Our favourite drunk scientist Rick Sanchez from ‘Rick and Morty’ is fun to hang-out with, but the mystery about his background and the origin of his last name remains unknown.
‘Rick and Morty’ is one animated series on Adult Swim that has paved way for varied fan-theories and speculations. While most of those theories are usually related to quantum science that the series focuses on in almost every other episode, the slapstick humour also happens to be quite the style the show indulges in. Rick Sanchez is the main character of the show, an alcoholic, genius grandpa, and his dumb grandson Morty. Most of the episodes revolve around these two, while also getting the rest of the family, Morty’s parents and sister, into the mix sometimes. One of the key mysteries in the show has been Rick’s background and his last name “Sanchez”, a Mexican surname.
Now, why did the show-runners Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland zero in on a name that is not American? That’s a question that requires careful analysis.
Highlights —
- ‘Rick and Morty’ on Adult Swim is a path-breaking animated series
- ‘Rick and Morty’ review
- The secret behind Rick’s Hispanic sounding last name Sanchez
‘Rick and Morty’ premiered on Cartoon Network’s night-time block Adult Swim in December 2013 and was centred on the adventures of an old genius scientist Rick Sanchez and his timid grandson Morty, the only son of his only daughter Beth.
She is married to a dumb man named Jerry and had a stereotypical American teenager daughter named Summer. Rick is a freak who keeps experimenting on wacky scientific theories and, being the genius that he is, most of the times, he is accurate. Many episodes take place in parallel worlds, distant future, distant past, and other planets, where Rick and Morty travel quite frequently. While maintaining a humorous tone throughout, the grandpa-grandson pair keeps getting themselves in new troubles in almost every other episode with the magic of science finally coming to their rescue.
‘Rick and Morty’ review
Also featuring some crass language, some radical commentary on the socio-political structure of the world and pop-culture, the series has proven to be quite a lot of fun. It never seems tiring even for a single episode and while the creators are miserly in releasing new episodes, the fans keenly await the new seasons. As of now, four seasons of ‘Rick and Morty’ have been televised and all have received almost a universal critical acclaim.
Giving nods to the 1980s classic sci-fi comedy ‘Back to the Future’, the creators have cleared that the film franchise was in-fact the main inspiration behind the creation of the series. Well, that somehow explains some classic 80s comedy tropes and the usual wackiness of the mainstream American science fiction from the 80s.
What works for ‘Rick and Morty’ is its tongue in cheek approach to various modern comedy tropes and its satirical tone that runs throughout as a subtext, and drips from almost every other episode. Thus, it is widely touted to be an animated comedy series that is age-appropriate for everyone. In fact, it can be said that children would need a keen understanding of the dynamics of science and philosophy to understand the series. But all in all, it’s a nice little fun series that somehow gives us more than we can chew. There are many other aspects that we can attribute to the series’ success because there is almost nothing the show doesn’t get right.
Origin of Rick’s last name Sanchez
Now, finally, we come to the big question. The series is laden with Easter eggs throughout almost every other frame and one of the questions that beg an answer is – Why is Rick’s last name Sanchez?
While the show’s creator Justin Roiland has confirmed on Twitter that Rick has a Hispanic descent, he declined to further elaborate on the fact, leaving the fans asking for more. While it can somehow explain Rick’s descent into a Mexican partygoer in a few episodes after he gets terribly drunk, the mystery behind his Hispanic origin is still intact.
However, one unnamed Redditor had a truly bonkers theory about Rick’s origins. He says that Albert Einstein stayed in Mexico for a brief period of time and he impregnated a woman there and Rick was thus born!
Now, this is something to ponder upon! Don’t their hairstyles match? Or explain Rick’s keen interest in physics equations related to the parallel world and the mysteries of the universe!
It’s really up to us to believe it or not and as Roiland said, “It’s irrelevant”.
Tell us in the comments what other theories you might have heard about Rick’s true origin, if ever!
