Rick and Morty is clearly not the cartoon that you usually look to for moral lessons, but season 9, episode 5, “Jer Bud” just took things to another level. Rick and Morty is a profoundly creative and bizarre adult animated series, with episodes exploring a huge range of topics and constantly delivering fresh points of view and humor. And occasionally, they even throw in a life lesson in their own subtle way.
That being said, more often than not, the series is a beacon of dysfunction, and it highlights a family riddled with complex issues that rarely takes the time to examine themselves. Of course, as a fictional family in an adult animated cartoon series, no one is expecting monumental growth for these characters, but the latest episode just proved how far the Smith family has been eroded due to Rick’s influence.
Rick and Morty’s “Jer Bud” Proves Morty’s Indifference & Avoidance
“Jer Bud” sees Morty Smith reunite with his old dog, Snowball, as he goes to visit his world where hyper-intelligent dogs now live peacefully without human oversight. However, shortly after arriving, Morty is confronted by the disturbing reality of Snowball’s latest experiment, the Mups. The Mups are selectively bred humanoid creatures that Snowball and his species have raised as pets, evidently drawing comparisons to the way humans treat dogs.
In both regards, concerning the humanoid Mups and the downtrodden dogs, this is a tense and tender topic. But instead of acknowledging or engaging with what this means in any way, Morty chooses to ignore the horrifying reality and pretend like everything is ok. Snowball continues to push the issue, but Morty wants to avoid talking about it and just enjoy his vacation, which leads to a spectacular conflict anyway.
With Snowball’s constant pushing, Morty feels uncomfortable, and he decides he wants to leave, but this sparks a bigger issue. After a full-blown war between the Mups and the dogs that Morty tirelessly attempted to avoid, he ended up leading the Mups into war to try and serve his own selfish ends of getting even with Snowball. Then, when Rick arrives to take Morty home, Morty seeks Rick’s approval for his efforts to remain indifferent and avoid doing anything of note.
The Smith Family Values Are All Over The Place In Rick and Morty
Clearly, this is a huge problem from a moral point of view for the Smith family, but Morty isn’t the only person who makes some controversial choices in this episode of Rick and Morty. Back home, Jerry has a job interview, and to calm his nerves, Space Beth offers him some alien worm narcotics that will eat his anxieties.
Shortly after consuming the worm, Jerry’s angst-riddled body becomes the perfect breeding ground for the worm, and the effects multiply. On the surface, Jerry is calm and relaxed, but this leads him to recruit cult-like followers and to put lives in danger. This all points to the greater moral failings in the Smith family and just how warped their lifestyle is.
The Smiths appear largely indifferent to how their choices and actions affect others, and, due to Rick Sanchez’s spectacular power and intelligence, their actions can wreak havoc on communities, entire worlds, and sometimes even universes. But beneath all of that, the Smiths are victims in the eye of the hurricane that is Rick. While they weren’t perfect before Rick’s antics, their life now is so much more dangerous.
And despite the apparent dangers, and the masses of lives that are forever lost while they decide to pursue whatever whim they feel like chasing that week, Rick and Morty’s Smith family are entirely unmoved. Ultimately, the Smiths are one of the most awful and corrupt families on TV. Thankfully, they are fictional, and these monsters don’t exist in the real world.
- Release Date
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December 2, 2013
- Network
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Adult Swim
- Directors
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Bryan Newton, Dominic Polcino, Anthony Chun, John Rice, Stephen Sandoval, Jeff Myers
- Writers
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Tom Kauffman, Wade Randolph, Eric Acosta, David Phillips, Erica Rosbe, Sarah Carbiener, Matt Roller, Michael Waldron, Caitie Delaney
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Justin Roiland
Rick Sanchez / Morty Smith