Call it an experiment in media, or just plain crazy, but the Adult Swim channel has split up one of its 22-minute programs into 15-second chunks in order to squeeze the entire thing onto Instagram. Yesterday the channel began uploading the short snippets — which reach the limit of Instagram's video length — of Rick and Morty, resulting in a full version of the show's latest episode. And instead of doing the clips in order, Adult Swim uploaded them in reverse, meaning viewers couldn't see the entire episode until early Friday. "It’s our latest frustrating exercise in audience engagement," the company said on its Facebook page.

A taste of things to come

The stunt could be just a taste of the Cartoon Network's plans to debut extremely short-form programming later this year (Cartoon Network and Adult Swim share the same channel), though a network spokesperson tells The Verge the two are unrelated. Last week Chris Waldron, the vice president of Cartoon Network Digital, told The New York Times the company was working on a mobile app called Cartoon Network Anything that would feature 15-second shows. Some of those are expected to be existing programming, but Waldron also said it could be a proving ground to gauge up and coming ideas.

Prior to running the clips, the Rick and Morty account only had one photo on it, teasing the show's usual air date of Mondays on Adult Swim.