Rick and Morty season 7 had a lot of originality, but it included several witty pop culture parodies and references that made it a fun watch.
Since the show’s inception, it has been known for making spoofs of popular genres. The show constantly uses various tropes, scenes, quotes, or cliches from classics and is quite open about it.
Season 7 features 23 such pop culture parodies. Some of the references are in the face, while some take a while for us to figure out. Nevertheless, all of the parodies added something meaningful to each episode.
Let’s break down all of them!
1Predator
In the season 7 premiere, Rick tries to plan a horrendous intervention for Mr Poopybutthole. Poopybutthole had been in a miserable state since his wife left him. He had hired a ‘Predator’ to track her, but it is later revealed that the Predator was sleeping with Amy!
The hilarious moment leads to Poopybutthole and his friends making a spoof of the 1987 film Predator as they try to beat up Predator for sleeping with Amy.
2Say Anything
Poopybutthole wanted to get back together with Amy and his friends, so instead of stopping him, he encouraged him. In an interesting scene, Hugh Jackman tried to charm her with a song while Glen lifted a boombox over his head.
This scene is familiar to anyone who loves romcoms. It’s from Say Anything, a 1989 movie where John Cusack’s character does the same thing with Peter Gabriel’s famous song “In Your Eyes.”
3Stand By Me
Poopybutthole’s gang members slowly disappear as he narrates their fates in the final scene of the season premiere. This scene is a spoof of the ending scene of the 1986 film Stand By Me, which was then revealed to be a consequence of Rick’s hangover-curing pills.
4Freaky Friday
Freaky Friday is a 1976 film where a mom and her daughter swap their brains for a day. In season 7, episode 2, Jerry and Rick did the same thing, and Jerry said it was like Freaky Friday.
Rick was unhappy with that and said his machine was much better than just swapping brains. The rest of the episode was about proving he was right because it was very hard to get them back to normal.
5Coneheads
Rick and Jerry have almost nothing in common, but watching this duo in the series is fun. The two bond over an unlikely connection in episode 2.
Rick stabbed a gang leader with his Conehead feature while telling Jerry how much he liked the 1993 film Coneheads. However, they were among the few who liked the much-hated and criticized movie.
6Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The premise of episode 3 is about the President wanting to date Rick’s therapist, Dr Wong. The theme is a spoof of the 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its several remakes.
However, the difference is that Unity didn’t invade Earth to make everyone her puppets. She just wanted to talk to Rick, who ignored her phone calls.
7Men in Black
Episode 4 includes a scene where Rick offers to wipe Morty’s brain with his memory eraser pen, which was seen in the 1997 sci-fi Men in Black. However, he ended up wiping his memory as the gadget had a fatal flaw.
He gets back his memories soon enough, but it is a fun reference to Men in Black.
8Never Let Me Go
Never Let Me Go is a 2009 movie that tells the sad and beautiful story of three friends who face their doomed destinies. The shocking reveal of this gloomy drama is that it is really a hidden sci-fi movie, and its main characters are all unaware that they are clones.
In episode 4, there was a hilarious moment when Rick spoiled this reveal as he chased and killed depressed clones who were terrified to find out they were made to be spaghetti.
9Soylent Green
Soylent Green inspired the plot of episode 4. The film ended with the disturbing twist that Soylent Green was made of people, while episode 4 began with Morty learning the truth about Rick’s spaghetti.
10The Jetsons
Season 7, episode 5 is a serious episode compared to the others, but there are some references in this one too.
The Jetsons had the funniest scene in episode 4 when they ended up in Evil Morty’s galaxy and met a horrible end. This joke showed that this episode would not be light-hearted, even before Rick murdered Rick Prime.
11Maximum Overdrive
Maximum Overdrive featured automobiles coming to life and attacking humans. This trope from the 1986 Stephen King film was spoofed in episode 6, as Rick and Morty faced the same problem with sentient clothes.
This resulted in a horrendous fate for one of the women, which showed the seriousness of the situation.
12Blade
In episode 6, Rick and Morty recalled an adventure in a world where vampires existed. They wore long dark coats and carried swords that looked like Blade, the famous Marvel vampire slayer.
But they left before their partner could tell them about his weapons to kill vampires because they didn’t care about this storyline they were in.
13Pet Sematary
Another parody of Stephen King’s work featured in episode 6 was the scene where Rick and Morty tried to use a pet cemetery to bring animals and people back to “Life.”
Their actions made us think about how the Pet Sematary worked in King’s novel and film and some of the major loopholes.
14Wes Anderson Films
Morty went on a friendly date with his sentient churro when they visited Wes Anderson’s Grand Royal Hot Tub Emporium. The setting included hot tubs recreating some of the director’s most iconic film sets.
The scene is a parody of Anderson’s characteristic and unique visual sensibilities.
15Total Recall
A precious episode briefly mentioned Kuato, a character from Total Recall who was not very popular. Kuato was a small mutant leader who could read minds and was attached to his brother’s stomach.
In episode 7, the plot revolves around Kuato. Morty turned into a Kuato for Summer after an accident with Rick’s device. Morty kept saying Kuato’s famous words, “Open your mind,” all episode long, while Summer joined a new group of people who liked Kratos.
16Taken
Summer was able to enjoy Kuato Morty’s attention for a little while, but she soon found herself falling out of it. Midway through episode 7, she is kidnapped by the bad guys, and Rick has to track her down in a plot similar to the 2008 film Taken.
There’s a bloody yacht-set ending, which is a reference to the ending of Taken.
17Back to the Future
Episode 8 had some plot surprises that were inspired by Star Wars and Marvel movies, but the most surprising parody was from Back to the Future. Ice-T, a famous guest star on Rick and Morty, learned how to rap from Mr. Goldenfold’s tips, but this memory was stopped by Chuck D’s cousin Marvin D, who called the Public Enemy rapper to tell him about a new music style.
This scene copied exactly the same scene from Back to the Future, where Marty McFly plays Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.
18Pokemon
This season also gave us a wholesome Pokemon reference. In one scene, Rick revealed that he trapped Bigfoot inside a Poke ball. Interestingly, this hints that Pokemons exist within the show’s universe.
In the end, Rick traps the Pope in the Poke ball and uses him to fight other Pokemon in street fights.
19In Time
Rick and his former prisoner, Bigfoot, became friends after Rick gave him a device that let Bigfoot speak English. Bigfoot was happy with this and started saying a movie trailer to try his new voice.
Many people may not have noticed this, but Bigfoot’s words were the actual ads for In Time, a 2011 underrated sci-fi movie. This movie showed a world where people did not get older after 25 but could trade time for money.
20Universal Movie Monsters
Rick, Morty, and Bigfoot returned from Valhalla with some extra help from the Universal Movie Monsters. The Pope had killed them in a direct fight.
In episode 9, one of the most hilarious scenes was when Dracula, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Frankenstein teamed up with them to fight the Pope. But they all died again right away and went back to Valhalla. Luckily, Rick, Morty, and Bigfoot still defeated the Pope.
21Harry and the Hendersons
Bigfoot wanted to stay with Rick and Morty and start a new life as a human. However, Rick and Morty did not want him. They threw rocks at him and told him to return to the woods, but he cried while they did it, leaving Bigfoot confused.
This scene is copied from a scene in Harry and the Hendersons, a 1987 comedy about a dysfunctional family.
22The Twilight Zone
The final episode introduced the main antagonist, the Carnival Guy. The Carnival Guy’s appearance is inspired by Rod Serling, the host of The Twilight Zone. Voice actor Live Schreiber also imitated Serling’s dialogue delivery.
23The Hole
The Hole is a 2009 horror-comedy film that depicts a group of suburban children who find a mysterious hole under their house that leads to their greatest fears. The season 7 finale used a similar setting but moved the hole to the bathroom of a Denny’s restaurant.
Morty, older than the children in The Hole, faced more than just scary puppets in his fears. The episode had a more philosophical tone than this overlooked film, but the main idea was still recognizable for fans of Dante’s later work.
About Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty is an adult animation series on Adult Swim. It has been created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.
The series revolves around a cynical older scientist named Rick Sanchez and his young grandson, Morty Smith. Their simple domestic life and eccentric intergalactic adventures are the focuses of the show.
Alongside the original television series, the show’s characters have been featured in a variety of media, including spin-offs, comic books, musical releases, and video games.
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