"As an editor I'm always looking for things I'm not expecting," Adams says in Episode 265 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "And Rick and Morty does that all the time. Even after they set the bar really high, where they've done these amazing things, they still manage to do it."

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley agrees that episodes like "Total Rickall," about aliens who pretend to be old friends by implanting false memories of themselves, are excellent examples of science fiction. "Even if you took all of the humor out of it, and told it just as a straight, serious science fiction story, it's a good enough story on its own to get published in a science fiction magazine," he says.