Since Adult Swim’s Rick And Morty garnered its infamously rabid fanbase, there have been numerous discussions about whether Rick Sanchez is a character viewers should admire or try to emulate in any way. But few would have predicted that, in 2017, we’d be discussing whether or not the burping, alcoholic, misanthropic, cartoon grandpa was someone fans should want to have a sexual relationship with. In a new article from Inverse, we learn that if that question were posed to the recently-formed Tumblr community Sanchez Babes, it would be an emphatic yes.
“What was weird is that he’s some 70-year-old, mentally abusive, drooling alcoholic that I found sexy,” says Tumblr user youshouldfear, who, like the other Sanchez Babes members, is unabashedly frank about their sexual attraction to a fictional character riddled with red flags. The group is primarily a place to share and discuss NSFW fanfiction in which the community’s members live out their fantasies of being entangled with or dominated by the universe-hopping scientist. They have strict rules about “no politics, no minors allowed, and no incest or pedophilia of any kind,” which are meant to stave off the more eye-brow raising slash fiction that inevitably bubbles up from the internet’s underbelly. Inverse republishes a handful of images that highlight the character’s, um, latent eroticism, if you’re interested.
What about this aged and morally reprehensible character do the Sanchez Babes find so attractive, you may ask? For one thing, his intelligence. Many of the members identify as sapiosexuals, someone who finds intelligence to be sexually arousing. Part of the conceit of Rick And Morty is that Rick is not only the smartest person in this universe, but in any universe, which, for these particular fans, only increases his sexual appeal. Additionally, most Sanchez Babes members confess to being attracted to older men which makes Rick’s increased age more of a positive than a negative. “I’ll say it helps that I’ve historically been attracted to older men, not all of whom as conventionally attractive,” user thiccsanchez tells Inverse.
Finally, Rick’s megalomaniacal ego and need for control only goes to fuel the fiery passions of the Sanchez Babes. Excerpts from the group’s favorite pieces of fanfiction read like a cartoony Fifty Shades Of Grey, in which Rick is the ultimate dominator. Like most incredibly niche fetish groups born out of Tumblr, the members of Sanchez Babes are hyper aware of what they like and why they like it. They know Rick isn’t real and, even if he were, he wouldn’t make a good partner. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be a sex symbol. Now, Mr. Meeseeks on the other hand …