One of the fun things about Rick and Morty are the little side adventures that happen in most episodes. Like when Beth and Jerry went to the couple’s therapy in space while Rick attended high school with Morty and Summer as Tiny Rick. Or when Summer and Morty went on countless hunts with Jerry’s alien girlfriend while Rick and Beth trekked through Froopyland.
But one side adventure that had everyone scratching their heads as much as it made them laugh was when Jerry took that talking cat to Florida. So many questions that were simply left unanswered by the end of the episode, and never addressed again.
Some people working behind the scenes of Rick and Morty have since shed a little light on the hilarious mystery, but even still, their comments do little to reveal any truth about why the cat can talk, where it came from, and why it’s obsessed with Florida.
Rick, Jerry, and the Talking Cat
There are a lot of side characters in Rick and Morty that seem to appear out of nowhere, like Mr. Poopybutthole, Mr. Nimbus, or even Squanchy, although fans have since gotten more and more background on these characters. But the talking cat is different because usually when a random character from space comes to the Smith house, it’s because they know Rick or something. The talking cat just showed up unprompted.
After only greeting Jerry, and avoiding his reasonable questions as to why he could talk and where he came from, he somehow convinces Jerry to take him to Florida, because he says in Florida:
They don’t ask questions. They play volleyball, they party, and they have fun.
But after the talking cat asks too many questions, ironically, both he and Jerry are rejected from hanging out with the Floridians, and Jerry calls Rick to pick them up. But Rick, being Rick, won’t stand for his questions to be left unanswered, so he does a mind scan on the talking cat, something he would come to regret.
Which Episode Features the Talking Cat?
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The Talking Cat |
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|---|---|
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Voice Actor |
Matthew Broderick |
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First Appearance |
“Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” (Season 4, Episode 4) |
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Date Aired on TV |
December 8, 2019 |
The talking cat is just a random side adventure going on in the fourth episode of season 4, titled, “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” (a play on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit). The main storyline of this episode follows Morty convincing Rick to get him a pet dragon. But as many of their other adventures do, things stray away from the original plan.
Morty’s dragon, Balthromaw, quickly grows bored and feels used by Morty, and stays in its cave mostly. That is until he and Rick share a soul bond and develop a weirdly intimate relationship with one another. But when Balthromaw is taken back by his wizard captor, Morty teams up with Rick and Summer to free him and his fellow imprisoned dragons. Once freed, Rick and Morty are weirded out by the entire experience, and set Balthromaw free.
All the while, Jerry was spending money on plane tickets to Florida to hang out with the talking cat. After the dragon adventure, Rick goes to pick up Jerry and the cat, and tricks the cat into sitting still for a memory scan. But when Rick looks into the goggles and sees what the talking cat was hiding — accompanied by the sounds of screaming people and explosions — he’s horrified, and tries to prevent Jerry from seeing, but fails. Jerry starts uncontrollably vomiting and the two of them scream at the talking cat to leave, who scurries off crying. Rick goes ahead and wipes Jerry’s memory, leaving himself as the only one aware of the literally unspeakable deeds of what the mysterious talking cat had done. So, what was the point?
Dan Harmon’s Explanation of the Talking Cat
With that episode being the only one featuring the talking cat — not to mention the whole storyline barely making up half of the episode’s plot — fans are entitled to feel lost as to what the whole point of the talking cat really was. But according to Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon, that might just be the point.
According to Decider, Harmon said of the episode:
The cat subplot was an attempt to just have fun. The cat represents that voice in your head in the writers room that you’re overthinking it.
The whole episode, the talking cat tells Jerry over and over not to overthink it and just go with the flow. It makes more sense if you think about the talking cat as a fun, meta, fourth-wall-breaking type of gag, as it’s not nearly the only time Rick and Morty has had fun with playing around with that concept (see things like the Story Train and Storylord, for example).
One of the writers for the show, Jeff Loveness, also had a comment about what inspired the talking cat:
That came from, like, those movies like Oliver and Company and all that. They didn’t really explain why the cats can talk.
So, what is the point of the talking cat? The talking cat himself sums it up pretty well, when he says, “You’re overthinking it. The point of a talking cat is to have fun.” So just have some fun!
Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty is an animated sci-fi comedy that follows the outrageous interplanetary and multidimensional adventures of Rick Sanchez and his grandson, Morty. Airing on Adult Swim, Rick and Morty has become one of the most popular animated shows on television, blending humor, action, and genuine emotion.
