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and everything turns sour.
Oh no, its a clip show!
When fans are pretty much making their own, who needs a clip show anymore?
But these advancements also twisted the format into something postmodern thats meant to challenge the medium.
(Just last month,Its Always Sunny in Philadelphiahad its own unconventional take on the form.)
Unshackled from its origins, the clip show has become the sort of boundary-pushing experiment that keeps TV fresh.
All the way back in 1992, the show was finding unusual ways to subvert the traditional clip-show trope.
It faces the opposite problem that most clip shows do.
The purpose of these clips isnt to reminisce, but to inspire change.
It simultaneously looked back to the past and forward to the future.
Clips or memories are the threat here.
These are memories that you want to forget.
As the episode reveals its reflexive conceit, Rick even declares to Morty, Its not aSimpsonsHalloween special!
The idea grows increasingly complex and these renegade lost traumas push Rick and Morty to rock bottom.
Tiny details that were never meant to make sense get fully fleshed out and justified.
It begins as a by-the-book clip show that revisits hilarious past moments, but its almost insultingly old-fashioned.
Of course, none of this feels challenging or different.
One of the flashbacks that the gang remembers is actually aniconic scenefromSeinfeldsThe Contest.
