The Worst Thing Morty And Summer Ever Did To Jerry On Rick And Morty

Every character in Rick and Morty is mean to poor, old Jerry Smith. Even Jerry's wife Beth, Rick's daughter and Morty's mother, has verbally bashed her husband to pieces. One of the saddest examples of the Smith family bonding together to beat Jerry's self-confidence into negative values happens when Beth and Jerry split up in season 3. Jerry packs up the U-haul and goes to say goodbye to his children, who dismiss his feelings to jump through a portal and get the Hell out of there. Meanwhile, Rick informs Jerry that "the kill bots are live" and he's no longer on "the whitelist."

Of course, each member of the family makes a point to rip Jerry a new one individually, too. Rick, the mad scientist of the show, is harder on Jerry than everyone else, probably because there's a significant intelligence gap, and because Rick tends to think of himself as a god. Neither Summer nor Morty is exactly a genius, but they can catch the cues that usually go over Jerry's head and, in times of frustration, they aren't above pointing them out, even if they're super harsh.

The meanest thing Summer's ever said to Jerry takes place in episode 9 of the show's fourth season. Even for the Rick and Morty writers, making Summer tear into Jerry this way is a little over the proverbial "top." — not that there is a top, per se.

Anyway, the whole family has set off on a camping trip, but they never make it to their planned destination because Rick, for some reason, knocked up a planet, and that takes first priority. They head to the planet, which immediately starts giving birth, and Beth sends the kids off with Jerry to go camping so they're out of the "professional's" hair. Summer wasn't into the idea of camping before, and she certainly isn't now.

Through the first few minutes, the family attacks Jerry's unemployment and intelligence, so the guy is already feeling down on himself. Then, Jerry makes the mistake of telling the kids they, "Wouldn't last to seconds" on their own, and hands Summer a s'more, which unleashes her inner "mean girl."

"Oh, you think this s'more makes you special?" she asks. "What? Because someone said good job to you once when you were 10? That's actually really sad, Dad. Let's be real. You've been high-roading us non-stop, forcing us to do nothing in the middle of f***ing nowhere because it's the only way you're gonna level the playing field, isn't it? Because if you move the bar so low, you might actually seem like you're worth a f***."

Jerry's already beaten ego is now beaten past its threshold, sending him off to make an army out of Rick and the planet's rejected children.

By the time season 4 of Rick and Morty aired, it was clear that Morty doesn't listen to Jerry or, really, even view him as an authority figure. The most interaction Morty has with his father is trying to prevent his feelings from getting too hurt, or trying to prevent Jerry from doing something stupid that gets the Smith family killed. Instead, Morty has taken more after Rick the more time the two spend together. Rick, in any realistic sense, has filled Morty's need for a father figure.

Rick's style of laying down the truth in the most insulting, yet comical, way possible has likewise rubbed off on the developing Morty, which we see prominently in episode 2 of season 4, "The Old Man and the Seat." Jerry develops an app with an alien on whom Rick has tattooed the words "Do not develop my app." Go figure. The app is a dating service that turns Earth's societal structure upside down.

Jerry and Morty end up on the alien ship in an attempt to get the app offline. Even though Jerry's idiocy gets the two of them into trouble, they do end up making it off the ship and getting the app taken down. The Earth was saved, but not before Morty dropped a serious truth bomb, with all the tones of a compassionate speech and none of the words.

"I started today disgusted and embarrassed to be your son," Morty says, "And, later, I thought we were going to die because you're a loser." The audience is left waiting for a heartwarming followup that never happens. Sorry, Jerry.