r/rickandmorty • u/ho0iubjh99 • 1d ago
General Discussion Rick and Morty takes place in Muskegon, Michigan.
In the 5th episode of the 1st season of Rick and Morty Beth reveals that She is from Muskegon, Michigan. There is very little evidence that the Rick and Morty family have moved to different cities on earth. The Rick and Morty family have only moved to other universes but not cities.
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u/_Index_Case_ 1d ago
Justin confirmed in an interview that the Smith family live in the Pacific Northwest (suburb outside of Seattle).
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u/Wambamslam-n-go 1d ago edited 17h ago
There’s no Shoney’s in the PNW
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u/UsedEgg3 23h ago
I thought the suit guy asked them to drop him off on their way home? So it wasn't necessarily in their home state. I figure if Rick can travel the universe, dropping someone off anywhere on earth is the equivalent of us dropping a friend off the next street over.
FWIW, there's no Shoney's in MI either. I looked up the locations on their website, it goes as far west as OK, as far north as KY/OH, as far east as VA, as far south as LA. So basically it's in the bible belt.
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u/Beneficial_Ball9893 23h ago
What if Rick had the family meet him in a Shonies when the bugs were reading his mind as a test, because there are no Shonies where they live?
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u/GingerlyRough I am Floop Floopian. You know what to do. 15h ago
There is a Shoney's though, at least there probably is. At the end of the pickle episode they talk about going to Shoney's. I can't imagine they'd cross state lines in a normal car just for some nostalgia.
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u/Wambamslam-n-go 23h ago
Fear hole was in a Denny’s not Shoney’s.
But yeah I didn’t know it was a real place until I found two down south and looked up locations, neither Seattle nor Michigan fit the bill
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u/twilc 21h ago
I live in Ohio and have never been to a Shoney's. We have those here!?
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u/copperhead035 12h ago
I went to Shoney’s in my Ohio home town as a kid. No clue if it’s still there, haven’t been back in the last decade
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u/NyneHelios 2h ago
The only shoney’s I’ve ever been to (and also ever seen in my life) was along the highway in southern West Virginia
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u/HermionesWetPanties 4h ago
Shoney's fell under the umbrella of Big Boy for a number of years, and regionally, they may have been known as something different depending on wear Rick was from. My mom still refers to Big Boy as Elias' Brothers. Shoney's left the 'Big Boy' brand in 1984.
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u/Ok-Consideration6973 23h ago
Or muskegon
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u/Wambamslam-n-go 23h ago
I wasn’t supporting OP’s point just reaffirming that Justin was retconning this specific thing without really thinking when he said Seattle
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u/GalKatteDamEditing 13h ago
Then they throw us again in (I believe) the decoy episode. One of the Summers says, "I knew we weren't Colorado people!" One of the decoys, but still threw me for a loop for a second lol
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u/Substantial-Air-8627 1d ago
Beth grew up in the house though.
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u/panicnarwhal 20h ago
she didn’t grow up in the house they live in currently - we saw that house in Solaricks (season 6 ep 1) when Rick got transported back to his original reality, and it’s a completely different house than the Smith house
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u/7CostanzaJr 9h ago
Huh yeah that makes sense, after the Needful Things ass kicking, but I swear I heard a line in earlier season reffing US southwest. Idrc tho, I'm just along for the ride.
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u/ho0iubjh99 1d ago
Maybe there will be an episode of the Rick and Morty family living in Muskegon. I don't recall Rick and Morty mentioning living in Seattle.
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u/_Index_Case_ 1d ago
They've made mention of being from multiple places over the seasons. In the decoy family episode (Mortiplicity I think is the name of the episode) Summer says something along the lines of "I knew we didn't seem like Colorado people."
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u/ho0iubjh99 1d ago
I believe that it was only that specific decoy family that lived in Colorado. I believe that the writers expressed anti-colorado sentiment.
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u/jesusmansuperpowers 1d ago
Nobody has ever had “anti Colorado sentiment”. It aint Texas
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u/TheAbstracted 20h ago
Funnily enough, being from Texas I can assure you that "anti Colorado sentiment" is in fact a thing in certain circles around here. (Anywhere preceived as "radical leftist" really, which plenty of locals absolutely label Colorado as)
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u/jesusmansuperpowers 11h ago
Meanwhile reality exists. Colorado was totally red 20 years ago, and in fact people are mostly the same. The difference is that politics in general have moved so far right.
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u/Boobieleeswagger 1d ago
You’re right they’re all decoys but the joke is about Colorado people being outdoorsy health nuts that wear gorpcore, or Texan transplants
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u/masterjon_3 1d ago
Her house growing up is not the same house she lives in now. We even see Solaricks Rick's original house where everyone is trapped in time when Rick had the bomb go off killing his wife and his Beth.
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u/Badmaru 1d ago
Rick and Summer got buffed up and beat up a guy by the Space Needle if I'm not mistaken.....
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u/mathozmat 20h ago edited 16h ago
Not "a guy", the devil (who also said "thank you Seattle" before Rick and Summer interrupted his presentation)
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u/Subject_Command5442 1d ago
My God, people have a wealth of information at their fingertips, yet can’t do a simple search to verify anything.
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u/zubadoobaday 1d ago
Thanks for the link. Buddy above literally said the same thing regarding the state of residence and folks still tried to argue with him. Crazy.
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u/Grazmahatchi 1d ago
Jerry and Beth met in high-school. Jerrys mom flew in to see him in the fortune cookie episode.
So wherever they are, it isnt driving distance to Muskegon.
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u/sentienthammer 1d ago
Why can’t Jerry’s parents have moved? I always imagined them in a retirement home in Florida with their bf lol
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u/ho0iubjh99 1d ago
I believe that the Rock and Morty family might have connections to the Midwest. The writers likely mention Muskegon due to Muskegon being a medium sized city in the Midwest.
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u/Xrmy 1d ago
All this means is one of the writers thought Muskegon would be funny. It could mean one of them has a connection there but that says nothing about the characters themselves
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u/MCgoldbody 1d ago
yeah, i always thought the muskegon reference was from proximity to dan harmon’s native dearborn and milwaukee-area roots.
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u/Natty_Dread_Lite 14h ago
In the episode where Rick and Morty get their toxins removed, the redhead health Morty is dating at the end says “you really aren’t a 14 yo boy from the Midwest…”
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u/Greeve3 1d ago
They live in the Seattle suburbs.
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u/Time-End-5288 1d ago
Its referenced if not shown in several episodes, starting with the Cronenberg episode. I don’t know what the debate is. I know this and I’m a very casual fan.
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u/fliberdygibits 1d ago
There's an episode where rick opens a portal in his garage and they zoom out to an indiana jones style map to show the poral around central california before the little line shows them traveling east.
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u/ho0iubjh99 1d ago
I believe that the writers of Rick and Morty want the place that the smith family lives to be like Springfield from the Simpsons. The writers want to keep the location of the Smiths to be ambiguous.
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u/ExternalBookkeeper55 1d ago
But also while claiming it takes place in somewhere specific?
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u/ho0iubjh99 1d ago
Yes.
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u/NamelessMIA 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted for the actual right answer. The show is never going to give us an actual location for the Smiths but if you track clues to where they live you're left with either "pacific northwest" or "impossible city that exists in multiple states at once" depending on which info you prioritize vs which you ignore. Just like the Simpsons.
Edit:
The Simpsons live in a place that's close to forests, oceans, mountains, and cities. It experiences all seasons and has a nuclear plant. Depending on how you want to treat things like their version of the 4 corners being 5 corners of states that don't touch, then you can determine that they're either in washington/oregon or they're in a fictional state that doesn't exist.
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u/ExternalBookkeeper55 1d ago
Because they're the OP and posted a thread about them being from Michigan.
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u/NoRegion2871 1d ago
They live in Seattle. Aside from the creators explicitly telling us this, there are plenty of obvious landmarks throughout the show to back this up. For example, in Season 1 episode 9, in the after-credits clip, where Summer and Rick are working out to get muscular to fight the devil, after they beat him up, they get a cup of coffee at the base of the space needle.
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u/whiskeythreeniner 1d ago
There is a youtube video about who is the real Beth and the think they live somewhere around Seattle.
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u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit 1d ago
The show explicitly shows us that the Smiths live somewhere around Seattle. There are multiple shots where the shot zooms out from the house and shows they live in that area.
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u/tahcamen 1d ago
They lived in Michigan when she was growing up. That’s all they said in the show. As other people have noted, the show creators have said the family lives outside Seattle now.
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u/socomeyeballs 1d ago
I was in Grand Haven today like 15 minutes away from there. Cool. Even if it’s not the case.
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u/GrandRabies 1d ago
Well Gene was around during Beth’s childhood and is still their neighbor. Beth is from Muskegon so I feel like that tracks
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u/MillenniumTitmouse 1d ago
Correct me if I’m mistaken, I’ve never seen snow in any of the Rick-n-Morty episodes, so unlikely they are in Michigan, but possibly in PNW.
(I know they get snow there too [Seattle area], but Muskegon gets buried most winters)
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u/D3D0T4T3D_WAM_2004 1d ago
There was snow in the first season christmas special with Jerry’s parents so you’re super wrong
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u/TQ257 1d ago
they move and hop dimensions and have decoy families in every city of the US. Does the actual city they live in actually matter? Its so weird that fans of the show care about these little details, the actual town they live in doesn't matter or have any impact to the show in any meaningful way
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u/MedicalComposer2 13h ago
You're not wrong. With all the dimension hopping, the actual physical location is pretty irrelevant. Fun to speculate, but it doesn't really change anything about the show.
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u/Green-Elf 13h ago
More than a foot underground, just about anywhere in Muskegon, you'll hit sand. The fact that the buried bodies in the back yard never hit sand means that this is incorrectl.
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u/TheCaptainRaider 4h ago
Surely if Jerry takes Beth to the Milwaukee Symphonic Orchestra, they’re in a Wisconsin suburb? Or at least in a neighboring state?
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u/CrashJP6 1d ago
Being from Muskegon and loving the show, I lost my mind a bit when they said she was from there. Like, I have heard nearby cities mentioned in shows or movies, i.e. Grand Rapids, Detroit, Lansing, etc., but never heard Muskegon, so that was very cool
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u/Citizen1135 1d ago edited 1d ago
Beth's birthplace in Michigan is one data point.
From Rick's accent, I would put his hometown somewhere NE/Midwest, potentially Michigan, but probably a little farther south, as this would help explain his love of Shoney's.
But even so, I think they have to portal to a Shoney's when they go, because I think they would have to unless they were pretty far south, especially to "tie one on" as they said in Pickle Rick episode.
They do seem to be near DC, because of how many times there are helicopter rides between the Whitehouse and the Smiths.
It occasionally, but not often, snows with quite a bit of accumulation, so it can't be very far south, for sure.
When they are trying to escape the night family, most of the road signs are generic, but they pass one sign with an arrow to get to "Highway 120."
As far as I know, there is only one highway 120, in California.
Summer has a thick Californian accent, too think to be from the Midwest, imo, increasing the chances they come from the west coast.
The President could fly in on a helicopter from an airport closer to the west coast, so I have to lean on the highway 120 sign. I don't think they drove from Michigan to California overnight.
Possibly from Washington state, as others are adamant about, but that's still pushing it.
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u/rustyxj 13h ago
Summer has a thick Californian accent, too think to be from the Midwest, imo, increasing the chances they come from the west coast.
West Michigan doesn't usually have the typical Midwest accent.
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u/Citizen1135 13h ago
My bad, i was trying to cram too much in without fully explaining because it was already too many words imo.
Tbh, I don't know the Michigan accent, but I suspect it's more of what I think of as the Great Lakes accent, like Chicago and Buffalo, I assume Detroit.
Rick doesn't have full on that, but close enough that I would put it somewhere southwest of Buffalo, western Pennsylvania to Ohio, possibly further into the midwest.
I could see a midwest white suburban teen talk somewhat like Summer, but Summer's is pretty heavy.
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u/rustyxj 11h ago
It's not like Chicago at all.
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u/MrHockeytown CAAAAAAAAAAAANNN DOOOOOOOOO 13h ago
I've been to Muskegon, it's a lot more grim than Rick and Morty's town lol
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u/Groundbreaking_Can70 1h ago
Don't we see the house Beth grew up in when rick is telling his back story
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u/KingDarius89 1d ago
They're near LA. Jerry takes an Uber home from the movie studio after Rick and Morty ditch him while fucking with James Gunn.
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u/SamuelYosemite 1d ago
They might be from there but that doesnt mean they never moved. If they were high school sweethearts, in one episode Jerry’s Mom still had to get on a plane to get where they were. Probably better odds that the parents never moved.