So I've made my first puzzle, party people. I've maxed out my giveaway slots (16) for this weekend puzzle, and I hope you find some enjoyment in it. The theme of the puzzle is Rick and Morty. If you don't know about it yet, you should definitely make time for it. Everything in the puzzle should be fairly simple for fans of the show, but anyone completely unfamiliar with the show should also be able to answer the questions with just a little bit of online searching. Though I really recommend giving the show a shot, it's dark and hilarious and wonderful. Just check out the many layers of humor found in this short clip with a throwaway gag about passing the butter.

And because I love deconstructing humor, let's open up the onion that makes up this joke:

So, you've got the first layer of the joke: He built a robot with AI simply to pass butter.

Then there's the second layer : It's less effort for him to build a robot to pass the butter than to just reach over and grab the butter. Beyond that, the robot is so smart it questions its purpose, which is hilarious overkill.

The third layer starts getting a little dark: This robot is having serious existential angst because he has arguably more intellectual and emotional capacity than the average human (which is communicated by just a few words, "What is my purpose," and "Oh my god," and also through the contrast provided by Morty's dad playing with his tablet throughout the entire scene), and something that complex and beautiful and fragile should be brought into the world with careful consideration, yet Rick casually slapped him together without a second thought about the ethical ramifications, just so he could butter his pancakes.

Fourth layer, even darker: In Rick's simple reply, "Welcome to the club," he reveals the true extent of one of the primary mechanisms of the humor of his character, which is just how much smarter he is than everyone. This level of the joke tells the viewer that Rick's intellect compares to the task of offhandedly creating a sophisticated AI to the extent that the AI's intellect compares to the task of passing butter, which is heartbreaking and hilarious when you realize that the robot's deep and meaningful angst indicates that creating the robot is much, much more complex than passing butter, and so must Rick's angst be in equal measure; and this angst is something that Rick carries with him constantly and ostensibly to a greater extent, which informs his character and the humor behind it.

It's brilliant, nuanced, hilarious, and complex, and yet it's just filler; it draws no extra attention to itself and seamlessly weaves its punchlines between the lines of dialogue from the family that are driving the plot forward. It's just one example of how brilliantly funny this show can be on so many levels. It's dark humor, but with a level of sophistication beyond almost anything else being made right now.

It's amazing and wonderful, and I am going to use my puzzling platform to try and encourage everyone reading to give the show a see at least once.

Please.

And away we goooooooooooooooooooooo!


Well, my first puzzle has ended. Congratulations to all the winners; keys have been released or friend requests have been sent. For those curious about the solution to the puzzles, here you are: the first puzzle and the second puzzle.

I noticed that a lot of people were entering the giveaways, but weren't also bumping the thread as requested. If you didn't, perhaps you should have been more willing to do so. Almost 100 users made it past the second puzzle and onto the back half of the train, but fewer than 30 users entered what I considered to be the best offerings on the train; the two giveaways I had attached as the caboose (behind the "bump the thread" link on Tomb Raider): Hitman: Absolution and Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut!

View attached image.
9 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

What should the topic of my next puzzle be?

View Results
TV Shows
Films
Music
Books
Games
Molecular Genetics
Potatoes!
Deleted

This comment was deleted 1 year ago.

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Maaaaaaaaan, I love this show.

You could do a puzzle about the shows in the alternate realities from R&M, let's say "Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running In A Van From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things: The Movie" for example

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solved! Thanks for the giveaways!

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Thanks for the awesome puzzle! It was easy for me since i love the show :D

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I sincerely doesn't understand how to write the 2nd quiz Q7
The dimension thingy
Tried many way, still wrong :(

Anyway, thank you for the giveaway! :)

9 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Did the hint help? A letter, a hyphen, and some numbers. Its the exact same way that Rick wrote it when he was checking his father-in-law into the "Jerry Day Care".

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ah yeah nvm
I forgot to edit this xD

Sorry to bother you :(
Bump again!

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Thank you Ryan, for this very nice puzzle.

View attached image.
9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 6 years ago.

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Great puzzle. I am fortunate I started watching this show a month ago

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bumps up!

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump and thanks

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I'd like to give this show a try. Where can I watch it?

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

If you have Hulu Plus, the first season is available to watch there now. If you don't have a Hulu Plus account, you can watch episodes on the Adult Swim website. If you have a cable subscription, you should be able to log in and watch every episode from both seasons immediately. If you do not, then Adult Swim rotates through the episodes each week, so right now episodes 6 - 10 are available to watch from season one, and episodes 1 - 7 are available from season two.

Beyond that, this website frowns on encouraging any sort of piracy, whether online or on the high seas, so I won't be pointing out that option here. But I will share the show's creators thoughts on piracy, and you can use that information to do what you will.

Justin Roiland:"...I don’t think that any fans — or even non-fans — that end up watching it are villainous. I would have probably watched the Game of Thrones leak if it wasn’t for the combination of me being really busy and then too lazy to deal with torrenting and all of that. If it had been easier for me, I probably would have watched it. I get the temptation to watch it and I don’t think anyone should beat themselves up too bad for doing it..."

Dan Harmon: "it's pretty easy for that not to be my problem because the same people that bust my ass about budgets and stuff will always be the ones attempting to police that stuff. So I have the luxury of not caring. I just want people to consume my stuff and say good job, I don't need a dollar from it to know I'm a good person but I do need a dollar to pay my rent so I can keep doing it. I owe a very luxurious life to the fact that a lot of greedy people do a lot of dirty work I don't have to care about. In general, though, I do think it's pretty dumb to try to put a cork in technology. When people figure out a way to steal your stuff that's easier than buying it, it means you have to make it easier for them to buy it, you can't make it impossible for them to steal, it's wasted energy in my opinion but I'm not a CEO or a union leader or a politician, I'm just a fat guy that likes making stuff."

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

google it, you'll get plenty of results, likely on youtube even

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump for the best show!

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump! :)

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Solved them all. The "real name" one gave me a bit of trouble because they always call them by something else.

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Solve-a-bump. Thanks for the excellent puzzles, exposing me to something new, and the excellent train. :)

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

BUMP

Did you know..
this is my first puzzle ever :D

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Mmmmm...

View attached image.
9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

One last bump for the countdown to the end. Sixteen games, 30 minutes. Good luck, puzzlers!

9 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sign in through Steam to add a comment.