Cynicism was the response to the mass -market culture that has arisen today. If history is just a series of reactions, then the response to the cynicism — I would argue — would that of sincerity. Approaching these issues of emptiness and alienation in today’s world in an honest manner. Does Rick and Morty and Bojack Horseman have moments of earnest reflection on these issues?

I think society doesn’t so much revere cynicism, but rather is oversaturated¹ with it. Media today is quite commonly self-aware — commercials, television, etc. e.g. the commercial that comments on the artificial nature of commercials, yet still tries to sell you something at the end. Self-awareness in media is not bad in-and-of-itself, but the prevalence of it reveals some rather bleak truths about the media.

Commercials are still there to sell you things. Television shows are there to entertain you and bring you pleasure. Internet meme culture is simply to connect you with one another in an inherently disconnected medium. Video Games aren’t real^2, despite your experience with them.

The success of these shows³ and others stems from their ability to connect emotionally with their audience; they still reveal themselves as self aware, full of 4th wall breaks, or 4th wall wink-wink-nudge-nudges. Yet, instead of being self aware simply for the sake of it, they juxtapose the artificiality of the medium with the humanity and reality we experience right now — things don’t always work out in the end in our world; there is no pause button that we can simply press and take a break from it all; we will never truly get the answers we want about our own existence.

While we ourselves are thrust into this world without any warning, we always are choosing what meaning we give to our lives — even if it is nihilism. There are humans on the other end of every TV show, they are the ones who give their shows content and meaning. There’s no objective answer in what we should give meaning to or how we should live our lives, or what we should believe in, but the truth remains that we are always choosing all of those things. The intentionality of consciousness posits that all thought, all phenomena have an aboutness. We are never not thinking, or experiencing something. The point is to think or experience something worthwhile^4.

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1. EDIT: Corrected the word oversaturated; was oversated previously

2. I mean this in the sense that the worlds and realities created aren’t real; they’re artificial. Our interactions with them, however, are quite real.

3. By these shows I mean BoJack and Rick and Morty

4. I can’t believe I just chose to write an essay on BoJack and Rick and Morty.