In the years following the 2013 debut of Adult Swim’s cartoon phenomenon “Rick and Morty,” its star and co-creator Justin Roiland became a titan of the animation and video game industry and a rock star of youth counterculture. His artistic style and caricatures became ubiquitous in cannabis culture, and his career expanded into producing other animated series, creating NFTs and leading a virtual reality gaming studio. In 2017, a “Rick and Morty” collaboration with McDonald’s led to such a viral frenzy that police had to be called to at least two locations.

But as he partied with Los Angeles’ superstars and traveled the country for conventions, he also found he could use his fame to strike up conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage. This is according to interviews with 11 women and nonbinary people who shared thousands of messages with Roiland from 2013 to 2022 — with nine of the people saying he turned the exchanges sexual. Of those nine people, three said they were 16 when they started talking to Roiland. To corroborate their stories, the 11 women and nonbinary people also shared pictures, videos, social media posts, emails, and plane ticket and Uber receipts with NBC News.

Warning: Lengthy and graphic details

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[–] 214 points 3 years ago (35 children)

"Young" could be misinterpreted as 18. "Underage" is the right word.

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  • [–] 87 points 3 years ago (21 children)

    Yeah, this story needs way more precision than it has.

    "Were 16 when they started texting him". Ok, well how old were they written the allegations occurred, and what is he alleged to have done?

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  • [–] 69 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    The imprecision is by design. Modern journalism is trash.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago

    Not to defend it, but in situations like this I think they have to be vague for legal reasons. There's a fine line between reporting the news and defamation (regardless of how true it is).

    It's bullshit, and people will use defamation and lawyers to attack people accusing them. But I can see why you'd want to be extra careful how you worded the title.

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  • [–] 46 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Seems like he waited until they were 18 before meeting them, although he would send sexually-charged texts to women as young as 16.

    Roiland usually asked people how old they were, if they were single, and if they were “into girls.” In three cases, when the person said they were under 18, Roiland would message them again months or years later. Those three conversations started with people who said they were 16 at the time, and continued for years, until they were 18 and older.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    Literally in the second paragraph of the article and the summary at the top of this post.

    But as he partied with Los Angeles’ superstars and traveled the country for conventions, he also found he could use his fame to strike up conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage.

    The article then goes on to discuss his conversations with underage fans. The article uses "young" because his conversations with of-age but teenaged fans were also bad.

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    [–] 147 points 3 years ago (37 children)

    From the article, really buried: "Roiland usually asked people how old they were, if they were single, and if they were “into girls.” In three cases, when the person said they were under 18, Roiland would message them again months or years later. Those three conversations started with people who said they were 16 at the time, and continued for years, until they were 18 and older."

    After reading the whole article it doesn't seem like he did anything sexual with anyone under 18. My takeaway is that he's a creep, abuses his fame and power (part of a big club there), he's manipulative, and he plies underage people with alcohol to get them to sleep with him, but it appears he's not a pedo. Or at least smart enough not to get caught.

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  • [–] 58 points 3 years ago (20 children)

    Not a pedo, just a regular rapist. Talk about low bars.

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  • [–] 145 points 3 years ago (18 children)

    Don't mistake my comment as a defense of him as a person. He's been accused of domestic violence, forced oral sex, and taking advantage of intoxicated women under the drinking age. Despite him getting off on the DV charge, where there's smoke, there's fire. He's obviously a pretty terrible human being.

    I just don't like people throwing around 'pedo' unjustly, because it waters it down and takes away the impact when used against even worse monsters.

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    [–] 117 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Man, why’d he have to be such a fuckin’ gross creep? Why couldn’t he just have been creative and weird and depressed?

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  • [–] 46 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    If you add funny to that list you get Dan Harmon.

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  • [–] 62 points 3 years ago

    Dan Harmon was super problematic in his own way. His difference was he apologized to the people he wronged in a way that they accepted, and seems to have changed his behavior. His change in behavior seems to be part of what left Justin out to dry as Dan no longer came to work intoxicated, but Roiland just kept doing it.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    Well the subtype of funny that Rolland had (and Harmon still has to a degree) had was from being creative and weird and sad. Smart, dark, absurdist, existentialist humor. I think that’s a pretty reasonable way to roll it up.

    Edit: crossed the names up, derp

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  • [+] 97 points 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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    [–] 56 points 3 years ago (13 children)

    This really has me wondering how many people are doing the same thing but haven't been caught.

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  • [–] 36 points 3 years ago* (4 children)

    A person who otherwise wouldn't be noticed suddenly getting attention they never received thrown at them can easily abuse it if they don't control their behavior with a moral compass, which is becoming less and less a priority. When something feels good, many indulge. When you overindulge, you justify. When you get good at justifying, you can make anything okay in your head. If you don't have a line drawn, it's wild how far people will go... he went way too far and he should endure the consequences.

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    [–] 55 points 3 years ago

    Aww geez, Rick.

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  • [–] 43 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    Glad to see more reporting on this. The way they swapped out Roiland's voice in Solar Opposites was absolutely perfect, it really hasn't lost anything imo.

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    [–] 42 points 3 years ago

    Grooming is more than just convincing a minor to not tell their parents.

    The actual definition is grooming a minor for a later sexual relationship (not fully restricted to them still being a minor)

    As with any scummy/horrible behavior, there are levels of scum/horribleness.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    Fucking disgusting, I will never understand people like this.

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    [–] 25 points 3 years ago

    What a cringe lord.

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  • [–] 24 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    I just assume anyone remotely famous is some kind of foul person behind the scenes.

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    [–] 20 points 3 years ago

    Imagine being so lucky that you become a household name off of animation of all things but then deciding to do exactly what John K did. At least Rick and Morty won't go the way of Ren and Stimpy. Not yet, anyway.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago

    He knew he could take advantage of the fans. What an ass.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago

    I just watched a great documentary on YouTube about Ren and Stimpy and it's fucking sad how similar the story with John K is as well. I should think there's some obvious lessons about not giving immature manbabies unlimited power in here, but it'd be nice if somebody actually learned them!

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Didn't this story already come out like a year ago? Adult swim fired him

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago (26 children)

    I never liked him much, but I had no idea he was a pedo.

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    [–] 16 points 3 years ago

    The summary did that thing like when FBI agents find a 800 TB harddrive containing a possibly CSAM photo and the media says they found 800 TB of CSAM.

    Did he take a conversation with a sub-18 year old to a sexual place? (or not excuse himself from an email gone sexual with someone under age?) I literally mean yes he did take it sexual or no he did not take it sexual or It was not clear from the messages.

    There is a difference from acknowledging sex is a thing and propositioning a teenager for sex, but at this point, I don't care. If you are a man or a woman, etc., just devalue the experience of younger people and don't talk to them. They'll be fine with it eventually.

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