Storyline
When Rick hooks up the family’s tv receiver with reality-tv shows from alternate dimensions and allows them to see themselves in different versions of their lives, they begin to wonder what they have, and more importantly – what could have been.
Quotes
Morty: That, out there, that’s my grave.
Summer: Wait, what?
Morty: On one of our adventures, Rick and I basically destroyed the whole world, so we bailed on that reality and we came to this one, because in this one, the world wasn’t destroyed and in this one, we were dead. So we came here, a- a- and we buried ourselves and we took their place. And every morning, Summer, I eat breakfast twenty yards away from my own rotting corpse.
Summer: So you’re not my brother?
Morty: I’m better than your brother. I’m a version of your brother you can trust when he says “Don’t run.” Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV.
Don Pardo: It’s “Saturday Night Live”! Starring a piece of toast, two guys with handlebar mustaches, a man painted silver who makes robot noises, Garmanarar, three s- eh- bl- um- uh- uh- uh- I’ll get back to that one, a hole in the wall where the men can see it all, and returning for his twenty-fifth consecutive year, Bobby Moynihan!
Rick: Interesting fun fact: uh, Moynihan and Piece of Toast hate each other. Apparently they’ve got some real creative differences,
Morty: Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch T.V.
Rick: [after watching a new TV series] Pretty cool, huh Morty?
[realizes that Morty is gone and Jerry is sitting next to him]
Rick: Oh…
Jerry: I thought it was cool…
Rick: I don’t give a fuck what you think, Jerry!
Morty: Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV.
Jerry: Give me a break. We’re not heroes for having unprotected sex on prom night.
Summer: [Speaking to Morty] You’re the little brother. You’re not the cause of your parents misery, you’re just a symptom of it.
References
- Citizen Kane (1941)
Rick mentions this film. - Saturday Night Live (1975) (TV Series)
Rick and Morty watch another dimension’s version of “Saturday Night Live” - Late Night with David Letterman (1982) (TV Series)
Rick and Morty watch another dimension’s version of Letterman - Sixty Minutes (1983) (TV Series)
Title reference - Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) (Video)
Alternate universe version shown - Who’s the Boss? (1984) (TV Series)
Alternate universe version shown - The Real Ghostbusters (1986) (TV Series)
Rick talks about how Lorenzo Music and Bill Murray both played Peter Venkman. - Antiques Roadshow (1997) (TV Series)
Alternate universe version shown - Garfield (2004)
Rick talks about how Lorenzo Music and Bill Murray both played Garfield. - Cloud Atlas (2012)
Alternate universe version shown
Spoofs
- The A-Team (1983) (TV Series)
Rick and Morty watch “Ball Fondlers”, which parodies “The A-Team”‘s credit sequence - Unsolved Mysteries (1987) (TV Series)
The cast watch an alternate-universe show called “Quick Mysteries” where the answer is given almost immediately - Garfield and Friends (1988) (TV Series)
Rick and Morty watch another dimension’s version of Garfield. - Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)
The cast watch an alternate-universe movie trailer for a film where a group of cats manipulate their former owner’s body to look like she’s still alive - The Bachelor (2002) (TV Series)
The Smiths watch a version of this series. - Game of Thrones (2011) (TV Series)
Rick flips past a channel featuring “Game of Thrones,” but everyone’s a dwarf and Tyrion is normal-sized
Goofs
- Rick and Morty both remark that the TV shows seem to have a “improvisational feel” to them. At the end of the trailer for Two Brothers, the voice actor just loses it and says the name of the movie is “Two Brothers”.
- When the Gazorpazorpfield character says the line “Now give me those f*cking enchiladas” you can hear the actor start to laugh.