The episode was pretty funny. “Pickle Rick” is a mild example of “L0l Randumz Xd” humor, because the reaction of literally every other character is that it’s underwhelming and unfunny. the rest of the episode has good jokes, references, super fluid action and gore.
Edit: I don’t want this on the front page while US-Iran stuff is going down.
The thing that always got me that unlike the shows where people idolize the terrible lead Rick is never shown as winning. Walter white, Erick Cartman, Tony Soprano, who ever else. They tend to be shown as winning. Even in this episode. The entire A plot is that he is miserable and only makes his life and the life of everyone around him worse. In the way of americna media literacy the ur-example they chose is the exactly wrong one.
That’s not the point of a male power fantasy, though. The point of it is to be able to be aggressive, crude, violent, without any kind of pushback or resistance because you are the most specialest boy there is. They want to be these characters not because they’re successful, but because they don’t face any consequences for being horrible people.
Yeah, the message these sorts of people take away isn’t “this attitude and behaviour is wrong” but “the universe is wrong for going against me.”