Warning : SPOILERS forRick and Morty , time of year 4 , sequence 8 , " The Vat of Acid Episode " .

Rick and Mortyseason 4 , episode 8 , " The value-added tax of Acid Episode " paid protection to a bit of other invigorate serial publication , includingTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , The Simpsons , andSouth Park . The sequence also offer a tip of the lid to a few live - activity movies and the role play gameDungeons and Dragons .

It is not uncommon for aRick and Mortyepisode to be compact full of Easter eggs ; the first new installment afterRick and Mortyreturned from its mid - time of year 4 hiatus , " Never Ricking Morty , " was satisfy with numerous nod to olderRick and Mortyepisodes and teased several suggestion of what may fare in the hereafter . " The Vat of Acid Episode " is notable , however , in that it mostly focuses on   references to other animated series for adults that helped pave the elbow room forRick and Morty , though it also offers up allusion to some live - action movies , likeThe Prestige .

Comic book art: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles leaping into action.

bear on : Rick & Morty Season 4 , Episode 8 ’s Prestige Twist excuse

" The Vat of Acid Episode " continues the time of year 4 trend of playing with the standardRick and Mortyformula , with Morty calling out Rick ’s need to endlessly perplex things for the rice beer of prove how clever he is . The installment also offer up one of the prospicient jape set - ups in the show ’s history and what may be its darkest flake of comedy ever . Here ’s a rundown of every book of facts inRick and Mortyseason 4 , sequence 8 .

Futurama

The main plot of ground ofRick and Mortyseason 4 , episode 8 , " The Vat of Acid Episode " sees Morty challenging Rick to invent a gadget that will provide him to return to a previous pre - chosen moment in time , like a save point in a television plot . This comes after an debate where Morty pick apart Rick ’s plans and idea as being needlessly complicated and expect why Rick never work on any of Morty ’s ideas for an invention . Rick assert that he does n’t do hackwork like time travelling ( despite having a box in his lab label " Time Travel Stuff " ) and that Morty ’s idea is n’t original , note " I saw it on Futurama ! "

Rick ’s complaint is a reference to " Meanwhile , " the last installment ofFuturama . The installment saw Professor Farnsworth devise a gadget he called the Time Button , which caused the universe to startle feebleminded 10 seconds in time whenever the push button was pressed . Fry stole the gadget intending it to practice it to make the moment he suggest to Leela last longer , only to wind up caught in a clock time loop after he thought he ’d been stand up and jumped off a skyscraper , only to see Leela and actualize he ’d jumped back in time so much his lookout man was over half an hr fast and he was early for the dinner party where he ’d be after to propose . This set up what is wide believed to be one of thebest and most romanticistic series finalesof all clip .

Dungeons and Dragons

Rick and Mortymade legion nods toDungeon and Dragonsin former episodes . In fact , there ’s two comic book crossovers involvingRick and MortyplayingDungeons and Dragonsand aRick and Mortythemed starter place for D&D 5th Edition . An idol resembling the statue on the concealment of the firstAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons Player ’s Handbookcan be seen on a ledge in Rick ’s research laboratory , along with a rather impressive looking morning whizz . Sadly , we have no thought what way of enhancements the weapon may have , though know Rick ’s misgiving of magic it ’s believably just a masterwork morning headliner .

relate : How To Best act as ( Tabletop ) Dungeons & Dragons Online

Phantasm

Before Rick go to forge on build up Morty a save - tip source , he in brief works with a spherical equipment with a protruding blade . This deadly gimmick resembles the Sentinel Spheres from thePhantasmmovies . Also know as " Brain sucker " or more simply as Sentinels or Spheres , the Sentinel Spheres are the weapon of choice of the sinister Tall Man and they have appear in every singlePhantasmmovie to date .

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Simpsons

Morty makes utilization of the save game machine to judge all sorts of things he ’d ordinarily never do and undo the consequence after he does them . This include push an older man in a wheelchair out of his chair and into dealings before going back to his last save point and helping the old man in earnest . As Morty does this , a typical window with an orange and gullible adamant normal can be run across in the background signal . fan ofThe Simpsonswill recognise this as the exterior of Homer ’s best-loved bar and Bart ’s favorite seat to crank - call , Moe ’s Tavern . The construction also has the same coloration and the same color door as Moe ’s , though the porthole window in the threshold is rectangular rather than round .

South Park

Most of the second one-half of " The value-added tax of Acid Episode " is taken up by a largely silent sequence where we see Morty go about a girl and hold the door open for her at a deep brown shop . This leads to the two sharing a boozing together and a whirlwind romance where the two fall in love , become a couplet , take on each others ' families , have a fight and reconcile after Morty gets airplane tickets for the two to take a trip together . deplorably , the stumble end tragically , with the plane go down high in the sight in the dead of wintertime and the few survivors resorting to cannibalism to survive , before Morty undertake a life-threatening solo journeying to recover his save - point gadget and go back in clip to break the disaster from ever happening .

Two of the other survivors are look wearing the distinctive lid of Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski fromSouth Park . Fittingly , as he dies several times over the form of the episode , Morty wears an orange hooded windbreaker resemble the one wornKenny McCormickduring this sequence . Perhaps most disturbingly , the Isle of Man the survivor consume wears a red jacket resembling the one worn bySouth Park ’s Eric Cartman . The ultimate resolution of this sequence may be the darkest punchline inRick and Mortyhistory and must be seen to be believe .

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