What Makes a Morty?

this video is brought to you by surfsharkvpn [Music] what's up guys michael here with another philosophical reaction to the only show on tv with a giant incest space baby as a recurring character obviously we're talking about rick and morty season five now we've already unpacked some of the philosophical themes from this season in previous videos from the history of war to the morals of eco-terrorism to the all-encompassing logic of capitalism but one theme that stood out to me throughout the season was morty's quest to find some kind of identity or meaning in his life outside of being his dick grandpa's sidekick because the idea of personal identity has been a common topic for philosophers across the centuries so let's see if i can squeeze some philosophical wisdom out of a season that ends with a monologue from a character named mr poopy butthole coincidentally my childhood nickname welcome to this edition of a philosopher reacts to rick and morty season five who is morty and spoilers ahead for the latest rick and morty and some very old philosophy books but before we get into it i want to give a shout out to this week's sponsor surfsharkvpn surfsharkvpn helps you secure your data by using uncrackable encryption in the most secure vpn protocols plus it's fast and easy to use one of my favorite things about surfshark is that it lets me binge content from around the world that i otherwise wouldn't be able to access i really hate when i hear about some cool new comedy special from the uk but can't actually watch it but with surfsharkvpn the internet can't figure out where i'm located that means i can simply use one of their servers to log into bbc iplayer and let the absurdist comedy wash over me you can also unlock the 15 largest netflix libraries around the world that way when you're traveling abroad you can keep up with your favorite reality shows from back home about hot people on islands it's a content connoisseur's dream one subscription will allow you to protect all your favorite devices whether it's a laptop android amazon fire stick and even your playstation or xbox and there are apps for all your favorites too like chrome and firefox surfsharkvpn is fast easy to install and jam packed with features if you use the link in the description and use the promo code wisecrack you can get surfsharkvpn for 83 off its normal annual price plus three extra months for free so go to surfshark.deals wisecrack or hit the link in the description protect yourself online and download surfsharkvpn today and now back to the show let's start with morty's first big non-jessica crush of the season like many impressionable young men morty gets into a new cause to impress a girl or a super heroine he likes i got kind of a positive vibe good i was putting one out i i really like you holy sh not unlike the time i became a vegetarian in college just to try to make my crush like me she didn't but i did stay vegetarian for three years so you win some you lose some but enough about me let's see how meeting a sentient amalgam of elements helps morty find his identity there's a huge forest fire like 200 miles from here this is amazing planeteen is bound to be there mom i i need the credit card to buy a train ticket absolutely not mom this is the biggest wildfire of the year you're not going i'm not last time i checked this wasn't russia it's not russia jerry my heart is broken and i deserve to let it they have a whole separate mission in this episode you can suck my bigger tit adios words i don't want you getting hurt please think this i don't want to think i want to see a girl i like talk about a hot foot this wildfire on ice come here little buddy come on come on come on i gotcha okay so this is one of the first times in the season and series we see morty try to find identity outside of his lap dog relationship with rick hoping to impress his new crush planet tina he rescues a rabbit from a forest fire like a good environmentalist warrior in this moment morty is at least at the surface level um finding a new identity and purpose and a cause that's bigger than himself and he's seemingly willing to risk burning to death in a forest fire to commit to this cause now apologies in advance for being a broken record but you might be aware that one of my favorite philosophers is soren kierkegaard um feel free to illegally pirate the book i wrote on him and this 19th century danish sad boy has a great quote about finding meaning he writes what matters is to find my purpose the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me to find the idea for which i am willing to live and die in a way that foreshadows the existentialist that would come onto the scene a century later kierkegaard is getting at the idea that true identity is something that comes from deciding on a purpose that will orient our lives and we see that in this episode as morty's crush-inspired belief in a cause leads him to take action he rallies a sort of enthusiasm that we rarely see in our little semi-professional masturbator this idea of finding truth and identity and some purpose outside of yourself becomes a huge theme for the 20th century existentialist it also later becomes a core theme of the work of actually still a live philosopher elon bed jew who thinks that finding an idea to live for is what creates human identity and subjectivity but as we'll find out sometimes this type of enthusiasm can go a little too far let's see how that plays out all of you get out of there you're killing the planet your people didn't get the votes leave or i'll have you arrested you people who should be arrested gutting the land poisoning the air your children breathe can't you see what you're doing easy for you to say you can live how you want we need the jobs let's go boys i really see both sides here we'll get them next time there's no time left can't you hear the earth screaming you feel me better tina stop okay i no longer see both sides just the ferning people reflecting in his eyes okay um so this is when living for a cause gets a little sketchy now planetean well not a human has an identity that's completely tied to the cause of environmentalism and this isn't inherently a bad thing it's probably a good thing until you know it it leads her to murder a bunch of probably innocent people and we've seen this in history when people form their identities around nationalism fascism and other very not good causes to jump back to the 18th century philosopher emmanuel kant was aware of the temptation to turn good-natured enthusiasm into a more dangerous fanaticism now kant drew distinction between religious fanaticism which has more to do with the individual's relationship to god and moral fanaticism in which someone projects their own beliefs onto the world as a whole philosopher and theorist alberto toscano describes kant's view of fanaticism like this the moral fanatic is a subject who in refusing to submit himself to the universality of duty can easily turn into a well-meaning murderer for kant fanaticism is always a transgression of the limits of human reason well-meaning murderer you say like uh like murdering a bunch of dudes going to work because you think it's morally right to do so now what toscano is saying here is that when you become fanatical about your so-called life's purpose you run the risk of doing things to aid that purpose and continuation of moral fanaticism helps us understand how in the course of an episode planet tina can go from putting out forest fires to lighting up human beings also we did a video about how maybe she was right so check that out if you haven't and of course the whole murder thing complicates morty's romantic feelings for planet tina leading to a sort of crisis of identity morty are you all right she's gone mom she's gone i loved her so much i know you did honey i'm just so sad mommy's here [Music] it's nice to have your mom comfort you it's weird to have your mom come for you and right behind you there's a picture of a woman with giant breasts but philosophers have been talking about love since philosophy became a thing one of plato's text symposium is basically a transcript of a bunch of dudes getting faced while giving speeches about the nature of love in this text they talk about eros which is a type of love that can make someone transcend their old identity and achieve new heights via the passion and purpose love has given them it's like how prince harry used to be a guy who dressed up as a nazi for funsies but then he married meghan markle and we all decided that he was the good royal okay it's not quite like that but you get the point now aristotle who when you think about it is sort of like the morty to plato's rick also thought love was super important to identity he argued that in love you find meaning and purpose through putting the needs of another above your own in a sense you find a new identity in this love and more specifically in your love and care for another person and hollande jew thinks that love is one of the ideas that's worth living for and that it can even help humans become immortal what's more love can give us a sense of courage and passion that's so profound that it can transform our very identity also a lon bet dude is an old french man who's been married like 10 or 20 times so i guess take take all this with a grain of salt now we see all of this and morty's romance with planet tina and then sadly we see this all ripped away from him shining a light on how much he'd been lacking a real sense of love and identity now finding identity and love is risky because it's dependent on another person and the other person can always leave or do murder [Music] so if you can't find identity in your love for a murderous sentient amalgam where can you find it well for many folks and especially people during things like the world cup it can be found in national identity now morty's own sense of national identity becomes clear during the kind of so-so thanksgiving episode when he struggles to understand a revised history of his beloved nation so after those aliens discovered america we went into hibernation leaving us the technology we use to lead the free world that and also to do stuff like slavery i always thought we were more special than that like we invented everything and did everything and that's why we own everything no i i i don't know what to feel feel thankful morty feel thankful okay so this right here makes me think of the trial of socrates um spoiler alert he lost they killed him i guess i guess he needed oj's lawyers now you probably know that one of the charges leveled against socrates was the corruption of the youth basically the political elite in athens got pissed that socrates was encouraging their sons to think critically and examine things for themselves rather than just believing whatever their toga clad dads told them to that wasn't socrates only charge because they also put him on trial for atheism but this isn't the type of atheism that rick espouses throughout the entire run of the show it's a specific type of disbelief a disbelief in the gods of the athenian state and these gods weren't like actual deities they represented values in society for example if france had gods they would be liberty justice and fraternity and daydream and if america had gods they'd be freedom judge judy and the song closing time by the band semi-sonic time for you to go home to the places you will be from but in morty's case we see that one of the foundational beliefs of the church of the bald eagle is american exceptionalism the idea that america is a special and well exceptional place a place that's deserving of its wealth and abundance and a key part of this narrative is the foundational story of early american pilgrims and native peoples vibing out over a turkey dinner that had absolutely no undertones of colonial violence after realizing that this narrative is untrue and also that aliens actually fought off evil turkeys to help start america morty is left like one of socrates eager students questioning the dominant values of the state this then seems to destabilize both his personal identity and his relationship to a larger national identity now i really like this example because it's a reminder that as far back as socrates personal and social identity were already intertwined it also reinforces the reality that thinking philosophically has always had a social and political element because it involves questioning dominant social values okay so now morty has failed to find identity and an activist cause and love and innovation so where else might this sad young lad find meaning and purpose how about the most magical thing of all friendship stop those poor boys did you hear that that's gonna stick [Music] damn just like jackie chan i guess that makes me chris tucker right i guess that's really gross holy did you see that i mean you blinded a guy with puke oh it was insane give me dap am i doing it right did i give you a dap yet look at us we got out and not just from the asylum but from rick you get to say what an adventure is now nicknames are so cool um but morty's story right here is getting pretty sad he's on such a mission this season to find some type of identity and he's really looking for it in all the wrong places here he's trying to find identity in a friendship with a guy he met through an accidental hand portal so you know just normal stuff now while nick turns out to be not a good dude morty isn't wrong to look for meaning and friendship and famous smartypants of the ancient world aristotle agreed for him true friendship is an important and valuable thing which can lead to real happiness for all parties involved and this friendship looks like two virtuous people who genuinely want what's good for each other while morty might have genuine intentions here nick not so much aristotle was aware that most friendships aren't true and good the bad ones are friendships of pleasure where you're just friends with someone because it makes you feel good or usefulness where you're friends with someone because they can get you cool stuff and here nick who is a bad dude is using friendship with morty for his own personal gain and it ends how bad friendships always do with someone having to cut their own hand off via a moving train and then cauterizing the wound with a fancy jet pack so for all his trials and tribulations morty still seems pretty philosophically ruthless but there is one morty who seems to confidently find a new identity unfortunately it's evil morty every version of us has spent every version of all of our lives in one infinite crib built around an infinite baby and i'm leaving it that's what makes me evil being sick of him if you've ever been sick of him you've been evil too rick did you really leave the crows for me or did you come back because they dumped you there you go kid now you're evil morty too sooner or later we all are now finally we have a morty that seems confident in his identity and it was using the purpose given by this identity to make things happen sadly that identity is rooted in being evil and the purpose he's living for involves exploiting and murdering tons of other mortys and ricks along the way but it's interesting to see how evil morty's motivations and new sense of self sound kind of reasonable and i think this has to do with something that hegel talked about called recognition for him this was a way to talk about the development of consciousness now later marx picked up this idea to talk about exploitation taking place in the factory and today recognition is still one of the key concepts used by contemporary critical theorists like axelhonda the extremely tldr version of this concept is that we develop into fully formed cells by being recognized as a self by another self this helps us develop both identities as individuals and also social identities as we are recognized by others as human beings sometimes however misrecognition happens in which certain people are seen not as subjects but as objects and this leads to things like evil morty and the ricks violently exploiting the labor of less valuable mortys it's actually my new favorite boy band evil morty and the ricks and for some contemporary theorists like hanith recognition is a central aspect of democracy in which we must have a shared sense of recognition and cooperation to create a society truly guided by well all of us and while evil morty is definitely evil he also got there due to frustration with the fundamental misrecognition between rix and morty's so his plan to break through the central finite curve is born of a desire to live in a world that isn't fundamentally defined by this type of misrecognition in which ricks are never going to offer mutual recognition to mortys this doesn't make it cool that evil morty is exploiting the labor of other mortys we have a video on this too if you if you want to get into it but it's at least an example of one version of morty reckoning with the way that rick's fundamental misrecognition has trapped him in the identity of always forgiving rick's cosmic selfishness okay so that's basically the end of morty's journey this season will he find a meaningful identity in the future probably not um yeah no he's definitely not going to but before you lose all hope let's check out the after credit scene of the finale but i guess things went downhill from there started isolating myself from amy and used to tell her everything i was feeling but then i guess i stopped cause i wanted her to love who she thought i was not who i felt myself becoming ever think about how horrified the people we love would be if they found out who we truly are so we just dig ourselves deeper into our lies every day ultimately hurting the only people brave enough to love us wish i didn't do that wish i was brave enough to love them back i don't know maybe you should try it we don't have as much time as we think oh we oh wow um i i really can't believe that one of the most emotionally impactful things i've seen on tv in years is this monologue from mr poopy butthole but it's amazing and makes me think of this famous line where hegel says that the owl of minerva flies at dusk which is his way of saying that philosophy only understands things through hindsight and i think this epilogue to the season can help us look back at what's been happening all along our buddy mr poopy butthole is sad and alone precisely because of an inability to find his identity in love and specifically a fear of sharing true mutual recognition with his wife he's basically admitting that he's chosen self-deception and isolation over sharing loving recognition because of this he's clearly miserable if we use mr poopy butthole-colored glasses to look back on the whole season we see how morty has also been caught up in these serious self-deception that's holding him back from finding love and meaningful identity honestly like i'm gonna be thinking about this scene for a while and it's unreal that this is coming out of the mouth of a character called once again mr poopy butthole but what do you guys think is morty doomed to a life of unhappiness can we hopefully learn from his horrible mistakes and will mr booby butthole get his wife back let us know in the comments thanks as always to our patrons for all your support and be sure to check out our podcast also let me know if there are any other shows or movies that weren't the old philosophical once-over hit that subscribe button like you're tossing a molotov cocktail at a to congressperson's house and don't forget to ring that bell and as always thanks for watching later to the only show on tv with the giant incest space baby as a returning character i said returning character that was really weird i'm dying i think

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 187,567

Keywords: rick and morty, video essay, dan harmon, adult swim, justin roiland, rick sanchez, rick and morty season 5, wisecrack rick and morty, philosopher reacts, reacts, philosopher reacts rick and morty season 5, morty smith, beth smith, summer smith, planetina, bird person, mr poopybutthole, science fiction, rick and morty theory, wisecrack, deep or dumb, what went wrong, wisecrack michael burns, culture binge, philosophy, kierkegaard, identity, what makes a morty

Id: 9-Da4X3fF1w

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021