Rick and Morty’s Impact on Stoner Culture, and What Comes Next

By Megan Ybarra | Graphic by Liliana Muñoz |

Modern American smoke shops, though unevenly spread due to the nation’s character of federalism, tend to have some consistent elements: glass-case counters, papers behind the register, and a dead-eyed employee who may or may not be hitting their ‘dab pen’ as they run the store. As you peruse the glass-blown goods, the fluorescent overhead lighting reflects off of the bowls. You see creatively-carved ceramic tools that could double as home decor and stacks of steel grinders—so many colors swirling before you. A poster of Bob Marley smiles down at you warmly, rolling trays with bright designs and quirky taglines are lined up and standardized—at the center of it all, the gem of the American smoke shop: The Rick and Morty bong.

The ‘Rick and Morty bong’ may not be a bong. It may be a bowl, a grinder, a pen, or all of the above. But it undeniably carries the iconography of the hit 2013 Adult Swim cartoon created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. Not long after the show’s conception, the main characters and their intergalactic antics became swiftly associated with recreational drug use. 

Weed has been a part of pop culture in the United States for almost a century, with the 1936 film Reefer Madness becoming a cult classic. The film intended to depict weed as a dangerous drug with negative effects, but the public’s reception went in the complete opposite direction, cultivating public curiosity around cannabis. Less than a decade later, the New York Academy of Medicine released an extensive report asserting that marijuana did not induce violence, further addiction, sexual crime, or madness, as propaganda had depicted it prior.

Roughly twenty years later, in the 1960s and 1970s, cannabis culture was in a metamorphosis. Countercultures like the hippie movement and reactions to the Vietnam War turned cannabis into a peace-loving symbol of freedom. The 1969 film Easy Rider depicted two bikers, and though they transported cocaine, their drug of choice was marijuana. In 1974, High Times magazine was founded by smuggler Tom Forcade, branching out to record and book publishing to support the pro-cannabis movement. Later movies set in this period, like Dazed and Confused (1993), depicted a fun, hazy era of youth nonconformity, where teen rebellion and weed culture were a likely pair.

The first bongs were created over 2,400 years ago, but the technicolor pipes we’ve come to know were largely brought into the mainstream by Bob Snodgrass in the 1960s and 1970s. Traveling with his wife in 1967, selling candles and glass creations along the way, Snodgrass pioneered new techniques utilizing boiled silver in his glassblowing, allowing the films to produce the colorful, shiny bongs that fill the mainstream today.

“Those vapors made it; after it got smoked, instead of looking dirty and ugly, it actually made it all iridescent and had an electric sheen of lightning blues,” Snodgrass says. “And so I tried to incorporate that. So besides making the best smoking piece, I worked on making the best-looking piece” (Julie Winsel, Eugene Magazine).

Snodgrass’ success brought contributions to cannabis culture that allowed for iconography among the paraphernalia, with fans of The Grateful Dead, known as “Deadheads,” as a majority of Snodgrass’ following. Deadhead culture has been intertwined with the use of cannabis, and their concerts, known as “Dead Shows” are a mecca for potheads. In July 1989, The Grateful Dead officially partnered with designer Jerome Baker, selling the first official pipes with noticeable iconography associated with them. From this, weed iconography took off, with Grateful Dead’s iconic bears, popular comic characters, cartoon icons, and everything in between being incorporated into one’s pipe of choice. As stated previously, these items and their customers were a symbol of youth nonconformity—hence the references to the cartoonish icons of their upbringing.

Around this same period, products centered around reggae culture reached the United States. Bob Marley's rise and embrace of the cannabis-centered Rasta movement cemented his global influence, making his memorabilia a staple in smoke shops worldwide. Meanwhile, as protests surged in the late 1970s—fueling the 1980s War on Drugs—cannabis thrived in Hip Hop culture, with emcees like Coke La Rock and Busy Bee performing and selling marijuana in the Bronx. It wasn’t long until California decriminalized cannabis in 1996.

Rick and Morty isn’t the first adult cartoon to nod at cannabis usage. The early 2000s saw mention of weed in hit shows like The Simpsons (Season 13, Episode 16), Family Guy (Season 7, Episode 12), South Park (Season 14, Episode 3), and The Boondocks (Season 3, Episode 12), all before the release of Rick and Morty in 2013. Online culture had spread cannabis-oriented art of beloved characters as well, providing people with posters to print, products to buy, and more items that would cloud the water of copyright products in smoke shops—but that’s an entirely different story. Want a drawing of Bart Simpson smoking a joint? The world wide web has it. 

With the widespread success of Rick and Morty, fans online provide ample discussion forums for their love of cannabis and the show. While weed isn’t a pivotal theme of the intergalactic grandson and mad scientist duo, the psychedelic absurdity seems to have captured the support of stoners. Most of the episodes center around imaginary space-substances, but there are a few episodes (Season 1, Episode 2), where cannabis use is explicitly animated. Regardless, the Rick and Morty weed culture online is dense, from online guides of what marijuana strain to smoke for each notable episode of the show to newly developed strains named in reference to the show’s characters. 

But why does Rick and Morty seem to have a stronger foothold than other cartoons? Some link it to the alleged philosophical nature behind the comedy, and thus promote the same philosophies behind recreational cannabis use:

“Just as cannabis helps connect us to the present moment, and enjoy things as they unfold, Rick and Morty deems friends, family, and doing what we love much more important than unanswerable questions about why we’re here in the first place” (Mary Jane Gibson, Leafly 2018).

However, some online smokers seem to have grown tired of the Rick and Morty weed craze after the show’s conclusion in December 2023. Rick and Morty bongs are at an all-time low price, commonly selling for half their original listed price on major sites. Now, one-year post-Rick-and-Morty, it feels like eyes are looking for the next stand-in: the next show to take over your local smoke shop. 

In an effort to get on-the-ground information on such a pressing topic, I took to the streets—or rather, the shops. Surveying over thirty dispensaries and related shops in the Chicagoland area, my research was greatly underwhelming. Most hadn’t thought of what might be next, but there was a vocal minority with one show in mind: Smiling Friends. Upon consultation with my local stoners (anonymous customers at smoke shops, plugs—you name it, I asked), I got a similar response. A few outliers were the hit children’s cartoon Bluey, and references to AI memes haunting local tiktok for-you pages and Instagram reels daily. But time and time again, for weeks, this Smiling Friends concept seemed to be the strongest contender.

There are even memes about this “great shift” from Rick and Morty to the blob-shaped characters of Smiling Friends—another Adult Swim hit. Similar to Rick and Morty, Smiling Friends isn’t particularly centered around weed, but it’s not shying away, either. The absurd adventures of the main duo, Charlie and Pim, can lead to references to drug use by a vaguely frog-shaped celebrity aptly named Mr. Frog, or items being smoked by characters in passing. The animated series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusak brings a newfound bizarre awkwardness that Rick and Morty lacked. Both shows have completely different approaches to comedy, but Smiling Friends has garnered the attention of stoners just enough to reach the “we need a bong of that” status.

Will Smiling Friends grip the public as much as Rick and Morty did, possibly having smoke shops themed around the show as a whole? Only time will tell. Until then, we can watch the steady decline of the behemoth that was Rick and Morty to weed culture, and wait for a new supreme to maintain the mutualistic balance between animation and cannabis culture.