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There's a Little Bit of Jerry in All of Us

At least, those of us who have a heart.

By Archie SwensonPublished 7 years ago 3 min read
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Typical, nothing-special Jerry

Jerry Smith is the one major character in Rick and Morty who is constantly trampled on and who everyone seems to hate. Rick hates him, mostly because he sees Jerry as having ruined his daughter's life by getting her pregnant while she was still a teenager. Most viewers hate Jerry because he's, well... human. He's a very ordinary, unremarkable man, unlike the rest of his family who typically go on exciting adventures with Grandfather Rick. There is nothing amazing about the way he dresses, the way he acts or the way he carries himself... save for the fact that it makes him the family scapegoat. In this way, he's a bit like Meg Griffin from Family Guy—constantly pushed aside, made to feel useless and being put down at every opportunity.

In the episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez," Beth and Jerry go to another planet to undertake counseling to save their troubled marriage. As a first step, the counselor reveals their mythologs in the form of monsters. What are their mythologs, you might ask? They are beings that represent the way Beth and Jerry see each other. Unlike most couples' mythologs who are constantly at war with one another, Beth and Jerry's mythologs are codependent and working together to cause destruction. Even the alien marriage counselor, who's supposedly seen it all, is astounded and can't figure out for the life of him how Beth and Jerry were even able to form a relationship in the first place. Beth's mytholog is revealed to be dominant and desperate for control, lashing out at her surroundings and forcing Jerry's mytholog to do her bidding. On the other hand, Jerry's mytholog literally lacks any real backbone and even though it seems to know the destruction Beth's mytholog is wreaking is wrong, doesn't make any moves to stand up to her and willingly does whatever she wants.

The codependent mythologs

Of course, this represents what has been happening in Beth and Jerry's real relationship—Beth is a woman who feels that her early pregnancy and subsequent marriage to Jerry has robbed her of her dream to be a human surgeon, while Jerry has no backbone and routinely takes the abuse the rest of the family dish out to him—and on the occasions when he doesn't, usually attempts to combat it by gaslighting Beth. While most subsequently believe Jerry is the weakest link in the Smith family, I believe he is merely a human character that represents the weak side of humanity. Full of depression, self doubt, and neediness, with occasional moments of triumph, he represents how almost everyone has felt at least once in their lives—but nobody wants to acknowledge their own insecurities or glaring faults. Face it, how many people do you know who have been fired? Or who don't have the confidence to stand up to their peers? Or, who suffer from crippling depression and terrible self esteem? All of these things happen to Jerry, yet all of these are part of being human —making mistakes, not being perfect and viewing oneself as—gasp—not perfect!

There's a saying (albeit a little bit sexist) that behind every great man, there's a great woman. On the rare occasions Jerry develops the self-confidence to succeed, he's driven by Beth. Whether it's achieving a hole in one so the Meeseeks will finally disappear and stop holding the world to hostage, or fighting the negative mythologs to alter Beth's perception of him and rescue her, Beth brings out the best in him, as well as the worst. So while their alien marriage counselor was bamboozled as to how they could get together in the first place let alone stay together, the self-confidence Jerry can muster when Beth believes in him is the thread that keeps their floundering marriage together—and represents the ability humanity has to get through the worst situations when people band together.

After Beth's perception of Jerry changes, so does his mytholog - developing a stronger, confident mytholog who can easily defeat the negative mythologs and win Beth back.

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