‘Rick and Morty’ Fans React to Justin Roiland's Quiet Return to Instagram
As disgraced Rick and Morty overlord Justin Roiland embarks on the third year of his self-imposed social media banishment, he seemingly still isn’t above some lurking.
Early on Tuesday morning, one particularly eagle-eyed fan headed to the Rick and Morty subreddit with claims that Roiland had returned to the digital sphere, uploading a screenshot depicting what appears to be Roiland’s official Instagram account liking DC Studios exec James Gunn’s most recent post about appearing on the show.
“This mf has been DEAD silent for 2 years and now likes this post,” the Redditor captioned the screengrab, referencing Roiland’s last grid upload, which came after the two felony domestic violence charges against him were dropped back in March 2023.
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I haven’t been able to independently confirm that Roiland actually liked the post — his name doesn’t appear in the list of current like(r)s, meaning the image was either doctored or Roiland removed his heart after learning of this now-popular Reddit thread — but fans had a lot to say about these claims anyway, hitting the comments with a resounding, “Huh???”
“Did I miss smth?” asked one fan, arguing that “a like is still kinda silent,” as another compared the observation to one from Roiland’s ex-on-screen son-in-law. “Get a job, Jerry,” they joked.
Despite the initial poster’s apparent zest, the majority of commenters felt largely indifferent about a potential Roiland resurgence, questioning why, exactly, fans should care about what he’s been up to over the last couple of years.
“Imagine being so parasocial that you both need to stalk his actions on the internet, and then post it to us like it’s some big (breaking) news story we’ll all care about,” a commenter argued, with another addressing the original Redditor directly.
“The real question here is: why do you follow him?” they asked.
Since Roiland’s 2023 firing, Rick and Morty fans have largely remained divided on whether his absence is for the best or not, with some calling for his return — “God, I wish they’d hire him back,” a fan added in the thread — but others believing that the show is better off without him.
“I definitely noticed Rick started to show way more character development after Justin left,” a Rick and Morty fan wrote on another recent thread debating Roiland’s contributions to the show, noting that there have been “way less uncomfortable incest jokes” since his departure. “All in all I think I do like the newer ones a little better.”
“There’s definitely a unique alchemy to the earliest episodes when Justin was most involved, but I mean the last season had like three or four all-time great eps,” added a different commenter, alluding to the show’s seventh season, the first without Roiland voicing its titular characters.
Now that’s definitely a social media post that Roiland would never like.
