The worst of fans completely miss the point about the main character, Rick, and adore him without irony.
The worst of fans completely miss the point about the main character, Rick, and adore him without irony.
Toxic fantasy is now an unfortunate reality of the film/TV world, especially in the age of binge-watching, where online outrage can be easily and effectively escalated in no time.
Zack Snyder fans inevitably threaten Warner Bros.snyder cut‘, an expanded version of the film Justice League, The theatrical version removed many of Snyder’s dark, serious scenes and shot comedy scenes in their place. joss whedonWhich was hired by Warner Bros. to make the film more light-hearted.
‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ (2021) is the director’s cut of the 2017 American superhero film ‘Justice League’.
Similarly, Marvel Fans Went on a Tweet-Stampede Martin Scorsese Criticized Marvel’s market dominance – he said (well, I might add) that Marvel’s chokehold on screen allocation was making it difficult for independent filmmakers to finance their projects. Johnny Depp fans made a huge online petition to DC/Warner Bros., insisting that they remove Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard from the upcoming film. aquaman sequel (they haven’t been successful yet, but As claimed by the actress, Heard’s role has been drastically reduced one in Hollywood Reporter interview earlier this year).
bring out the worst
Currently, one of the most toxic fandoms in the world belongs to Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. rick and mortyAn adult animated show streaming on Netflix. rick and morty is and has always been a well-written, funny show with lots of irony, pop culture commentary, and an outrageous visual style that borrows from many different animation traditions.
The show also features a surprisingly rich emotional landscape, following scientist Rick Sanchez and his teenage grandson Morty Smith (both voiced by Roiland) as they go on intergalactic adventures, usually guided by Rick’s whims and fantasies. Through his sarcastic cynical characters, rick and morty Encourages the audience to go in the opposite direction and work on their empathy, listening skills, etc.
However it cannot be denied that rick and morty He also has an ultra-aggressive fan base, many of whose members ironically worship Rick. They completely miss his character and see him as an ambitious man, even though Harmon has made it clear in several interviews that Rick criticizes his worst tendencies. imagine if harry potter Fans suddenly started worshiping Lord Voldemort. toxicity of rick and morty The fantasy peaked during Season 3, when Harmon hired female writers for the first time.
Screenwriter Jessica Gao at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. , photo credit: Getty Images
Among these newly-appointed writers was Jessica Gao – now known as the creator of Marvel she hulk, Gao wrote an episode called ‘Pickle Rick’, where Rick turns himself into a vulnerable pickle to escape group therapy with his family. At the end of the episode, a physician Pickle tells Rick some hard truths: “Rick, the only connection between your undeniable intelligence and the disease that is destroying your family is that everyone in your family, including you, can catch the disease. Use intelligence to justify.” This angered the show’s young, male fans, and a group of them (on the famous Insel-heavy forum) 4chan) released the addresses and phone numbers of Gao and a few other female writers.
curriculum improvement
I feel that rick and morty, after five and a half seasons, understands the toxic fandom aspect of its success. In his most recent episode, ‘Jurisick Mort’, Rick references American author David Foster Wallace, the author of the 90s historical novel. infinite zest (A 1,100-page postmodernist doorstopper). Rick stops the newly-reborn race of dinosaurs from killing himself, saying, “There’s no David Foster Wallace-ing in my galaxy!” (Wallace took his own life in 2008.)
Because Wallace, it must be said, embodies the annoying-random phenomenon. His almost religious writings about meditation and boredom and non-ironic honesty fed the nerves of a young, male, college-educated and predominantly white American fandom, often bringing out the worst and worst sides of these people. Huh. a 2015 article the new republic said, “Wallace is the lingua franca of a certain subset of highly educated, usually wealthy, extremely self-serious (mostly) men”—and that’s a harsh but largely accurate assessment.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Wallace’s books myself. But I also see that being talked about in terms of the description of the average Wallace fan here.
wish more people see rick and morty as an exercise in escapism rather than as a lifestyle or ideology. As Morty himself once said on the show, “No one exists on purpose. No one belongs anywhere. Everyone’s going to die. Come watch TV?”
The author and journalist is working on his first non-fiction book.