This probably isn’t gonna be the next great TV rivalry, but it’s a hellacious poke in the ribs nonetheless.
One of the main point-of-contentions for hardcore Game of Thrones fans this season has been that, for whatever reason, things on the wildly popular HBO series have felt a little bit… off. There’s been issues of pacing and noticeable holes in timelines that have left people feeling a little miffed and short-changed.
Meanwhile over on Adult Swim, Rick & Morty has been firing on all cylinders, with the show’s third season already producing a handful of episodes that’ll stand proudly in a lot of people’s top five lists.
But the fact that the two shows air on the same night is absolutely not lost on the animated geniuses, and eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that this week’s episode took an almighty swing at its HBO brethren.
At the conclusion of this week’s episode – ‘Rest & Ricklaxation,’ due to arrive on Netflix Australia on September 2nd – the show followed its usual post-credits sequence with an Adult Swim-style ‘in memoriam’ bumper that hung several shades of shit on ye olde GoT. Observe.
This @adultswim bumper is savage pic.twitter.com/UiDlWuOzVU
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 28, 2017
For what it’s worth, both Justin Roiland and the show’s official Twitter account have denied having anything to do with the savage bumper, while Dan Harmon – who is taking a break from social media at present – is yet to publicly comment.
Just FYI, we had nothing to do with the GOT adult swim bumper from last night. Didn’t even notice it.
— Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) August 28, 2017
Stop writing think pieces about it, you maniacs. We are pro Ice and Fire.
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) August 28, 2017
Representatives from Adult Swim have since confirmed that it was a member of their team who created the bumper and tacked it on to the episode; the decision, apparently, did not come from the Rick & Morty offices.
Regardless, that’s a helluva solid burn. We’ll just have to wait and see if the rest of the Rick & Morty season can cash the cheque its ass unwillingly just wrote. Though when you’re pumping out episodes like Pickle Rick on the reg, that won’t be too hard to do.
