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Shout Out / Rick and Morty

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Shout-Outs in Rick and Morty.

    Season 1 
  • "Pilot"
    • "Frank Palicky was frozen to death today!" references Suburban Commando.
    • One of the aliens waiting in line at interdimensional customs bears a striking resemblance to Quark.
    • Silhouettes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 characters Servo, Crow and Gipsy can also be spotted in a distant shot of the concourse.

  • "Lawnmower Dog"

  • "Anatomy Park"
  • "In "Rick Potion #9":
    • The title references "Love Potion No. 9," the song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
    • A box on Rick's shelf is marked "Time Travel Stuff," referencing the show's origins as a Back to the Future parody.
    • The backpacks Rick and Morty carry closely resemble the packs in Planet Of The Apes.
  • In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!":
  • "Raising Gazorpazorp"
    • The title references Raising Arizona, a movie also about characters caring for a baby not their own.
    • Beth objects to intervening with Morty's pubescent urges, because that'd "turn him into Ralph Fiennes from Red Dragon."
    • The giant head that dispenses sexbots (themselves resembling a sexed-up RoboCop) is a direct reference to the same giant head in Zardoz.
    • When talking about how the truth hurts sometimes, the female leader mentions bringing up the topic of a woman's foundation not matching her skin, therefore making her look like a clown. This is nearly word-for-word the same thing another character from Season 2 Episode 7 of Dan Harmon's previous show, Community, said.
    • With Morty busy raising his half alien/half human son, Summer suggests Rick needs a new Companion.
  • In "Meeseeks and Destroy," one of the items on the tavern's menu is "juicy time babies," referencing Gravity Falls.
    • The episode's beginning (featured in the first season's intro sequence) has Rick and Morty attacked by evil versions of their family. Rick frees them from the "alien demon ghosts" with what seems a ghost trap from Ghostbusters. The possessed Beth also acts like the Deadites, in that she fakes being good before resuming attacking Morty. Morty is seen holding what looks like a NES cartridge for no real reason.
  • In "Something Ricked This Way Comes":
    • One of the customers in Rick's curse-removal service asked for his undead cat and son, referencing Pet Sematary.
    • The episode is a Whole-Plot Reference to Stephen King's Needful Things, only with Rick added in as a hero who thwarts the villain at every turn, completely turning it from horror to comedy.
    • Mr. Needful, once he goes into legitimate business, dons a turtle-neck sweater and hairstyle very similar to Steve Jobs.
    • Mr. Needful busts out a mean fiddle solo in reference to Charlie Daniels' song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
    • The title itself is a reference to "Something Wicked This Way Comes", with Mr. Needful being pretty similar to Mr. Dark portrayal in the movie adaptation and referencing "the beauty cream that turns you blind" scene.
    • Rick claims that Curse Purge Plus "was all just a bit... like when Bugs Bunny fucks with the opera singer for twenty minutes," referencing the cartoon "Long-Haired Hare."
    • Muscular Rick and Summer beat up a bully who looks amazingly like Randall from Recess.
  • "Rixty Minutes"
    • The name references long-running news show 60 Minutes
    • The TV programs give the same vibe as the videos from Roiland TV. Also, the visual concept of Mr. Jellybean and the name "Rick Sanchez" appear in those website's videos.
    • The basic premise of "interdimensional cable" can be traced back to Roiland's earlier project House of Cosbys, which involved the protagonists (and by extension, the viewers) watching a psychedelic barrage of nonsensical alien TV.
    • Summer's plan to move to the southwest is apparently doomed to end in crystal meth either way.
    • Gazorpazorpfield is a parody of the Garfield series. Also, One of the many, many insults Gazorpazorpfield lobs at Jon is "You weak, pathetic..."
    • One of the shows seen is an alternate timeline Game of Thrones where the entire cast are dwarfs except Tyrion.
  • "Ricksy Business":
  • "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind":

    Season 2 
  • "A Rickle In Time"
    • The title references A Wrinkle in Time
    • Rick's delivery of the phrase "And awaaaay we go!" is identical to Ralph Cramden's catchphrase in The Honeymooners.
    • The Time Cop is similar in design to the titular creatures from The Langoliers (with the addition of arms). Fittingly, The Langoliers is also about a dangerous aspect of time, namely, "Where does the past disappear to?"
  • "Mortynight Run"
    • The title references Midnight Run
    • The "Goodbye Moonmen" song is very David Bowie-esque. Singer Jemaine Clement is in fact doing his Bowie impression from Flight of the Conchords's "Bowies in Space."
    • The animation in the "Goodbye Moonmen" segment is very reminiscent of the Deranged Animation in The Wall. The Rolling Stones' mouth logo appears among the other psychedelic stuff.
    • Krombopulos Michael is an alien badass assassin who prays before an assassination and has a family, referencing a character from Mass Effect 2.
  • "Auto-Erotic Assimilation"
    • The TV show that Rick asks Unity to create, alter, cancel and then bring back to suit his whims in is a reference to Community, which Dan Harmon was gone through similar turmoil. A brief shot of the screen reveals a set-up that is almost identical to Community, but with an alien cast. Doubles as Fridge Brilliance, because of course the TV show "Unity" creates would be Comm-unity.
    • The opening lines about distress beacons is a direct reference to FTL: Faster Than Light in which distress beacons are nearly always a source of resources for the player.
    • As Rick, Morty, and Summer enter the distressed ship, Rick claims that the ship's crew must have been overrun by an alien, then quickly mentions facehuggers, the fan nickname of the aliens' larval form in the Alien franchise.
    • Unity assimilates entire planets by possessing all of their inhabitants in a way reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
  • "Total Rickall"
    • The Title and plot point about false memories are a direct reference to the film Total Recall (1990).
    • The many instances of flashbacks of the different memories that never happened appear to be directly taking the mickey out of those often used in Family Guy.
    • The whole episode's plot, layout and theme of satirising TV shows with large casts all bear a striking resemblance to [adult swim]'s Too Many Cooks, right down to the plot being the result of a mind-controlling parasite, the inclusion of an annoying little thing who spreads rainbows among the long list of characters, and even the violent climax consisting of all the parasite characters being offed one-by-one with the help of Rick, an old creepy weirdo and Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • "Get Schwifty":
    • The plot, where a bunch of inhabitants from different planets are forced to compete in a game show where the losers' planets are blown up, was done in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius of all shows.
    • The weapon used to "disqualify" planets looks very much like the Forerunner Dreadnought from Halo.
    • When one of the war room nerds suggests they placate the Cromulons with a work from Vivaldi, Rick calls him Frasier for suggesting a classical piece. May also double as an Actor Allusion, since the lead actor's daughter voices Summer.
  • "The Ricks Must be Crazy":
  • In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez":
    • The title references Big Trouble in Little China
    • The helmets of the brain scanning device are shaped like Devo Energy Domes, the signature headwear of the band.
    • Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls makes a cameo on the screen at the marriage counseling center. It's right after Jerry takes off the helmet. This is also the episode where the creator of Gravity Falls voices Summer's crush of the week.
    • Rick refers to Morty and Summer as his "Helsings" when going vampire hunting, referencing the vampire hunter from Dracula.
    • The vampire's name, Coach Feratu, is a reference to Nosferatu. It's lampshaded in The Stinger when the head vampire tells his followers not to put obvious references to vampires in their aliases.
    • The whole concept of fighting vampires in a high school is a riff on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The head vampire's look and rising from a pool of blood are directly from the character of the Master.
    • The hooded vampires have ankhs straight off the cover of Vampire: The Masquerade.
    • At one point, Summer holds up a drawing Tiny Rick made with a crudely drawn Rick and the caption "HELP ME MORTY AND SUMMER." Some may notice the poorly drawn Rick looks exactly like Doc from Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, the short Rick and Morty is based on.
  • "Interdimensional Cable II: Tempting Fate":
    • The setup for this episode hinges on Jerry getting infected with what is essentially the rage virus from 28 Days Later. When he vomits in the hospital after being poisoned by an alien fungus, Rick says "Ooh, watch out for that stuff. It'll stain if it gets on your clothes and it'll send you into a murderous rage if it gets in your eyes or mouth."
  • "Look Who's Purging Now":
  • "The Wedding Squanchers":

    Season 3 
  • The Season 3 intro includes a clip of Rick looking over two replacement Mortys packaged up like action figures, complete with an accessory weapon. Rick chooses the Morty that comes with The Master Sword.

  • "The Rickshank Redemption":
    • The title references The Shawshank Redemption, which was also about a man escaping prison and taking revenge on his gaolers (including causing one to shoot himself in the head!)
    • One pair of Mortys in the Council of Ricks has a dress and a pink hairband with the other having a pine tree hat, taken from Gravity Falls.
    • Rick makes one to Mulan and talks about the McDonald's dipping sauce used to promote the film. And during Rick's end of episode rant, he calls the sauce his "one-armed man," referencing the illusive figure hunted by the protagonist in The Fugitive.
    • Someone unseen says at one point "He who controls the pants controls the galaxy!", paraphrasing Dune's "He who controls the spice, controls the universe".
    • Summer calls the version of herself from the universe Rick "Cronenberged" a Hunger Games version of herself.
    • The house Rick lives in his memory of creating the Portal Gun closely resembles Walter White's house from Breaking Bad. It also doubles as a hint that the memory is actually faked by Rick.
    • Phoenixperson, Birdperson's revived cyborg self, somewhat resembles The Falcon.

  • "Rickmancing The Stone":
    • The beginning scene in the Death Stalker planet is based on Mad Max: Fury Road, and the villain that Summer kills closely resembles Immortan Joe. The rest of the episode pays homage to the whole series, with Hemorrhage being a parody of Lord Humungus and the Blood Dome being a blatant reference to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. After she hooks up with Hemorrage, Summer even dresses in Tina Turner's outfit from that film.
    • Some of the gestures that Armothy does in the episode are very similar as to the taunts that John Cena and Hulk Hogan do.

  • "Vindicators 3: Return of the Worldender":
    • The Vindicators are basically douchier versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
    • The entire drama between Alan Rails, 1-Million Ants, and Supernova, is basically a condensed version of the drama between Marvel's Vision, Scarlet Witch, and possible Wonderman:
      • Supernova and 1-Million Ants cheated with each other while Supernova was still married to Alan; in Marvel comics, Scarlet Witch once cheated on Vision with Wonderman while still married to Vision.
      • Supernova and 1-Million Ants somehow conceived a child, even though it should have been physically impossible (as a result their child did die in the womb). In Marvel comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision did manage to have twin sons together even though it was also physically impossible with Vision being a sterile robot, due to her using mutant and magic powers.
      • 1-Million Ants makes a speech about how it was Supernova who 'taught him to be a man', which is similar to how Vision has talked about his relationship with the Scarlet Witch as well.
      • Supernova ultimately betrays and kills 1-Million Ants, which is also similar to the two times Scarlet Witch has killed Vision, although not intentionally and usually due to extreme madness.
    • Saw is explicitly referenced by name when drunk Rick's deathtrap gauntlet is revealed.
    • This isn't the first time Christian Slater played the leader of a group who is the first to get killed by a Rube Goldberg style machine setup. It also happened to his character in Mindhunters.

  • "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy"
    • Due to her and Beth's screwing around with the Morphizer-XE, Summer winds up as a giant inside-out woman who looks similar to the Female Titan from Attack on Titan.
    • Beth refers to Summer’s inside out state as “Clive Barkered”, a reference to writer Clive Barker who is known for creating and inspiring depictions of gruesome body horror, most famously in the Hellraiser series of films.
    • In a Blink-and-You-Miss-It moment, the bridge behind the tech support team when one of them gets carried off by the eagle has Bill Cipher's symbol on it from Gravity Falls.
    • Part of the wormhole-induced Mushroom Samba involves a pair of Ricks appearing in the background, resembling the figure from the album art of tool's 10,000 Days

  • "Rest and Ricklaxation":
    • 8-Ball (or his toxins, at any rate), one of Bill Cipher's Henchmaniacs from Gravity Falls, can be spotted in the toxin dimension.
    • At the end of the episode, Morty tells Jacqueline that she can keep the drones. Rick protests and says she can't, because they form a "little Voltron robot". The drones do so, complete with glowing flame sword.

  • "The Ricklantis Mixup":
    • One of the candidates looks like The Rent is Too Damn High guy.
    • The headmaster Rick watching the Mortys going to their classes is one to The Wall.
    • The headmaster Rick is also clearly modeled on Professor Snape from Harry Potter.
    • The group of schoolboy Mortys resemble the main group from Stand by Me, with the obvious exception of Lizard Morty.
    • Cop Morty and Cop Rick's relationship and character traits as well the general tone and story beats of their subplot resembles Training Day
    • The concept of the episode which is showing the culture of a corrupt broken city through the wide ranging stories of its citizens such as the stories of school children, police officers and politicians as well as the episode's subtext of institutional racism is inspired by The Wire

  • "Morty's Mind Blowers":
    • The episode opens with them being chased by an Expy of Dream/Morpheus from The Sandman (1989).
    • The Floop Floopian getting dragged to his species' version of Hell is reminiscent of Ghost (1990).
    • The Jerry Mind Blower is an E.T. based adventure.
    • Two of memory vials are labelled "Bill C." and "Stanford".
    • The memory where Rick and Morty send blue prints for a interstellar vehicle to a scientist in order to fool her into trading places with them is a parody of Contact. Rick telling her that they've taken forms her mind can accept is also a nod to this.
    • Along with the obvious shout out to Men in Black and Men in Black II, Morty's comment, "Save it for YouTube", is a reference to clickbait review videos in general.
    • In one of the memories where Morty finds out that Rick thought that the "Granted" part of "Don't take thing for granted." was "granite", the armor they wear looks suspiciously like the Battle Armors worn in Dragon Ball Z.
    • The squirrels recognize Morty as a possible "Dolittle," referencing Doctor Dolittle.
    • Rick as a nearly-invincible Mad Scientist who has no way of dealing with squirrels besides fleeing far away from them refers to Doctor Doom.

  • "The ABC's of Beth":
    • Three breasts aside, Keeara is distinctly reminiscent of the Asari characters from Mass Effect: among other things, she's attractive, blue, has an unusually-shaped skull, possesses telekinetic powers, and are known for making deep and lasting "bonds" between sexual partners. Her name also seems derived from Liara, the first Asari party member in the series, while her profession as a warrior-priestess evokes Justicar Samara from the second game. Also, she's voiced by Jennifer Hale - famous for voicing Mass Effect's female Shepherd. Similarly, the Varrix draw both visual and conceptual inspiration from the Vorcha, particularly in their pale, skeletal figures, their regenerative abilities, and their popular image as vermin.
    • After being decapitated by Jerry, one of the Varrix recovers by sprouting spider legs from its severed head and crawling away - much like the eponymous creature in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).
    • Tommy as a young boy travelling to a land of monsters that see him as their king is similar to the plot of Where the Wild Things Are.
    • The path to Froopy Land is done by drawing a path with chalk. This is a reference to the cartoon ChalkZone.
    • Jerry mentions Chetara from ThunderCats when describing how hot Keeara is.
    • Both in this episode and the next, Rick and Beth describe the possibility of Beth's clone rampaging as "Going Blade Runner".

  • "The Rickchurian Mortydate":

    Season 4 

  • "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat"
    • Morty is repeatedly referred to as an "AKIRA".

  • "The Old Man and the Seat"

  • "The Vat of Acid Episode"
    • Rick tells Morty he "Prestiged" himself every time he did a do-over. Interestingly, Roiland's other cartoon premiered a week before this episode's debut and also has an episode referencing The Prestige.
    • The plane crash depicted in the episode is almost exactly the one depicted in Alive, which is based on the Real Life Uruguayan rugby team's crash aboard Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.
    • After the plane crash, three of the four survivors are dressed as South Park characters. The unnamed man is dressed like Stan, the unnamed woman is dressed like Kyle and Morty is dressed like Kenny. Morty's Girlfriend, on the other hand, is not dressed like Cartman.
  • "Childrick Of Mort"
  • "Star Mort: The Rickturn of the Jerri"
    • The armor Space!Beth wears at the very beginning is a twofer: The helmet is modeled after what the Breen species wear on Star Trek, which in turn is rumored to be based on the bounty hunter disguise Leia uses at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. As in the latter, here it also hides the identity of a central character, albeit very, very briefly.
    • During the fight between Rick and Phoenix Person attacks greatly resembling the X-Ray attacks from Mortal Kombat X show up. Rick breaks Phoenix Person's jaw using a rocket assisted punch and Phoenix Person uses a drill bit on his beak to stab Rick in the chest and heart (until armor unfolds around the heart). And much like in the game, both fighters simply shrug off what should be debilitating injuries.

    Season 5 
  • "Mortyplicity"
    • In order to wrangle together all the decoy Sanchez families together, Rick uses his house to summon a "Star Fox Boss with a callback to Season 4."
    • With one of the decoy families in Italy, the Morty is seen tossing a peach back and forth with an older man while more are hanging in the foreground.
    • Two Morty's seperately compare the decoys to West World and Ex Machina.
  • "A Rickconvenient Mort"
    • Planetina is an obvious parody of Captain Planet, though she also bears a resemblance to Captain Marvel.
  • "Amortycan Grickfiti"
    • The demons in the A-plot are a clear parody of the ones in Hellraiser, and Rick compares their Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad philosophy to that of Oscar the Grouch. Later on he says he's tired of their "Addams Family bullshit".
    • In the B-plot, when Rick's car goes on a joyride of itself, one of the things it does is use a planet-sized lure and fish for Galactuses.
    • The car identifies as female and tries to lose her virginity to a Transformer.

    Season 6 
  • "Solaricks"
    • The cold open with the protagonists stranded in the void of space and waiting for death is similar to how almost every episode of Final Space began.
    • Rick's opening monologue has him referencing Tony Stark's log in the opening of Avengers: Endgame. Space Beth even shows up to save them just like how Captain Marvel did.
    • Summer notes she gets paid by Rick in gadgets. Here she chooses "Wolverine Claws", though they are only two to a fist, like Wolverine's clone daughter X-23.
    • Cronenberg dimension Jerry read a lot of books after his Beth and Summer died, in particular The Dark Knight Returns.
    • Rick Prime compares his naked, maybe-clone self to Keyser Söze, the criminal mastermind of The Usual Suspects. He also states that the ambiguity of if the real him or a clone is in the tube is a Saw thing.
    • Earth Beth apologizes for "going all Dance Moms" on Space Beth about Summer.
  • "Rick: A Mort Well Lived"
  • "Bethic Twinstinct"
    • Summer and Rick play a realistic version of Street Fighter that involves the fighters trying to meet up to fight.
    • Summer's character in the "realistic" Street Fighter is Kickpuncher.
    • One of the games Morty plays is a weird realistic version of Final Fantasy VII with Cloud unable to lift his Buster Sword.
    • The textual fantasy video game Rick is playing has a strong resemblance with AI Dungeon, and notably the tendency of its AI to generate Diabolus ex Machina.
    • Rick calls out the two Beths for acting out "a full San Junipero" in his holodeck.
    • In a two-for-one, Rick restates for the audience the favor the two Beths asked of him:
      Rick: You guys are having me Eternal Sunshine all the Multiplicity porn scenes from your minds?
    • When Space Beth mocks Jerry by claiming he wanted to "permit our love" (between her and Earth Beth), Jerry answers in annoyance, "It's not 'Handmaid's Tale' to loop in your husband."
    • When Space Beth picks up one of Rick's tools to ostensibly try and force Jerry out of his pill-bug form, Rick warns that attempting to do so could "literally turn Jerry into a Shrek."
  • "Night Family"
    • Night Summer has Beth burn DVDs of Independence Day, Groundhog Day and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but spares Talladega Nights.
    • The Night Family— alternate versions of the main "Day Family" who want to essentially take over and replace their Day Selves— is a reference to Us, which likewise has doppelgangers of the family who want to step out of the shadows and replace their surface selves, complete with the Night Family adopting matching jumpsuits like the film's doppelgangers. The Night Family also speaks in raspy voices, similar to the lead doppelganger Red. The episode also begins with a quote, which has become associated with Jordan Peele's horror films. His other work (without counting Nope which wasn't released yet when this episode was being made), Get Out (2017), also deals with people being imprisoned within their subconscious while someone else has taken over their body to keep.
    • Rick and Morty call their abs-related podcast "Fab-solutely Ab-ulous", a reference to the British '90's sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
    • Summer notes that her sleep deprivation suit that Rick made her wear looks like a creation by Terry Gilliam.
    • Some of Night Summer's drones speak in a matter similar to that of the Daleks.
  • "Final Desmithation"
    • Morty and Summer change Rick's ringtone to the theme of Taxi, which is used for the battle at Panda Express and the credits.
    • After Jerry becomes paranoid about his fortune cookie, Rick tells him in irritation, "It's not an X-File, Jerry, you got the world's last interesting fortune." (Of course, he turns out to be wrong about this.)
    • Rick also makes a joke about Cookie Monster being the one behind creating the fortune cookies.
    • Rick has a Sailor Moon Transformation Sequence at the ready in case he needs to save money on animation. He gets to use it on Jerry twice. He also references the Eye of Thundera, from Thunder Cats, in his own costume change.
    • When Rick hacks into one of the company's control panels with a device in his arm, he whistles a few notes that sound like the beeps of R2-D2 from ''Star Wars"".
    • Old M. Hucksbee appears to be based on the Smoker who was in charge of the oil reserves in Waterworld.
    • Rick asks, if Hucksbee can make any fortune he wants, why he doesn't use them for more useful things, such as, "At least get Nintendo to make a portable VR headset."
    • When faced with a guard with fire powers and a guard who can control water, Rick tries to "Pokémon this shit" and use the water guard to take out the fire one.
  • "Juricksic Mort"
    • Besides the episode being named after Jurassic Park, a few more shout-outs abound, like Morty commenting "Clever girl!" about one of the dinosaurs and Rick saying they're going to be like Laura Dern and "get elbow-deep in dino doo-doo", at which point Rick and Morty lampshade both of these references.
    • While listing off possible Morty-related calamities, Mr. Goldenfold asks, "Have I been The Facultied again?"
    • The dinosaurs first arriving at Earth, as well as their spaceships in general, are a send-up to Arrival.
    • The Marvel Cinematic Universe is mentioned multiple times, with the dinosaurs talking about how many Marvel movies have been made, President Curtis referencing the invasion (of Thanos's forces) in Avengers: Endgame, and the dinos saying that, with all the free time humans will now have, they can "finish rounding out that Ant-Man character".
    • President Curtis calls out Rick for West World-ing him with a Ridiculously Human Robot that shorts out after trying to eat the ribs that he served up.
    • The whole dingy ribs restaurant owned by an elderly black man is a shout out to House of Cards (US), in which Frank Underwood regularly ate ribs at a restaurant owned by an elderly black man named Freddy Hayes.
    • The President also, after becoming bored of the dinosaurs' utopia on Earth, suggests that Rick "Zero Dark Thirty" them.
    • Rick tries skateboarding into one of the craters because it looks easy in Pro Skater 3. Unfortunately for him, he's not nearly as good at it.
    • At the Oscars, Rick insists that Tom Hanks shout his famous "WILSOOOON!" line from Cast Away.
    • After he and Morty are teleported away, Rick refers to the dinosaurs as "Doctor Manhattan highroad assholes".
    • The whole plot reference to Denver the Last Dinosaur with the skater dinosaurs in the final scene.
    • The Meteors that keep on following the Dinosaurs have a striking resemblance to the moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
  • "Full Meta Jackrick"
    • Tony Hawk, whose Pro Skater 3 game was name-dropped in the previous episode, shows up onscreen briefly during the Previously on… segment to thank Rick and Morty for help in solving a murder.
    • Rick states that every second in the Meta Layer is equal to "ten Space Jam cameos", which is also a nod to the fact that Rick and Morty themselves were one such cameo in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
    • Morty tells Story Lord that having Jesus beat them up was already done in South Park.
    • Jesus breaks Rick's back by kneeing him in the spine just as Bane does to Batman in the comics and The Dark Knight Rises, which Rick lampshades:
      "He Bane'd me, Morty!"
    • Jan mentions he was asked to do a story based The Canterbury Tales before he was told to make another based on Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im".
    • The Self-Referential Six are a reference to Spider-Man's Sinister Six. Additionally, Flash Back's costume is of course a reference to The Flash.
    • Rick's line about "season 3 Moonlighting shit", another series well-known for Breaking the Fourth Wall.
    • At one point in a Leon-induced flashback, Joseph Campbell directly references the inspiration for the characters of Rick and Morty by calling them "Back to the Future ripoffs".
    • The living room of Marvin the Cowardly Security Guard is the same living room as the Smith's family in American Dad!.
    • The device Story Lord uses to steal the motivation of everyone looks like a cosmic tuning fork from Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, and is similarly powered by people with meta-awareness.
  • "Analyze Piss"
  • "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort"
  • "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation"
    • Numerous references to Star Wars abound, starting with Morty's real lightsaber as a Christmas gift and continuing into many discussions about the movies and TV series.
    • Morty testing/playing with his new lightsaber while cutting various fruit seems reminiscent of Fruit Ninja.
    • Jerry's Christmas present from Rick (or rather, Rickbot) is an alternate universe-version of Miracle on 34th Street made to be two hours longer. The family watches it together, although eventually even Jerry gets sick of it.
    • Rick's AI lightsaber emerges from the Earth's crust in Italy and starts slaughtering civilians there, and President Curtis comments, "That's not amore", a nod to the Dean Martin song "That's Amore".
    • After betraying Morty and confiscating his lightsaber, Curtis orders his troops, "America, transform and roll out!"

    Season 7 
  • "How Poopy Got His Poop Back":
  • "The Jerrick Trap":
    • The title is a reference to The Parent Trap, which also involved an identity swap (though, in those movies, it was two twins pretending to be each other, rather than a literal body swap).
    • Rick mentions that telling the criminal where they are over the phone is a very Liam Neeson thing to do, probably referring to Taken.
    • Since the plot is kicked off by a "Freaky Friday" Flip, the titular film is unsurprisingly name-dropped multiple times by Rick, Jerry, and Morty.
    • Rick apparently gave himself a conehead implant after watching Coneheads. Both versions of Rick/Jerry compliment the film and its cast.
  • "Thats Amorte":
    • Rick mentions the Men in Black while referring to his memory-erasing device.
    • Fred Bunk's death scene is identical to Sol Roth's death in Soylent Green.
  • "Unmortricken"
    • The title is a reference to the Best Picture-winning Western Unforgiven.
    • The opening sequence features three sets of Jetsons expies discovering portal travel...and the fatal consequences it can have.
    • Among the Ricks captured by Rick Prime are a James Bond Rick and an Indiana Jones Rick.
    • Rick Prime uses a "Kuato" Rick from his abdomen to mess with Evil Morty's brain scanner.
    • Evil Rick attempting to stab himself with a shard of broken plate whilst held hostage by his Morty is probably referencing Breaking Bad.
    • During the battle, Rick Prime summons three gigantic robots in the image of Diane with various parts of their robotics showing from underneath, not unlike the Human Reaper from Mass Effect 2.
  • "Rickfending Your Mort":
  • "Wet Kuat Amortican Summer":
    • Summer and Morty accidentally up merging, with the latter becoming a "Kuato" out of the former's stomach like in Total Recall, with Rick even name-dropping the movie. The entire episode takes the Kuato concept previously demonstrated by Evil Rick in "Unmortricken" and runs with it, with it being referred to as "the crown jewel of psychic mutants".
    • The whole "rescue Morty from traffickers" plot is described as "doing a Taken". Lampshaded a couple of times:
      • Kwyatt tells Summer that Kuato-Morty was brought to "a Taken house."
      • And when Rick struggles during his and Summer's attempted rescue of Morty, she asks him in annoyance if this is "your first Taken".
    • Rick activates Summer's ponytail implant by saying "Go go ponytail secret move."
    • The Stinger has a bunch of obscenely wealthy guys in masks using people as furniture, a reference to the VIPs from Squid Game.
  • "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie"
    • The scene where the music producer calls his cousin Chuck to tell him about the "new sound he is looking for" parodies the scene from Back to the Future where Marty single-handedly invented Rock 'n Roll.
    • There is a scene where the heroes crash-land on a planet with Ewok-like creatures who then invite them to celebrate as in Return of the Jedi.
  • "Mort Ragnarick":
  • "Fear No Mort":
    • The Fear Hole itself looks almost exactly like the entrance to the Mirror Cave on Ahch-To, as seen in The Last Jedi, being a dark hole in the ground with seaweed-like stuff growing out of it in a veiny pattern.
    • Rick mentions in passing that You've Got Mail starts with Tom Hanks killing a cop.
    • The mysterious man who represents the Fear Hole is physically modeled after Rod Serling, original narrator and host of The Twilight Zone.

    Comics 
  • Issue 30
    • On cover B, Summer has a poster of Karamatsu from Osomatsu-san on her wall.
  • Issue 31

    Episode Titles 

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