Rick and Morty season 4 garnered great attention after airing its episode 7. The adult animated sitcom included 9/11 joke and some fans were not happy.
According to reports, Rick and Morty season 4 episode 7 drew mixed reactions for including a tone-deaf joke about the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
The controversial episode was titled Promortyus and it featured the grandfather and grandson duo in a battle against alien adversaries.
The tone-deaf joke
The contentious joke started at the scene where Rick and Morty approached two enemy buildings. For some reason, the buildings resembled that of New York’s Twin Towers.
The titular characters did not attack the buildings though. They just flew around it and then proceeded to strike a harbor instead.
“Honestly, I’m proud of us for not …,” Rick says.
“Totally, would have been cheap,” Morty retorts, to which Rick adds, “Low-hanging fruit. We’re better than that.”
They were flying around the harbor when the duo then decided to re-enact the Pearl Harbor bombings. More joke dialogues came later while having dinner.
“We almost did a 9/11, we went with the Pearl Harbor. We’re pretty classy,” Morty says.
The mixed reactions
The 9/11 subject has always been a sensitive thing to talk about. Almost 3,000 people died in the attack.
That is why when creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon included it in the script, some viewers felt that they took it too far.
One Twitter user vented out his thoughts after the release of the seventh episode: “@RickandMorty this season sucks and on top of it your making 9/11 jokes? How about instead of making two shows that suck make one good one?”
Another one tweeted: “Is Rick and Morty still doing 9/11 jokes? Because wow, that’s so funny in 2020.”
Some fans threatened to boycott the show while one Twitter user wondered if 9/11 jokes are going to become more mainstream now that COVID-19 is the greatest death event in the 21st century.
Not all share the same sentiments though. Other fans of the show found the humor in the lines and urged criticizers to loosen up on the 9/11 issue.
One fan with username @josephers15 tweeted that he found the scene funny and that he loved the show.
Another one wondered how the joke in the sci-fi series became offensive when Rick and Morty literally just said that it wouldn’t be right to make that joke. Those who did not find the joke offensive admitted to laughing out loud with the episode.
— SwimmingSwampert (@SwimmingSwamprt) May 12, 2020
New episodes of Rick and Morty is airing on Adult Swim on Sundays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT.
Featured image courtesy of @RickandMorty/Twitter