Top 20 Best Parodies on Rick and Morty
#20: “Terminator” Franchise "Rattlestar Ricklactica"
Anyone familiar with the series, knows Rick HATES time travel, especially with how complicated it gets. So it only makes sense that the creators would eventually make fun of it at some point. When Morty accidentally kills an alien snake, he sends one from Earth back in its place. This creates a chain of events causing an endless supply of time traveling reptiles to come back to either kill or save him, much in the same vein as James Cameron’s Terminator series. From shotgun-wielding snakes, the war on machines, to terrifying robot-human / snake hybrids, there are plenty of nods in this episode’s plot and character designs.
#19: “Alive” & “The Prestige” “The Vat of Acid Episode”
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After Morty manipulates Rick into making him a “Save” button, allowing him to replay any moment if he doesn’t like the outcome, it gets surprisingly dark. Rick reveals that Morty hasn’t been time-traveling, but killing Morty’s from other dimensions and taking their place, parodying the plot of Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige.” But, what you may not know is that this episode also takes inspiration from a real-life plane crash. When Morty and his girlfriend’s plane crashes in a mountain range, they’re forced to resort to cannibalism, similar to the events in the book “Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.” It’s an intense moment found in an otherwise silly montage of Morty playing around with the Save Button.
#18: “Alien” & Mecha Anime “Promortyus”
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In this Alien parody, Rick and Morty are overtaken by face-hugging alien parasites known as the Glorzo. Once they break free, they completely wreak havoc on the Glorzo believing they are lower lifeforms. In a clever twist, Summer’s new thing, a toothpick, saves her from becoming a host body and she reforms Glorzo society and becomes their Queen. After realizing they left Summer behind, Rick and Morty return for her. Still believing the Glorzo to be menacing parasites, they suit up in an excessive transformation sequence in a nod to mecha anime such as “Gundam,” “Voltron” and “Ronin Warriors.” The lesson here is, if the egg looks too wet, just leave it alone.
#17: “Training Day” "The Ricklantis Mixup"
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This episode pays homage to many different pieces of pop culture. There’s the School of Mortys plot of 4 Mortys coming of age, mirroring “Stand By Me.” Rick J-22’s subplot referencing George Orwell’s 1984, and smaller allusions to celebrities, politicians, and other fictional characters. But perhaps the greatest one of them all is cop Rick and Morty, heavily influenced by “Training Day.” Much like the 2001 film, we see a corrupt Cop Morty trying to convince a naive rookie Cop Rick to take a brutal and dark approach to the job. It was jarring to have the personalities switched between a Rick and a Morty, but it was nonetheless memorable.
#16: M. Night Shyamalan Films “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!”
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M. Night Shyamalan is infamous for featuring twist endings in his movies and “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!” mocks that tendency from its title to its own numerous mind screws. Rick becomes convinced he and Morty are inside a simulation, which they are. Their captors are scamming aliens out to find the secret for concentrated dark matter, of which Rick has knowledge. After escaping that simulation, though, it turns out they were inside another simulation and Morty was part of it the whole time. Rick gets the last laugh on the scammers, as he tricks the aliens into blowing themselves up, in a twist worthy of Shyamalan himself.
#15: The Story Circle “Never Ricking Morty”
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We’re used to 4th wall breaks and meta humor but this episode takes it to another level. Rick and Morty find themselves on a train acting as a literal literary device as Story Lord tries to tap into their limitless story potential to break the 5th wall. They fight their way through a narrative progression, while dealing with complications, themes, and diverging plotlines. To top it all off, they perform a Bechdel test to humorous results. The crux of this episode relies on series co-creator Dan Harmon’s method of storytelling known as the Story Circle. It’s an excellent way for the show to simultaneously poke fun at itself and pull back the proverbial curtain at how its plots are constructed.
#14: “Footloose” “Raising Gazorpazorp”
When Morty accidentally has a Gazorpian baby, Morty Jr., he is tasked with raising him while still living with his parents, much like the TV sitcom “Raising Hope.” Those with a keen eye may pick up on other references sprinkled throughout but some of the most obvious are from the films “Zardoz” and “Footloose.” After Morty Jr. grows disillusioned with the world after finding out his life has been a lie, he runs away from home. He ends up in a warehouse where dances out his frustrations like Kevin Bacon’s character in “Footloose.” It’s a fun little moment calling back to earlier in the episode when Morty suggests his son learns how to dance instead of bringing death and destruction to the world.
#13: “Titanic” “Ricksy Business”
We have to admit, our first choice for a trip would not be to an attraction made to mimic the experience of the 1997 film, “Titanic.” Jerry, on the other hand, is more than excited to go on this romantic getaway with Beth. Of course, you can go on the bow to recreate a moment between Jack and Rose, there’s debris to simulate the film's end, or you can even have a plate of James Camer-onion rings. The real tragedy of this moment is that nothing goes wrong as the ship fails to sink due to its faulty rail system. Did you really expect much from an attraction featuring a love making car to give guests a, ahem, Titanic experience?
#12: “Total Recall” “Total Rickall”
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Fans of the show have grown accustomed to seeing what happens in the lives of Rick, Morty, Summer, Beth, and Jerry. How could we forget Cousin Nicky, Photography Raptor, Mr. Beauregarde and a plethora of others who turn out to be the creations of memory altering parasites. While the episode not only parodies the 1990 film “Total Recall,” where implanted memories are used for entertainment, it also pokes fun at a few sitcom tropes. The show smartly blends flashbacks, cutaways and new characters sitcoms use to boost ratings or cut production costs. It also keeps us guessing which, if any, of the newly introduced characters are real or not.
#11: “The Purge” “Look Who’s Purging Now”
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“The Purge” film series is set in a fictional America where, for one night a year, all crime is legal, allowing for a period of lawless carnage and mayhem. In this episode, Rick and Morty land on an alien world where the natives engage in a similar exercise at the behest of the ruling class. The wanton violence soon brings out Morty’s own bottled-up anger that he takes out on the planet’s inhabitants in a rampage of blind rage. “Look Who’s Purging Now” manages to use its film parody to provide a means of insight into Morty’s character and provide a very funny, and very dark, premise for an episode.
#10: “Saw” & “The Avengers” “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender”
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In a Season 3 episode, it’s revealed that Rick and Morty are members of a hero organization known as the Vindicators, who are a veiled parody of the Avengers and less so “The Guardians of the Galaxy” and even the Justice League. To teach them a lesson, Rick gets drunk, defeats their archenemy, and sets them on an elaborate “Saw” style journey through traps designed to screw with them. In the extreme stress of their attempts to escape drunk Rick’s elaborate game, the Vindicators argue amongst themselves and are generally more of a danger to each other than Rick is, further parodying the Avengers’ tendency to fight amongst themselves.
#9: “Die Hard” & “John Wick” “Pickle Rick”
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“Pickle Rick” sees Rick turned into, what else: a pickle. Through an elaborate series of events, the scientist manages to fashion himself limbs and eventually escapes into an office. There, Rick finds himself in the middle of a “Die Hard” scenario, as he must fight a group of European criminals alone in a building using stealth tactics. The action also features plenty of men killed by pencils, which is a reference to the “John Wick” series. The men also nickname Rick “Solenya,” which is Russian for “pickles,” similar to John Wick having his own Russian nickname. “Pickle Rick” did an excellent job mashing up two fantastic action franchises.
#8: “Needful Things” & “The Twilight Zone” “Something Ricked This Way Comes”
When Summer gets a job at a new store that’s opened in town, Rick is forced to drive her to work. There he finds the store’s owner is the Devil who stocks a solution to every shopper’s deepest desire with a dark price. Rick challenges him, doing everything he can to one up the trickster and counteract the various products' curses. The items are actually references to Twilight Zone episodes, and the shop “Needful Things” is a reference to the book and movie “Needful Things,” where a devil offers perfect items for his client’s souls. So while this is an amalgamation of two different references, even the Devil is no match for Rick’s scientific mindset.
#7: “Mad Max” “Rickmancing The Stone”
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During their dimension hopping adventures, Rick, Morty, and Summer encounter a post-apocalyptic dimension that’s an affectionate parody of the “Mad Max” series. From masked madmen to dome-shaped death match rings, this episode features many of the “gas punk” film franchise’s brutal staples. “Rick and Morty” even examines something rarely seen in the “Mad Max” films themselves – the downright domestic downtime between the high-octane adventures. Seeing relationship drama play out in a wasteland environment is hilarious and incorporates the parody into the plot of the episode in a fun and unique way.
#6: “Game of Thrones”, “Letterman”, “Cloud Atlas” and more “Rixty Minutes”
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No list of “Rick and Morty” parodies would be complete without Interdimensional Cable. This episode is packed with so many references we can’t name them all. What we can say is that many of them are downright ridiculous versions of things we know and love. Whether it’s a twisted version of Lucky Charms cereal commercials, Saturday Night Live featuring a piece of Toast or Gazorpazorpfield berating John, we get a glimpse into some of the other realities of “Rick and Morty.” There’s even a version of Jerry where he’s a famous actor starring in “Cloud Atlas.” Even in infinite realities TV is full of absurdities, whacky concepts and excessive violence and we’re here for it.
#5: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” & “Community” “Auto Erotic Assimilation”
“Auto Erotic Assimilation” sees Rick and his grandkids encountering his ex, Unity, which is a hive mind. Unity takes over the minds of intelligent species in a manner reminiscent of the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” films, although “Rick and Morty” flips the premise on its head by suggesting that the people Unity takes over are probably better off that way. In addition, the episode features a short, but notable parody of another of creator Dan Harmon’s shows, “Community,” satirizing its cancellation, return, and the pedestal people put Harmon on.
#4: “Jurassic Park” & “Fantastic Voyage” “Anatomy Park”
“Rick and Morty” has a way of combining concepts from different sources to make some very creative plots, and one of the most outlandish is “Anatomy Park.” After shrinking his grandson down to microscopic size, Rick sends Morty inside of a man whose insides he’s turned into a theme park called “Anatomy Park.” Everything, from its logo to its exhibits running wild and the park employees are lifted from “Jurassic Park.” Meanwhile, the investigation of a person’s body from within is evocative of the classic of that subgenre “Fantastic Voyage,” albeit a far messier version.
#3: “Inception” & “A Nightmare on Elm Street” “Lawnmower Dog”
While it was tempting to give this entry to the film parody that drove its b-plot and gives it its name, “The Lawnmower Man,” we went with the better-known movies that are referenced in its primary plot. After deciding that tutoring him is a hassle, Rick decides to implant the idea that Morty should get good grades in math in his teacher’s dreams in a parody of “Inception,” which they both namedrop. Inside the dreams within dreams, the pair eventually encounters Scary Terry, a dream demon whose appearance is akin to Freddy Krueger of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” However, Terry doesn’t have Krueger’s gift with puns….
#2: “Love Potion No. 9” & Tribute to David Cronenberg’s Work “Rick Potion #9”
“Love Potion No. 9” is a cheesy romantic comedy from the early 1990s that sees a man ask a gypsy for help in love and receiving a love potion. “Rick Potion #9” sees Morty asking Rick for a similar potion. However, its effects soon go viral and spiral out of control further when Rick attempts a cure. Rick dubs the monsters that result from these attempts Cronenbergs. This is in reference to the numerous movies by director David Cronenberg, who is famed for films involving grotesque mutations and other body horror elements. Both parodies, however different they may be, blend together in a magnificently bizarre way.
#1: “Back to the Future” & “Doctor Who” The Entire Show
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If the idea of “Rick and Morty” seems familiar, it’s for a good reason – it’s largely based on two giants of sci-fi. Firstly, the characters of Rick and Morty are basically substitutes for Doc Brown and Marty McFly. In fact, co-creator Justin Roiland once created an animation called “The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti,” which starred darker versions of the “Back to the Future” characters. In addition, despite not featuring time travel, “Rick and Morty” is a parody of “Doctor Who,” with its lead duo’s dimension hopping outings resembling the British sci-fi show’s adventures of the week. With its loving parody of these greats, is it any wonder the show is so awesome?
