Rick And Morty: The 10 Best Pop Culture References In Season 1

Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s Rick and Morty has become known for its various pop culture references across its multiple seasons. The showrunners love to nod to some of their favorite franchises, with many stories throughout the show actually based upon some of these classic films and TV series.

Whether it’s a character that’s been included, a direct storyline that has been stolen, or perhaps a knowing reference to another franchise that exists within the series itself, the writers seem to love coming up with creative ways to get in some well known brands. Season 1 started the trend and included all sorts of genres, from horror to science fiction and even dystopian fiction.

10 A Nightmare On Elm Street

Freddy Krueger is one of the most famous horror characters of all time. He has transcended the genre and is known to be one of the most popular Halloween costumes every year. It’s also no secret that a certain Rick and Morty character was based on Krueger.

Scary Terry was deeply inspired by the slashing psychopath. From his strange appearance to the clothes that he wore, it was a clear rip-off of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise; although it turned out that Terry was actually deeply misunderstood in a classic episode of Rick and Morty.

9 Back To The Future

The whole concept of the TV series is to create a version of Doc Brown and Marty McFly that would be more accurate to real life. In so many ways therefore, Rick and Morty makes reference to and mocks Back To The Future. 

Rick and the other main characters have stayed quite the same since season 1 because of that core idea that they were a more hyper version of the characters from Back To The Future. They even have an old car that they travel around in, although Rick usually refuses to time travel.

8 Inception

Inception has been mocked and used throughout the show, with Rick once saying that the movie didn’t even make sense. That didn’t stop him from using the ideas from the film though to try to escape from Scary Terry.

Rick created a machine that meant that they could enter peoples dreams. It created a horror fuelled episode that even saw them enter the mind and dreams of Morty’s teacher, something that likely scarred the young student for life.

7 Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a classic piece of literature that managed to explore the Russian Revolution and the complex dynamics of an oppressive society, while using pigs and other farmyard animals. The TV show took its cue from this in the Snowball storyline.

Morty’s dog being called Snowball is a direct reference to the pig that leads the farmyard in Animal Farm. The same themes show up in the Rick and Morty episode that sees a number of dogs evolve and try to take over humanity.

6 Jurassic Park

One of the most meme-able Rick and Morty episodes (asides from Pickle Rick of course) is the one in which Rick and Morty shrink themselves into the body of a homeless guy to explore Rick’s secret theme park that he’s built around the human anatomy.

Named Anatomy Park, this is a clear reference to Spielberg’s work in Jurassic Park and while there are no dinosaurs, there are all sorts of monsters trying to defend the body that is being invaded.

5 Jack And The Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk is a classic fairytale that most kids are told at a young age. It has been adapted in many ways and the beanstalk has become quite symbolic of going on an adventure. For Morty, he got to try to life out his lifelong dream of going on a fantasy quest.

Rick and Morty must climb the beanstalk to start their journey, although the quest turns sour quickly when the creepy bean of the magical kingdom is actually a child abuser. Needless to say, this was a disturbing episode that had a large effect on Morty moving forward.

4 Jaws

Another one of Spielberg’s classic work, Jaws is one of the most referenced films in popular culture and Rick and Morty took advantage of its popularity by including a scene with Summer that completely ripped off the film.

In fact, she stands in the middle of a cardboard box, at the centre of a desolate landscape, reciting a monologue from the film. It’s what passes for entertainment in this apocalyptic world although Summer does have some great delivery in this post credits sequence.

3 Weekend At Bernies

Rick and Morty has become famous for its episodes that sees the creators of the show go completely off book and create a number of series or adverts from throughout the interdimensional cable that Rick has set up.

Many of these shows and ads actually reference real life pop culture, including one that saw a dead lady propped up by her cats in a clear reference to the classic Weekend At Bernies. 

2 The Monkey’s Paw

Audiences felt a little bad for Rick when he actually started to do the right thing and try to face off against the Devil himself. It turned out that this was largely for his own gain, but still he did a lot of good deeds.

The concept behind the cursed items that Satan was selling actually comes from the folk tale known as the Monkeys Paw. The idea of the short story was that the paw was cursed since it granted wishes but had terrible consequences every time that it did.

1 Steve Jobs

At the end of that very same episode the Devil starts up a new business plan that he tries to pitch to a captive audience. He comes out with a few jokes and a turtle neck that makes him very reminiscent of the late Steve Jobs.

Apple had a huge impact on these types of conferences, with Jobs reinventing the way technology was presented to the industry and the wider media. It was therefore a loving nod to the man that also had an impact on the animation industry thanks to his role in the creation of Pixar.

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