Rick and Morty showrunners address Rick's alcoholism in season 9

In Rick and Morty, Rick Sanchez (Ian Cardoni) is the smartest man in the universe. He’s also an alcoholic, constantly drinking from a flask, slurring his words, and belching — an aspect of his character that showrunners Dan Harmon and Scott Marder alternate between playing for laughs and taking very seriously. Season 9 episode 4, “A Ricker Runs Through It,” grapples with the darker side of Rick’s substance abuse, opening with Rick getting so drunk he wets his pants. “You write what you know,” Harmon told Polygon in a virtual interview. “I think that the balance is struck by mythologizing something that is important about substance abuse, which is that it takes all forms.” Harmon, who has been open about his own struggles with alcohol, said he takes a similar approach to depicting Rick as Robert Zemeckis did in the 2012 Oscar-nominated drama Flight. In it, Denzel Washington plays an alcoholic pilot who pulls off a miraculous crash landing. “The whole point of the story is that it’s up to Denzel’s character when he fixes this issue, and that makes it more important, more dramatic, but you don’t really feel that bad for him, and you don’t feel like you’re watching a person die in an a