3 life lessons we’ve learned from Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty put the fun in dysfunctional family, so here are three important life lessons we’ve learned before a new Rick and Morty season 4 episode.

Rick and Morty is one of the funniest shows on TV, primarily because there’s almost nothing that the Adult Swim series won’t do. But underneath the outrageous aliens, uncomfortable moments and occasionally gross exploits, there’s actually a surprising amount of great information, too.

Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon almost certainly didn’t set out to make a TV show that would skewer the modern American family. That’s not what anyone would expect from a show where a mad scientist turns himself into a pickle and keeps clones of himself in an underground lab.

But in a weird way, if you pay attention to Rick and Morty, you learn a lot about what to do—and what not to do—if you want to be a Rick instead of a Morty.

Here are three great pieces of advice we’ve (jokingly) picked up from the adventures of Rick and Morty:

Never trust anyone (especially people you’re related to)

Rick Sanchez is overly defensive and incredibly paranoid—but with good reason. Almost everyone on Rick and Morty has proven they can’t be trusted, either intentionally or because they end up doing something that nearly gets them and/or the entire human race killed. If you’re going to live in this world, you’ve got to keep your guard up at all times.

After all, Jerry Smith (voiced by Chris Parnell) found out that Rick had built a hatch in his garage, and that the hatch led to an underground lab where he’d captured an alien with the equivalent of “space AIDS.” His wife and Rick’s daughter Beth Smith (voiced by Sarah Chalke) flipped out with worry that she might not be the real Beth.

Jerry and Beth’s teenage daughter Summer Smith (voiced by Spencer Grammer) ended up as a part-time employee of Satan and accidentally started a race war in another episode. And as for Morty Smith (voiced by Justin Roiland), he’s done quite a few dumb things in his young lifetime, including impregnating a robot that gave birth to a homicidal alien.

Rick and Morty has taught us that most people don’t really know what they’re doing, and those that do are hyper-brilliant mad scientists who don’t care about much beyond themselves. Either way, it’s better to keep them at arm’s length.