Right off the bat, Rick and Morty (still in their Justin Roiland era) trouble the President of the United States (Keith David) when they plan to steal the Constitution. National treasure-The style gets badly spoiled. Who knew there was a killer giant robot hidden inside the Statue of Liberty? This disaster is technically Morty’s fault, but Rick and POTUS love nothing more than to go to war with each other, so it’s game on again.
Rick figures the only way out is to turn himself into a turkey and trick the President into pardoning him as part of the White House’s annual Thanksgiving tradition. It’s such a silly idea that it might work. In fact, it Is Work done. We know this because the Smith family had an incredible reaction upon hearing Rick’s plan, quoting Jerry (Chris Parnell), “againHow many times have you done this,”
When Morty points out that the President is naturally expecting Rick to try it again, we soon realize that doubling the shenanigans makes it even more exciting – for both parties. The President has an equally elaborate competitive plan to defeat Rick.
He calls it “Operation Deep Goblet”, and it involves a group of gung-ho Marines who are transformed into turkeys, who are then marked with tracking chips, armed with machine guns, and outfitted with cool sunglasses. Turkeys from Rick and Morty quickly infiltrate their numbers; The President immediately notices this. His next step- Too Transforming into a turkey – takes Rick by surprise. A rare achievement!
A frenzy of beaks and feathers begins; When the President’s tracking chip is swallowed by a real bird, Army scientists accidentally inject the turkey with Presidential DNA. The resulting body-horror abomination immediately assumes all duties of Commander-in-Chief, and his popularity skyrockets when he begins openly bribing Congress. Meanwhile, Rick, Morty and the President return to their human forms, and the battle begins to get more complicated.
“Thanksploitation Spectacular”, which features a joke about calling people “terrorists”, is ultimately based on an ongoing and captivatingly petty feud between the smartest man in the universe and the leader of the free world. As Rick points out, he is not anti-American; he hates All country and All Politicians alike. The argument that follows includes phrases like “stupid poppies,” “edgelord anus,” and “booger-eater” – all delivered in the velvety voice of Keith David.
There is a brief, albeit frosty, moment of peace when POTUS joins Rick and his family at a Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Jerry. But the true healing begins when the Turkish President’s plan is revealed on TV news. Everyone In America, Turkey was transformed into a hybrid half-human, half-turkey, all-awesome super-soldier.
The only solution is for Rick, Morty, and the President to work together to break into the “Crypt of the New World” hidden beneath the Lincoln Memorial, which the President explains is “this country’s oldest secret, hidden from centuries of Thanksgiving folklore.” Out of the cold storage come the turkeys the original enemies of the dinosaurs who once ruled America: ancient aliens who very suspiciously resemble stereotypical Pilgrims and Indians, although some especially predator-esque enhancements.
A large-scale clash occurs. In victory, Rick and Morty finally get a pardon – and the episode ends with a reflection on how aliens really built America, not the Pilgrims and indigenous peoples that schoolchildren learn about in the story of the first Thanksgiving.
Morty has a clearly confused reaction to this, but the President – whose feud with Rick makes an inevitable return in a future season, because of course it does – simply advises him to “feel grateful.”
While we wait to see how rick and morty The President’s universe will expand with its own spin-off series, president curtis—which won’t involve Rick or Morty and will therefore require them to find comedic audacity of their own creation—we can still feel grateful that the Adult Swim giant didn’t succumb to sentimentality in this unconventional (and rare) holiday-focused installment.
Americans: We don’t know our history, and we are so deeply committed to coming out on top that we don’t consider the harm we may have done to get there.
You only need to watch the post-credits scene – in which we see the dangerous side effect that comes with turning a Marine into a turkey and back again, followed by a sniping about his crappy health insurance – to know skepticism rules around these parts, no matter what celebratory atmosphere is in the air.
rick and morty Season nine is expected to arrive in 2026; No release date has been set yet president curtisYou can watch previous seasons of rick and mortyThat includes season five’s “Rick and Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular” on HBO Max and Hulu.
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