The Simpsons has never been a show to shy away from making pop culture references, even through to its most recent seasons. As a matter of fact, season 29 of The Simpsons has already made reference to Game of Thrones via medieval fantasy counterparts the Serfsons, and Sunday’s episode is set to take a shot at another part of the animated television landscape.


The show in question is Rick & Morty, and The Simpsons will be giving a slight nod to scientist Rick Sanchez and one of his biggest obsessions: McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce. It turns out that, even though this rare sauce is extremely hard to come by in both Rick & Morty and in the real world, it’s a little bit easier to find in Springfield.
The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean took to Twitter to share an image from Sunday’s episode of the show, and it certainly looks as though Maggie has managed to get her hands on a jug of the much sought after sauce. Although the image itself is a little on the blurry side, Jean confirmed that it related to Rick & Morty, stating that the sauce bottle is “a little shout out to R&M.”

McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce became a huge talking point earlier this year after Rick & Morty made reference to the condiment in its season 3 opener. Rick’s own desire to get his hands on the sauce led to a massive uptake in interest, with McDonald’s then making the sauce available for one day only. Unfortunately, this promotion was something of a disaster, with restaurants running out of their limited supplies of the sauce extremely quickly, leading to backlash from Rick & Morty fans and even criticism from Rick & Morty‘s co-creator over the Szechuan Sauce promo.


This won’t be the first time that Rick & Morty has teamed up with The Simpsons, either. The duo appeared in the couch gag for season 26 episode ‘Mathlete’s Feat,’ with the Simpson family being accidentally killed by the scientist and his grandson before being replaced by clones.
Whether The Simpsons will be around to continue making these cheeky nods much longer is something that is up in the air. The show has been renewed for its thirtieth season, leaving many fans to wonder whether season 30 will be The Simpsons‘ last. Either way, expect plenty more references for however long The Simpsons keeps going.