Rick And Morty's Justin Roiland Explains The Inspiration Behind Mr. Meeseeks
"Rick and Morty" has remained a consistently popular series since it premiered back in 2013. There are arguably many reasons for the level of success that it has achieved, but one reason is its endless influx of memorable characters, even putting aside its eponymous duo. One of the earliest examples of this was the Mr. Meeseeks, artificial beings that can be summoned from a Mr. Meeseeks Box to fulfill a singular task before disappearing into a puff of air. They are introduced in the Season 1 episode "Meeseeks and Destroy" in a plotline involving trying to help Jerry (Chris Parnell) improve his golf game.
As is usually the case with "Rick and Morty," the Mr. Meeseeks character is voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland, who also voices both Rick and Morty. As is usually the case with Roiland-voiced characters, the creative brings his usual brand of zaniness to the role that endeared the character to fans almost instantly. As it turns out, though, Roiland has a very humorous backstory behind what inspired the character, and it's one that probably will not surprise a lot of longtime fans of the show.
Roiland created Mr. Meeseeks when he was bored
During a Reddit AMA in 2014, "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland was asked where his inspiration for the Mr. Meeseeks character came from, and he gave an answer that really shouldn't shock fans of the show and his particular brand of humor. Apparently, the character came to life while he and Dan Harmon were developing other storylines that Roiland had become bored with. This led to him randomly coming up with Mr. Meeseeks' conic catchphrase, and it was all a matter of crafting the story and character around it from there.
"Dan was on tour for HarmonTown and we were breaking a story that sucked and I hated, so I started acting out saying I wanted to do something fun," Roiland said. "I was sick of these boring complex stories and I just wanted to have fun. I started screaming "I'm mister meeseeks" and we started the concept from there. The original concept was the same, a box that creates meeseeks, but the story was very different. When Harmon got back we got it in shape. One of my favorite episodes for sure."
This isn't exactly a surprising development, as Roiland is a big fan of improvisational comedy, and he and Harmon have often shown off this very skill (per Paste). Still, it's sort of extra humorous that an iconic character like Mr. Meeseeks was born in Roiland's mind simply because he was bored of the more complex elements that have cropped up in "Rick and Morty" from time to time, especially in the early days.