What's up Wisecrack? Jared again. If you haven't noticed, we really, really
love Rick & Morty. Unfortunately, we’re still desperately waiting
for the rest of Season 3 and more of that sweet sweet Szechuan sauce. This sauce is f***ing amazing. But to tide you guys over, we thought we’d
put philosophy aside and take a look at another element that makes Rick & Morty so great:
showrunners Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s mastery of story structure. Welcome to this Wisecrack Edition on How Rick
and Morty Tells a story. But before we get into it, we just want to thank quidd for sponsoring this video. So, what is quidd? Quidd is a new app where you can collect exclusive digital stickers, cards, and toys for free - Featuring all the shows we love here at Wisecrack. Breaking Bad, Adventure Time, Bob's Burgers, Star Trek, and most importantly Rick & Morty. You know, I was a little skeptical at first BUT getting to slap Rick Sanchez stickers on my desperate please to get Jacob to join me for Korean barbecue is really fun. It's my SzeChuan sauce. Seriously. They've made a pretty fun game of collecting them too. You open up packs of stickers and cards. It kind of brings me back to the days of opening up basketball cards as a kid. You can also showcase your collection by adding stickers to anything on your camera role. And my dog, Woody, always looks best when he's chillin with Snuffles. And they've got Funko Pop figures too, so I grab myself this Meeseeks to serve as a friendly reminder that existence is pain. Check out the description below for a link to grab the app for free. It's available on iOS and Android, but it's not as smooth on Android yet, since it's still in beta. Anyway, I'm on there are JaredC137, so add me as a friend and trade me all your Meeseek swag. Now, let's get on with the show. Dan Harmon states that every story – from the Odyssey to your standard fart joke – follows 8 simple steps. Harmon called it “the story embryo”, and
it goes like this: 1. A character is in a zone of comfort. 2. But they want something. 3.They enter an unfamiliar situation. 4. Adapt to it. 5. Get what they wanted. 6. Pay a heavy price for it. 7. Then return to their familiar situation. 8. Having changed. Of course, this can all change based on the
genre and medium. And it especially changes for television. Whereas a movie’s goal is to send viewers
out on a 90 minute high, television is a bit different: it aims to keep people watching
television. Forever. Harmon says this is all to put your brain in a vegetative state so that the commercials can do their work. This means television shows are less about
change, and more about preserving the status quo. In the Dark Knight Rises, Batman saves Gotham
before jetting off to Italy to start his new life. While in Batman: The Animated Series, you
can bet your bottom dollar that each episode begins and ends with Batman fighting a different
villain in the same old Gotham. In Harmon’s words, television “swaps out any meaningful and therefore potentially television-subverting truth with the basic, eternal "truth" that
change is unnecessary” (46). With that in mind, the structure of a TV episode
often ends up looking more like this: 1. "I (the protagonist) 2. Notice a small problem. 3. And make a major decision. 4. This changes things 5. To some satisfaction, but 6. There are consequences 7. That must be undone 8. And I must admit the futility of change." So do Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon follow
their own advice? Absolutely. Every episode of Rick and Morty follows this
format, but for the sake of time, let’s see how it plays out in one of my favorites:
Season 2, Episode 6: “The Ricks Must Be Crazy”. Step 1: Establish a protagonist in a zone
of comfort. Harmon tells us that it’s best not to “screw
around” here and fade immediately onto your characters doing something relatable. This episode does just that, opening with Summer, Rick, and Morty coming out of the movie, Ball Fondlers. In just 20 short seconds, the episode has told us who our protagonists are, and what they, and what their world is like. There's pros and cons to (burp) every alternate timeline. Fun facts about this one - its got giant telepathic spiders, eleven 9/11s, aaaannnnnnddd the BEST ICE CREAM IN THE MULTIVERSE!!! - Shut up!
- Woah! And 25 seconds later, the script moves to. Step 2: Introduce a small problem and establish
a need. Step 2 is where the protagonist realizes that
life isn’t perfect. In a teenage love story, this is when the
hero wonders why he can’t be the school quarterback and date the cheerleader. In a horror film, this is when the group of
teens first hears that someone was murdered in the woods 13 years ago. For the Sanchez family, though, it’s when
Rick’s ship refuses to start. Rick: "Oh great… Huh, looks like something’s wrong with the
Microverse Battery. We’re going to have to go inside.” In two lines, Rick sets up the central problem
and motivation of the script: the ship’s battery is dead, and they need to fix it. In typical hero fashion, Morty is reluctant
to start this journey: “Um, go inside what?” This reluctance is an often used narrative
trick that helps us identify with the protagonist, in this case Morty. Morty’s uncertainty of the situation becomes
our uncertainty, and we find ourselves more invested in the story. Ten seconds later and the script moves us to: Step 3: The protagonist makes a major decision
and enters an unfamiliar situation. Step 3 is where the descent into the unknown begins. In the case of Rick and Morty, this descent
is both a figurative and a literal one. On one level, the two are leaving their comfort zone and entering one characterized by danger and uncertainty. While on a more literal level, they’re actually
shrinking down to visit a world inside Rick’s car battery, posing as aliens: Rick: “There’s nothing dishonest about
what we’re doing. Now slap on these antennas. These people need to believe we’re aliens.” Harmon says that it’s not important how
big or epic your story is, but rather how noticeable the contrast is between your two worlds. This episode takes that premise and runs with it, introducing us to a world that is completely foreign to our own. It’s populated by Martian-like people living
in power plant inspired buildings, who venerate Rick for introducing giving them electricity. Unknown to them, the Stair Master like Gooble
Boxes Rick gave them actually redirect most of their power to Rick’s ship. And, like the dick of a God he is, Rick has
guided their civilization in some messed up ways. Morty, you gotta flip them off. I told them it means peace among worlds. How hilarious is that? Which brings us to Step 4: Characters adapt
to the new situation and things must change. Step 4 is all about the characters learning
their place in this new world. It’s where all of their neuroses are broken down and all their psychological baggage is slowly stripped away. Movie producers call it the “training phase”. But remember, TV isn’t about selling change
– it’s about preserving the status quo so you’ll tune in week after week. As such, this stage is much less about internal
change and more about external change. Once they arrive in the Microverse, Rick and
Morty orient themselves in this new world and identify the problem at hand: Zeep Xanflorp. Zeep is perhaps the most familiar and strangest
aspect of this Microverse, essentially a carbon copy of a carbon-copy of Rick himself: “I
dropped out of school. It’s not a place for smart people.” Zeep even creates his own Microverse to generate
his planet’s electricity, which makes Rick’s Gooble Boxes obsolete, and his car battery unusable. Faced with a mirror image of themselves, you’d
expect a normal character to own up to their own hypocrisy and begin to change. But not Rick. Rick shamelessly parrots the same objections
Morty had made earlier to him – a shot which is almost visually identical to the earlier scene. That just sounds like slavery with extra steps! Ooh la la. Someones gonna get laid in college. Well, that just sounds like slavery with extra steps! Eek. Barba Durkel. Somebody's
gonna get laid in college. And when Morty later calls Rick out on his hypocrisy, Rick seizes upon this as a chance to stop Zeep. This is the “things must change” part,
a new conflict is introduced: Rick must search for a scientist in Zeep’s Microverse working
on his own Microverse. Somewhere on this planet, there’s
got to be an arrogant scientist prick on the verge of Microverse technology, which would
threaten to make Zeep’s Floobal Cranks obsolete, forcing Zeep to say Microverses are bad, at
which point he’ll realize what a hypocrite he's being. His people will go back to stomping on their
Gooble Boxes.” This sets us up for Step 5: The character
gets what they wanted. If you look at the diagram, you’ll notice
Step 5 is at the very bottom of the circle, opposite of Step 1, where the hero is most
comfortable. Here, the hero has hit rock-bottom and has
finally found what they were looking for, even if it wasn’t quite what they had expected. This is the first major turning point of the
story, where your character’s motivations begin to change. If you want a plot twist, Harmon says to twist
here and twist hard. Rick reaches Step 5 when he gets what he wants:
he finds a scientist named Kyle in Zeep’s Microverse who’s creating his own Microverse. In an Inception-like moment, we travel into
a Microverse within a Microverse... Within another Microverse. Rick sits back and watches in smug self-satisfaction
as Zeep repeats to Kyle the same slavery rant we’ve heard third time in the last eight minutes. Did we mention that comedy comes in threes? That just sounds like slavery with extra steps. But as Zeep continues his rant, he realizes
that his own universe is a Microverse – and that his whole existence was brought into
being through Rick. In an existential rage, Zeep and Rick begin
beating the crap out of each other. Meanwhile, Kyle crumbles into himself with the realization that he’s in a nesting doll of universes. But Rick’s triumph is short lived, which
brings us to Step 6: Paying a hefty price and suffering the consequences. Given that this model is circular, you can
imagine that there’s going to be a lot of symmetry going on here. Just as Step 2 is about preparing the hero
for their descent, Step 6 is about preparing them for their return. This step is all about the Hero testing their
newfound will against the unfeeling world, often getting their ass handed to them in the process. Rick gets exactly what he wanted: a Microverse
within Zeep’s Microverse. But in demonstrating Zeep’s hypocrisy, Rick
causes Kyle to have an existential meltdown and kill himself, trapping them all in the
Tinyverse. Unable to put aside their egos, Rick and Zeep
blame each other and set out to destroy one another instead of working together to escape. The two set up camp across from each other
and begin an all out war, completely forgetting about their current predicament. Realizing that they’re going nowhere, Morty
decides he’s better off living with Tree People. But it’s actually Morty and his primitive
tribe of Tree People that forces Rick and Zeep to forge an alliance, which brings us to Step 7:
Undoing the damage and returning the familiar world. Just as Step 4 is the final step before the
hero sinks to the bottom of the unfamiliar, Step 7 is the final step before they resurface. The only problem is that re-entering the old
world is just as difficult as leaving it. Once your hero tries to return, the denizens
of the deep are likely to give chase – and sometimes return with them. Using his control over the tree people, Morty
forces Rick and Zeep to put aside their egos and engineer a solution out of Kyle’s Tinyverse. But once they escaped it, all bets are off – and the two groups rush to exit the surrounding Microverse. On a metaphorical level, Zeep is the embodiment
of this lower world; he’s there to stop Rick from bringing the change back to the
original world - getting his car battery running again. On a more literal level, though, Zeep wants
to trap Rick in the Microverse because it’s the only way to keep his own Microverse from
being destroyed. In many ways, Zeep is Rick’s shadow, serving
as a dark reflection of all Rick’s undesirable traits and neuroses. Shadows are a common story device, and like
many shadow-figures before him, Zeep serves as a gatekeeper for this lower world – he
is the final obstacle a hero must face. Whether it’s Hans Gruber putting a gun to
John McClain’s wife in Die Hard, or Luke facing off against Darth Vader in Star Wars,
shadow characters offer a dark glimpse into what the hero could have been if they didn’t
undergo a transformation. The beauty of Rick & Morty is that Rick is
completely aware of all his shortcomings and has no desire to fix them. The whole episode presents us with a series
of parallels between Rick and Zeep, making each look as bad as the other. When Rick tells Morty to run, it’s hard
to tell if he’s describing himself or Zeep: Run, Morty! That asshole’s willing to risk everything
he cares about just so to defeat me! He’s psychotic. As a result, when Rick and Zeep finally face
off in the episode’s conclusion, it’s not Rick battling the physical manifestations
of his demons in attempt to change. It’s just Rick fighting Rick. Even Morty feels the fight is unnecessary at this point. Don't do it. You quit school, but you still got some learnin to do. With Zeep taken care of, Rick and Morty finally
exit the Microverse, arriving back in their Ball Fondlers reality. This brings us to Step Eight: Change or the
futility of it. Normally, this is where the hero finally reaches
fulfillment, where he integrates all of the skills he learned on his journey into his old life. In The Karate Kid, Daniel can now Kung all
the Fu. In Saw II, Amanda has become the next Jigsaw
Killer. But remember, TV isn’t about change. The hero can never be fulfilled. Otherwise they’ll never desire another adventure,
and there will be no story to tune into. Once the two return to their Ball Fondlers
universe, Rick turns the key and the ignition starts. He explains to a confused Morty that Zeep
had either two choices: go back to Gooble Box technology or have Rick throw away a broken
Microverse battery. Peace among worlds, Rick. Fully embracing the futility of change, the
episode ends with the three sitting down for ice-cream, a dazed Morty and Summer shellshocked by the normalcy of the situation after all they’ve been through. In the end, Rick & Morty is both immediately
familiar and radically different from anything we’ve seen on television. While the show regularly mocks popular culture
and continually plays off the audience’s expectations, at its core, the series is structured
just like any other TV show. But this is where the Rick & Morty shines
the brightest. Because while shows like Happy Days and Leave
It To Beaver are content to leave us right where each episode started, Rick & Morty uses
its circular structure to make us confront the depressing, crippling futility of change. Rick successfully re-enslaves a whole planet
to power his car battery, all so they can get some ice-cream. So while Rick Sanchez may not believe in much,
the creative team definitely believes in the power story structure.
This is a good channel but I kind of wish they would get off of Rick and Morty's dick. 5 episodes actually is a little excessive for a general pop culture channel.
Nice video, was worth the insufferable intro
Couldn't watch the whole thing did some skipping. Did he basically just go through the story circle?