If you’re a fan of Rick and Morty then you’re aware of just how sad Morty’s dad, Jerry, can be. It’s almost like the show’s creators truly hate Jerry and want to see him cry within the first 60 seconds of every episode. There’s an unending amount of sad Rick and Morty Jerry moments, but these are some of the most downright pathetic Jerry moments on Rick and Morty.
Jerry is a pathetic, sorry excuse for a dad. He’s essentially half-man, half-worthles-garbage-person. He’s the kind of pasty guy that you want to punch in the face before he even speaks one word. Over the course of series, Jerry has become increasingly involved in the titular duo’s shenanigans, but that doesn’t mean that he’s gotten any cooler.
The audience has even been treated to the idea that the one thing it would take to turn Jerry from a sniveling caricature of a man into an actual father is an all out Cronenberg mutant apocalypse. It shouldn’t take that kind of thing to be a good dad or an okay husband! As it stands, Jerry is kind of a waste of space, and these are his most pathetic moments.
Over 600 people voted on this list over on Ranker, so we’re going to present these pathetic Jerry moments as a coutndown with the #1 most voted item last.
9. People Constantly Point Out That His Marriage Is Falling Apart
There’s hardly an episode that goes by where someone doesn’t point out that Jerry’s marriage to Rick’s daughter is failing. While Beth has her own problems, it’s fairly obvious that most of the fault lies at Jerry’s feet.
In “Rick Potion #9” Rick puts it bluntly to Jerry (in front of Morty no less) over breakfast: “I think a blind man could see that Beth is looking for the door. I barely have a reason to care and even I noticed.” Ya burnt, J-Smith. Ya burnt.
8. In Every Alternate Reality Beth Is Better Off When She’s Not Married To Jerry
While taking a visual trip through the alternate realities where Jerry and Beth didn’t get married (or have Summer) in “Rixty Minutes,” it’s revealed that Beth is having a much better life than the one she has in her reality. She’s a real doctor! She doesn’t have to put up with Jerry!
And hey, Jerry’s having an okay time in the alternate reality too, doing cocaine with Johnny Depp and banging Kristen Stewart. But he can’t live life with out Beth and goes on a drugged out scooter ride to find her. Pull yourself together, Jerry.
7. Mr. Meeseeks Can’t Help Him Take Two Strokes Off His Golf Game
After being introduced to the Meeseeks Box, Summer and Beth are able to use the helpful blue creatures to take care of their existentially complicated problems (being popular, and being a better woman, respectively). But poor, stupid, dumb Jerry can’t even use the Meeseeks Box to become a better golfer.
He’s such a bad golfer that the creature who was summoned to improve his game has to summon even more creatures until there are a plethora of Meeseeks who have been driven insane by Jerry’s ineptitude. Get it together, Jerry.
6. Jerry Needs Rick To Invent Something To Open A Jar
With one sentence at the beginning of the Season 1 episode “Meseeks and Destroy,” Jerry lets you know what kind of person he is. As soon as Rick and Morty return from an adventure, Jerry asks Rick, “Do you have some kind of hand shaped device that can open this jar?” Just bang the jar against the kitchen island like everyone else, Jerry!
5. All He Had To Offer For Morty’s Life Was His R2-D2 Coin Collection
When Rick and Morty are kidnapped by the Council of Ricks in “Close Encounters of the Rick Kind,” Jerry is frozen before he can try to save Morty. It’s revealed that after he’s unfrozen that the one thing he had to offer up for the life of his only son was a collection of state quarters where George Washington is replaced by R2-D2. Not only is it sad that he was only willing to pay $25 for his son, but that coin collection is just so depressing.
4. He Was Left In Jerry Daycare
In what may be the greatest indignity that Jerry has ever suffered, during the episode “Mortynight Run” he’s forced to sit out a super fun adventure in an unregistered, cross-temporal daycare designed specifically for Jerries. Jerrys? Jerri?
Anyway, it’s a place for multiple versions of the character Jerry across a variety of dimensions. While Rick and Morty sell a gun and go play videogames, Jerry hangs out with his kind (who are all total tools) and is placated by a giant doll of his wife, Beth. It’s pretty insanely patronizing, but he still loves it. That just makes it even more pathetic.
3. Beth Tries To Convince Jerry To Get A New Penis
In the episode “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate” Jerry is in the hospital for some reason. Probably because he’s such a wimp (actually it’s a weird alien virus, but who cares). When he’s offered the chance to have his penis amputated to save “hundreds of billions” of life forms, he says no, then yes, then no again.
When he tries to get Beth to get him out of his predicament, it turns out that she’s totally on board with Jerry getting a new wang. Bummer. Anyway, he flip flops so much that he becomes convinced that he needs to persuade everyone that he’s a good person by making them remove his penis. Then he gets shot 57 times. It’s not a good day for Jerry.
2. His YouTube History
In a passing conversation during “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate,” the audience is clued in to how badly Jerry needs to feel like he’s winning. Beth reveals that Jerry once left a comment on a YouTube video, and when someone called him a “dumbass” he replied that it “takes one to know one,” and then he stayed up all night waiting for them to reply while hitting refresh on his browser. Then he fell asleep crying, because of course he did.
1. Beth’s Perception Of Jerry Is That Of A Weepy Little Slug
While the rest of the family gets to go on an adventure at Morty’s high school involving vampires and the importance of growing up or something, Beth and Jerry have to go to couples counseling… in space.
At the off-world counseling session, the first thing that the couple does it put on a helmet that displays their perception of each other. While Jerry sees Beth as a spider-like, screaming she-beast, Beth sees Jerry as a pathetic worm of a man who’s afraid of everything. When Beth’s right, she’s right.