“Rick and Morty” 2.5 “Get Schwifty” (6 out of 10) Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon; Starring Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, and Sarah Chalke; Run time: 30 minutes; Originally aired 08/23/2015.
When a giant head arrives in orbit around Earth demanding to hear a new hit song Rick and Morty head off to the Pentagon (not the real Pentagon, the lame one, here on Earth) to save the world. Seismic tremors are wreaking havoc on the planet and an Earthquake during the Grammy’s has killed all of the world’s greatest song writers. What are we to do to survive?
Get Schwifty.
This episode is probably the weakest of the season so far. While the tone and special flavor that makes “Rick and Morty” so continually watchable is still present but lost are any elements that will make you think. Those elements are what make the best episodes rise above.
This episode relies on a wacky premise and Rick’s equally cavalier recklessness to carry the audience and it falls a little short. In truth it was still a fun half-hour, I only hold it to such a high standard because the show almost always meets that standard, this week it didn’t and that’s okay.
There is some entertaining satirical commentary on logical fallacies, specifically causation vs correlation, and mob mentality. When Earth is transported across space to participate in an interplanetary musical reality TV show for its very survival, Morty’s home town begins worshiping the giant floating heads as gods, madness ensues. An entire religion emerges including a hierarchical structure, silly hats, and sacrifice by balloon.
There is also a special appearance by Bird Person as well as Ice-T who is more than he appears and exactly what he claimed. Unfortunately no word on the prognosis of Mr. Poopy Butthole.
New episodes of “Rick and Morty” air every Sunday on Adult Swim. You can catch up on previous episodes right here.