The Rick and Morty Series: Humor or Philosophy?

Abstract

The article explores the philosophy and humour in the popular animated science-fiction sitcom Rick and Morty, which premiered in 2013. The series offers productive material through which important philosophical and cultural questions and challenges can be explored. The subject of the study is the explication of the problem of reality and opposition of determinism and freedom in the context of modern society, which is largely characterized by technological advances. The research aims to show how the creators of the series interpret these problems and what place they leave for a human in the world and Universe. The series has already become a target of academic research, and this article shows how researchers use the material of the series to study social theories, ontological and ethical issues, the boundaries of the human, etc. The author attempts to consider the series as an object of complex humanitarian research. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the growing interaction between humans and technology makes one turn to philosophy and culture in order to preserve the humane and prevent the formation of a non-human-sized world. The author concludes that the main message of Rick and Morty is the rejection of anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism. However, the seemingly pessimistic viewpoint advocated by the creators of the series is justified by the growing complexity of the world. The series motivates productive reflection on the current state of our world and its future.

Keywords

• animation
• series
• rick and morty
• postmodernism
• metamodernism
• multiverses
• metaverses
• cronenberg