Rick and Morty arrived in 2013 as a Back to the Future parody and became something far stranger: a show that uses infinite universes as a playground for questions about meaning, free will, and whether anything matters when every version of you already exists somewhere. The comedy is crass and relentless, but the emotional gut-punches land because the writers never let the nihilism win completely. Rick Sanchez is the smartest person in every universe he visits and also, quietly, one of the loneliest. That tension, between cosmic indifference and stubborn human attachment, is the through-line every fan recognises. The catalog below maps that territory across every medium.
Same DNA: Animated Series That Go Dark
Adult animation that hides real pain inside absurdist comedy
Sci-Fi Films That Mess With Reality
Movies where the multiverse, time, or identity comes apart at the seams
Books That Stare Into the Void (and Laugh)
Novels and stories that mix hard ideas with black comedy or emotional gut-punches
Games With Big Ideas and Dark Humor
Games that toy with reality, identity, or the player's expectations as much as their enemies
BoJack Horseman Is the Show Rick and Morty Fans Finish and Cannot Shake
Rick and Morty makes you laugh at darkness from a safe distance. BoJack Horseman closes that distance entirely. Both shows use absurdism as a delivery mechanism for questions about self-destruction, the limits of intelligence as a coping tool, and whether a person defined by their worst moments can change. BoJack answers those questions more quietly and more honestly than almost anything on television, and fans of Rick's quieter moments will recognise exactly where the two shows overlap.
Outer Wilds Does in 15 Hours What Rick and Morty Does in 100 Episodes
Outer Wilds is a game about a solar system frozen in a 22-minute time loop, and it is, structurally, the same argument Rick and Morty makes across its best episodes: the universe is ancient, indifferent, and genuinely beautiful, and knowing that changes nothing about the value of your small moment inside it. Players who complete it describe the ending the same way Rick and Morty fans describe the season two finale. That is not a coincidence.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Started This Conversation in 1979
Douglas Adams wrote a universe where the answer to everything is 42 and the question does not matter. That premise, comic hopelessness delivered with absolute sincerity, is the ur-text for Rick and Morty's entire worldview. Adams got there first, funnier, and in under 200 pages. Fans who have not read the original trilogy (and its fourth and fifth books) are missing the source code.
Everything Everywhere All at Once Is the Multiverse Story Rick and Morty Could Never Tell
Rick and Morty uses the multiverse to explore how meaninglessness can be funny. Everything Everywhere All at Once uses the exact same premise to argue the opposite: that meaninglessness is the precondition for love, not its enemy. The Daniels made the film that answers Rick Sanchez. Both are essential viewing, in either order.
From Parody Sketch to Cultural Phenomenon
- 2006Justin Roiland creates the original Doc and Mharti short, the crude parody that would become Rick and Morty.
- 2012Dan Harmon and Roiland pitch the series to Adult Swim after meeting at Channel 101.
- 2013Season 1 premieres on Adult Swim, December 2. Instant cult following. Rick and Morty
- 2015Season 2 airs. 'Auto Erotic Assimilation' and 'The Wedding Squanchers' establish the show's emotional register.
- 2017Season 3 releases. The Szechuan sauce episode creates a real-world fast-food frenzy.
- 2019Adult Swim orders 70 more episodes, the largest commitment in the network's history.
- 2020Season 4 completes. Rick and Morty now airs globally on Netflix outside North America.
- 2021Season 5 airs. The 'Rickmorty' arc deepens the show's serialised mythology.
- 2022Dan Harmon continues as sole showrunner after Justin Roiland's exit from the production company.
- 2023Season 6 wins the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. New voice cast confirmed for Roiland characters.
- 2024Rick and Morty: The Anime premieres on Adult Swim and Max, produced by Telecom Animation Film. Rick and Morty: The Anime
Multiverse Sci-Fi With a Side of Existential Dread
For Fans of Douglas Adams
Explore the For Fans of Douglas Adams guide →Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV.Morty Smith, Rick and Morty Season 1