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Game of Thrones Showrunners Recorded Rick & Morty Commentary
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss joined star Peter Dinklage to record an audio commentary for the infamous “Pickle Rick” episode of Rick and Morty. Season 3 of Rick and Morty on Adult Swim took the animated sci-fi series to new heights both in terms of popularity and controversy. The wild ride began with a surprise April Fool’s Day premiere followed by a run of 9 more episodes that saw Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s outrageous imaginations running at full throttle. And then there was the controversy, which mostly had nothing to do with the actual content of the shows.
Unfortunately, a part of the Rick and Morty fanbase doesn’t seem to really get it, resulting in some disturbing examples of toxic fan behavior. In the most well-publicized episode of Rick and Morty fans going off the rails, McDonald’s restaurants around the country found themselves under siege when the chain’s Szechuan sauce promotion – inspired by a joke from season 3’s first episode – backfired spectacularly. Of course, not all Rick and Morty fans are so… thoughtless. The show has many good fans who truly admire its blend of sci-fi weirdness and deeply probing character humor.
As it turns out, among the biggest Rick and Morty fans are Benioff, Weiss, and Dinklage. EW has now revealed that Benioff, Weiss and Dinklage actually joined forces to record an audio commentary for an episode of Rick and Morty season 3 that will be featured on the upcoming DVD. The episode they tackled happens to be possibly season 3’s most memorable, the infamous “Pickle Rick” ep, where Rick transforms himself into a pickle, then gives himself robotic limbs fashioned out of rat parts. Why? So he can go on an insane, violent rampage (and also get to therapy with Beth and the kids).
From the clip, it’s clear Benioff, Weiss and Dinklage are huge fans of Rick and Morty (so there are no hard feelings left over from last year’s unfortunate Game of Thrones blast, concocted by a random Adult Swim employee). Most of their commentary in fact is just them giggling at all the bizarre hilarity. In the featured scene, Rick (still in his pickle state and spattered with blood from his action movie antics) participates in a group therapy session with Beth, Morty and Summer. Of course Rick is convinced he’s above the whole thing and launches into an anti-therapy monologue. But in this case at least, Rick has met his match when it comes to ranting. The therapist, voiced by Susan Sarandon, launches into her own monologue in which she explains to Rick how he uses his intelligence to hide from his issues.
Benioff calls the writing in the scene “maybe the best writing in 2017.” Weiss agrees with the assessment, calling the scene “the perfect Rick monologue followed by an even better Rick monologue.” While watching one of the action scenes from the episode, Weiss also tantalized fans with the suggestion “the last episode of Game of Thrones should be a live-action version of Pickle Rick.” Needless to say, Pickle Rick arriving in Westeros to wreak havoc would be the most insane thing ever. You thought dragons were destructive?
The full episode commentary by Weiss, Benioff and Dinklage will appear on the DVD and Blu-ray release of Rick and Morty season 3, set for May 15th, 2018. As for season 4 of Rick and Morty on Adult Swim? Who knows when – or if – that will ever happen. If Rick and Morty does have to switch networks due to contract issues with Roiland and Harmon, maybe the Game of Thrones showrunners can convince HBO to pick it up.
