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622

Justin Roiland used his ‘Rick and Morty’ fame to pursue young fans, text messages show (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/news@lemmy.world

180 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In the years following the 2013 debut of Adult Swim’s cartoon phenomenon “Rick and Morty,” its star and co-creator Justin Roiland became a titan of the animation and video game industry and a rock star of youth counterculture. His artistic style and caricatures became ubiquitous in cannabis culture, and his career expanded into producing other animated series, creating NFTs and leading a virtual reality gaming studio. In 2017, a “Rick and Morty” collaboration with McDonald’s led to such a viral frenzy that police had to be called to at least two locations.

But as he partied with Los Angeles’ superstars and traveled the country for conventions, he also found he could use his fame to strike up conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage. This is according to interviews with 11 women and nonbinary people who shared thousands of messages with Roiland from 2013 to 2022 — with nine of the people saying he turned the exchanges sexual. Of those nine people, three said they were 16 when they started talking to Roiland. To corroborate their stories, the 11 women and nonbinary people also shared pictures, videos, social media posts, emails, and plane ticket and Uber receipts with NBC News.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 108 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, why’d he have to be such a fuckin’ gross creep? Why couldn’t he just have been creative and weird and depressed?

[–] willis936@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you add funny to that list you get Dan Harmon.

[–] kbotc@lemmy.world 59 points 1 year ago

Dan Harmon was super problematic in his own way. His difference was he apologized to the people he wronged in a way that they accepted, and seems to have changed his behavior. His change in behavior seems to be part of what left Justin out to dry as Dan no longer came to work intoxicated, but Roiland just kept doing it.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well the subtype of funny that Rolland had (and Harmon still has to a degree) had was from being creative and weird and sad. Smart, dark, absurdist, existentialist humor. I think that’s a pretty reasonable way to roll it up.

Edit: crossed the names up, derp