Work

Can Rick and Morty Save the Planet? Re-Politicizing Climate Change Through Humor and Animation

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Much of the environmental communication literature follows the consensus-building perspective and thus explores how to communicate climate change in ways that can diffuse politico-ideological conflict. My paper, on the other hand, builds on the critical debate approach—which asserts that the depoliticization of climate change acts as a barrier to transformative socio-ecological change—and argues that animated parody offers a powerful rhetorical tool to re-politicize climate change. I develop the paper’s argument through a case study of the Rick and Morty episode “A Rickconvenient Truth”—a parodical take on the 1990s children’s TV show Captain Planet and the Planeteers . By applying reflexive thematic analysis to a dataset of >7,600 Reddit user comments, I reveal that the episode prompts fans to question “standard” ways of thinking about climate change and deliberate radical alternatives for combatting the ecological crisis.

Source: Television & New Media

DOI: 10.1177/15274764241271200

Author: Olli Hellmann

Institution: University of Waikato

Language: English

Topic: Climate Change Communication and Perception

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450