Daily Archives: September 22, 2022

NEW YORK (CNS) Adorable woodland creatures come together with sinister elements in this roguelike action-adventure game from developer Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital.

But despite its cute artwork or engaging gameplay, Cult of the Lamb relies on and subverts religious imagery, giving the game an overall dark theme that should give parents pause before buying it for their children.

In the Realm of the Old Faith, four monstrous creatures called Bishops have been hunting down all the lambs to ward off a prophecy that states a lamb will free The One Who Waits,another entity that the Bishops hold captive.

The last lamb in existence is set to be sacrificed by the cult that follows the Old Faith and thus aims to forever thwart the prophecy.

However, The One Who Waits manages to save the lamb and bring him back to life. In exchange, the entity asks Lamb to start a cult in his name and destroy the Bishops of the Old Faith, as each one holds a chain keeping The One Who Waits bound in his prison.

Lamb agrees to the terms and is gifted a Red Crown, which allows him to travel great distances using markings on the ground, namely pentagrams. Guided by a mentor rat named Ratou, the fluffy, wide-eyed protagonist gets to safe ground and begins working on growing the cult.

Other animals can be rescued from where they, too, await sacrifice in the realm of the Old Faith. These animals then become indoctrinated into the cult where they work and collect resources like lumber or stone. Followers also have unique traits, such as how easily they are affected by dissenters or how much faith they generate.

Lamb is tasked with going on missions to find recruits and hunt down the Bishops but also in taking care of the other followers, preaching sermons to grow faith, as well as keeping them all fed and happy. And thus the cult grows, leading the protagonist ever closer to freeing The One Who Waits from his prison.

But despite entertaining game mechanics, expressive combat, and rather adorable animal characters, Cult of the Lamb is rife with dark elements of which Catholics should be aware, whether they are parents of young players or adult gamers themselves.

The main villains are known as the Bishops, a reference that cannot be lost on any Christian. Bishops are the shepherds of the flock of Christ, his Church. The position of a bishop is only present in Christian religions across the real world.

Other symbologies such as pentagrams or inverted crosses have divergent meanings. Despite their origins as pre-Christian or early Christian images, they have recently been appropriated as symbols by atheists, humanists, and modern occultists.

Cult of the Lamb does not make any direct references to the devil or God, but as a modern title, its hard to imagine the game developers did not intend to be controversial, juxtaposing well-known Christian symbols with anti-Christian symbols in popular culture.

Lamb is not portrayed as being benevolent or heroic. While Lamb can choose to give followers extra food or extra rest, cult members also can be sacrificed, innocents imprisoned and deceased members butchered for meat. At best, Lamb is an anti-villain, and at worst, hes a heartless monster in a realm of heartless monsters.

Whether or not the developers consciously intended it, they have created a larger commentary on religion overall with Cult of the Lamb one that is drenched in spiritual nihilism. The Bishops of the Old Faith and their cult followers are evil without a doubt.

Yet Lamb and The One Who Waits can be just as wicked. The supposed savior of innocent woodland creatures is less of a hero and more simply just a change in regime, not necessarily for the better. The only difference between the two religious regimes is that Lamb is cute and fluffy a grim reminder for adults that appearances can be deceiving.

Lamb and his Red Crown may allude to martyrdom a religious savior death and resurrection narrative but if so, its a sad rebirth. Lamb dies and is resurrected again, but in this new life, the sweet innocence of the lamb is lost. Indeed, he can end up taking the same nefarious actions the Bishops do.

But even without making some of the more drastic player choices, Lamb is, at the end of the day, killing other cultists and the Bishops. An anti-villain is still not a hero.

Cult of the Lamb relies on and inverts traditional Christian imagery, but also nihilistically suggests that, regardless of player choice, there are no true saviors. Good does not conquer evil evil just conquers and replaces another evil. No matter how things change, they ultimately stay the same. Its just the management that changes every so often.

Adults, even ones who are not Christian, are capable of recognizing that this message is wrong. Change can lead to goodness. Saviors exist, people can choose what is good over self-interest, and evil does not need to triumph.

From the Catholic point of view, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is our Savior, and his life-giving love triumphs over evil. But the Cult of the Lamb cynically suggests this kind of thinking is a self-deception.

Cult of the Lamb has a landscape of deeper meanings that can be lost on impressionable children or adults who really lack spiritual formation or adequate catechesis in the Catholic faith.

Adults should discern whether playing such a game will prove a risk to their spiritual well-being, but parents should steer clear. At the end of the day, Cult of the Lamb is a silly game that combines the lighthearted aspects of other management games such as Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing with a message of spiritual nihilism that is the games bleating heart of darkness.

The game is playable on Playstation 4/5, Xbox One/X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The Catholic News Service classification is L limited adult audience, material whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Entertainment Software Rating Board rating is T teens.

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'Cult of the Lamb' and the bleating heart of nihilism - Catholic News Service

Blue Chips is a monthly rap column that highlights exceptional rising rappers. To read previous columns, click here.

Releasing music in relative obscurity can engender insecurity, the self-doubt mounting with every year critical acclaim and peer recognition doesnt arrive. Brian Ennals was intimately familiar with that disheartening reality for a decade. Throughout the 2010s, the Baltimore rappers sporadic solo projects gained little traction, and songs with short-lived groups either languished on hard drives or were quietly buried on the back pages of small blogs. Following the release of King Cobra (Phantom Limb), his second album of brilliant tragicomic nihilism produced by fellow Baltimorean Infinity Knives, Ennals career narrative is slowly changing.

It was always weird to tell people that I was an amateur rapper, even when I was younger, the 39-year-old says over the phone, fresh from a weekend at the beach with his two-year-old son. I always wanted to be able to say, Not only am I a rapper, not only am I a good rapper, but Im also a successful one. Thats just happening now.

Ennals and Infinity Knives briefly toured Europe this past spring, received an Album of the Day nod from Bandcamp in June, and both appeared on ascendant rap podcast Dad Bod Rap Pod and graced the cover of Baltimore alt-weekly Baltimore Beat in August. None of it happens without King Cobra, which expands on the sound and subject matter of 2020s Rhino XXL.

Produced, mixed, and mastered by Infinity Knives, the songs fuse organic and electronic sounds while contorting 80s and contemporary hip-hop. They are unique departures from the dystopian, Vangelis-meets-Bomb Squad instrumentals of early El-P with occasional nods to 80s boogie and R&B. Ever adaptable, Ennals offers pistol-grip insurrection, self-aware gallows humor, and vivid song-length narratives written in white lines. He affirms killing landlords, ending homelessness, and eating pussy with the same fervor, raging against the ills of late-stage capitalism while fuming over the Baltimore Orioles dismal playoff prospects. No politician is safe, no institution is sacred, and repentance may or may not begin after the next eight ball.

The album is very nihilistic, Ennals explains. Me and Tariq [Infinity Knives] are very cynical guys. If Rhino XXL was Star Wars, [King Cobra] is Empire Strikes Back. Were trying to go for a little more hopefulness on the next record. Like Return of the Jedi, but no Ewoks and shit.

King Cobra warrants far wider acclaim before the next sequel. Together, Ennals and Infinity Knives sit somewhere between Dead Prez and Danny Brown. You could also make the case that theyre a hybrid of The Coup and Too $hort for fans of Cannibal Ox. If youre after contemporary analog, think of them as the more approachable and intentionally puerile Armand Hammer, the pointed sociopolitical commentary competing with Ennals unchecked horniness.

Every time I write something kind of profound, my goal is to write something disgusting right after, Ennals says.

Born in Annapolis, Ennals and his older brother were raised in Severn, a census-designated place (CDP) roughly 16 miles south of Baltimore. Now a burgeoning suburb, Severn was once a rural, no-sidewalk town with a mix of trailer parks, Section 8 housing, and single-family homes. The Ennals family fell into the latter camp. His dad worked as a public school principal in Baltimore, and the boys mother oversaw equipment training at various phone companies. While his parents worked, Ennals unconsciously fell in love with performing, obsessively watching Motown concerts on VHS at home and singing in the grade school choir.

Though his older brother played radio-ripped tapes of Baltimore club tracks, Ennals eventually discovered rap, reading The Source and buying albums from the Fugees and Crucial Conflict. High school lunchroom ciphers led the formation of his first group, Special Ops. With no industry connections and music journalisms blog era in its infancy, Special Ops fizzled out after Ennals graduated from Howard University and navigated the grim job market in the wake of the 2008 recession.

The next decade was a blur of empty liquor bottles, blunt smoke, and powder-filled plastic bags. Ennals dropped two solo records 2010s Untitled and 2013s Candy Cigarettes that drew local acclaim from the Baltimore Sun but little beyond that. Between his day job and the odd recording session, he spent much time battling substance abuse issues.

Im pretty sober now, Ennals says, but for a large part of my adult life I was a hedonist but very depressed in a lot of ways and wanted something to numb that.

Infinity Knives initially contacted Ennals after reading about him in the Baltimore Sun, but the two didnt begin recording until Knives solicited Ennals for his 2020 album Dear, Sudan. In the six-year interim, Ennals briefly bounced to New Jersey while Knives became a fixture in the Baltimore indie rap scene that sprang up around Baltimores Bell Foundry and spawned JPEGMAFIA. After working on Knives Dear, Sudan, Ennals knew they needed to record their eventual debut, Rhino XXL.

[Working with Infinity Knives] is the first time that I feel Ive been produced. Its not just a guy sending me a beat and asking me to record over it. Its him saying, like, Hey, maybe you should take this approach or this flow. Maybe take this line out or switch it around. Hes a big boxing fan, so he likes to describe as Cus DAmato and [Mike] Tyson. Its very much him coaching me and making me a better fighter.

Like the best coaches, Infinity Knives knows his fighters strengths.

[One] reason Im so drawn to [Brian] is because of how malleable his style is. He definitely has his comfort zone, but the more he goes, the more I can tell him to do weird shit, Infinity Knives says. Ive just seen him get better and better. He can rap with a triplet flow or rap on a beat in 10/4. And hes a scholar of the arts.

They carried the momentum of Rhino XXL into King Cobra, spending the next year and a half of the pandemic politely butting heads and pushing one another past their creative comfort zones. King Cobra received some promotion from Phantom Limb, but the publicist they hired bailed. Fortunately, thanks to a network of supportive peers and growing journalistic support, word of the duos collective brilliance continues to spread.

The whole thing has been word of mouth. We knew a lot of people who knew a lot of people. Its a real grassroots type of thing. Im glad its not hitting everybody at once, Ennals says. The way everybodys attention spans are set up, if everybody heard it the first weekend it dropped, we wouldnt be talking about it three months later.

Link:

The Infinite Nihilistic Jest of Brian Ennals and Infinity Knives - Spin

Another summer has come and gone, and so it is time for one of lifes greatest comforts: video games. While it can be sad to lament the loss of summer, I find it comforting to lean into fall and even the dreariness that comes from shorter days. So for this week, I found works in progress that had some darker and creepier vibes.

We have atmospheric games and more in Cool WIP, Polygons roundup of eye-catching clips and screenshots of works in progress. In this column, the Polygon staff scours the internet for the most interesting games still under construction to give you a sampler of the coolest up-and-coming projects.

This week we have a cosmic horror driving game, a Metroidvania where a grappling hook is your best friend, a lily pad platformer, a touching game about visiting hospital patients, and a bug-filled adventure from Annapurna Interactive.

The developers of Dead Static Drive describe the game as an anti-Nihilism simulator where you absolutely have to trust others to survive in its world. As far as gameplay goes, it appears to feature intense driving and walking around abandoned spaces. It sports this dreamy, misty look that sets it apart from other horror games. Its developer, Reuben, hasnt announced a release date, but you can check out more info on its Steam page.

Developers of Rusted Moss describe it as a bullet-helly Metroidvania where the main way you get around is using an elastic grappling hook. In the game, you travel around with a little companion who then can transform into this grappling hook. A clip of it in action shows the player using it to swing around the other side of hanging stalactites before grabbing a power-up. Traversal and exploration are key in a Metroidvania game, so it looks like the concept fits the genre nicely. Rusted Moss has a demo available for Windows PC via Steam.

Bramble: The Mountain King is an adventure inspired by Nordic fables. The developer, Dimfrost Studio, posted a clip of a character named Olle running away from a zombie-like beast chasing him in the water. As Olle jumps from lily pad to lily pad, he almost doesnt make it, since they are so floppy and unstable. Even from this short clip, the game looks like itll have a somber, haunting tone. Bramble is set to be released sometime in 2023.

Wayward Strand is the exception to the creepy theme of this list. The game follows one character as they board a floating ship that also functions as a hospital. It appears to be very character-focused, and largely entails exploring its cel-shaded world by talking and getting to know the various patients and workers. It looks like a cheery but emotional game. The best part is that it just came out. Wayward Strand launched on Windows PC Thursday.

I havent seen a whole lot of folks talking about it, but Annapurna Interactive is publishing a creepy game called Cocoon. We dont know a whole lot about it yet, but it looks like it uses a concept similar to Russian nesting dolls where you will explore worlds within other worlds. True to the title of the game, the developers draw on various bug motifs throughout, so the game certainly wont be short of creepy crawlies. Geometric Interactives Cocoon is set to release sometime in 2023.

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This cosmic horror game will force you to trust characters to survive - Polygon

Have you ever wondered if life has a purpose?

Although we live at a time of unparalleled safety, comfort and opportunity, the cultural air that we breathe is heavy with the musk of emptiness and flatness. Weve even had to give it a name: ennui. These are symptoms of a deeper problem: a spiritual crisis of meaninglessness.

Our secular society has discovered the hard way that a world without God is a world without purpose. Were no longer pilgrims on the road to a destination, but wanderers on a never ending journey. Were still avid consumers of stories, but weve stopped believing that there is a divine Author who brings significance to the story of our lives. Thats why atheist Noah Yuval Harari can write in his best-selling book Sapiens that life has no meaning; there are only the stories that we invent to make sense of our otherwise meaningless existence.

Nevertheless, a former sceptic turned Christian, C.S. Lewis once reflected: If the whole universe has no meaning, we should have never found out it has no meaning: just as, if there was no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. If it were true that the universe came from nothing for no purpose, then its a curious thing that we so intensely yearn for purpose. The fact is that all of us desire our lives to be part of something that is bigger than ourselves. And that desire makes better sense in light of the Bibles story that everything came from nothing because it was created with a purpose by Someone. At the centre of history and Gods story is the divine person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is good news for our world teetering on the edge of the abyss of nihilism. The human race struggles with meaninglessness because we have a problem of sinfulness. And sin is demanding to be the author of your own story and destiny.

Humanity attempted to find life by stepping out of Gods story of paradise, only to step into a nightmare of nihilism. Imagine that Harry Potter decides that hes fed up with JK Rowling: his mum and dad were murdered, his uncle, aunt and cousin are abusive; hes been attacked by two-faced teachers, giant snakes, and soul sucking dementors. Harrys now so fed up with Rowlings dramatic story that he decides he wants to write his own comedy script instead. However when he tries to step off the edge of the page, he discovers that it means stepping into oblivion there can be no independent life for the character disconnected from the Author. Thats why sin leads to death. Thats why life in this world appears meaningless, because everyone we know and everything we do will be undone by death. All our self-made stories end up as tragedies!

Nevertheless, God has done something to make it possible for each of our stories to have a happy ending. Whereas sin is our attempt to step out of God's story, salvation is God the author stepping into history, entering into this world and becoming one of us, to rescue us from the tragedy of despair and death. Jesus has suffered the penalty for our sins and conquered the power of death. Jesus invites us into relationship with Himself: to surrender the pen - to make His story our story to share in His happily ever after ending.

Only in Gods story can our lives become truly meaningful and we find the purpose that we were created to fulfil.Rev David J Nixon, Solas

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Belief in God can help us find a purpose in life that we are currently lacking - David J Nixon - The Scotsman

When the members convened in their hometown of Vancouver in 2017 to begin work with longtime producer Jesse Gander on their fifth and final album Premonition, they had no idea what kind of changes were in store for them. Frontwoman Mish Barber-Way was in the studio preparing to record vocals when she realized she was pregnant with her first child. A pandemic followed, then another baby, then the series of massive societal meltdowns that weve all come to call everything thats been going on.

The albums lead single, Date Night, Mish imagines God as a nihilistic bad boy drunk-driving her through a blazing Los Angeles on the way out of town, and between Kenneths riffs and Anne-Maries backbeat, it sounds like exactly what you want playing as you set fire to your old life and hit the highway.

I felt like that part of my life was expiring, so I was projecting those angry and scared feelings out onto the city of L.A. because its safe and comfortable to live in your anger instead of being self-reflective. Mish reveals.

Premonition is about birth and rebirth. Its about leaving behind nihilism while refusing to give up the freedom that it offers. Its about raging against the world while still finding space within it for hope and love. Its about growingand growing olderwithout losing the furious energy of youth. Its about a group of artists whove held it together for a decade and a half of surprising, sometimes shocking ups and downs. Its the last album well be getting from one of the best bands to ever do it.

White LungPremonitionTrack ListingDomino Records

1. Hysteric2. Date Night3. Tomorrow4. Under Glass5. Mountain6. If Youre Gone7. Girl8. Bird9. One Day10. Winter

Premonition is out December 2 via Domino Recording Company across all digital platforms, CD and vinyl. Variants include standard black vinyl and limited edition orange crush.

Pre order Premonition by White Lung HERE

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"Date Night" by White Lung - Northern Transmissions

Bob Dylan is nothing if not obscure. As Paul Simon once said, [With]Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. Hes telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. His textured poetry has depth untold and hidden amid the myriad of swirling images is a cascade of meaning, some of which washes over you, and some you catch as it goes by. This truth has kept his tales constantly evolving, keeping them as fresh as the wind so that decades later you can still derive new meaning.

One track that contains more multitudes than most is his classic and oft-covered anthem All Along the Watchtower. There is something biblical about this timeless tune, but what exactly does that entail? Who is the joker, and who is the thief? Where do they sit in our modern lives? These arent easy questions to answer, but the beauty of Dylan is that even though the truth might escape us, the pursuit is always worthwhile.

Well, crammed in much of Dylans work is the Bible itself. As he once said of Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35, I have never and never will write a drug song. These are people that arent familiar with the Book of Acts. All Along the Watchtower is no differentDylan places biblical tales of old in the context of counterculture to colour his piety with an air of eternity. The search for meaning rambles on in every sense.

The scene that Dylan conjures from the outset is a desolate one. Riders approaching from afar invoke an image akin toGame of Thrones,where a kingdom is soon to be beset with more bad news from nowhere. There is no relief from this bombardment the joker proclaims, and in the modern world where we are greeted with ten grim news stories a day, that sentiment suddenly seems very prescient. The joker seems to plead: How do you rise above this dower malaise?

Well, the thief has a profound answer. He has been privy to this approaching darkness for a long time, it would seemlong enough to invoke the biblical notion of the hour getting late and the sense of salvation that comes with that. Dont get excitable and caught up in this dark storm, he seems to say, you only lose your way down that route, youve got to move on through it. Then you will also be ready to accept Godspeed and good tidings.

This belief comes from a thief no less. Why did Dylan choose to put such wise words in an unreliable mouth? Once more, this is also plucked straight from the Bible and the good thief who was crucified next to Jesus. Therefore, it stands to reason that perhaps the parties chatting in All Along the Watchtower are the pair crucified alongside Christ on the hill of Golgotha. In Catholicism, this was not a moment of despair, but one of salvationthe two riders brought good news.

The fact that a thief can see this is symbolic of the virtue of forgiveness. In the context of the society that Dylan released the song into, this provided an important message. The times were tough, but withAll Along the Watchtower he provided a message that usurped spiritual vapidness and despondent nihilism that pervaded an era of despair in America. In favour, he presented a note of fullness and forgiveness through an attitude of hope and the joyous sequestering of cynicism that comes from looking for solace beyond the despairing insular world of the watchtower.

You cant just stand on your guarded watchtower and look out at the world with a cynical glare expecting only darkness to blight your walls. You have to draw on your own experiences and know that things arent truly as terrible if you grace them with a virtuous disposition. Or at least that is how it seems? Maybe its about something else entirely, but the force is unmistakeably there to behold. A song is anything that can walk by itself, Dylan once said; All Along the Watchtower doesnt walk, it gallops.

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Lyrically Speaking: What is Bob Dylans All Along the Watchtower actually about? - Far Out Magazine

0/5 stars

Pinocchio (2022) is Available Now on Disney+. Despite how significant Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was to animation, I prefer Disneys sophomore attempt with Pinocchio as the film that finally defined Disney. Compared to Snow White, Pinocchio makes improvements on the characters, musical numbers, set design, and especially the story. Pinocchio was the film that made Walt Disney Animation a legitimate figure of Hollywood and established that their debut film was far from beginners luck: The Lion King of its time. But just like The Lion King, modern-day Disney doesnt really care about the sanctity of Pinocchio. Instead, they actively choose to skin the nostalgia off of the film and wear it over something disgustingly different, and from this botched surgery, we get the 2022 live-action remake of the titular wooden boy.

The film follows a similar story to the original. Jiminy Cricket (Joseph-Gordon Levitt) is a drifter who drops in on a clock shop owned by Geppetto (Tom Hanks). As we are introduced to them, Geppetto is doing finishing touches on a marionette puppet that he decides to call Pinocchio. Before he goes to bed, Geppetto wishes to a blue star that his puppet will become a real boy. That star happens to be the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Ervino), who grants that wish and turns Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) into a living wooden boy. From that, Jiminy is hired as Pinocchios conscience, and they now have to trek the dangerous world that includes the conman fox Honest John (Keegan-Michael Key), the greedy ringleader Stromboli (Luke Evans), the childish tourist trap Pleasure Island, and behemoth whale Monstro.

Another similar thing about Pinocchio and The Lion King is that their remakes are tied for one of the worst films to be ever made in the entire history of cinema. I cannot find any joy in this film, even as a guilty pleasure. I find nothing but pure unadulterated nihilism, like I did from The Lion King (2019).

I have a love-hate relationship with Robert Zemeckis. On one hand, hes the director that made stellar blockbuster films like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, moving masterpieces like Contact and Castaway, as well as some projects that came from totally out of left field, like The Polar Express and Welcome to Marwen. On the other hand, theres Pinocchio. The film, for the worse, neuters all of Zemeckis dynamic directorial style, with most of his frames in extreme-wide master shots that seem so detached to the characters and lack an emphasis on the delightful and cartoonish appeal that the original pulled off. This film feels wrong from a man who is often described as an apprentice of Steven Spielberg.

The only noticeable aspect of Zemeckis that is found within this sterile film is the obviously bad visual effects. Sometimes it can be great, like in Forrest Gump, Contact, and even most recently 2015s The Walk. However, Zemeckis is also responsible for his hand in uncanny valley-like motion capture-based films such as Welcome to Marwen. Visually speaking, this film makes The Polar Express look like Avatar just a massive drug-induced fever dream that makes the scene where Lampwick becomes a literal jackass feel underwhelming. All the VFX shots are equally offensive I could talk about that alone all day and night but all Ill say here is that the froth on the root beers is distractingly fake.

The overabundant CGI that replaces practical sets makes the real-life Tom Hanks stick out like a sore thumb. Hanks trying to perform to someone or something that obviously isnt there makes each scene feel awkward and as wooden as the son that is also not actually on set with him. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth sounds very uncomfortable in his voice acting, as he seems to deliver his dialogue as if he were being threatened with the prospect of being turned into an actual wooden boy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt falls flat at being a loveable and innocent sidekick, and his attempt to sound like the original cricket sounds like Pennywise doing a voice-over in a childs closet.

The 600-800 word limit placed on all articles in the Campus Times doesnt allow me to fully explain everything that I find artistically offensive and grotesque with this remake. These main points should really tell you how I feel about this travesty. I watched the movie on my phone, and when the film ended, I saw the disgusted face I made from this experience mirrored on the darkened screen.

The main conclusion I have from this film is: I want to step on Jiminy Cricket. His design is so horrifying.

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Pinocchio (2022): Disney wished on another wrong star - Campus Times

Few things captivate the attention of Gen Z and the later-born millennials as effectively as Adult Swims smash hit Rick and Morty. If you have eyes, you have undoubtedly seen its characters adorning T-shirts, backpacks, and bongs. If you have ears, you have heard co-creator Justin Roiland lending his voice to an animated character of some kind.

As the show enters its sixth season and its popularity continues to grow while its creators branch out to work on other projects, it is important to recognize the effects it has had on popular culture and why it has ultimately been a negative influence.

To be fair, the shows immense popularity is largely warranted. Adult animation, a genre primarily characterized by cartoon situational comedy, is saturated with mediocrity, thus Rick and Morty is consistently funny in an increasingly unfunny field.

Rick and Morty is also unique in that it is able to revel in vulgarity while exploring complex themes. Frequently, the show explores the unfulfilling nature of amoral nihilism, and younger adults who increasingly have concepts like moral subjectivity forced upon them likely find comfort in the fact that other people animated or otherwise are adrift in nebulous meaninglessness alongside them.

This is further emphasized in how the shows creators Dan Harmon and the aforementioned Roiland are able to combine both razor-sharp wit and shockingly lowbrow humor with a genuine and unique capacity for introspection. It isnt uncommon for the show to provide thoughtfully crafted social commentary and then follow it up with over-the-top violence or a string of incredibly grotesque jokes.

For instance, in a post-credits scene in the shows fifth season finale, its unofficial mascot, Mr. Poopybutthole, reveals that his fear of intimacy led to him driving away his wife and child as he asks viewers if they ever think about how horrified the people we love would be if they found out who we truly are.

This wedding of lowbrow humor and seemingly intellectual existential dread plays a considerable role in why the show is so popular among younger adults, but it is also why its leaving behind a problematic legacy.

When something is successful, people copy it hoping to similarly cash in and edge out their competition. This is an immutable law of industry; the world of animation is not immune.

Thus, Rick and Morty is frequently imitated but has yet to be duplicated, which is partly why its field is over-saturated. For every stand-out show like Rick and Morty, there are a dozen more like Hoops, which is exceedingly trite with its overreliance on autofellatio jokes, and Big Mouth, which is performatively grotesque in its unrelenting portrayal of childhood sexuality.

In hopes of creating the next Rick and Morty, streaming services and cable networks have greenlit dozens of similarly styled and structured shows. But in the pursuit of making quick returns on their investments, they became heavy-handed on the vulgarity while incorporating an insufficient amount of heart or wit to balance it out.

For instance, the entire premise of Netflixs Big Mouth is that young children going through puberty act out in strange and uncomfortable ways. After all, teenagers tend to be strange and uncomfortable people. But the show delivers on this premise by explicitly portraying how these young kids explore their developing bodies and even, at times, shows the cartoon genitals of these children. There is even a recurring gag where one kid develops an emotional attachment to the anthropomorphized couch cushion he uses to pleasure himself.

The whole joke is that children, who are not sexual beings, are being sexualized.

Shows like Big Mouth began to rapidly appear after it became clear that Rick and Morty was incredibly popular, but neither it nor any of the other copycat series spawned in the wake of Rick and Morty has been able to replicate what Roiland and Harmon have done.

The success of Rick and Morty has enabled its creators to cash in and produce several advertisements for big-dollar corporate sponsors, and this is perfectly fine. After all, its not like anyone faults the team behind The Simpsons for producing a slew of commercials for Nestle in the late 90s. One of the many reasons people want to make it big in show business is so they can sell out.

But the shows success has also given them the opportunity to branch out and work on several other creative projects. However, Roiland and Harmons collaborative prowess on Rick and Morty doesnt carry over into their individual projects. Instead, they tend to suffer from the same issues that their imitators experience.

Two current examples of this are Little Demon, a show currently being executive-produced by Harmon, and High on Life, a soon-to-be-released video game developed by Roilands production company.

Little Demon is the story of a 13-year-old girl who discovers she is the illegitimate child of Satan after starting puberty. And since the shows protagonist is the antichrist, its only natural that it glamorizes the occult while disparaging Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Per the Parents Television and Media Council, the first episode of Little Demon features at least 38 f-words, 35 s-words, and animated female frontal nudity. This is pretty indicative of how the rest of the show has thus far been.

In the shows second episode, Chrissy, the daughter of Satan, debuts her new catchphrase, peepee poopoo, while possessing and manipulating people she interacts with in her daily life. And in its third episode, the main characters mother narrowly escapes the clutches of a demon who is subdued through cruel and demeaning dirty talk. Neither of these scenarios is particularly intelligent or particularly funny.

Little Demon is able to make people laugh by making them uncomfortable with an abundance of gore and vulgarity, not because its actually funny.

According to its trailer, High on Life puts players in a situation where they have to take out the entire alien drug cartel to stop its members from trafficking humans. The game is a science fiction first-person shooter, and despite being far more visually impressive than Little Demon, it still appears to suffer from many of the same issues.

Granted, the game is yet to be released, but its promotional materials make clear that its sense of humor relies on excrement jokes, aggressive nonchalance toward violence, and overutilization of the word f-ck.

Both Little Demon and High on Life, despite being crafted by the creators of Rick and Morty, experience a similar phenomenon to that of Rick and Mortys copycats. They over-rely on vulgarity while insufficiently probing the depths of the human spirit or coming close to offering intellectual stimulation.

But this is par for the course for an era whose entertainment uses Rick and Morty as the blueprint for lucrative content. And considering that Rick and Mortys success shows no signs of slowing down, there is no reason to believe its copycats will either.

Thus, there will continue to be a proliferation of unfunny animated comedies that serve no purpose other than generating ad revenue for cable networks and clogging the algorithms of streaming services.

Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @Mangold_Lenett.

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The Complicated Legacy Of 'Rick And Morty' - The Federalist

I often found myself on a lonely highway, Soul picked me up and helped me balance a two way street.

I had to learn that Soul for me was not a pink Cadillac or any other type of coon cage.

Instead Soul was the sonic wave voyaging the black Atlantic that continuously blasted my consciousness throughout the years.

In the early years of my life, I heard the melodies of my people in the foreground and background.

Day after day, James Brown shocked my system by getting me on up out of the bed and on to the good foot.

There were surreal times when my soul soaked super mornings resembled the face of an alarm clock that in each minute rings for sixty seconds.

Soulful late nights repeated by homework illuminated moon lit thoughts such as Chocolate doctor that doctored the document.

Happy feelings were distant even if I am close to Maze.

Equations had got me going in circles, trying to figure out the radius of Soul.

Realizing the distance to any goal was a circle of struggle where times were good and bad.

Trying to stay together brought no pleasure facing inevitable pressure.

Perpetuating my perseverance by balancing the act in stormy weather.

In the rain I found myself often trying to find something that is meaningful on the inside.

The rain combined with strain caused pain in my eyes causing darkness to overflow.

Blind now with no alliances I had to figure out my self reliance.

Still I had trust in Soul, because it was always a guide, even when hope would subside, even if it was pulled away by the rising tide.

I was not sure if my faith would endure because distractions were going on everywhere.

Continuing to take footsteps in the dark being led by Soul that sparked the light in me.

Emerging from the caverns coated with crystals of nihilism I found sublime sunshine.

With new light I now had meaning which I could define.

Soul had brought me into the divine where from then on I was always on cloud nine.

From there my ears were like flowers where the song of the bee would pollinate anytime.

Oftentimes I had been stung by the song ending for a fleeting moment.

Like the tail of a comet that would become the new beginning for more pollination from one flower to the next song.

Even busy bees and playlists come to an eventual end that will be repeated.

Not defeated or conceded, rather energized, this high is temporary.

It seemingly lasts forever until I realize I am not in the garden, but in a concrete world of rhythmless commodities that contain no nectar.

Soul is always around as my protector.

Soul for me was my vector guiding me from my origin with direction and magnitude to destiny.

Soul acted like white blood cells taking out negativity in an experiment of immunochemistry.

My chemistry resides in muddy waters concealed somewhere between a double helix of The Stylistics and the double consciousness of The Delfonics and Isley Brothers.

The music of these groups are always on loop in my mind and adjacent to my spirit with Garveys ghost.

Soul sirens guide my life because their chorus compliments my spiritual compass. This kind of Soul has helped me navigate toward the rhizomes of Soul.

Baltimore Beat is running poems from participants in the group Writers in Baltimore Schools, which offers programming that builds skills in literacy and communication while creating a community of support for young writers.

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"Soul and Things" - Baltimore Beat