Rick and Morty showrunners address Rick's alcoholism in season 9

Rick Sanchez is the smartest man in the universe. He’s also an alcoholic, constantly drinking from a flask, slurring his words, and belching — an aspect of his character that showrunners Dan Harmon and Scott Marder alternate between playing for laughs and taking very seriously.

Season 9 episode 4, “A Ricker Runs Through It,” grapples with the darker side of Rick’s substance abuse, opening with Rick getting so drunk he wets his pants. “You write what you know,” Harmon said in a virtual interview. Harmon, who has been open about his own struggles with alcohol, compared the approach to Robert Zemeckis’s 2012 drama Flight, in which Denzel Washington plays an alcoholic pilot who pulls off a miraculous crash landing.

“The whole point of the story is that it’s up to Denzel’s character when he fixes this issue, and that makes it more important, more dramatic, but you don’t really feel that bad for him, and you don’t feel like you’re watching a person die in an aquarium,” Harmon said.

rick sanchez, morty, dan harmon, scott marder, season 9, episode 4, alcoholism, substance abuse, denzel washington, robert zemeckis