This Year’s April Fools Episode Of ‘Rick And Morty’ Made Everything Australian

Last year, Adult Swim blew everyone’s minds by casually releasing the first episode of Rick And Morty season three on April Fool’s Day. And while there was some chatter amongst fans that maybe possibly that might happen again, it seemed unlikely given the current limbo status of season four as contract negotiations have ground production to a halt.

But lo and behold, Adult Swim did indeed share a new Rick And Morty cartoon for April Fools 2018 … just not in the way anyone expected. What we got instead was a 15 minute Rick And Morty adventure by Australian gonzo animator Michael Cusack entitled Bushworld Adventures. Cusack is best known for his Damo and Darren cartoons, which follow around two Bogans (Aussie slang for trashy poor people) on their trashy adventures. Bushland Adventures remixes Rick and Morty into similar Australian caricatures to hilarious effect.

Reactions to the episode, which went up at 11PM on April 1st, have been mixed. Some loved the bizarre randomness of Adult Swim letting another artist take Rick And Morty for a spin. Others were less enthused that Rick And Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland had nothing to do with Bushland Adventures. The murky status of Rick And Morty season 4 doesn’t help things much, and many were left wondering whether the creation was even approved by Harmon and Roiland, who have been offline over Easter weekend and haven’t commented on the episode.

This isn’t the first time Adult Swim has let other artists play with the Rick And Morty franchise. There’s the trippy as hell Exquisite Corpse video by animation studio Titmouse, but that still had Roiland voicing Rick and Morty. This Bushland Adventures seems to have no connection to the ‘real’ Rick And Morty team, although the Studio Yotta animation team that helped on this was also behind the recent Run The Jewels Rick And Morty music video.

But for those getting their underwear in a wad over all this, we have to wonder if maybe we’re looking a gift Rick And Morty in the mouth? Taken for what it is – an off the wall April Fool’s gag –Bushland Adventures is pretty great, a strange and wonderful tribute to Rick And Morty. So maybe enjoy it? Because it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting any ‘real’ episodes for a while.