There’s this thing genuine skeptics are supposed to do when confronted by potential pareidolia or other forms of pattern-matching chicanery: investigate the raw evidence before hearing the interpretation. If instead you’re prompted beforehand exactly what to expect when, for example, “Stairway to Heaven” or “Better by You, Better Than Me” is played backwards then you’re liable to sue Judas Priest for Satanism. You’ll hear the words you’ve been told can be found among the electronic noise, like with ghostly electronic voice phenomena.
Well, it’s too late for me and the secret code that supposedly points to the premiere date for Rick and Morty Season 3.
Several animated GIFs of Mr. Poopy Butthole were posted amid episode clips, holiday well-wishes and all the other social media jetsam to be found on the Rick and Morty Facebook page. Taken separately, each pic looks like innocent, playful social media ephemera:
But did you perhaps see something more? Is there a pattern here? A pattern that points to the Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 1 premiere?
According to pixelpushing on the Rick and Morty subreddit, there’s an embedded code. Deciphering it is fairly straightforward, just treat Mr. Poopy Butthole as if he’s playing a game of charades with you.
Any luck?
Here’s what pixelpushing reads:
“ Repeat name [---?---] [---?---] watch for reveal. Ready, steady…”
So what are we supposed to watch for the reveal? The OPs preferred interpretation is that we’re meant to watch repeats of Season 1 episode “Raising Gazorpazorp” set to air on Adult Swim Dec. 18 to learn about the Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere.
This interpretation jives nicely with an image from the episode “Anatomy Park” posted to the Rick and Morty Instagram with the caption “It’s lit,” spurring speculation that Season 3 could premiere on Christmas.
Yes, this all seems highly circumstantial. But maybe pixelpushing is onto something. Mr. Poopy Butthole has long been a Season 3 oracle of sorts. For over a year we’ve set our watch to this Season 3 release date prediction offered by Mr. Poopy Butthole at the end of Season 2:
If anyone were to hint at an imminent Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere, it’d be ol’ Poopy.
And yes, the GIFs really do seem to call for simple, one-word interpretations. Perhaps we just haven’t decoded them yet. Perhaps there are more GIFs to come. Recent speculation has lead us to believe that new episodes of Rick and Morty won’t premiere this year. But it sure would be nice to believe otherwise…
Motivated reasoning and pre-processed pareidolia is a powerful trap. Either the Rick and Morty Facebook page is revealing the Rick and Morty Season 3 release date or we’re all falling for the Adult Swim equivalent of that face on Mars. Or maybe the real truth is something even stranger...
