A typical episode of Rick and Morty is larger-than-life pandemonium. If Rick isn’t utilizing laser swords to slice up hordes of insectoid aliens, he’s whisking his nephew Morty via multi-dimensional portals that make the stargate from 2001 appear to be an airport people-mover. However beneath that flurry of animation remains to be a household sitcom about life’s minor gripes. Within the season 8 premiere, that features the annoyance of somebody stealing your cellphone charger.
[Ed. note: Setup spoilers ahead for Rick and Morty season 8, episode 1.]
“Summer time of All Fears” opens in a future the place a grown Summer time (Spencer Grammer) is the technocratic overlord of a society dedicated to cellphone chargers. Morty resides off the grid after a lifetime of jail time, army service, and cell-phone-related horrors. Seems, the brother-sister duo are literally caught in a world simulation à la The Matrix, conceived as punishment by uncle Rick after they used his cellphone charger.
It isn’t shocking that the Rick and Morty writers discovered a contemporary spin for a simulation-theory gag. The twist is that it’s constructed on the infuriating inconvenience of your cellphone charger going lacking. Creator Dan Harmon tells Polygon he thinks he’s guilty for that plot level.
“I’ve tried to hoard them,” he says with despair, whereas recounting the origins of the premiere episode. “I’ve tried to lock them in packing containers. They simply disappear. They’re the brand new ‘sock within the dryer.’”
Showrunner Scott Marder says the Rick and Morty writers are all the time on the hunt for relatable issues as cores for his or her absurdist parodies. Harmon’s gripes had been felt within the room. “Yearly, there’s a distinct hookup to the cellphone!” he says. “So that you’ve bought a bunch of them that don’t even imply something anymore. You’re all the time chasing for one which works.”
Whereas cellphone charger fury is perhaps relatable, Harmon admits his relationship with the dongles goes a bit deeper. They had been as soon as the centerpiece of a infamous Valentine’s Day current he gifted his ex-wife: a “stunning bouquet” of iPhone chargers. Harmon swears the present truly went over rather well, and he “was pleased with giving it,” as a result of in contrast to most disposable Valentine’s Day items, the cellphone charger bouquet may cost a cellphone.
Even so, Harmon says, he considered it as a gift that was most likely going to have a brief shelf life: “Cellphone chargers, like flowers, really feel such as you’re simply giving them to somebody and so they’re simply going to fade.”
