Is George Jetson Smarter Than Rick from ‘Rick and Morty’?
Though Rick Sanchez implicitly lost his title of “The Smartest Man in the Universe” in Season Five of Rick and Morty, we might know who holds the superlative outside the “Central Finite Curve”: George Jetson of The Jetsons.
So how did everyone’s favorite digital index operator emerge as a contender for the highly coveted galactic title? A whole lot of tech snafus and a few gory deaths.
In Season Seven’s “Unmortricken,” a few space travelers seriously resembling the Jetson family made some ill-fated guest appearances beyond the curve, repeatedly portal-ing themselves into the multiverse only to die seconds later. “It works! Now we can visit infinite universes!” one version of George Jetson told his family upon zapping into the zone.
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Despite eliciting a “hooray!” from what appeared to be his universe’s iterations of Judy and Elroy, Jane had some concerns. “Doesn’t that mean infinite other families can do the same?” she asked.
But before George could finish bragging about managing to “invent the world’s first” portal gun, he and his entire family disintegrated into thin air, the bloody stumps of their feet a welcome mat for the other portal-inventing Jetsons beaming in on top of them.
Though this almost-karmic cycle of “zap, flex, die” would repeat, ultimately ending after the third iteration of the Jetsons were eaten by a two-headed monster, Rick and Morty fans gleaned more than a bloody gag from this cameo. If Rick Prime and Rick C-137 were the only Ricks to independently invent the portal gun, would George Jetson be “The Smartest Man in the Universe” for crafting the gadget three times over?
Much like the multiverse itself, the answer is complicated, according to the Rick and Morty subreddit. While Redditor CharlesOberonn noted that “most Ricks aren’t smart enough to invent interdimensional travel” as “only C137 (Rick) and (Rick) Prime did it themselves” with the rest getting the tech “from another Rick,” not everyone was sold on George Jetson uniquely trumping Sanchez in inventive prowess.
“Didn’t you see all the portals? It appears a lot of beings have (and presumably created) portal tech,” asked user ThorzOtherHammer, before reiterating the reason the curve came to be. “The central finite curve was meant to segregate the realities where Rick is the ‘smartest man in the universe.’ Outside the curve, there are beings that are as smart, or smarter, than Rick.”
But beyond the existence of the curve and Jetson’s repeated, apparent failures at existing for more than a few seconds in the multiverse — “He did die almost immediately after he arrived so it (is) debatable,” wrote user biplane_curious.
User Joebranflakes had another qualm with George Jetson taking the title: Jetson’s home in the far future likely gave him a leg up when it came to crafting the device. “I’ll dispute that because if they’re a Jetsons ripoff, they are from the distant future,” they argued. “Technology is much more advanced. (Jetson) might have simply iterated on existing tech. Rick built a portal gun using human knowledge which is now decades in our past. So yeah, dude is smart, but not Rick smart.”
But regardless of whether Sanchez or Jetson would reign supreme in a battle of their smarts, there’s something we’re all forgetting to take into account: To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand how to build a portal gun.
