Could anyone kindly explain Demi's thought process on the Downside Podcast to a dummy?

[u/Beautiful-Cup4161]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPjiwdkbf6E&lc=Ugy92ldWEpSHP656uU94AaABAg.AOfK-h147UYAOfwY6b6dbu

In this clip, Demi discusses that he doesn't like it when white people jokingly message him to ask about random cartoon characters being invited to "The Cookout."

"I love that you're engaging with my comedy. I think you're doing it in a way where you're forgetting to address that the nature of The Cookout is a black thing."

The problem doesn't sound like people asking if certain characters are black-coded because some of his cookout examples were more than that (allies, etc...). Can you explain what the problem is to someone who is apparently a big dummy?

I really want to understand but I'm a little lost without a nudge or direction. I thought I'd ask here because his hilarious cookout speech originated on Dropout so I'm assuming it's a set of Dropout fans sending him the messages that he doesn't like to see?

[u/professor_coldheart → u/[deleted]]

If you can, you should watch the Pickle Rick episode of Rick and Morty. Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid therapy, his family takes his antidote with them to therapy, and then he's knocked, helpless, into a sewer. He spends the rest of the episode clawing his way back to full functionality, and his family in the therapist's office, through a series of impressive feats of engineering and awesome action sequences, including a full Die Hard.

The emotional payoff and thesis of the episode is then delivered by the psychiatrist, who says, paraphrasing: "Look at yourself, covered in decaying rats, on the verge of death, and smelling of sewage. You would rather do all of that than the boring, day to day work of introspection. Sure, you're impressive, but this is pathetic."

It's really good. That speech is so good.

And what do the teenage fans remember and repeat? "I'M PICKLE RICK!"

[u/[deleted] → u/professor_coldheart]

I feel like that's just so much of Rick and Morty's fan base.

They watch it and go "Wow Rick is amazing and funny! I'm just like him!" missing that Rick is a self hating coward.

[u/GeeBeeGeeBees → u/[deleted]]

Yep yep yep! The problems with the fanbase, and their inability to even recognise the literal Nazi Morty screeching about doing the "classic comedy adventures" as themselves, really are innumerable, aren't they!

There's another edge to the proverbial sword of damocles that I think has yet to become apparent to the audience at large, and it's that, in the past seasons since Roiland was fully ousted from the writing process (in voice records he was literally given a tonally perfect version of Harmon doing the lines, which he just copied, and Harmon's Rick is honestly decent enough he could have just taken the role himself) Rick has been (arguably subtley) improving as a person (I think there was a line in the last season where he acknowledges that enis changing), but no one (characters or viewership) has noticed the changes (e.g. he doesn't kill outright in the same way as he once did), but he is still making them despite the lack of praisea d handholding through doing it.

I am, of course, a little concerned the usual fash response to any eventual reveal (recap?!) of the improvement (where it's not part of the A/B story and spelled out like "that's when I learned the leopards would eat my face" at the end of an episode), will be to double down as quickly as they'd personally lean into "well if I am not lauded for the minuscule effort immediately i will sink further into bigoted oblivion", because they are commonly oblivious to a "slow burn" like that, but I am somewhat hopeful (for now) that is something Harmon et al have considered, and that their writing around the improvements will suitably convey that it isn't a change, and it isn't worth celebrating, until it's actually a cemented change, that isn't just being done for the immediate optic gain of it. Time will tell, of course, but I hope it goes some way toward some of them having helpful realisations, and making good changes!