Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 18

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Wubba Lubba Dub Dub! : The Pursuit of Happiness in Rick and Morty
Thomas Evans
(MA Creative Writing, Keele University)
Eric G. Wilson’s Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (2008)
argues that people in western societies are told to look for happiness
above everything else and that this single-minded search is self-defeating
and inherently unhealthy. In this essay, I will argue that the Adult Swim
animated series Rick and Morty agrees with this critique, deconstructing
modern narratives relating to happiness in order to show that firstly, true
happiness is almost impossible and secondly, that the search for an ideal
life stops one from actually enjoying the life they actually have.
Keywords: Rick and Morty, science-fiction, animation, family, happiness
Rick and Morty is an animated sitcom which airs on Adult Swim in the US and on
Fox in the UK.1 It primarily follows Rick Sanchez (a sociopathic, alcoholic scientist)
and Morty Smith (Rick’s 14 year old grandson) as they go on dysfunctional sciencefiction adventures throughout multiple universes. The show also features the rest of
the Smith family who either join Rick and Morty or are part of alternative plotlines
back on Earth. These characters include Beth (Morty’s mother/Rick’s daughter),
Jerry (Morty’s father) and Summer (Morty’s sister/Rick’s granddaughter).
Though the above characters are highly exaggerated personalities appearing
in an animated sitcom, it is important to note that they are all, in their own ways,
fundamentally broken. Rick is an alcoholic whose drinking and nihilism is a defence
mechanism against the fact that his life is meaningless and the universe is full of
horrors (evidenced by his main catchphrase ‘Wubba Lubba Dub Dub’: an alien
phrase which translates into ‘Please help me, I am in great pain’).2 Morty is a
teenage boy who has had to deal with unfathomable terrors on a daily basis and is
now a highly repressed nervous wreck. Summer is an unpopular girl yet to find a
place where she feels loved. Rick was absent during most of Beth’s childhood,
leaving her with an abandonment complex and highly controlling personality. Jerry is
spineless and lacks self-esteem. In other words, the Smith family are not happy
people.

1

A late-night programming block broadcast on Cartoon Network featuring cartoons and alternative
comedy programmes aimed at a young adult audience.
2
Rick and Morty: Ricksy Business, Bluray, directed by Stephen Sandoval (USA: Adult Swim, 2014).