Anna Daniels
After Rick delivers a monologue about the power of consumerism — a moment some fans believe was a dig at the fandom’s history of theorizing and its passion for real-life Rick and Morty tie-ins — the episode’s credits roll. But as soon as those end, Rick and Morty return for a commercial selling the Story Train. The ad promises that “The Citadel of Rick’s story train” would come with “car after car of enemies, lovers, and Goomby” that grapple with “the nature of who you really are.” In the end, viewers are told to “buy it ironically, buy it sincerely, just buy it” — and that “not buying it is an act of buying it” — before a website presumably for the toy flashes on the screen.
Fans raced to see if the website (story-train.com) was real, as Rick and Morty has a notable history for turning its inside jokes into consumer goods. But when they attempted to visit the site, they initially found that it didn’t exist, and were left only with an error message saying the IP address couldn’t be found. As one Reddit fan noted, they had all fallen right into one of Dan Harmon’s signature traps: “We bought the lie. We still consumed. Consume. Consume,” u/pm-me_10m-fireflies wrote of the unreal website.
But it seems that maybe Adult Swim wasn’t quick enough on the draw. True to form of Rick and Morty fans, several caught that the Story Train website was registered, it just didn’t go anywhere — at least then. When you type the URL into your browser’s web address bar now, it redirects to the Rick and Morty site, rickandmorty.com. While there are no toy links up currently, who can say if there were and still are plans to make the Story Train a real, purchasable thing? A joke on the animated series did end up bringing back McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce, after all.
Written by: Looper
