10 Biggest Rick & Morty Controversies

For a show that spawned from a deeply unsettling Back to The Future parody, Rick and Morty has done pretty well for itself. The show has become an internet sensation, with merchandise infiltrating malls and high streets across the globe. As the show gets more and more popular, it opens itself up to scrutiny and its influence can have some dire consequences.

Despite having aired less than forty episodes (at time of writing), the show has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons on more than one occasion. As they head into production on season five, creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland need to think carefully on the impact the show is having.

The two are no strangers to controversy, both have been fired from their previous ventures and aren't exactly known for their politically correct sensibilities.

Harmon was famously removed from Community after a very public situation involving Chevy Chase, alongside sexual misconduct allegations with a co-writer on the show. While Roiland was renowned for creating questionable material for shock value, including having Marty McFly perform oral sex on Doc Brown in that parody we mentioned earlier.

While Rick and Morty tends not to rely on cheap shots and shock value, it's not afraid to 'go there'. Over the course of the series, they have made countless 9/11 references but during Promortyus, some fans thought they had gone too far.

As the titular characters fly towards a set of skyscrapers, Rick swerves to avoid crashing into them, remarking “Honestly, I’m proud of us for not.” Morty replies: “Totally. Would have been cheap". As if making light of the attacks wasn't enough, it didn't take long for the joke to evolve further.

Rick immediately heads to an alien harbour, quipping "Pearl Harbour on the other hand..." before unleashing a barrage of bombs. Later in the episode, when talking about the incident, Morty tells the family “Almost did a 9/11. We went with a Pearl Harbour. We’re pretty classy.”

The jokes didn't sit well with some viewers, who quickly took to Twitter to vent their frustrations. Many of the upset commenters criticised the 'cheap' nature of the joke, with some going as far to call for a boycott of the show.