To start, I wouldn't call myself a Rick and Morty fan.

I do find the show interesting in many ways, but I don't obsess about it like the notorious fandom does.

But if you're unfamiliar with the character of Mr. Meeseeks, well... It's the reason I became interested in the show at all.

Who is Mr. Meeseeks

"Mr. Meeseeks" is less of a name and more of a title. It's kind of a category of being, like "human", except that every individual Meeseeks also goes by the name.

A Meeseeks is created when someone presses the button on the "Mr. Meeseeks Box". They POOF into existence, a fully formed, emotionally and mentally mature blue humanoid. Their entire reason for existing is to fulfill simple tasks, which they approach with enthusiasm and excitement -- and a big "Yes'sireeeee!" -- and upon completion of which they POOF back out of existence.

When Summer expresses discomfort with this idea, Rick assures her that they don't have a problem with the nature of their lives.

Meeseeks as a microcosm of human life

There is an interesting allegory between our lives and the lives of a Meeseeks. The only major difference between the two is that the Meeseeks life is distilled into one task, whereas a human's life is a series of millions of tasks, but the end result is practically the same except by a measure of degree.

When a Meeseeks is given a task, it does it with dedication and complete commitment. And when it's done, it is happy with the results of its life, and it ceases to exist.

In many ways, this is an enviable attitude. Most people, I think, would like to be able to approach the important problems of their life with that kind of single-minded focus.

So we can learn from the Meeseeks that purpose is what gives meaning to life.

Summer, Beth, and Jerry

We can see how the origins of our purpose truly affect our experience of satisfaction and meaning by looking at the tasks that are assigned to the characters of Summer, Beth, and Jerry.

Summer and Beth hop at the opportunity to task a Meeseeks, because they have actual problems in their lives that need solving. Summer wants to be more popular in school, and Beth just needs someone to talk to about her family life who isn't going to judge her. Beth and Summer are as dedicated to the completion of these tasks as the Meeseeks assigned to them, and so the purpose of the Meeseeks is both attainable and edifying in their lives.

Oh, did I mention that Meeseeks hate existing, and the reason they approach their task so intensely is because the only thing they want to do is die and the completion of a task is the ONLY way they can die?

Yeah... so there's that.

I just wana die!
~ Mr. Meeseeks

Jerry, on the other hand, only creates a Meeseeks for himself because he doesn't want to be left out.

The funny thing is that if Jerry were more self-aware, he would have known that this was the reason for the Meeseeks existence, and he could have tasked it with helping him to resolve his sense of alienation from the rest of his family.

Instead, because he is both dumb and ignorant of his own feelings, so he tasks the Meeseeks with improving his golf game, which ends in horror as Jerry is not truly committed to the task, which causes the Meeseeks to spawn more Meeseeks to help it, and none of them seem up for the task, which leads them to all go insane because Meeseeks are only supposed to exist for a few hours.

The moral of the story

An aimless existence, represented by Jerry, creates hollow tasks.

Completing a hollow task is impossible, and only creates more problems, anxiety, and insanity, represented by the growing group of anxious, desperate Meeseeks.

If we are able to clearly identify the real issues in our lives, we can be trusted to do something so important as bring an immortal being into existing who's only purpose in life is to resolve our problems.

If we are unable to identify our problems, however, no amount of help is going to do any good. This is shown in the story when Jerry finally demonstrates that he can improve his swing after the Meeseeks come to kill him and take an entire restaurant staff hostage.

What an interesting concept!

Like I said, these things are the reason I ever gave Rick and Morty a chance in the first place.

What do you think?

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