morty’s newest episode? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
