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Vice: I love "Rick & Morty" and I hate its fans

W

WrenchNinja

Member
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...morty-and-i-hate-its-fans?utm_source=vicefbus

There was a great tweet a few days ago about Rick and Morty fans, and how obnoxious they can be. Here, I'll show it to you:
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g6KEVnM.jpg
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Everyone hates when jokes are explained to them, but I'm going to explain this one out anyway. The gist of this quip (aided by Twitter's new and beta-tested 280-character-count—see, it's not all bad!) is that Rick and Morty fans are constantly high on their own supply when it comes to their love for and understanding of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's hilarious, brilliantly inventive, and frequently emotionally devastating Adult Swim cartoon. If you don't understand its brilliance? Well, you might as well be a numbskull—this is a show for people who, if not exactly are Albert Einstein, at the very least consider themselves comparable.

This, of course, is nonsense—nonsense that we've consulted with experts on, even. But you don't need to be an expert to recognize when fandom is toxic; sometimes, all you need to do is take a walk down the street. That's what I did a few months ago, when there was a Rick and Morty pop-up merch installation outside of bar-chain Barcade's Williamsburg outpost.
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We lingered near the pop-up for a few minutes, essentially people-watching at some of the more creative costumes and gear that fans were decked out in for the occasion. One middle-aged man walked along the sidewalk, trying to find where the line began while wearing a cape of sorts and brandishing an extremely real-looking and expensive-seeming lightsaber replica.

"Is that a real lightsaber, bro?" A backward-hatted male—in his mid 20s probably—asked with derision as his friends chuckled. "Excuse me?" The man with the lightsaber stopped for a second, not quite understanding that he was quickly becoming the butt of a joke.

"Cool lightsaber—is that a real one, bro?" The hatted-male reiterated, the sarcastic meanness of his comment barely hidden. "Yes, it's a replica," the man replied, with a level of sweet sincerity that broke my heart a little bit. "COOOOOOOOOOOL," the hat man let out of his maw, the chuckles from his friends now apparent in the open air. The man with the lightsaber picked up the pace and exited the scene quickly, and so did we.

The following is obvious, but I feel compelled to state it anyway: This is not a way to treat people! It's a mean-spirited way to live your life, and recent events online (of course) have shown that mean-spiritedness runs through a certain sect of Rick and Morty fans' veins. Last week, Harmon was compelled to give a statement to Entertainment Weekly about recent efforts to doxx and harass the show's female writers under the assumption that women have been given writing credits on Rick and Morty's recent season instead of the male writers that certain fans believe are more essential to the show's strengths. (You can catch up on this whole mess on this Reddit thread.)
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https://www.reddit.com/r/rickandmorty/comments/6slp3l/nobody_cares/dleys99/
 
A

A-V-B

Member
I mean, this seems to be a phenomenon with every modern pop culture thing. Great work, lots of loud fans who are hard to get along with (also lots of good ones but it's hard to make a story about the grandmother quietly knitting a Walter White sweater.)
 
E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I don't really seek out these shitty Rick and Morty fans, so the only stuff I've seen have been a bunch of people posting the same memes over and over making fun of Rick and Morty fans.
 
F

Fudgepuppy

Banned
Yeah.

My problem, are the people who say "It's so smart, because it's so dark and cynical".

No, the show is a lot more than just dark. It's a great show with a lot of awesome sci-fi themes that don't get explored a lot on tv.

But I'm just happy that more people enjoy it.

Kind of sad though that Arrested Development didn't get the same sizable fanbase.
 
C

CalamityPixel

Member
Vice just don't understand the subtle comedy that can only be picked up if you have a basic grasp of quantum mechanics. Quite funny.

Wubalubadubdub really is an interesting mathematical joke if you break it down, only those of us with intelligence understand this though.

Quite tragic how all the humour is lost on the "normal" audience who do not have the brain power to process the brilliantly crafted humour.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
A-V-B said:
I mean, this seems to be a thing with every modern pop culture thing. Great work, lots of loud fans who are hard to get along with (also lots of good ones but it's hard to make a story about the grandmother quietly knitting a Walter White sweater.)
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With this example and discussions we have in gaming side about toxic fandoms, I really dunno if it's just perception or different properties actually have worse bad elements than others. I think especially with Rick and Morty it's something that's probably only very visible to people inside the fandom, as the first I heard of any of this was Harmon's comments.
 
T

theinternetman

Member
It's scary how people will follow their political/social concerns to these absurd ends. I've never run into any overtly conceited or big-headed R&M fans, but I hear about this issue endlessly while cruising the web. I find myself thinking the lightsaber story might be more of a brooklyn problem than anything else, but the doxxing stuff is vile.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
Puck Beaverton said:
Fandoms blow. All of them.
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Ain't that the truth. I like a lot of stuff, but don't ever get too heavily invested because then I end up around other fans of the stuff and then get really turned off cause of how fucking toxic it can get.

Fuck fandoms.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
Yeah it's kinda too bad that so many of their fans are totally toxic towards the female staff writers, for example. The moment you start self-identifying with Rick you've gone TOO FAR.
 
ebullientprism

ebullientprism

Member
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily fromNarodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
Vice: I love Thing That Exists and I hate its fans
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ftfy

Yeah, Rick and Morty really is a funny and smart show, but I'm sure there are plenty of people taking the show in the worst possible way.

Mostly I could see people taking Rick's nihilism and using it as some boneheaded justification to act like an asshole to people (Think Douchebags dressed as Deadpool). Missing the point that Rick also happens to be a drunken asshole with a death wish and a dysfunctional social and family life.

to quote Morty:
yeKR8i_9m63ZeSAJvLrRXy-aPBA=.gif
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
LOL I saw that tweet too. This has come up a lot recently but the people who see themselves in characters like Bojack Horseman and Rick Sanchez and don't recognize the fact that both characters are damaged and damage their loved ones are indeed very problematic, to say the least. A similar discussion was brought up around the time Breaking Bad was all anyone talked about. Around then there were many fans who idealized Walt because he was "smart, ruthless and aggressive" in getting what he wanted while Skylar was a "naggy, overbearing, bitch" for trying to "tear him down and undermine his success".
 
C

CrimzonSamurai

Member
I feel like most Rick and Morty fans don't actually understand the philosophical underpinnings of the show and just think its super edgy and roll with it from there.

Like "Nobody belongs anywhere, nobody exists on purpose, everyone is going to die, come watch TV." is one of the greatest distillations of enlightened nihilism/enlightened absurdism ever written but most people are just "lol get your shit together in a backpack lol"
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
That tweet fucking sucks. The copypasta spreading here and on reddit was much better.

Edit: And the copypasta was posted before I hit submit.
 
Blam

Blam

Member
benicillin said:
Yeah it's kinda too bad that so many of their fans are totally toxic towards the female staff writers, for example. The moment you start self-identifying with Rick you've gone TOO FAR.
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Yeah that's not something that anyone should be doing.

Also don't go on Musical.ly
 
B

BobTheFork

Member
I just assume huge R&M fans haven't seen similar shows before.

Like how I assume people who think Donnie Darko is the greatest movie ever just hadn't seen anything like it before hand.
 
M

Mesoian

Member
This really does sound like someone's first foreay into a popular fandom. They're all like this. All of them, no exceptions.
 
B

BlackDoomShadow

Member
The thing about the modern internet is that there's like 75 different popular movie/TV fansites and they all feel the need to cover the exact same content with the exact same editorials.

This is at least the fifth article I've read about R&M's toxic fanbase in the last week, and they're all saying the exact same fucking thing. We get it already.
 
R

robotrock

Banned
Trojita said:
That tweet fucking sucks. The copypasta spreading here and on reddit was much better.

Edit: And the copypasta was posted before I hit submit.
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Agreed on this, I don't know why this was the one to blow up. I think the Albert Einstein bit could be genius though, just needs a little bit more time in the oven.
 
smokeymicpot

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
I agree a little bit. Love the show but some fans are fucking annoying. Then again it is like that for most shows.
 
H

hughesta

Banned
fans of things that can be seen as being "cult" in any way (something Rick and Morty certainly isn't) like to flock together as though their understanding and appreciation of anything more than cookie-cutter entertainment makes them special in some way.

It doesn't.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
EdibleKnife said:
LOL I saw that tweet too. This has come up a lot recently but the people who see themselves in characters like Bojack Horseman and Rick Sanchez and don't recognize the fact that both characters are damaged and damage their loved ones are indeed very problematic, to say the least. A similar discussion was brought up around the time Breaking Bad was all anyone talked about. Around then there were many fans who idealized Walt because he was "smart, ruthless and aggressive" in getting what he wanted while Skylar was a "naggy, overbearing, bitch" for trying to "tear him down and undermine his success".
Click to expand...

I don't think I've seen anyone glorify or identify with Bojack in a way that doesn't acknowledge that he's damaged and struggles with depression, though.
 
R

robotrock

Banned
Ash735 said:
How many articles can VICE get out of Rick & Morty? It feels like I've seen 3/4 a week from them.
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It's either this or drugs

hughesta said:
fans of things that can be seen as being "cult" in any way (something Rick and Morty certainly isn't) like to flock together as though their understanding and appreciation of anything more than cookie-cutter entertainment makes them special in some way.

It doesn't.
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Read the last bit in Ron Howard voice
 
O

Orbis Tabula

Member
Yeah, it's just one of those things.

For some media, it's best to enjoy the thing and ignore the fanbase as much as possible. It's a shame that the writers of the show are being harassed now by a bunch of sexist assholes. That shouldn't be ignored.
 
S

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Fans are always the worst part of anything. Wrestling, music, movies, tv, games and on and on. Nothing makes me less enthused for something than listening to it's sniveling self entitled whiny little bitchmade fans throw their own feces and have tantrums over the product they claim to love but really just want to pull a Gollum and obsess over it in a sick, violent, and unhealthy way.
Avoiding fan communities will improve your enjoyment of a product immensely.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
Permanently A said:
Why is it that cartoons that get popular have incredibly toxic and weird fandoms, but TV shows are perfectly normal?
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They're not. A lot of cartoons are fueled off of obsession and huge fans of the show, whereas TV can reach wider audiences.

TV that gets stupid popular has shit fandoms too. See: GoT, Star Trek, BSG, Breaking Bad, etc.
 
N

Nafai1123

Banned
Reminds me of how some Breaking Bad fans absolutely despised Skyler (and Anna Gunn) while defending and fawning over Walt as some bastion of male strength and power.

Lot's of REALLY passionate fandoms are cesspools.
 
G

Gotdatmoney

Member
EdibleKnife said:
LOL I saw that tweet too. This has come up a lot recently but the people who see themselves in characters like Bojack Horseman and Rick Sanchez and don't recognize the fact that both characters are damaged and damage their loved ones are indeed very problematic, to say the least. A similar discussion was brought up around the time Breaking Bad was all anyone talked about. Around then there were many fans who idealized Walt because he was "smart, ruthless and aggressive" in getting what he wanted while Skylar was a "naggy, overbearing, bitch" for trying to "tear him down and undermine his success".
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone can watch Bojack horseman and not realize that he and many of the characters in that show are fucked up.

Like, the show cotextualizes how shit a being he is pretty often.
 
smokeymicpot

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
Nafai1123 said:
Reminds me of how some Breaking Bad fans absolutely despised Skyler (and Anna Gunn) while defending and fawning over Walt as some bastion of male strength and power.

Lot's of REALLY passionate fandoms are cesspools.
Click to expand...

I never got that. At times I hated Skyler but I never understood the total hate for her.
 
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