Rick and Morty is a show held in very high-esteem. It is a brilliant meta-humor sci-fi show that doesn’t hold anything back. Science fiction likes to delve into the question: What is the meaning of life? Rick and Morty is no exception, you just have to look hard enough. While Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s answer to that question is 42, Rick and Morty has a much more logical answer: Ice Cream.

The first two episodes are the usual for a new show – the pilot introduces the characters (cynical, depressed grandpa Rick, his alcoholic daughter Beth, her retarded husband Jerry, and their two kids: typical teenage girl Summer, and the burlap sack full of turds Morty) and sets the tone for the show, and the second episode (Lawnmower Dog) is the standard Inception/Nightmare on Elm Street/Lawnmower Man parody. The third episode (Anatomy Park) is when the show really caught my attention. On the surface it is another mundane episode this time it is a Christmas episode crossed with a Jurassic Park spoof. Sure, it also includes implied sexual violence and a giant naked sky Santa exploding, but that isn’t what I want to highlight. Two-thirds through the episode, 12 14-year old Morty, Annie, as well as Dr. Xenon Bloom are enjoying what they assume will be the last moments of their life. The two youths are lustfully exploring each other’s bodies as they await oblivion. They are young and they believe that to be the best escape the despair when faces with mortality. Dr. Bloom, who Rick himself refers to as a genius and the only one who could create a theme park inside of a person, is older, wiser, and a well-educated amoeba. He understands true happiness and pleasure, so he spends his last moments with several cartons of ice cream. He greedily seeks mindless bliss such that he even ends up spilling a spoonful of ice cream in his eagerness.

I knew that this show was for me after that point, but after several episodes of no more ice cream sightings, I began to lose hope. Perhaps it was just a blind luck: even a broken clock is right twice a day, a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters, etc. It wasn’t until Something RIcked (S01E09) before ice cream was shown for the 2nd and final time of the eleven episode season. Rick and Summer get revenge against the Devil by beating the shit out of him. They continue their vigilante justice in the post credits scene – they go from neo-Nazi to schoolyard bully, to a member of the Westboro Baptist Church to animal abusers. Why does the playground bully deserve the same harsh treatment as the other vile people?



It isn’t actually about the child and his emotional scarring. The victim is, or that is to say, was enjoying an ice cream cone, pure-childlike glee on his face. The bully doesn’t just knock the cold dessert to the ground, rather shoves it in the victim’s face. He mocks the very notion of ice cream, perverting it like an ironic punishment one would find in Dante’s Divine Comedy. This bold symbolism is impressive. I awaited season two with much anticipation.



And the second season did not disappoint. The show focused a lot more about building and explaining Rick’s character - his nihilism, depression, apathy - and more importantly, ice cream. The season starts off with a bang with the first episode’s (A Rickle in Time) B-story being about ice cream. Rick needs to get rid of Jerry and Beth, so he gives them $500 to go get ice cream. It is an offer they (not any other sentient being) can’t refuse. Jerry claims that if there is a single thing out of place when he gets back, his love of ice cream won’t save Rick. I, for one, highly doubt that. Also, it is interesting to note that Morty’s father is named Jerry as in Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company (and Beth is suspiciously similar to Ben as well). Jerry ends up spending $480 at Coldstone Creamery, most of it as tip. Even the dumb, simpleminded Jerry realizes the gift that such establishments gives the world, so when he has the means to, he pays his respects. He gets too distracted by the godsend cuisine that he even hits a deer.

Remember kids, don’t eat ice cream and drive (or operate heavy machinery)!

The B-story is wrapped up when Coldstone Creamery shows up, sets up a makeshift operating table and their lights, which are usually reserved for basic ice cream work, which allows Beth to save the deer’s life. Even though Jerry is an imbecile, he has many of the show’s most profound and memorable quotes including: “Life is effort and I’ll stop when I’m dead!” and “Have you ever tried to relax? It’s a paradox”. He adds to his catalog by ending his storyline with the poignant and succinct: “Thanks to Coldstone Creamery.”

There are several other instances of ice cream throughout the second season, but I am going to jump from the first episode to the season finale, The Wedding Squanchers. Just as the season started with ice cream, it ends with ice cream. Rick’s final exchange with Morty is telling him that he is going to get some ice cream from the Gloppydrop system (a lie akin to Redgren Grumbholdt in S02E01). He leaves Morty with this nugget of profound wisdom:

Morty doesn’t know what Rick is going to do, but he realizes Rick is leaving and not coming back. Rick implies that he is going to a better place, a place with ice cream. He is instead turning himself in, and, in his mind, doing his family a favor. He guarantees that Morty and the rest of the Smith family back to a better place, a place where ice cream actually is – Earth.



Earth might be the only place with ice cream, for now. This may seem rickdiculous, but there is enough evidence if you look for it. This revelation had me rethinking the entire series up until this point. Rick’s deep rooted cynicism and depression could all be explained by his knowledge of the state of the multiverse. He knows how devoid of ice cream all of reality is.

In The Ricks Must be Crazy (S02E06), Rick takes Summer and Morty to another universe. “There are pros and cons to every alternate timeline. Fun facts about this one: it’s got giant telepathic spiders, eleven 9/11s, and the best ice cream in the multiverse!” Some might say that is a heavy price to pay for ice cream. Those some are wrong. During the episode Rick has to fight for his and Morty’s life inside of his microverse battery. He is nearly killed by his own creation. Bruised, exhausted, but still alive he still takes his grandchildren to eat ice cream. His face lights up once he gets the cold cone in his hands. “This is what it’s all about. This is why we do what we do,” he exclaims gleefully. Yet when he bites into the ice cream it is filled with flies! The same rage that Rick felt as he fought with his would be murderer comes out of Rick as he berates Summer for somehow ruining ice cream. The flies were there because the humans and spiders of this Earth decided to cooperate, so the president decreed that all ice cream is for all beings, no matter how many legs.



Is that the fate of ice cream for all Earths? Are humans the only species to discover the culinary masterpiece that is ice cream? Other species have their own foods like Chabos, Flurbos, Skarlog poppies, blugies, and so on. Perhaps the ambitious Zigerian scammers couldn’t comprehend ice cream. Unable to render it in their simulation, they resorted to the next best thing: basketball playing pop-tarts. The brain parasites from Total Rickall (S02E04) on the other hand had a slightly better grasp of the concept. Though they didn’t utilize it, they at least understood the power of the imagery.

Even in Unity’s peaceful utopia, there is no ice cream to be found. In contrast on Earth, even as giant heads in the sky caused madness amongst the people, they cope with fear in a way that involves a festival and homemade ice cream.



Season two ends with Rick in prison and the Smiths in a place where ice cream is. But for how long? Earth of dimension C-137 is now part of the galactic federation. All evidence points to any non-human interference with ice cream ruins and destroys it. There are only perhaps a few dozen realities where ice cream actually exists. Hopefully, there won’t be one less in season three.