Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty is known for being completely unhinged and going where other shows wouldn’t dare, yet one season 7 episode was almost too much for the network to air.
Content warning for discussion of suicide.
Many shows soften over time. Now that Rick and Morty is in its seventh season, we can safely say that is not the case for them. The jokes and storylines this season are just as wild as the first two seasons. We sat down with the cast of Rick and Morty, Ian Cardoni, Spencer Grammer, Harry Belden, Chris Parnell, and Sarah Chalke, along with showrunner Steve Levy, to discuss the new season. We asked if there was a moment or storyline that surprised them in season 7, even though most of them have been working on the show for years.
Everyone resoundingly agreed: “The spaghetti episode.”
**Spoilers ahead for season 7, episode 4 of Rick and Morty.**
Of course, they are talking about episode four, “That’s Amorte.” It’s only the second episode of Rick and Morty to warrant a content warning before the episode begins. The episode opens with Rick serving the family a spaghetti dinner. “Spaghetti Thursdays” has become a weekly tradition because they can’t get enough of the delicious food.
Morty, as he’s prone to do, ruins everything by following Rick while he refills the spaghetti dish. He sees Rick ladling the spaghetti directly from a dead body, because who would expect anything less from Rick and Morty? Rick shows Morty a planet where people look just like humans from Earth, but when these people die by suicide, a chemical reaction happens and turns their organs into a phenomenally tasty spaghetti. I don’t think anyone had that story on their bingo card.
Rick and Morty‘s secret is in the sauce
“I actually grew up having ‘Spaghetti Thursdays’ at my grandpa’s so that’s a real thing for my own life and so I picked up that script with delight and horror,” Ian Cardoni, the new voice of Rick, told us.
Steve Levy, one of Rick and Morty’s showrunners, said it was almost too much for the network to air. “The network had to be like, ‘We’re not sure we can let you make this episode.’ And then the head of the network read the script and was like, ‘I’ll allow it because the execution is so brilliant, I think you handle it really well but I don’t think most other places would let this one fly.’ That’s why it was important to put the messaging before the episode and after. But you know it’s that one for sure that was a tough needle to thread.”
The new voice of Morty, Harry Belden, added, “I was like this could not be more of a classic Rick and Morty episode, but also how do they make this episode?”
After the “spaghetti planet” has gone through social collapse after mass producing their “spaghetti,” Rick ends the demand for the product by showing where it comes from and all the memories of the man it came from. At the end of the episode, the family begrudgingly gathers around the table for a not-spaghetti dinner. They are all surprised when the “Salisbury steak” is delicious. Rick says it’s better that they don’t know what it is, but he’ll say that it is pretty terrible.
“Well what is Salisbury steak?” Spencer Grammer, the voice of Summer, said. “It’s going to be bad, I know. The joke is always like it’s always what we imagine is always worse than what we actually see on screen. So it’s sort of whatever your worst nightmare is. It’s really just the hair in the drain from another planet.”
Maybe “That’s Amorte” is a commentary on eating meat, or capitalist greed, or the way people feel better about not knowing the truth. Or maybe it’s just Soylent Green for a new age. No matter what, it’s a lot to digest.
(featured image: Adult Swim)
