Rick & Morty Season 7 Reinvents The Same TV Trope For The 4th Time In 9 Years

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 7, episode 6.

Many TV tropes are used to create sitcom traditions, and there’s one that Rick and Morty reinvents again and again. Rick and Morty is known for subverting common tropes and viewer expectations, and this lends itself well to the animated series’ unique humor. The show often toys with clichés to play up its comedy, but it also challenges expectations through its more serious storylines. Rick and Morty season 7’s Rick Prime twist is the perfect example.

Of course, after seven seasons, Rick and Morty has a tendency to revisit and subvert the same tropes over and over. In Rick and Morty season 7, episode 6, the series reinvents a common TV trope for the fourth time in nine years. While it sounds like this would be repetitive, this often works to the show’s advantage, with viewers rejoicing when a beloved gag shows up again.

Rick & Morty Season 7, Episode 6 Subverts The TV Clip Show Trope

The purpose of a clip show is often to save on production costs, as already shot or animated footage can be reused to throw together an additional episode. Although clip show episodes often feature new material to frame the clips, the fresh footage is often minimal. However, Rick and Morty’s clip shows don’t just get creative with their framing device. There are also brand-new ideas, stories, and sketches generated to fill the spaces where old footage would traditionally appear.

In Rick and Morty season 7, episode 6, the trend continues, and Dan Harmon’s team manages to pull off yet another successful spin on the clip show concept. With Morty claiming it’s his turn to choose their adventure, Rick resorts to auditing the pair’s excursions to ratify his grandson’s math. He does so with the help of a new race called the Observers. The Observers can show all moments from time and use their ability to prove Morty mostly correct. The adventures shown, as audiences have come to expect, are brand new to the viewers despite being familiar to the characters.

This Isn’t The First Time Rick & Morty Has Reinvented The Clip Show

Rick and Morty season 7, episode 6’s new take on a clip show is entertaining, but it isn’t the first time the series has subverted this particular TV trope. Rick and Morty season 1 featured the show’s first effort to break the mold of the clip show. In “Rixty Minutes,” Rick Sanchez introduces the Smith family to a new way of watching television. When he connects his interdimensional cable box to the TV, his relatives see an array of unusual shows from a variety of dimensions. The voice work in much of the episode is clearly improvised, which makes the snippets that the audience sees particularly comedic and irreverent.

The concept of the box returns in Rick and Morty season 2’s “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate.” Although the random clips remain, the technology doesn’t interact with the other storylines quite as much. So, although it’s the same idea, it’s still used differently. And not wanting to run the concept of the interdimensional cable into the ground, the showrunners shake things up in season 3. For “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” audiences get to see some of the memories Morty asks Rick to extract from his mind. The show repeatedly takes on the traditional framework of clip shows to make something new, further establishing the creativity of Rick and Morty‘s writers.