Rick and Morty poked fun at blockbuster superheroes more directly than ever this week, but the show has a long history of jokes and parodies at the genre’s expense. Rick and Morty doesn’t necessarily do direct satire, but it has woven references to Marvel and the MCU into many of its stories — along with just about everything else in geek culture. Many of the show’s top writers have even gone on to work on the MCU, strengthening its link to the franchise and perhaps inspiring some of its gags through off-screen friendship. Meanwhile, the show has plenty of reason to tease DC, as it is also owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rick and Morty has used its broad scope to interrogate just about every corner of genre fiction at this point, from sci-fi to superheroes, fantasy, TTRPGs, and so on. If Marvel has taken a particularly large chunk of those jokes, it should be no surprise — Rick and Morty premiered in 2013, so it rose to popularity as the MCU was hitting its stride and becoming the behemoth it is today. In the wake of the show’s viral episode “Ricker than Fiction,” here’s a look back at 10 of its best jokes about Marvel.
The Council of Ricks
Starting from the beginning, Rick and Morty introduced the multi-dimensional nexus the “Citadel of Ricks” in Season 1, Episode 10, “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind,” and it was there we first met the “Council of Ricks.” These cartoonishly villainous variants were definitely based on Marvel Comics’ “Council of Reeds” to start, but it didn’t take long for them to be downplayed in the series. Still, the show took plenty of time to crack jokes about this concept, my personal favorite being a line from Summer (Spencer Grammer) in the season 3 premiere — “My grandpa was my hero. You killed him because you were jealous of him, that’s pretty obvious from the haircuts.”
Hulk: The Musical
The show’s next dig at Marvel was even more quotable, especially for Jerry fans. In Season 2, Episode 4, “Total Rickall,” the Smith-Sanchez family remembers attending a play called Hulk: The Musical. They had a great time, too, as they all leave wearing t-shirts commemorating the show and Jerry (Chris Parnell) even sports a pair of Hulk hands. As Beth (Sarah Chalke) warns Jerry that foam fists don’t make him strong, he snaps back, “I know! Friends make you strong, I watched the same musical you did.”
Interestingly, many fans mistake this for a false memory due to the premise of this episode, in which many of the cutaways are delusions implanted by parasites. However, in this scene the family is accompanied by Mr. Poopybutthole, and the twist of the episode is that he is actually real. Sadly, the family has jumped universes at least a couple of times since then, and there’s no telling if Hulk: The Musical existed in any other realities.
Vindicators
Naturally, the Vindicators make this list as one big parody of the Avengers, and it’s hard to settle on just one joke that sums up their humor. However, the most poignant is probably when Vance Maximus (Christian Slater) complains that Rick’s habitual drinking is different from his own “cool drinking, like, sexy drinking! Not this psycho trailer park s—!”
Sentient Lab Coat
Some commenters didn’t like the way Rick tested the fourth wall with an MCU joke in Season 4, Episode 3, “One Crew over the Crewcoo’s Morty.” In order to stave off a security guard, the mad scientist gives the verbal command: “Lab coat, rip off Doctor Strange.” His coat then flies off of him of its own accord and entangles the bouncer for a few minutes.
This joke was timely for series co-creator Dan Harmon, who consulted with Marvel on its plans for Doctor Strange. On his podcast Harmontown, he explained that he had a very informal call with the studio about how portals are used in Rick and Morty, and how the writers approach them. This may have been the beginning of the show’s relationship with Marvel Studios, before some of its writers became staples of the MCU.
Mr. Nimbus
By now, Mister Nimbus has a well-earned fandom all his own, but in the beginning he was a clear and thinly-veiled reference to Marvel’s Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The cocky figure in control of the ocean (and the police) makes an odd rival for Rick, but in many ways, that’s what makes him perfect for the job. With just three episodes left in Season 8, many fans are hoping we’ll get an appearance by Nimbus before the year is out.
Stranded in Space
The opening of Season 6 finds Rick and Morty stranded in space on what remains of the Citadel of Ricks, which was destroyed when Evil Morty escaped from the Central Finite Curve. The first scene is a send-up of Avengers: Endgame, which starts with a Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) stranded on a drifting spaceship. Rick parodies Tony’s farewell message recorded for Pepper, and they’re eventually rescued by Space Beth who’s not a bad stand-in for the MCU’s Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).
Perhaps the best part of this bit is that Rick and Morty make fun of themselves for making fun of the MCU, turning the joke back on themselves. Rick complains, “I don’t have a helmet like that Avengers guy did,” and a few moments later, Morty reflects, “Hey, remember like a second ago, when you pretended to not know who Iron Man was. Who was that for?”
‘Night Family’
Morty’s words come back to bite him in Season 6, Episode 4, “Night Family,” when he and Rick start a podcast to talk about their abs. The two are reading an ad for an underwear company sponsoring their podcast, and Rick remarks that he’s wearing a pair with “the raccoon man from that one movie” on them. It seems pretty clear he’s talking about Rocket, but Morty says knowingly, “Chewbacca.”
That same episode features a send-up of Thor’s quest to forge a new weapon for himself in Avengers: Infinity War. Rick takes a similar journey in this episode, but rather than forging a weapon like Stormbreaker to fight off a universal threat, he forges new plates that can’t be shattered due to his petty refusal to capitulate to the “night family.”
Condescending Dinosaurs
Rick and Morty‘s most demeaning joke about the MCU is likely the one in Season 6, Episode 6, “Juricksic Mort,” where space-faring dinosaurs return to earth and attempt to take over managing the planet on humans’ behalf. They encourage humanity to let them control everything for the greater good, suggesting, “Wouldn’t you rather make Marvel movies? …Wouldn’t you like to lie down? You must be exhausted! Put your feet up, get more tattoos, finish rounding out this ‘Ant-Man’ character.”
Parodying the MCU is one thing, but here the show clearly implies the franchise is a vapid way to fill the hours. It’s not an unheard-of take, but it has riled up the fandom on more than one occasion. Somehow, Rick and Morty didn’t seem to get much blowback for it.
Blade vs. Knights of the Sun
Later that season, Rick turns around and praises Marvel’s Blade trilogy with a throwaway joke in “A Rick in King Mortur’s Court.” When Morty has to defeat the Knights of the Sun in combat, Rick hands him a sword that “uses A.I. to learn from an opponent’s attacks.” However, he explains Morty won’t have to train the sword first because “the sword has already seen Blade. And loved it. You’ll be fine.”
Hugh Jackman
Finally, the Season 7 opener finds Rick in very strange company, including actor Hugh Jackman, voiced by himself. Rick warns his friends not to call Jackman “Wolverine,” but when his corny neighbor Gene does it, Jackman takes it in stride. The same is not true for others later on in the episode, to Rick’s dismay.
Rick and Morty is inextricably linked to the MCU as it is with geek culture in general, but it seems to have a healthy balance of critiques and respect for the megalithic franchise. The series has three more episodes to go in its current season, premiering on Sundays at 11 p.m. ET on Adult Swim.
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