Jerry Smith (Rick and Morty)
Jerry Smith | |
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Rick and Morty character | |
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First appearance |
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First game | Rick and Morty: Jerry's Game (2014, titular character, does not appear) Pocket Mortys[1] (2016) |
Last appearance | Jerry Prime and Season Two Jerry "Solaricks" (2022) |
Created by | Justin Roiland Dan Harmon |
Based on | Justin Roiland's pet dog (namesake)[2] |
Designed by | Justin Roiland |
Voiced by | Chris Parnell Manabu Muraji (Japanese)[3][4] |
In-universe information | |
Full name | Gerald Smith |
Nickname | Jerry |
1st Miggity Miggity Miggity Mack, Master of the Multiverse, and Ruler of the Citadel | |
In office "A Tale of Two Jerries, Part Two" – "Three" (Doofus/Evil Jerry Smith J19ζ7) | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Advertising agent (fired)[5] |
Family | Summer Smith (daughter) Morty Smith (son) Morty Smith, Jr. (grandson) Naruto Smith (grandson) Rick Sanchez (father-in-law) Diane Sanchez (mother-in-law) Leonard Smith (father) Joyce Smith (mother) |
Spouse | Beth Smith (wife, briefly separated) Space Beth (wife, throuple) |
Religion | Non-denominational Christian[6] |
Age | 35[7] |
Jerry Smith is one of the main characters of the American animated television series Rick and Morty. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Jerry is portrayed as a mediocre, jobless loser who finds content in his simple life.[8][9] He uses pity as his "signature move", which leads to people hiring him or giving him any sort of consolation. Jerry is infamous for his mutual rivalry with Rick Sanchez, his father-in-law. On many occasions in the early seasons, his relationship with his partner, Beth Smith, has been shown to be incredibly unhealthy, co-dependant, and incompatible. One of Jerry's hobbies is beekeeping, which he picks up during sometime during season four.[10] It has been scarcely implied throughout the show that he is queer.[11] He is the son-in-law of mad scientist Rick Sanchez, father of Morty and Summer Smith and husband of Beth Smith. Both the original character and their inter-dimensional replacements have received a positive critical reception.[12][13][14][15]
Biography
The series follows multiple "main" Jerry's from different universes and dimensions. They are:
- Jerry Prime[16][a] (Promo Commercials, Season 1: Episodes 1–6, Season 3: Episode 1, Comic series: Issue 45, and Season 6: Episode 1)[17][18]
- Season Two Jerry (Season 1, Episode 6–Season 2, Episode 2, Comic series: Issues 21–23, and Season 6: Episode 1)[17]
- Swapped Jerry[b] (Season 2: Episode 2–present and Comic series: Volumes 3–11)[17][19][20][21]
- Jerry C-132 (Comic series: Volumes 1–3)
Jerry was raised by Leonard and Joyce Smith.[22] While in high school, he and Beth Sanchez had unprotected sex on prom night, leading to their first child, Summer Smith. They get married and settle in, and a few years later have Morty Smith. Fourteen years following, Beth's father, Rick Sanchez, who was believed to have abandoned Beth as a child, moves into their house. Rick and Jerry have a distaste for each other, as Rick is driving the family apart, and Jerry impregnated Beth, forcing her have to give up on her dreams.
After being frustrated with Rick's disturbance in the household, gives Beth (his wife) the decision between Rick or him. Beth picks Rick, and subsequently divorces Jerry. He now lives alone and depressed in a motel room, and out of Morty's request, Rick takes him on a vacation of sorts. During the trip, Jerry is convinced into attempting to murder Rick, which backfires, but makes them both more open about their issues with each other.[23]
Jerry eventually briefly rebounds onto a relationship with an alien named Kiara. After being divorced for a few months, Beth reconciles with Jerry and they get back together.[24]
An evil version of Jerry from an alternate reality, derisively referred to as "Doofus Jerry", serves as the main antagonist of the comic series arc "A Tale of Two Jerries" — a billionaire and the literal "definition of success" in his home dimension of J19ζ7, this Jerry becomes intrigued with the concept of alternate realities after discovering Season Two Jerry in his dimension visiting his friend Doofus Rick. Electing to take his place, this Jerry takes the pair's portal gun and seeks to seduce Beth, repeatedly beating up Rick to show dominance over him, embarrassing him to the point he elects to call in the Citadel to deal with the invading Jerry. However, on realising this Jerry is from the same reality as Doofus Rick, Rick realises that Doofus Rick's dimension is not a "Doofus" dimension but an "Opposite" one, and bringing this Jerry to the Citadel to have been the equivalent of bringing "a cat into the mousehole". Overtaking the Citadel by genetically modifying himself to produce a gas to make all Ricks subservient to him, and him "walking death" to them, Jerry seeks to subjugate the multiverse, taking a harem of Beths and instructing that he be referred to as "Miggity Miggity Miggity Mack, Master of the Multiverse". After soundly defeating the Smith family with a giant robot of himself against one of Rick, Mack is accidentally crushed and apparently killed by Season Two Jerry when he opens a portal to the Worm Dimension above him, causing a large worm to fall on top of him, which Rick beams away. The Shadow Council of Ricks later reference the "Goddamn Jerry"'s previous control of the Citadel in the third season episode "The Ricklantis Mixup".
Development
In 2017, series creator Dan Harmon made a comparison between Jerry and Rick (his father-in-law) about the ending of "Auto Erotic Assimilation". While Rick is intelligent, he is miserable and tries to kill himself at the end of the episode, while Jerry, oblivious and dumb, is simply happy to have found his weed-wacker. Harmon observes “Does he have it better off? I mean, I think so".[25] Recalling the creation of "Doofus Jerry" as one of his most "favorite [and] beautiful moments of creativity and humor [o]n this book", Oni Press Managing Editor Ari Yarwood attributed the "wonderful secret" of the "hyper-competent, super-evil dude"'s creation to being "because Kyle [Starks] was emailing me about a Doofus Rick idea, and accidentally mixed it up and wrote Doofus Jerry instead, [a]nd then those three amazing ["A Tale of Two Jerries"] issues got written."[26]
Upon the release of the season six premiere, "Solaricks", Harmon noted that when Jerry was abandoned and grief-strucken, he became self-actualised.[16] Jerry's voice actor, Chris Parnell, also commented on this episode, “Any time I take Jerry to a different place emotionally, it’s exciting. To go to such a dark apocalyptic place for Jerry was very gratifying.”[27]
In a look inside the episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Dan Harmon explains that if Rick and Jerry met in a vacuum, they would be friends, but "a vacuums not really possible with Jerry. [He'd] fill that vaccum and create twice as much vaccum".[28]
Reception
Jerry is a generally well-received character. In IGN's review of "Solaricks", Samantha Nelson explains that Jerry is one of the most improved characters on the show.[12] Richard Urquiza of Fansided says he likes Jerry's interactions with the Cenobites in his review of Amortycan Grickfitti.[29] Brent Botsford, in his review of season four, describes that Jerry has some of the best storylines in the season due to his consistency.[13] In Consequence TV's season six review, Al Shipley says that Jerry is hilarious due to his stellar voice work.[14]
Inverse's “Childrick of Mort" review makes the point that the other characters, especially Summer, are too mean-spirited to him. Corey Plante elaborates that Jerry (as well as the rest of the family) are reduced to ridiculous caricatures of themselves.[15]
Notes
References
- ^ ""Jerry" NPC - PocketMortys.net". pocketmortys.net.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Floorwalker, Mike (2021-01-05). "The Surprising Inspiration Behind These Iconic Rick And Morty Characters". Looper.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ "Jerry Voices (Rick and Morty)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ "Who Is the Voice Actor Behind Jerry Smith on 'Rick and Morty'?". Showbiz Cheat Sheet. 2021-06-07. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!". Rick and Morty. Season 1. Episode 4. January 13, 2014. Adult Swim.
- ^ "Rick: A Mort Well Lived". Rick and Morty. Season 6. Episode 2. September 11, 2022. Adult Swim.
- ^ Magee, Grace (2022-02-23). "Rick and Morty: Every Main Character's Age". CBR. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Boyle, Michael (2022-09-02). "Jerry's 'Pathetic' Nature Is Chris Parnell's Favorite Part Of Rick And Morty". SlashFilm.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Larasati, Dyah (2022-09-01). "'Rick and Morty' Cast & Character Guide: Check Out the Eccentric Weirdos in the Animated Sci-Fi Sitcom". Collider. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Rivera, Joshua. "Rick and Morty's Chris Parnell thinks Jerry would do very well in quarantine". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Opie, David (2021-06-21). "Rick and Morty season 5 just confirmed a major character is queer". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b Nelson, Samantha (2022-09-05). "Rick and Morty Season 6 Premiere Review - "Solaricks"". IGN. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b Botsford, Brent. "Rick and Morty: Season Four Review – Eggplante!". Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b Miller, Liz Shannon (2022-08-29). "Rick and Morty Season 6 Offers a Multiverse of Meta Humor: Review". Consequence. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b Plante, Corey. "'Rick and Morty' Season 4's worst episode turns Jerry into a cult leader". Inverse. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b Valdez, Nick. "Rick and Morty Staff Talks Revisiting Cronenberg Dimension Jerry in Season 6". ComicBook.com/Anime. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b c Puchko, Kristy (2022-09-05). "'Rick and Morty' Season 6 premiere explainer: All your mind-blower questions answered". Mashable. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Trench, Mikael (2022-09-07). "Rick And Morty Fans Have A Lot To Say About This Version Of Jerry". Looper.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Motamayor, Rafael (2022-09-05). "Rick & Morty Season 6 Finally Answers A 7-Year-Old Question". SlashFilm.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Valdez, Nick. "Rick and Morty Confirms Major Jerry Fan Theory". ComicBook.com/Anime. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Poisuo, Pauli (2022-09-05). "Rick And Morty Season 6 Episode 1 Hilariously Glosses Over A Devastating Jerry Reveal". Looper.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ "Anatomy Park". Rick and Morty. Season 1. Episode 3. December 16, 2013. Adult Swim.
- ^ "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy". Rick and Morty. Season 3. Episode 5. August 20, 2017. Adult Swim.
- ^ "The Rickchurian Mortydate". Rick and Morty. Season 5. Episode 10. October 1, 2017. Adult Swim.
- ^ Hughes, William (2017-06-02). "Dan Harmon says Jerry is Rick And Morty's luckiest character". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Nevin, Will (2017-02-10). "Steering the good ship S.S. 'Rick and Morty' through comic waters: Oni Press Managing Editor Ari Yarwood on two years, 20-plus issues of sci-fi insanity". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
- ^ Cobb, Kayla. "'Rick and Morty's Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell on the Return of Space Beth and Cronenberg Jerry | Decider". Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Anderson, Kyle. "Rick and Morty Writers Explain Rick and Jerry's Complicated Relationship — Nerdist". archive.nerdist.com. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Urquiza, Richard (2021-07-19). "Rick and Morty raises some hell in "Amortycan Grickfitti"". Winter is Coming. Retrieved 2022-09-17.