Why The Simpsons endures like it does (But Rick and Morty probably won't)

Looking back, it’s incredible how 32 years later, people still quote and immortalise The Simpsons. Millions of people from around the globe love it, and even if they don’t watch newer episodes, they’ll remember catching it on TV or some line that has been copied from it over time. Few shows have ever achieved that, and very few will achieve that. I sincerely believe that Rick and Morty will never be like that.

The internet’s meme darling for the past 5 years has been Rick and Morty, created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland and exploring typical crazy science-fiction themes, but with an intriguing mixture of Harmon’s meta-cynicism and Roiland’s gamer dark comedy. There’s festivals, many quotes, stores and whole incidents centred around this show. But I don’t think that 30 years in the future, people will quote Rick and Morty. They will quote The Simpsons instead, because in spite of Rick and Morty’s popularity, it doesn’t have all of the qualities that make the adventures of Homer so immortal.

There are 5 reasons for this, starting with…

1. As a fundamental pillar of childhood or as a learning tool

The Simpsons was aimed at a general family audience, appealing to children with a broad range of humour from Homer whacking his head to more adult-oriented fare like “Stupid Sexy Flanders”. Beyond that, as it went on for many years, adults saw aspects of the show as analogous for their own lives, be it childbirth, aging, depression or romance.

In that way, many see The Simpsons as a fundamental step on their way to becoming an adult or a fully-realised person. They imitate Lisa’s musical nature, or Bart’s mischievousness, which turns them into a more confident and self-assured individual. They follow the brazen examples of Homer’s empathy towards others, or his confidence and endless quotability. The Simpsons has had morality and character development as key structural strengths, and its audience grows with the show and it becomes far more ingrained in them as they go along.

Rick and Morty already loses the childhood-pillar quality by being a very hard MA15+, but also distances itself from the adult audience by never particularly going for the relatable or grounded themes that The Simpsons went for. You can never relate to Rick’s calculating indifference, or his attitude to genocide, or how he essentially destroys the universe as a sign of FU. What there is to relate to can be great at points, but someone watching the show isn’t going to grow alongside it, or ingrain it as much in their system.

Rick and Morty’s anthology-esque format also poses an interesting problem – characters don’t grow that much over time in a positive way. The mini-arcs in episodes are devoted to insanity or insanely dark scenarios, leaving out the positive feel of The Simpsons, and no-one’s going to feel comfortable in 10 years-time quoting a scenario from Rick and Morty that has no relatable context, no real role in developing them, and no light positivity. It was never going to ingrain in people like The Simpsons.

2. As a sign of universality

For all of the criticism that The Simpsons has caught for casting white actors as ethnic minorities (no more classic Apu, Carl or Hibbert now), it was always a show with a sense of universality and everyone enjoying it built in. Its scenario was simple, there was a broad range of characters, and the show never relied on offensive stereotypes or obscure references to drive development forward. You knew what was happening from minute 1 if you’d never seen the show.

Groups from all around the world, even those parodied by The Simpsons, accept whatever jokes aimed at them in good humour because the show was never made to provoke “oooh, that spicy!!!” reactions (except for that one Chinese episode – that was bad). Both regulars and Australians who watch “Bart vs. Australia” will quote knifey-spooney at each other and ask for “dollaridoos” instead of cash. Scots will quote dear old Willie as they greet each other as “cheese-eatin’ surrender monkeys” and go “Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!” at footy matches. And gay people will have Smithers-esque fantasies as they program their computers to go “You’re quite good at turning me on!” when they activate. It’s clean, accessible and without malice.

Rick and Morty’s ambitions as a dark comedic animation are commendable, but it goes way too far in places. In its first season in particular, the show is more than happy to indulge in really cruel humour, with Islamophobic tirades, pedophilia and rape jokes, and some scenes so genuinely disgusting that I’m shocked nobody said “guys, this is just mean.” There’s no sign of universal appeal, but to a specific category of white, hyperactive nerds who talk edgy on purpose because it makes them seem cool, rather than be genuinely impactful.

I'm still amazed this scene was ever actually made, and aired on TV.

There’s actually a scene in Netflix’s Never Have I Ever which illustrates this perfectly. One of the main characters, a lonely teen, is a huge Rick and Morty fan, and his only real friendly connection through his fandom is a lonely, 50-year-old disaffected office worker. They are the only ones who will care enough about Rick and Morty to ingrain it in their nature, but with the changing times and the niche intended audience, those guys will decrease until they disappear, while the Simpsons Shitposting community remains strong with newcomers who see something they relate to and want to join in the fun.

3. As The Simpsons is more fun to indulge in

I already mentioned all of the more edgy stuff in Rick and Morty and how it can really drag it down at points, but there’s another big problem that it ties into – the show is nowhere near as fun as The Simpsons. I would much rather put on an episode of The Simpsons I’ve watched 10 times because I know that I’m going to get a great experience out of it which is warm and entertaining, as Rick and Morty can’t nail the fun aspect every time.

One of the key problems here is re-watching the show and noting areas of it that just don’t work anymore, like the aforementioned edge, or the poor development of Rick, or the improv comedy that can really drag, or just how little the show cares about everyone who Rick has hurt. The Simpsons never had these specific problems until its later seasons, as at the start, it was focused on tight scripting, relatability and character development.

What the modern, awful episodes of The Simpsons and Rick and Morty have in common is their focus on celebrity cameos and dumb references, gross-out jokes, and refusing to give more depth to its characters, as the anthology format of both shows means that they can disregard other episodes. As such, it’s possible to completely tune out of both shows as the formula was already stale and superficial. The depth and enjoyment of The Simpsons’ early seasons is nowhere to be found, replaced by a need to be relevant and memey rather than a source of reliable entertainment.

Okay, shifting away from Simpsons, let’s focus on just Rick and Morty, yeah?

4. Rick and Morty’s continued existence is self-contradicting with the creator's intent

One aspect of Rick and Morty which is never discussed enough is that the audience is not meant to sympathise with Rick – creator Dan Harmon has said so himself, there are entire YouTube videos devoted to it, and Rick has done plenty to deserve it. Yet if we’re meant to not care for Rick, why is the show always about him and the cool stuff he does? Why is he the only one depicted as right? How come Morty and his family are always given the short end of the stick and always agree to stay with their abusive, violent, alcoholic, drug-addicted, sexist, toxic, racist bastard of a patriarch?

This is something that will gnaw away at you as you watch the show. Rick’s popularity online and professional critics describing him sympathetically as “sad and fucked up” shows just how much Harmon and Roiland missed their target, and why they should introduce consequences and discussion in the actual show. Eventually, people will notice how fans of Rick are so violently toxic online and in real-life, as they assault McDonalds employees who correctly refuse them service for the outrageous, Rick-like way they’re behaving. People will stop caring.

And it’s not that shows about evil can’t have a baddie as a main character who is interesting. Rick and Morty isn’t a show like The Boys, where the clear assholes are given ample character development and are intriguing to watch, but are never depicted as anything but toxic bastards. Nor is it a show like Harmon’s own Community – a dark comedy about a group of misanthropes and liars, all whom constantly fail in their get-rich-quick schemes and eventually grow off each other in a genuinely affecting way.

Instead, it’s self-obsessed and reckless, contradicting its creator’s intentions for the goal of a cheap dark joke about genocide and whatnot. The Simpsons was careful enough to have impactful consequences and lessons that would stick with you for all of time, able to be pulled out at a moment’s notice. Rick and Morty is something I predict people will want to distance themselves from in the future, as its flaws and problems would be dissected as a cautionary tale instead of a cultural phenomenon.

Which brings us to the next point…

5. What impact will Rick and Morty have?

Why do people still talk about any show, ever? It’s because that show had sharp impact, a moral lesson, genuine originality, and pathos from the audience who were composed of all sorts of people. Rick and Morty’s legacy, on the other hand, will be stuck on the internet forever. You may ask yourselves “If that’s the case, what shows actually have made a cultural impact?”. I would then refer you to probably the best television dark comedy of all time, Blackadder, because it's the closest to Rick and Morty's scenario that achieved worldwide status - anthology-esque, pitch-black and focused on a bunch of assholes who are intended to be mean and stupid.

Blackadder’s quality is still unbelievable even to this day, because it relies on many of The Simpsons’ tactics which Rick and Morty does not understand – genuine consequence, flawed and universal characters, a refusal to dip into pointless edge for the sake of it, and pathos for each of its unfortunate misanthropes as they fumbled their way through history until they were brutally murdered. The finale of Blackadder is one of television’s finest hours, and people remember it because it understood that it was a show designed for entertaining everyone, ingraining itself in lives with relatable scenarios, and providing genuine consequence and warmth.

There is only one episode of Rick and Morty which I think deserves that kind of Blackadder reputation, but it’s also the one memed into oblivion – Pickle Rick. The episode ingeniously balances the excitement of Rick’s adventure with the genuine, toxic consequences of his recklessness, exploring them in an interesting way which actually helps to understand his character more, and can apply to many scenarios of ignorance and stupidity.

But nobody cared about Pickle Rick’s desire to tell an impactful side of it. Instead, the mashups and the memes followed, not caring a lot for anything the episode gave. And the creators listened to that feedback, and have never tried giving Rick any more character since then. All of it thrown away, which prompts me to ask why the showrunners didn’t consider the long-term questions;

Who will remember Rick and Morty 5 years after it ends? Who will show their children this as a reminder of their own childhoods and as an educational pillar? What diverse communities will find satisfaction and quotability which they can all use? What fun is there to be had into diving into a show which will be full of dated references, slips in quality and trips through genuinely cruel territory? And where will Rick and Morty ever be held as a pantheon of television, to be championed as a national icon like The Simpsons, except for a singular episode no-one remembers for the right reason?

Now that you’ve read all of this, I really must re-iterate how impactful The Simpsons is. Books, movies, monuments, love, worldwide fandom, internet memes galore, infinite energy and relatability for all of time. Rick and Morty is a show every single one of its fans is predicting will make it to the same level, but I genuinely think that it never will. It will join many other of-the-time features as it slips into the anomaly that is history, only to be picked up by a university student a few decades from now and to be told “huh…this is weird and old.”

Thanks for reading.

Also, this is my 100th blog post. I'll get about 25 more out before I abandon this site forever, with my DoE Award. Thanks to all my loyal listeners, and hope that I get a better weekend gig than this.