Total Rickall

Not to be confused withTotal Recall.

"Total Rickall"
Rick and Mortyepisode
Episodeno.	Season 2 Episode 4
Directed by	Juan Meza-León
Written by	Mike McMahan
Original air date	August 16, 2015(2015-08-16)
Running time	22 minutes
Guest appearance
Keith Davidas Reverse Giraffe

"Total Rickall"is the fourth episode of thesecond seasonof theAdult Swimanimated television seriesRick and Morty.Written byMike McMahanand directed by Juan Meza-León, the episode premiered on August 16, 2015. It shows the Smith family, along withMr. Poopybutthole,overwhelmed by an infestation of parasites who implant false memories into them so they cannot tell who is real.

The episode is a "clip show",with heavy use of flashback scenes to the parasite-implanted false memories; it was inspired by the introduction ofDawn SummerstoBuffy the Vampire Slayer,whose sudden contradictory presence is initially unquestioned by the other characters. It received positive reception from critics. The debuting character Mr. Poopybutthole recurs in future episodes and web specials, and a card game of the episode was released. TwoApril Fools' Dayevents by Adult Swim (in 2021 and 2022) make edits to the episode.

Plot

At dinner in the Smith family, Jerry's brother Uncle Steve gets him plane tickets as thanks for letting him stay with them for the past year. Rick arrives and shoots "Steve", whose form as a parasite is exposed as he dies. Rick says that it is a creature from a species that multiplies by implanting false memories in people's heads, Jerry never having had a brother. Rick says that there should only be six people in the household—himself, Morty, Summer, Beth, Jerry andMr. Poopybutthole,the last of whom is a small yellow creature with a tall head.

Rick seals the house from intruders with a blast shield as Mr. Poopybutthole reminds the family of a memory with Cousin Nicky, who then appears in the room. Rick shoots him after looking at a sign he made of the six true family members. However, the family continue to have collective flashbacks to false memories with new characters, all parasites, who arrive in the room. One such parasite—Sleepy Gary, who the family believe is Beth's husband—talks to Jerry about a memory of the two of them kissing.

The sitting room is now filled with parasites, along with the Smith family. They try to convince Rick to lower the house's defenses before beginning to persuade the others that Rick is a parasite. Several of them attack Rick and steal his watch in order to lower the house's blast shield. Morty takes Rick to the garage and is about to shoot him, convinced that he is a parasite, when he realizes how to tell parasites apart from genuine family members. The parasites are only able to implant happy memories, and Morty has many unpleasant memories with Rick.

Using this method of deduction, Rick and Morty slowly take out parasites one by one in the living room. Negative memories involving Summer and Beth prove their honesty. Beth kills Sleepy Gary, which leaves Jerry suicidal, but Beth realizes he is real. With the last parasites eliminated, the six original household members sit down for dinner. Beth, suspicious that she has no negative memories of Mr. Poopybutthole, shoots him. However, he is real and severely injured by the shot. In a post-credits scene, the Smith family watch Mr. Poopybutthole in physical therapy; he tells a nurse to pass the message onto Beth that he is sorry she had no negative memories of him.

Production

According to writer Ryan Ridley, the episode is named afterTotal Recall(1990), a science fiction film that features false memory implantation, but was conceived byMike McMahanwith reference to thefifth season ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer.In this season, the characterDawn Summersis introduced and treated by other characters as if she has always been present; a supernatural reason for this is eventually given. Another writer suggested this was a good format for aclip showspoof, where flashbacks would be essential to the plot.Mr. Poopybutthole was originally Bullet Boy, a character resembling abullet,and was informed by creatorJustin Roiland's prior design sketch of a character called Titty Longballs.

Justin Roiland said that the parasite infestation originates from rocks that Rick is seen collecting two episodes earlier, in "Mortynight Run".A pink blob—the parasite pod—can be seen on a rock in" Mortynight Run ", and Rick bins the rocks at the start of" Total Rickall ".One flashback shows Rick about to bulk purchase limited editionThe Legend of Zelda-themedNintendo 3DSconsoles, with the plan to resell them at a higher price. This was based on Roiland doing this several years earlier—shortly before the December 2013 premiere of thepilot episode—but he still had a number of consoles unsold. In 2018, he sold one of them online alongside a handdrawn picture of Rick and Morty.

Aclay animationspecial released in 2017 depicts Mr. Poopybutthole as traumatized after Beth shot him, and worried that he will not be able to resume hispommel horsepractice.A web special released at the end of season three shows Mr. Poopybutthole looking through a scrapbook of his life, including significant life events involving his wife and child.OnApril Fools' Day2021, Adult Swim rebranded themselves as Adult Swim Junior and debuted a redubbed version of "Total Rickall" where the voice actors were children. A new opening credits sequence showed the main characters as babies and some of the dialogue, such as profanity, was adapted, with Mr. Poopybutthole renamed to Mr. Poopybuttbutt.A third version debuted for the next year's April Fools' Day as one of a series of altered shows with glitches related toLearning with Pibby,a proof-of-concept short produced byCartoon Network Studiosthat was released on Adult Swim'sYouTubechannel in October 2021.

The party gameRick and Morty: Total Rickall Card Gameadapts characters from the episode into roles for each player. A number of players are imposters and the remaining characters aim to identify and eliminate these imposters.

Analysis

The episode's plot resembles the filmThe Thing,wherein a parasitic life form causes a group of researchers to doubt each other's existence.It is similar to another television episode that Harmon worked on—Community's "Paradigms of Human Memory"—in which characters' flashbacks show unseen content.An episode ofClerks: The Animated Seriesalso had a similar premise.Corey Plante ofInversewrote that the improvisational style resembled the episodes "Rixty Minutes"and"Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate",but that it was most similar to"Morty's Mind Blowers"because it is a clip show of flashbacks. Plante highlighted that" Total Rickall "is one of the earliest points at which Morty is the one to solve the difficult situation the characters are in.With one main storyline and a setting confined to the Smith household, the episode is more limited in scope than others.

In the opening titles, Mr. Poopybutthole can be seen inserted into each title sequence.Subsequent to this episode, Mr. Poopybutthole reappears a number of times in post-credits scenes.CreatorDan Harmonproposed that Mr. Poopybutthole could be an advanced creature who survives by taking advantage of the holes in people's memories that the parasites leave, and that this could explain his ability to break thefourth wall.MatPat,on his YouTube channelThe Film Theorists,proposed that Mr. Poopybutthole is a version of Morty from an alternate universe. He cites as evidence details from Mr. Poopybutthole's scrapbook in the web special.

Jerry's love for Sleepy Gary led to fan speculation about his sexuality. In the season five episode "Mort Dinner Rick Andre",Jerry similarly expresses sexual interest in a male character—relishing the possibility of a threesome with his wife and Mr. Nimbus.

Reception

The episode first aired onAdult Swimon August 16, 2015, where it was watched by 1.96 million viewers.

Inverse's Corey Plante reviewed that the episode manages to incorporate each of the best aspects ofRick and Morty,particularly praising the cold opening and Sleepy Gary's character as humorous and Beth shooting Mr. Poopybutthole as "unforgettable". Commenting on Morty's revelation that a character is real if he shares negative memories with them, Plante said that "this thoughtful commentary on the messiness of life and family is universally relatable".Jesse Schedeen ofIGNrated the episode 8.3 out of 10, praising that the premise allowed each flashback to have plot relevance, and that watching the Smith family try to work out if each other was real was funny. Schedeen approved of the large number of guest voice actors, particularlyKeith Davidas Reverse Giraffe, but criticized the ending for not giving more significant focus to the "emotional fallout of having years of cherished memories revealed to be false and hollow".Zack Handlen ofThe A.V. Club,who gave the episode an A, similarly praised the premise, along with the rapid pace of the episode and lack of a distracting subplot.

A number of critics found "Total Rickall" one of the strongest episodes of television in 2015, including David Sims ofThe Atlantic,Alec Bojalad ofDen of Geekand Steve Greene ofIndieWire.

External links

• "Total Rickall"atIMDb