The wonderfully weird and wicked satirical TV-series Rick and Morty follows the far-out intergalactic adventures of rogue and borderline sociopathic genius Rick and his not-so-genius grandson Morty.
In the episode “Total Rickall” Rick, Morty and their family find themselves in a situation where alien parasites have infested their brains with false memories of non-existing family members and friends. The family now has to figure out how to tell false characters from real and as Rick and Morty discover this lies in one crucial detail: the parasites can only create happy memories in order to verify their existence. What then follows is a slaughter as the family gets rid of all characters with whom they only have fond memories and in the process they are encountered with all the horrifying bad memories they hold of each other. Amidst the butchering the family fatally shoot their posthuman friend “Mr. Poopybutthole” who then, in a cringing scene, apologizes for the fact that none of them hold any bad memories of him.
The fatal shooting of the ironically absurd character “Mr. Poopybutthole” brings to light the challenging complexity in differentiating between humans, as the rest of the family are, and posthuman existence solely based on the humanistic visualization of unity. Furthermore the episode cleverly questions what it truly is that will tie us together as a human unity in the posthuman intergalactic future. Will our recognition of the term humanity partially be imbedded in our inhumane mistakes and wrongdoings towards one another?
(Bonus info: If you, like me, have been totally rickrolled by the sublime satirical quality of Rick and Morty then try watching episodes like “Auto Erotic Assimilation” and “Look Who’s Purging Now”. Both of these episodes deal with the question of human/posthuman unity.)
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10 Comments on "A satirical recall regarding the humanistic visualization of unity"
Just as an addition to Rick & Morty’s thematics of humanity and posthumanity this video from Wisecrack is a fun easy way of introducing some of the deeper levels in their absurd take on possible future. This might add to the discussion I think. If nothing else it’s definitely worth a watch for the fantastic references to H.P. Lovecraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWFDHynfl1E
Hi Sofie. I’ve removed the link from your post. Please refrain from embedding full copyrighted material such as a full episode in blog posts.
Hi Jakob. Thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Hi Sofie!
Great post! Your point about a defining characteristic of humanity paradoxically could be our inhumanity, ties well together with the argument I put forward in my post about 1984 – that human unity could be viewed as a oxymoron, due to our inherent tendency to divide the world into seperate things – including the “us” and “them” perspective that lies at the root of a great deal of human conflict.
In line with this thought, do you agree that a defining point of transition from the human to the posthuman, could lie in the eradication of our inhumanity?