Rick & Morty Season 6 Continues Its Most Messed Up Show Trend

Rick and Mortyseason 6, episode 3, “Bethic Twinstinct,” continues the trend from season 5’s “Thanksploitation Spectacular” of weird and ridiculous Thanksgiving episodes. The previous season’s adventure followed Rick and Morty turning themselves into turkeys in the hopes of receiving the presidential pardon. The pair needed such clemency after Morty accidentally destroyed the Liberty Bell, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Statue of Liberty, releasing a robot trapped inside while the pair were trying to steal the Constitution.

While Rick and Morty ‘s season 5 Thanksgiving episode was truly ridiculous, the show’s season 6 holiday special rivals it in terms of weirdness. “Bethic Twinstinct” opens with a reference to the previous Thanksgiving episode with Rick returning home as a turkey and announcing that they are “once again in the federal clear.” The majority of Rick and Morty season 6, episode 3 centers around Beth falling in love with her clone, Space Beth. Rick, Morty, and Summer try to ignore the fact that the affair is happening, though, by distracting themselves with a video game on a Game Pod XL. The randomness of the different games they play is reminiscent of Rick and Morty’s Interdimensional Cable episodes. The weirdest moment comes at the end as Rick, Morty, and Summer sit in silence eating Thanksgiving dinner while they can hear Jerry and the two Beths upstairs having an in-depth discussion about the affair that develops into an audible sexual encounter between them.

There clearly seems to be a trend forming in Rick and Mortyof overly ridiculous and bizarre episodes based around the Thanksgiving holiday. Making an extra weird episode is no small feat, as the show is already very unconventional and odd. Rick and Morty has featured storylines about turning into a pickle, building an amusement park inside a person, and the infamous giant space baby, Naruto, all of which leave little room to get weirder. This is likely how the Thanksgiving episodes ended up revolving around characters turning into turkeys and having affairs with their clones. Fortunately, the added level of absurdity makes the Rick and Morty Thanksgiving specials among the most highly anticipated episodes of the show as well as some of the funniest.

How The Rick & Morty Thanksgiving Episode Trend Makes The Show Funnier

Rick and Morty has always turned tropes on their head, and the conventions of the Thanksgiving holiday and special episodes involving the occasion are no exception. Usually, in classic TV sitcoms such as New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, and Friends, Thanksgiving episodes are utilized for sweet moments of togetherness between family and/or friends. Rick and Morty, on the other hand, deliberately does the exact opposite. The inversion of what audiences have come to expect from Thanksgiving specials is what makes the Rick and Morty episodes so iconic, bizarre, and hilarious. It also creates anticipation for the next season, as the audience is left to wonder what Rick and Morty could possibly do to further push the boundaries of its Thanksgiving episodes.

Rick and Morty’s popularity has skyrocketed since its initial release in 2013. This is in no small part due to its off-the-wall, hilarious, and bizarre storytelling, which is especially found in its Thanksgiving episodes. Viewers can look forward to more creative and subversive writing from Rick and Morty throughout the rest of season 6, and they can likely anticipate even weirder material from the show’s Thanksgiving specials in future seasons.

New episodes of Rick and Morty season 6 release Sundays on Adult Swim.