Image via Adult Swim
Popular cartoon relied heavily on outdated Microsoft program
By Chandler Walter, Assistant Editor
Viewers, fans, and especially redditors were outraged at the news that beloved adult cartoon Rick and Morty would not be running further episodes of its long-awaited third season.
The show released the first episode of season three on April 1 in a backwards April Fool’s joke, and has since aired its second episode this past Sunday. What show-runners did not take into consideration, however, was the imminent demise of Microsoft Paint.
“Basically all of our animation is done through MSP,” said Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon. “We thought it would be funny to use it, as most of this show is just us fucking around anyway. Now there’s no way to move forward with the third episode.”
Harmon broke the news in a press release shortly after airing Sunday night’s episode.
“We regret to inform the public that the adventures or Rick, Morty, Summer, Beth, and, yes, Mr. Poopy Butthole will be put on hold for the foreseeable future,” the statement read. “Our animation department is doing everything in their power to adapt to alternative software, but Microsoft Paint has long been a fixture in the creation of this cartoon. We ask that everyone be patient during the extended delays, as we estimate the time it will take to transition to this new production model will be at least, like, a year and a half.”
In an attempt to appease the masses, Harmon and co-creator Justin Roiland then released a 10-episode long spinoff series following the adventures of fan-favourite Jerry Smith as he comes to terms with losing his family.
“Yeah, we spent most of the break putting together Jerry’s Jamboree: The Show as a way to procrastinate making the third season,” Roiland confided in an interview. “We actually completed 10 full half-hour long episodes of that before getting around to starting on animation for R and M, and then… well… ‘MSPaintGate’ hit.”
The 10 episodes of Jerry’s Jamboree: The Show are available for full streaming on Netflix, though fans were disheartened when they realized that not Rick nor Morty made an appearance at any time during the series.
“We really wanted to delve into the man that Jerry is,” Harmon said. “It was important to really flesh out his character before merging him back in with the rest of the cast. Most of the episodes are just Jerry by himself, actually, doing his hilarious Jerry things.”
It seems that, for now, all fans can do is hope.
UPDATE: After an outpouring of Rick and Morty fans voiced their concerns over the elimination of MS Paint, Microsoft decided that it would allow the software to live on through an app in the Microsoft Store. This change means that season three of Rick and Morty will be back under production, though when asked when the third episode would be ready, Harmon simply stated: “Yeah, we should probably get around to that.”
