Rick And Morty's Get Schwifty Episode Had Fans Buzzing About Rick's Voice
Season 2, Episode 5 of "Rick and Morty," titled "Get Schwifty," remains to this day one of the most iconic and popular episodes in series history. The episode focuses on an intergalactic music competition hosted by aliens known as Cromulons, who appear as enormous floating heads shouting "Show me what you got."
Improvising on the spot when the Cromulons demand an original, catchy tune from the people of Earth and threaten to destroy the planet if they are displeased, Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith (both voiced at the time by Justin Roiland) invent a babbling, incoherent song called "Get Schwifty" that encourages the audience to defecate on the floor. The song was enormously popular with fans of the series, with the song's "music video" racking up 23 million views on YouTube alone at the time of writing. However, many fans remain confused about the actual performance of the song itself, since Rick's voice sounds wildly different while he's performing onstage. Fans proposed numerous theories for Rick's surprising vocal shift, with some even suggesting that the original recording isn't meant to be Rick singing at all.
The song was actually recorded for a flash game on Adult Swim's website
Throughout the comments section of the aforementioned "Get Schwifty" music video on YouTube, fans continue to debate on why exactly Rick and Morty's voices sound so different in this song – with most agreeing that it just sounds like Justin Roiland's regular voice.
"Rick doesnt even sound like himself when he sings......... or even have a good powerful singing song........" said @NICKARRIOLA16. "Rick's voice just goes back to Justin's regular voice when singing," observed @rene1714. Other fans offered different explanations for this odd shift in Rick's voice, with some users like @jurekszczurek2896 claiming that it's impossible for Roiland to sing in the gravelly voice he uses for Rick. With that in mind, @MangoGlove explained that per the Season 2 Blu-ray commentary, Rick and Morty weren't supposed to be the ones performing the song, which is why Roiland was singing in a different voice.
In actuality, the reason "Get Schwifty" sounds so different from Rick's voice is that Justin Roiland wasn't performing the song as Rick. In an interview, composer Ryan Elder told Pitchfork that this song (alongside the other improvised, goofy songs from this episode) was actually created for a flash game on Adult Swim's website, where it appeared on the iPod of Summer Smith (Spencer Grammer). The team liked these silly songs so much they decided to make an entire episode about them, hence why the "Get Schwifty" recording sounds nothing like Rick Sanchez -– because it's just a goofy recording that Roiland made for a completely different project.