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Pickle Rick is Woefully Misunderstood

Pickle Rick was revealed to the public in the Season 3 trailer for Rick & Morty. The trailer depicted Pickle Rick among scenes of the typical kind of antics we had learned to expect from the show. And so, with a lack of true context for Pickle Rick, fans interpreted him as something intended to be amusing. This, however, couldn't be further from the truth.

The true context wouldn't be aired to the public until 125 days later, at which point the damage had been done; there was no chance for Pickle Rick's true meaning to permeate the zeitgeist.

In the eponymous episode, Pickle Rick is not played for laughs.

Firstly, his family is completely unamused and deems it sad that Rick would do something so infantile to undermine his family's attempt to seek long-overdue family counselling.

Secondly, the setup and execution of Rick's revelation that he had turned himself into a gherkin were anti-climactic in the sense that Rick's level of energy and excitement is completely at odds with the tone of the scenes preceding and during. Morty's response is simply disinterest in his gherkin-hood, followed by disappointment in Rick. Rick attempts to explain to Morty why turning himself into a "pickle" is so fun and impressive. However, one doesn't need a high IQ to recognise why this renders his act humourless.

Make no mistake: The lack of humour in this scene is a deliberate act by the writers to explore Rick & Morty's emergent darker themes.

The Pickle Rick incident is in fact a microcosm of the undue strife that Rick inflicts upon his family, strife from which they yearn to escape, and Rick creates this incident to frustrate the prevention of further such strife. Simultaneously, the act of turning himself into a Pickle puts Rick at his most physically vulnerable in his attempt to avoid being psychologically vulnerable.

This is no laughing matter.

Exhibit A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmg2vXOQ3kM

Exhibit B:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnIG6LzMnk0

Exhibit C:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RxDVdP2TZ8

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