Rick might be the smartest man in the multiverse, but he’s also one of the most demented. Rick lives in a world of high stakes and high rewards, and he’s definitely open to cracking a few eggs in order to make his science-omelette. The ends always justify the means in Rick’s mind, even if the means end up destroying entire planets in the process.
Throughout the series, Rick has done a lot of objectively horrible things. He’s not known for beating around the bush or being subtle about his opinions, and his actions speak even louder than his words. Sometimes he can be a bit passive-aggressive though, so he’s not above being low-key in his debauchery either. He’s open to casually exploiting an entire universe at once or even cloning his loved ones and exploiting them. This is a breakdown of Rick’s most low-key cold-blooded acts in Rick and Morty, ranked by how subtly evil they are.
9. Used A Homeless Man’s Body As The Venue For An Experimental Miniature Amusement Park
Rick’s pretty open to treating others badly, and he’s not above taking advantage of socially vulnerable men to do it. This is exemplified in the Season 1 episode “Anatomy Park,” where we learn that Rick had been building a secret theme park inside the body of a homeless man named Ruben. Anatomy Park seems to be little more than one of Rick’s passion projects, especially his Pirates of the Pancreas ride, but its creation ultimately leads to the host’s demise.
What’s even worse is that Ruben was purposefully riddled with debilitating diseases that probably led to his passing. Rick has access to all sorts of amazing medical devices but, instead of helping a sick man, he turned Ruben’s body into a cheap roadside carnival.
8. Systematically Wiped Morty’s Memories And Stored Them In A Secret Lab
“Morty’s Mindblowers” reveals that Rick has been tampering with Morty’s memory for a long time. There is a room in their house dedicated to housing old memories that have been sucked out of Morty’s brain, and Morty is horrified when he gets to replay some of his forgotten memories.
He learns that Rick is actively manipulating his memory on a regular basis, often for Rick’s own personal benefit. Morty even sees one memory where he corrects Rick on his pronunciation, and Rick vindictively wipes his mind to maintain the illusion of his infallibility. Unfortunately, the revelation that Morty’s mind is being systematically cleansed is also wiped from his memory.
7. Ruined An Entire Intergalactic Civilization Just to Break Up Beth And Jerry’s Marriage
The explosive first episode of Season 3, “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” sees Rick trapped in the custody of the Galactic Federation while his family adjusts to life on a newly federated Earth. Rick manages to escape his containment and effectively destroy the entire Galactic Federation by wrecking their economy, which leads them to abandon Earth. While Earth is now free, that wasn’t really Rick’s intent. His return is a red line for Jerry, who demands that Beth choose between Rick and himself, once and for all.
Beth obviously picks Rick, which is exactly what he always intended. He destroyed the Federation largely because he wanted to get rid of Jerry. Once he’s out of the picture, Rick immediately begins ranting to Morty about his master plan to break up his parents. He dubs himself the patriarch of the family and proselytizes about McDonald’s old Mulan Szechuan McNugget sauce.
6. Forced Morty To Hide Alien Seeds In His Rectum To Get Through Customs
“Pilot” Rick is different in a lot of ways from current Rick. He’s a bit kookier and less overtly nihilistic, but he still treats Morty like an expendable subordinate. The peak of his maltreatment comes when Rick asks Morty to store a Mega Seed where the sun don’t shine. Morty is obviously horrified by the request, but Rick insists that it’s the only way they can make it through intergalactic customs.
Furthermore, the only reason they even needed to go through intergalactic customs is because Rick accidentally blew his portal gun charge by getting side tracked in an alternate dimension. It’s a pretty big ask of Rick when he’s the reason they’re stuck in the first place.
5. Drunkenly Created An Elaborate ‘Saw’-Like Series Of Challenges That Slays Most Of The Vindicators
“Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender” introduces the interstellar superhero team the Vindicators before shortly offing them. Rick and Morty receive a call to adventure by the super team, with Rick only begrudgingly agreeing to answer the call because it is Morty’s turn to pick the adventure. Rick hates the Vindicators so much that he gets blackout drunk and creates a series of Machiavellian traps to “teach” the team, driving home that he thinks they are nothing more than a tired cliche.
One by one, the mighty Vindicators are slain by Rick’s drunken, half-baked Saw-ripoff mechanisms. Rick claims no responsibility for his actions, saying that he was blackout drunk and therefore a different person. Morty is horrified to see his heroes dismantled in front of him, often literally.
4. Sold Weapons To A Militant Group That Proceeded To Enslave An Entire Race Of People
Rick is rarely nice to Jerry, so it’s a surprise when he includes him on an adventure in “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy.” It’s mostly because Morty is worried his dad might off himself after the divorce, but it does bring the two of them closer together. Unfortunately, Jerry is captured by a militant named Risotto Groupon, and he learns that Groupon’s people were enslaved because Rick carelessly sold devices to their enemies.
It’s not uncommon for Rick to sell extremely deadly instruments on the black market, and he’s clearly open to dealing with shady characters. It’s sobering to think of the countless lives that have been indirectly ended because Rick wanted to make a quick buck.
3. Meticulously Explained To His Grandchildren That He Doesn’t Actually Care About Them
The Season 2 premiere “A Rickle in Time” is a perfect example of just how unnecessarily cruel Rick can be to his grandchildren. After he, Morty, and Summer find themselves stuck in a timeless void of uncertainty, he grows frustrated with the kids’ inability to be certain.
He believes that the two of them are too preoccupied with being “grandpa’s favorite” and it’s exacerbating their situation. In order to cure them of their delusions, he goes into painstaking detail of exactly why he doesn’t care at all about either of them. It’s more of a rant than anything, and it definitely makes Morty and Summer feel terrible about themselves.
2. Created And Enslaved An Entire Race Of Miniature People Just To Power The Battery Of His Spaceship
We know that Rick is willing to take advantage of people, but his actions in “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” show that his manipulation skills can be downright biblical. After the microverse battery in his ship stops working, we learn that it actually houses an entire artificial universe that Rick created. The entire universe only exists to power his ship, but it has given birth to societies as complex as our own.
Rick even meets an intellectual rival inside the battery, but refuses to acknowledge him as a peer. Instead, he threatens him by saying that his entire universe will be destroyed if they don’t keep providing him with power. He effectively enslaves an entire tiny universe just to keep his ship’s headlights on.
1. Turned All Of Earth Into Genetically Mutated Beasts
The episode “Rick Potion #9” sees Morty trying to score a love potion from Rick to give to his crush, Jessica. Morty’s creepy desire ends up turning the entire world into lustful, Morty-obsessed monsters. Rick tries several times to create an antidote, but each iteration makes the population of Earth even more monstrous.
Eventually the entire planet is covered in Cronenberg-like monstrosities, with the only people immune being Morty’s immediate family. Rick just sort of throws his hands in the air in defeat and decides to abandon that reality, including Beth, Summer, and Jerry.