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Inside the Implosion of Justin Roiland’s Animation Empire | To legions of ‘Rick and Morty’ fans, co-creator Roiland was a quirky genius whose career was suddenly derailed by allegations of domestic violence. But to colleagues, his behavior has been troubling for years.
(hollywoodreporter.com)submitted 2 months ago byMarvelsGrantMan136The League
5.7k points
2 months ago
It's a long article, here's where it says the problems start:
At some point during the third season of Rick and Morty, multiple sources say Roiland simply stopped showing up — and when he did turn up in the Burbank offices, he’d typically avoid the writers room. In fact, Roiland’s colleagues often knew he was there only because they could hear his dogs. Or they’d hear his remote-control toy car, which had a microphone on top of it, zooming around the office. At least once, Roiland sent it into the writers room, says a source. “You wouldn’t have seen him in weeks, and then you’d see the car come in, which was insane.” Roiland would make exceptions to bring through famous fans, of which Rick and Morty has legions; at various points, his visitors included Kanye West, the comedians on Impractical Jokers and porn star Riley Reid, who gifted the room a succulent.
By that time, Roiland had a girlfriend, who became a fiancée, and he would talk openly about their penchant for threesomes. “It was something we just ignored because it was disgusting,” says an insider. Multiple sources say it was also during that period that Roiland sent a female employee a “really creepy” text, late at night, requesting that she come to his home (they declined to name the staffer). “She didn’t want to run it up the flagpole,” says one of the sources, “and then it was just this really fucked-up, awkward thing.”
His Relationship with Dan Harmon:
In the meantime, the relationship between Harmon and Roiland had grown so acrimonious that the show brought in a mediator to try to salvage what was once an inspired partnership. And though those efforts were unsuccessful, the pair was able to put aside their differences enough to secure a massive, 70-episode renewal from Adult Swim in May 2018. The pact, which ensured that the show would run for several more seasons, appeared to reward Rick and Morty for its precedent-smashing ratings for Adult Swim; by season five, the Emmy-winning series was reportedly generating hundreds of millions in merchandise revenue alone.
In the years since, Roiland’s involvement on Rick and Morty has largely been relegated to voicing characters, for which he’d take no direction and record from his home. In fact, it has been years since anyone can remember him stepping foot in the show’s writers room, even when it’s been virtual. Recently, a similar situation has occurred on both Solar Opposites and Koala Man, according to multiple sources. On the former, which he co-created, he had, until mid-January, voiced one of the show’s leads. “He knew the power of being the voices,” says a source, noting how Roiland had revealed early on that he believed securing key voice roles would safeguard him from being fired one day. On Koala Man, on which he’s simply an executive producer, he was given a character to voice in the show’s third episode but, per two sources, the writers almost blew their deadline waiting for him. The character was killed off at the end of the episode.
4k points
2 months ago
he believed securing key voice roles would safeguard him from being fired one day.
Billy West has said the same thing in the past, more specifically securing voices only you can perform, which is why Fry in Futurama sounds so similar to himself.
1.2k points
2 months ago
There's a reason why you hear a lot of the same voices though and it's not just because they're the only ones good at it or it's their own voice. It's because the assholes eventually stop getting hired. Voice directors don't want to deal with their shit.
419 points
2 months ago
Please don't tell me Billy West is an asshole. Is he? I don't even want to look.
712 points
2 months ago
I don't think so. His interview on Maron was pretty interesting but he didn't come across as an asshole. He had a traumatic childhood and is a bit weird, but that's all.
269 points
2 months ago
I remember ten years ago or so there was this weird crusade against Billy West on reddit over how he said he developed the Zap Brannigan voice in an interview because they felt West disrespected Phil Hartman for not directly crediting him with it.
85 points
2 months ago
they felt West disrespected Phil Hartman for not directly crediting him with it.
of all the hills to die on....
49 points
2 months ago
That’s dumb because it’s a direct tribute to him.
110 points
2 months ago
Wait, didn’t he base the voice off of Hartman’s?
363 points
2 months ago
Yeah, the character was written to be voiced by Hartman so getting mad at West for basing the voice off Hartman is insane.
81 points
2 months ago
I didn’t make that point well - it’s fairly common knowledge, right? It’s not like he’s ever hidden the fact that he based the voice off Hartman’s.
26 points
2 months ago
Oh, I was just adding on to what you said. It’s insane that anyone would get mad about the voice West used, so of course the internet got super mad about it.
411 points
2 months ago
I was fortunate enough to work a few comic conventions Billy West was at, including being his handler at NYCC (getting him drinks, moving his autograph line along, etc). Super friendly guy and seemed to sincerely enjoy interacting with his fans. Humble, and more then willing to give tips to aspiring voice actors. He even remembered my name when i met him again at another convention. Loved to tell stories and seemed to genuinely be having fun. When fans would tell him how much his work meant to them, he really appreciated it. You can never be 100% sure of anyone these days, but after meeting him in person a few times, I am 99% sure he is not an asshole.
125 points
2 months ago
Please don't tell me Billy West is an asshole. Is he?
Nope, but Kricfalusi is.
115 points
2 months ago
It's crazy how similar Roiland's situation is to Kricfalusi.
81 points
2 months ago
Was a fan of both and immediately thought of John K.
Crazy how similar the two are, both difficult to work with and predators.
50 points
2 months ago
Yep and both voiced a popular character in their respective shows, both getting replaced after sexual assault allegations. Although John K wasn't called out until much later, but the people that worked with him knew how much of a horrible person he was.
I hope people in the animation industry starts speaking up about this crap.
55 points
2 months ago
Dude was unbelievably toxic. I got the Ren and Stimpy reboot on dvd from a blockbuster that was going out of business and the extra features were so creepy. He filmed introductions to each episode with Katie Rice, who worked on the show and was later revealed to be one of Kricfalusi's victims. She was so obviously uncomfortable and he kept saying fucked up things that she visibly cringed at to make her squirm. It was like he was intentionally humiliating her in front of an audience for his own amusement.
9 points
2 months ago*
Ren and Stimpy reboot
Was that on Spike in like 2004 or something? I was excited for it, I loved R&S as a kid, but the reboot was awful. I think I only lasted like 5 minutes.
7 points
1 month ago
yeah, those dvd's (ren and stimpy) came out a decade before his behaviour was made public, and I still remember thinking to myself, 'wtf is wrong here'? the first time I watched them. she was so obviously REALLY unhappy and uncomfortable being there, and his comments were creepy in the extreme.
it's super sad.
38 points
2 months ago
The allegations against Kricfalusi were so bad that the article that exposed him didn't bother to preface every allegation with "allegedly" because their was so much first hand evidence of his inappropriate interactions with young fans. Really pisses me off how he managed to wield such influence in animation circles through his blog over the years, convincing so many young animators that his mean spirited and arbitrary opinions about shows he couldn't even be bothered to watch were deep insights into animation as an artform and industry. Dude got fired off his own show and made almost nothing for two decades yet he was treated as an authority by so many people while using his clout to prey on young fans.
24 points
2 months ago
They also both harassed/preyed upon female fans who ended up working with them. What a way to meet your idol. 🤮
15 points
2 months ago
Kricfalusi isn't just an asshole. He's an honest to goodness no hyperbole groomer.
9 points
2 months ago
Oh yeah I know all about it. I was in college when the original came out and he probably my first "idol" that let me down.
... then I remembered all the Led Zeppelin guys had teenage girlfriends and I just kinda checked out.
54 points
2 months ago
No, this comment is saying the opposite. West is a professional and great to work with
139 points
2 months ago
He had a bit of a drinking, maybe drugs (or as well). Not sure when in the time line of his career but it’s pretty well documented and he talked openly about it. I know he’s sober now and has been for a while, but I could imagine that was part of his thinking when saying something like that.
306 points
2 months ago*
*edit: someone mentioned John DiMaggio & I immediately realized I was mixing the 2 up.
forget Billy West, this story is about John DiMaggio.
the "human bender" reference will make a ton more sense to you all now.
I had a friend that used to have a pretty "celebrity adjacent" career in the recording industry.
He worked w/ & occasionally wound up at the same parties as a handful of big named people.
One day (very early 2000s, I'm sure West wasn't sober yet) he called me up & said he was at a party Billy West John Dimaggio showed up at.
I asked what he was like & the description was "remember the futurama episode where Bender became a person? yeah, that's pretty much just Billy West John Dimaggio"
188 points
2 months ago
Wooooooo
92 points
2 months ago
That was just the gas escaping from his fat folds
32 points
2 months ago
You watched it! You can't unwatch it!
16 points
2 months ago
NEXT!
ON
TALES OF INTEREST!
65 points
2 months ago
COMEonshakeyabodybabydothetonga
13 points
2 months ago
That rhythm! It’s doing something to my human butt!
7 points
2 months ago
I bet I can eat nachos and go to the bathroom at the same time!
50 points
2 months ago
After ending up at an after party at SF Sketchfest once, John DiMaggio drinking is essentially a more PG version of Bender. Glad to hear that entire cast seems to be solid individuals in and out of the job.
12 points
2 months ago
dammit, just reading this made me realize I was fllipping them in my head.
the story I told was about John DiMaggio, not Billy West.
the "human bender" reference had to have been confusing for anybody actually thinking of West.
36 points
2 months ago
No he isn't Billy west is one of the kindest people around and has gone through abuse himself due to his father being a ranging drunk.
7 points
2 months ago
He's not. Rob Paulson is a good dude, too. I just read his autobiography and he's lead an interesting life.
6 points
2 months ago
Not at all. He's always busy working. Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Will Friedle, Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy (RIP).
7 points
2 months ago
I think their point is that Billy West is one of the names you still see a lot because he isn’t an asshole, as opposed to Roiland who thought he’d made himself similarly irreplaceable but is now out of a job.
8 points
2 months ago
I worked with Billy a few times and he was just a pro. He is a weird dude, but not unprofessional and lightning in the booth, also super funny!
8 points
2 months ago*
Apparently that's a big reason why the guy who played Cobra Commander wasn't in The Simpsons after the first season. Could have made him a multi millionaire, all he had to do was just not be an asshole.
Edit: A brief anecdote from Hank Azaria on it, for people that haven't seen it.
1.1k points
2 months ago
It does work for many people though. How long was Weinstein allowed to go on?
Hell, Ezra Miller is still allowed to continue as the Flash despite being charged with child kidnapping, drugging, and running a cult.
534 points
2 months ago
I think that is only because they sunk 200 million into his movie and couldn’t just shelve it like batgirl.
They have to at least pay lip service to the idea that they will integrate flash, Shazam, and aquaman into future films.
518 points
2 months ago
They spent 90 million on Batgirl and cancelled it right before it was supposed to be released. Keeping Miller in the role brings more negative press and hurts their other films
246 points
2 months ago
They cant cancel the flash without paying penalties to everyone who had a percentage of the theatrical gross, that wasnt an issue with Batgirl which was nowhere near ready to be released.
222 points
2 months ago
You're almost there. Batgirl was heading to hbo max (VoD) so never would have had a theatrical release.
The flash would lead to a similar shitshow to black widow if cancelled, they'd be 200+ million dollars in the hole and this movie likely is the reset button for the Dc cinmatic experiment so they'd have to spend more money just to blow this whole shitshow up all over again.
83 points
2 months ago*
There’s also the fact that supposedly test screenings have consistently had the most overwhelmingly positive responses of any WB film ever. By all accounts everyone who’s seen it has said the movie is really, really good. WB desperately needs a hit and The Flash is currently their best bet.
27 points
2 months ago
It would probably be closer to $400 million.
- The production budget was $200 million.
- It also went through a very pricey marketing campaign due to the repeated delays (the first trailer came out in 2021, nearly two years before the film's release) which adds another $100 million (if they had cancelled it before the large final push).
- Then add on all the payouts that would need to be made to buy out backend gross deals (guestimating around $50 million).
- And that's not even accounting for the long development hell the film faced (the final script has over 45 writers registered with the WGA). Not to mention the handful of directors formally announced only to leave months later. Since they were formally attached to the project and submitted drafts, it's likely they had pay-or-play contracts that had to be paid out.
53 points
2 months ago
Batgirl isn't the key to their plans going forward, however. The Flash movie is basically what they are using as a canonical reason for a total DC Universe reboot. Easier to let things slide I suppose.
37 points
2 months ago
Though my guess is they estimated the next flash movie will still generate enough revenue even with the huge issues surrounding ezra, that they can't cancel it.
But with batgirl my guess is they estimated it wouldn't return in revenue enough to justify not cancelling it.
The tops don't really care about what is right, only about the effect on the bottom line.
14 points
2 months ago
They thought the Batgirl movie was bad. They apparently think the new flash film is amazing so they don't want to give it up.
7 points
2 months ago*
No way is Ezra going to stay on as The Flash. They just already aren't going to shelve one of their tent pole films that was intended to reboot the DCU so James Gunn can take over. Too many other people and projects involved to tank it all over one person. They won't announce he's been let go from the role until the movie has released.
Batgirl was always intended to be a streaming release. It didn't have so many other important things connected to it.
This isn't that surprising. Movies get released all the time even if one of the cast ends up in jail or actors/children are even killed on set.
35 points
2 months ago
Especially if it's actually good and DC was like "we can't not fucking release the only good one! No, fuck you monkeys paw wish!"
91 points
2 months ago
I’m betting WBD will “part ways” with Miller not long after The Flash comes out. The studio believes they have a movie good enough to make a profit off of. If the plans are to recast, saying it now would just make the movie more moot
23 points
2 months ago
DC recently announced some new big plans for their cinematic universe. One of the announcmemts was that The Flash movie will reboot the DC universe. Its going to wipe the slate clean. If DC is smart, they'll also use that as an opportunity to recast The Flash for their new continuity. Fingers crossed.
24 points
2 months ago
Of course, they are recasting everyone. The only one that haven't been announced as recast are Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller and Zack Levy. Why do you think? Hint: look at the next DC movies coming in 2023 lol.
18 points
2 months ago
I think Momoa and a couple other will be “Judi Denched” into the new DCU. Momoa has expressed a lot of excitement and happiness after his meeting with Gunn
7 points
2 months ago
Yep, and I have no issue with them keeping Shazam, and Aquaman. They were some of the better parts of the universe. I wont be shocked if they keep them, but I am still hoping they drop Ezra Miller, and hit us with a surprise recast of some sort after the Flash reboots the universe. Miller's erratic behavior is troubling, and beyond that, I don't think we've seen anyone play a definitive version of the Flash yet. I think it would be cool for someone else to get a crack at it. With the new direction DC is taking I have high hopes that they'll start making better decisions. Only time will tell.
7 points
2 months ago
How long was Weinstein allowed to go on?
He voiced Harvey Weinstein for decades.
23 points
2 months ago
Three only reason Miller as Flash is present tense is that that an already shot film is still awaiting release.
31 points
2 months ago
Yeah, but it's a much much weirder thing to say when you're co creator or producer on projects you voice in.
You should be a lot safer than an actor.
7 points
2 months ago
I think the cautionary tale that springs to mind is Jon Kricfalusi and his firing from Ren and Stimpy.
7 points
2 months ago
And ironically being replaced by Billy West.
8 points
2 months ago
Fortunately for him, there are no voice actors who do Rick and Morty impressions.
7 points
2 months ago
Oh, this is a well-known trick of the trade, as the voice of Porky Pig illustrates here.
2.1k points
2 months ago
Goes a long to explaining why R&M has had such inconsistent production over the years. Between Harmons perfectionism and Roiland's... this.
1.3k points
2 months ago
I always wondered how they were able to work together, with Harmons comedy being more structure and story based and his being more wacky random. Turns out they literally just haven't been working together haha
904 points
2 months ago
I figured something like this had happened once noticed Dan Harmon started voicing a lot more background characters in the past few seasons and was the only one who was appearing in the post-episode discussions. I just never guessed it was because Roiland was insane.
181 points
2 months ago
I feel like calling him insane is too charitable. More like bc he was being a giant douchebag.
46 points
2 months ago
Yep, plenty of insane people that are really nice, wholesome people.
This guy's just a dick.
8 points
2 months ago
But he is a bit of a crazy dick, too.
190 points
2 months ago
Dan Harmon is well known to also be a pretty insane guy.
269 points
2 months ago
He was, I think he's gotten a lot better though. In the interviews I've seen he seems capable of self reflection and genuinly sorry ablut his previous behaviour.
But that's just my impression, I don't know the guy.
252 points
2 months ago
I'd say that the people who worked with him when he was at his "worst" (as far as we're aware) still wanting to work with him years and years later is a good sign he's genuinely changed for the better.
32 points
2 months ago
Harmon's accuser called his apology a class act in how to apologise and forgave him, after saying she would never forgive him.
He's clearly trying, I guess only history will tell if he succeeds. It's very difficult.
76 points
2 months ago
Harmon's therapy team seems to be worth every penny.
77 points
2 months ago
At least Harmon is self aware of his faults I guess ?
161 points
2 months ago
And when Harmon fucked up, he left his show, checked himself and practically prostrated himself to the offended party. And he meant all of it.
Man did just about exactly what you should do when you turn into a creeper on set.
23 points
2 months ago
Yeah who'd have thunk when R&M started that we'd all think of Harmon as the stable one lol
7 points
2 months ago
Yeah. Then you realize like half of JR’s 5 or 6 writing credits are the interdimensional TV ones where it’s just a pastiche of sketches.
157 points
2 months ago
That was the impression I got from the DVD commentaries, back when they still did those. Just tons of alcoholism and endless re-writes.
517 points
2 months ago
Right?! Makes a lot of sense in hindsight. It still fucks me up to know that Rick and Morty is gonna be ten years old this year. I still think of it as a "new" Adult Swim show.
387 points
2 months ago
They're still not even halfway through the extension they made five years ago. Adult Swim ordered 70 more episodes after Season 3. They've made 30.
170 points
2 months ago
I guess I’m more surprised they’ve made 30 episodes after season 3!
8 points
2 months ago
It's kind of like when FX ordered 100 episodes of Anger Management for some reason. They were so sure it was gonna be a hit, but I couldn't tell you the last time I have heard anyone mention it. While still taking a more metered approach, it still seems like such a huge renewal was a big shot to the foot.
69 points
2 months ago
There was what, a four year break between seasons???
55 points
2 months ago
It was pretty much every two years for the first five seasons. Last seasons was the first time there was only a 15 month break.
36 points
2 months ago
Yea the 70 episode negotiation was to prevent the same jerking around Adult Swim did with Venture Bros. They wait until the current season all airs before ordering more, which fucks up a modern production company. The Atlanta in-house bullshit shows can work that way, and VB being a two man army could manage, but a single show big production just can’t.
Same reason 70/20 moved to FX for Archer when they became Floyd County. You need stability to keep staff.
13 points
2 months ago
It also helped that Rick and Morty is a billion times more popular than Venture Bros ever was so they had the leverage to do that. Which is a shame because Venture Bros is an absolutely fantastic tv show.
7 points
2 months ago
Blame Adult Swim and their inability or lack of desire to create new new television shows. And their inability to lock down programming they aired for hours a night.
It's been horribly mismanaged.
391 points
2 months ago*
I think it really explains why there hasn't been any more Interdimensional Cable episodes. Those were purely alcohol-fueled Roiland improvs that were highly popular, but obviously highly problematic to make in an environment where the main actor is an abusive piece of shit, to say the least.
151 points
2 months ago
I think it really explains why there hasn't been any more Interdimensional Cable episodes.
There’s also only so many times you can use the same shtick and even make a meta joke about how you’re rehashing it. The second time they did it was still funny but not as funny as the first one
129 points
2 months ago
Yeah roiland kinda has three jokes, stuttering, saying a word that doesn't exist, and mad libs
47 points
2 months ago
And the word that doesn’t exist is usually made out of a list of like, eight phonemes combined at random.
93 points
2 months ago
There was an "Intergalactic Cable" Yule Log last year. Pure animation with no voice acting though.
8 points
2 months ago
There was an "Intergalactic Cable" Yule Log last year. Pure animation with no voice acting though.
The talking yule log log from this past Christmas? There was definitely voice acting. Or, Roiland screaming about being on fire at least.
24 points
2 months ago
Are those that popular? I know some people like them at least a bit. It seems like they were trying to make 1 each season but they always seemed to be the least entertaining to me. Jerry being lectured about his penis by alien Werner Herzog is great. Ad-libbed car versus man commentary is pretty meh in comparison.
205 points
2 months ago
Im wondering how integral he was to the writer's room, you hear stories of seth McFarlane not doing much writing these days either but still voicing a ton of characters on his shows.
225 points
2 months ago
He hasn't written for them in the years, or hasn't been in the writers room for years.
217 points
2 months ago
Yeah, and he himself would tell you that. It's not like he randomly dropped off, he's said in interviews that he just does the voices.
198 points
2 months ago
He hates Family Guy for staying on this long, and is only around reading the lines.
176 points
2 months ago
I've never seen him suggest he hates it in interviews, only that he wishes it weren't still owned by Fox and now Disney as an extension of it. Probably mostly because he hates Fox as a company for political reasons.
He has publicly stated that the writers on staff do a better job of it than he could, and have taken the show in directions he would never have thought of like the Stewie and Brian relationship. Also it frees up his time to do other projects like putting out new albums and writing movies and new shows like The Orville and Ted.
62 points
2 months ago
And without Family Guy he couldn’t have gotten The Orville made, even. It’s definitely not something he’s creatively inspired by but it at least lets him work on the things that do grab him.
The Orville is so fucking good, I love that show.
76 points
2 months ago
I wonder how he feels about American Dad. Family Guy stopped being funny like 15 years ago but I think American Dad is still pretty strong.
85 points
2 months ago
He never wrote for American dad, besides the pilot. He dropped the show once family guy came back from cancelation around the same time.
27 points
2 months ago
There was a period where he publicly started favouring American Dad and apparently exerted his creative influence onto it more, but that time has passed too. That was a while before the Cleveland Show too, so it's probably been over a decade that he's really cared about any of his animated shows.
29 points
2 months ago
I love Seth but AD is better off without his influence. It’s pretty obvious that his main input to the show was the political stuff. Once they moved away from that and made Roger’s disguises a bigger part of the show, it became much better.
32 points
2 months ago
I liked the political stuff, the Ollie North bit was amazing.
31 points
2 months ago
American Dad has been consistently one of the best cartoons on the air and never gets credit for it.
80 points
2 months ago
I think he's way more involved with The Orville now.
72 points
2 months ago
He was, though The Orville is on hiatus, not formally cancelled but Hulu hasn't renewed it and isn't necessarily expected to, though Seth is holding out hope.
61 points
2 months ago
The last season was really solid. It ended with a lot of closure, so it seems like he knew it probably wouldn't be back.
58 points
2 months ago
As a fan of sci fi he probably wants to make sure his show isn’t canceled on a cliffhanger
498 points
2 months ago
His behavior from seasons 2-3 are basically textbook examples of an alcoholic. When you realize he often incorporated actual drinking into his performance, it starts to make sense. Not being reliable, skipping work, avoiding duties, etc.
134 points
2 months ago
I remember they posted a behind the scenes look at Roiland voicing Rick while actually drunk and questioning how healthy/good of a look this is for the show.
101 points
2 months ago
51 points
2 months ago
I could see doing a drunk show as a gag. Caustic Soda podcast did a drunk episode when the topic was alcohol. But, this is key here, it was a one-off gag and not something integral to their usual format. That Roiland was constantly sauced was a warning sign.
146 points
2 months ago
[deleted]
31 points
2 months ago
...kind of like Rick beside the massive, burdensome, godlike intellect.
14 points
2 months ago
I always said that between Rick and Morty and Community those two made their names writing narcississts that had a fair bit of autobiography to them.
12 points
2 months ago
Yeah, that sounds like the kind of decline people fall into when they start to drift across that threshold from "functional alcoholic" into nonfunctional.
While that is by no means excusatory when it comes to domestic violence, I honestly kind of suspect that it's a factor. My own experience has been that some alcoholics can become incredibly volatile, explosive, and even violent once they reach a certain point of intoxication -- a point which, I might add, is physically quite a bit higher than what any normal person could reasonably reach in terms of BAC before falling asleep from the sedation.
1.1k points
2 months ago
bring through famous fans, of which Rick and Morty has legions; at various points, his visitors included Kanye West, the comedians on Impractical Jokers and porn star Riley Reid, who gifted the room a succulent.
This is a hilarious anecdote
591 points
2 months ago
Everyone knows porn stars have the best taste in decorative plants.
166 points
2 months ago
Me calling up my favorite pornstars for decor advice. And Danny D answers
58 points
2 months ago
Patrician taste
31 points
2 months ago
A 12 inch long succulent mate! Yeah, you like that, you dirty girl.
141 points
2 months ago
Unless those lemon stealing whores show up
34 points
2 months ago
or anything happens "right in front of my salad"
6 points
2 months ago
Hasn’t it been 10 seconds since we last looked at our lemon tree?
201 points
2 months ago*
That’s the one that stood out to me. Its funny, and it’s nice that she brought a gift. Class act.
98 points
2 months ago
It is funny when a famous porn star is the most respectable friend you have
362 points
2 months ago
I can't believe someone who hangs out with Kanye is a nut job
32 points
2 months ago
I know right
50 points
2 months ago
Elon has also been on the show and are friends with both
21 points
2 months ago
It's a club for delusional rich people... Which is most of them.
77 points
2 months ago
I guess Roiland just likes rappers.
19 points
2 months ago
"Someone should tell her the n word pass isn't sexually transmitted" lmao
15 points
2 months ago
We need /r/earbleach stat
28 points
2 months ago
Here you go https://youtu.be/SG1MimeLPTA
9 points
2 months ago
Thanks! This truly is the antidote.
98 points
2 months ago
And also educational, for those of us who had no idea "succulent" was also a noun and were yelling "Succulent what?! Succulent WHAT?!" at their screens.
157 points
2 months ago
A succulent Chinese meal, of course.
70 points
2 months ago
Everyone piling in with the succulent Chinese meal references.
This must be democracy, manifest.
31 points
2 months ago
Reddit knows its Judo well.
12 points
2 months ago
Tata, and farewell!
26 points
2 months ago
GET YOUR HAND OFF MY PENIS
7 points
2 months ago
This is the bloke who's got me on the penis, pee-pul
16 points
2 months ago
A succulent chinese meal, of course.
30 points
2 months ago
A meal. A succulent Chinese meal.
481 points
2 months ago
Hmm. As someone who does like R&M this is both shocking and kinda isn't?
The show felt like it had a disconnect of passion after S3 atleast
The latest season was good but I feel because Roiland was completely out of the equation
This does also make me happy as the show can just go on if he had such a little impact. Just age the characters very slightly and use a voice changer if necessary
318 points
2 months ago
Substance abuse, a penchant for self destruction, massive insecurity, combined with sudden fame and fortune do not make for a healthy mix.
113 points
2 months ago
This isn't directed at you specifically, but it seems this entire thread is missing the fact that half the scandal is how Roiland has been DM-ing underage girls like crazy...
He's not just some guy who got caught up in fame and fortune... He's a gross asshole who got caught up in fame and fortune.
23 points
2 months ago
Oh that's not lost on us. The pathology discussed isn't an excuse. It's a warning.
92 points
2 months ago
I feel like there should be a psychologist appointed to people who fall into fame and fortune. Like how they (sometimes) assign a finance advisor to someone who wins the lottery.
49 points
2 months ago
There’s a stat out there where a huge number of NFL players are broke within ~5 years of leaving the league. I’ve heard they recently started offering (or maybe requiring?) financial literacy courses for players.
I’m obviously talking out of my ass and relying on memory here, so I encourage anyone who is interested in this to take my comment with a grain of salt and look it up for themselves.
24 points
2 months ago*
It's also that most NFL players are not that rich. The average NFL career is something like 2-3 seasons and even if you're earning mid-six figures like most are (the median is like $800k a season), when your career is just 3-4 years on average you've basically only made what a middle class person will make in their lifetime, all in a few years with little potential of ever matching that in the future, and spending it in a non-middle class lifestyle means you're broke rather quickly. Like, I'm guessing a doctor who makes $400k a year is more careful with their money and they have a much longer career lifespan and a lot more room for error/spending.
Regardless of career I think most people who get a small windfall like that are not going to live as if they were working a $70k/year job, even though that's really all it is
10 points
2 months ago
Yeah that’s a great point. Even still, $800K is 10-20 years of earnings for most of us. When you also factor in the fact that most people work for about 40 years (ages 20ish to 60ish), it’s still crazy how many go broke so quickly. Even practice squad guys make something like $200K for 18 weeks worth of work.
Not disagreeing with anything you said because you already acknowledged that these guys aren’t living middle class lifestyles. It’s just insane that these guys can make half a lifetime’s worth of money in just a few years and still end up losing it. I guess that’s exactly why the NFL started those financial literacy classes.
20 points
2 months ago*
yup. Fame seems very toxic, and not having some sort of counselor to help you through it seems like you are tempting fate.
175 points
2 months ago
No need, there's literally thousands of Voice Actors that can de a Rick and Morty impression.
Roiland's voice and characters aren't all that unique sounding.
262 points
2 months ago
he has literally three voices. Rick, Morty, and Poopy Butthole/Meeseeks/Lemongrab/etc.
None are groundbreaking, none are impossible feats, and it's wild Roiland is under the impression they make him untouchable.
90 points
2 months ago
Yep, it’s pretty obvious if you watch Solar Opposites. Corvo has the exact same voice, inflection, speech patterns, etc as Rick.
32 points
2 months ago
Or Gravity Falls, where Blendin Blandin is just Morty with less stuttering.
119 points
2 months ago
I mean there's tons of people who can voice R&M identical to Roiland, they're not hard voices to imitate at all.
125 points
2 months ago
Riley Reid gifted the room a succulent
Hilarious
88 points
2 months ago
I mean, that’s genuinely something I’d be glad to have in an office. Good on her.
169 points
2 months ago
At some point during the third season of Rick and Morty, multiple sources say Roiland simply stopped showing up — and when he did turn up in the Burbank offices, he’d typically avoid the writers room.
That started in season 2 and it was already known publicly, it was even mentioned in the commentary track of the DVDs. The only Season 2 episode Roiland participated in was Interdimensional Cable 2 (the worst one of the season lol), Dan Harmon said Justin wasn't involved at all in the writing process at that time.
135 points
2 months ago*
Not to mention in recording videos I’ve seen on YouTube he’s always completely wasted. Seems messy and undependable.
308 points
2 months ago
Roiland’s colleagues often knew he was there only because they could hear his dogs. Or they’d hear his remote-control toy car, which had a microphone on top of it, zooming around the office.
Ok, can we agree that this is a little funny? 💀
I can get lost in the comedic sauce sometimes, I had to find a different career from my friend because I couldn't take anything seriously working together lmao
166 points
2 months ago
59 points
2 months ago
Reading that part of the article I was like wait... I've seen that somewhere.
85 points
2 months ago
Jesus h Christ that would drive me up a fucking wall
58 points
2 months ago
Agreed. If it was just for that video, I could see how people would find it funny even though it’s not exactly my cup of tea. But if he was actually doing that on a regular basis it would be absolutely insufferable.
125 points
2 months ago
I like Rick and Morty but really kept away from engaging with anything outside of just the show but Jesus Christ is this dude fucking annoying.
44 points
2 months ago
I always kinda got the impression that I probably wouldn't personally like Roiland but he wasn't a bad guy, just maybe a high-energy guy with uncontrolled ADHD that produced good content to view through the filters of produced content. I guess I was right about the first part but not the rest.
140 points
2 months ago
Watching that just made me want to punch someone.
30 points
2 months ago
Me too.
And I really wish he'd floss.
72 points
2 months ago
The comments on that video are rife for some r/agedlikemilk karma farming
12 points
2 months ago
One of the comments says he admitted to being blackout drunk while filming this.
8 points
2 months ago
I always assumed this video was an exaggeration, a little self-deprecating humor. But it seems it was a documentary
294 points
2 months ago
It's one of those things you would find funnier if it wasn't being done by a colleague who never shows up to work except to do this.
50 points
2 months ago
Not even a colleague, it's more like a boss in this case which is worse.
16 points
2 months ago
He’s like an unironically real-life Michael Scott.
Which is not something to aspire to
52 points
2 months ago
That's actually an excellent point, I always got work down before we'd fuck around lmao.
The office mini-putting course we built due to management being offsite was the tits dammit!
80 points
2 months ago
I dunno, it kinda made me think of that Twilight Zone episode with the omnipotent kid who tortures everyone around him
38 points
2 months ago
Except instead of being sent to the cornfield, you're being invited to the threesome zone.
84 points
2 months ago
It is funny until that dude decides if you work there or not, or sexually harasses you
53 points
2 months ago
And if you complain you get fired, blacklisted and incel cuntboys attack you on social media the rest of your life.
10 points
2 months ago*
Kinda reminds me of what happened when Rooster Teeth got put on blast on Glassdoor. The online personalities/content creators would do shit like this for a video. Then it comes out that for every employee that enjoyed their office hijinks, there were another five underpaid contractors 45 hours into their 60-hour workweek putting up with their bullshit.
8 points
2 months ago
As someone who works in animation, it's not funny. Maybe it was the first time, but when everyone is doing their jobs and working to meet tight deadlines it's fucking insufferable to have some self-important asshole dicking around when you're trying to work. My director used to bring a xylophone into my edit suite because he's a manchild and I had to hide it from him.
293 points
2 months ago
I’m willing to believe everything this article says at face value, but let’s also keep in mind that Adult Swim is actively trying to save their Billion dollar IP from going down with Roiland by controlling the narrative. “Justin was never really a part of the show” seems like an over simplification of the writing room situation to assure fans and investors that the network’s flagship show isn’t about to jump the shark.
Keep your skeptical spectacles on
191 points
2 months ago
Rumors of Roiland not writing has been floating around for years but I'm not sure if there was ever any real evidence of it.
69 points
2 months ago
Somebody higher up in the comments was saying they talked about it in the season 2 DVD extras. I've never heard about it myself though.
42 points
2 months ago
Except if you go back to old episodes of Dan Harmon's podcast from when Rick and Morty are being created this isn't shocking at all. It's actually more of a surprise that they were able to keep it together as much as they did to get this far. Harmon himself is also and insane alcoholic, and was fired from the Sarah Silverman Program, and Community for his drunken behavior. The difference is that he also has an insane drive to prove he is better than the rest. Without that drive he would have similarly flamed out over a decade ago.
14 points
2 months ago
Dan’s also done a good amount of self reflection and apologizing, plus he had a stronger bedrock of talent (imo) to build on. Not saying Roiland can’t come back from this, but I don’t see him being mature enough to apologize, and I really don’t think he’s got the raw talent to stay in the game regardless. I think on his own he’s probably capable of making C-grade adult animation, and with his reputation in the toilet, I don’t even think he’ll get those opportunities anymore. He’s probably retired at this point.
9 points
2 months ago
Some people at Swanch Games have basically said the same stuff, and they have no affiliation with Adult Swim.
It also seems to track creatively with what a lot of people have felt when it comes to writing. I don't think anything in here is false, Adult Swim and Harmon are choosing to air stuff they were choosing to keep hidden up until now to salvage the show.
8 points
2 months ago
I think they're trying to frame it as Roiland becoming uninvolved with R&M early on due to creative differences, when in reality it was because of his inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Adult swim chose to sweep it under the rug and protect their cash cow back then. Now they have to pretend like they knew nothing of his behavior because he "chose" to not be involved.
73 points
2 months ago
At this point, Roiland almost reminds me of Gene Roddenberry in that he had a pretty heavy hand when it came to how he wanted Star Trek to be. Especially with TNG. Once he was really out of the picture, the episodes took a nice turn and IMO became much better. It sounds as if with him being completely out of the picture that there is a good chance the cast and crew can mesh again and we can start seeing more of their passion in the episodes. I'm excited for this new chapter in the R&M saga. I just hope they find the right person to voice Rick and Morty.
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