‘Rick and Morty’ Fan Theories So Dumb They’re Brilliant

Rick and Jerry Are Still Trapped in a Simulation

At the end of the first season episode, “M. Night Shaym-Aliens,” Rick discovers that he was stuck in a simulation of a simulation in yet another simulation — all part of an alien plan to steal his formula for concentrated dark matter. Some fans still think that Rick (and also Jerry, who was trapped in an admittedly less-convincing simulation) never actually left the simulation. Meaning that everything that came after that one episode takes place in an artificial reality.

Which, come to think of it, could be a handy way for them to explain why several characters’ voices suddenly change.

Rick Is a Super Genius Because of the Contents of His Flask

Several fans have speculated that Rick’s smarts are all due to him ingesting some kind of Mega Seed extract, which we know can grant people “temporary super intelligence.” And it’s possible that this brain-enhancing cocktail is what Rick keeps in his flask at all times. We’ve seen that the side effects of the seeds include a loss of motor functions, at one point causing Morty to drool involuntarily, not unlike Rick.

Rick Is Literally God

One fan theorized that Rick is literally God. In this interpretation of events, the divine creator of the universe “grew bored of observing humanity and decided to take on a human form seeking new thrills.” Which sounds nuts, but to be fair, Rick was able to effortlessly best Satan…

Not to mention that we have witnessed Rick casually create an entire universe — or “teenyverse” — purely in order to power his car battery.

The Talking Cat Was a Villain from an Entirely Different Cartoon

The conspicuously theory-baiting talking cat (voiced by Matthew Broderick) showed up in the Season Four episode “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty.” After refusing to explain its origin (because “no answer would be satisfying”), Rick mind scans the cat and discovers its true backstory, which is unspeakably horrifying.

While the cat clearly serves as a meta gag representing the perils of overthinking stories that are just meant to be entertaining, that hasn’t stopped some people from overthinking this particular story. One theory suggests that the cat was really a villain from an entirely different animated series — Gravity Falls' Bill Cipher.

The theory points to the two characters’ similar eyes, the fact that Bill claimed that he would return in another form and suggests that the horrors that Rick and Jerry witnessed could have been Bill destroying an entire dimension. All of which may sound like a spandex-tier stretch were it not for the fact that the two shows are crammed full of sneaky references to each other, including multiple instances of Bill popping up in Rick and Morty.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).