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
“Young” could be misinterpreted as 18. “Underage” is the right word.
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?
The imprecision is by design. Modern journalism is trash.
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.
Eeeeeexactly
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.
So did he actually groom them? Because the way this is written it sounds like he asked them their age, and then waited for them to be legal, which is creepy, but I wouldn’t call it grooming.
Lmao age of consent laws don’t mean it isn’t statutory rape.
Legal expert spotted
They totally do. By definition. What do you think the “statute” in “statutory” is referring to?
Tshh it’s when you rape a statue silly.
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.
The fact that these women and enby folks were underage is like the most important part of the story. Calling underage girls “young” and not correctly calling them underage in the title of the story is called burying the lede.
Justin Roiland used his ‘Rick and Morty’ fame to pursue young and underage fans, text messages show would have been a better title.
For most people, except apparently many in this thread, “young” heavily implies underage. When character limits matter, it’s okay to start by saying “young,” which is accurate, then clarify further in the article.
Lemmy has an unusually high concentration of people who have an inability to understand context.
For example, every joke, the top comment is “I don’t understand, can someone please explain?”
I tend to give jokes a pass. Humor is often contextual and cultural so some jokes really do require an explanation.
Per the article, he explicitly did not pursue underage fans, though.
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.
Talking about the title
Still creepy if not illegal at just above 18. Turns out he was more than just creepy though.
“Underage” in which locale, and for what? If you’re referring to age of consent, 16 isn’t underage in most places, as it shouldn’t be.
Fuck off pedo
What makes you right and a lot of the rest of the world wrong? Why is 18 the right number instead of 16?
I’m not arguing with a pedo
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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Lmao
Aww geez, Rick.
This really has me wondering how many people are doing the same thing but haven’t been caught.
Didn’t this story already come out like a year ago? Adult swim fired him
that story was to do with him being charged with assault and unlawful imprisonment
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!
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.
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.
No fucking shit what do you these writers think celebrities have been doing since the silver screen came out.
One last people for the shlubs in the fucking back.
This Country Runs On Money And Power Period.
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This is so QAnon-adjacent as to be laughable
Cute attempt at a gaslight, rich people don’t spend as long in jail as compared to the rest of the world, if they even get time and not just a slap on the wrist that’s facts not some bullshit pizza parlor copy pasta.
Great job standing up for criminals.
The elites aren’t drinking kids blood.
Nobody said they were, you’re reeeeeally bad at gaslighting and should probably take up another hobby
This is not what gaslighting is. Words have actual meanings.
You continue to dodge the point, which is that the rich do not receive the equal and just punishment.
You continue to press strawman points but because you chose to target QAnon nut jobs, I made that very reasonable jump.
Best of luck with your Bobert jerk sesh, sycophant.
It’s wrong to kink-shame. I didn’t kink-shame you over your conspiracy theories. I just informed you that they’re nonsense.
And before that it was, being of a certain “status” with power and wealth.
Yeah. It’s kind of gross, but whole genres of porn are barely legal 18-20 year olds. Sounds like that’s what he’s into. And he went about it in a very creepy way unlike Leonardo DiCaprio that uses the prestige of the model and hollywood industry.
Sounds like he is into 16 years olds to me.
Yeah, but it sounds like he waited until they are 18.
Oh, so it’s OK then 👎
Legally, yes.
That doesn’t make it much better…
Well it makes it legal. So that’s empirically better.
Well obviously it’s better legally. It’s pretty terrible from a moral standpoint though.
Legal is significantly better than illegal
Did you read what I wrote below?
No I read what you wrote above.
Having read the below now, I do agree with this
Well obviously it’s better legally. It’s pretty terrible from a moral standpoint though.
Fucking an adult, and a teenager are not the same thing.
Yeah. Fucking a 18 year old that is pretending to be 15 is creepy, not criminal.
If they are 18 or 19 it is the same thing.
What mentality do you think someone who only chases 18 year old girls has? If the age of consent was lower, they’d go lower.
But it’s not lower and he didn’t go lower. I think he’s a creep. Just not sure he’s technically a pedophile or doing anything super illegal based on the article. And being into 18 year olds isn’t that out there. Just look at porn, strip clubs, the model industry, film industry etc… Also, not sure if he only chases 18 year olds. That was just the topic of the article about the 18/early 20s.
not gonna lie, after reading the article, there’s not a lot there. I understand that people can be put in positions where they feel like they “have” to say yes, but they literally don’t? I think this is more of a case like Louie C.K. These guys are likely autistic and lacking the ability to really clue in on social cues. Guys that have always been unattractive and lacking in attention from women, suddenly has all the attention of women! So they do dumb stuff, that they should have learned not to do when they were young, but again, nerds gonna nerd, and nerds have not always been celebrated like they are today. I think he just going through a slutty phase because he finally can. from his texts he doesn’t come off as a predator, but as a person who’s so used to being told “no,” that he doesn’t know what to do with himself or how to act once they started saying “yes.”
I think this is more of a case like Louie C.K
You tell me you say that the guy who literally waited for women in their dressingroom naked and started to masterbute as they walked in was just “lacking the ability to really clue in on social cues”.
I don’t know anymore with these apologists like you. Are you trolling or really this misguided?
If I remember correctly he asked them first and wasn’t just in their room naked. They just felt they couldn’t say no because he was in a position of power.
Although I think this is a little different because it involves children who may think they know what they are doing but don’t fully understand yet. So a little different
Can you cite where CK was accused of that? I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but most of what I saw indicted he asked but the woment felt like they had to say yes.
I thought he invited the women to his room, and never tried to force them to show up or stay. I’m not trying to defend Louis, the most charitable thing you can say is that it was creepy and weird AF. But If there is more to it, this is the first I’m hearing of it.
What JDW wrote is what he was accused of. I don’t know what else you read that didn’t mention those direct allegations.
That doesn’t excuse the underage thing.
These guys are likely autistic and lacking the ability to really clue in on social cues.
My wife is autistic, that’s not how autism works. You may be bad at reading social ques, but that doesn’t mean you don’t understand rejection, or that you don’t understand that you shouldn’t be prowling for underaged women. Most of the times its just not picking up inflections of voice, or they don’t know if theyre reading people’s facial expressions correctly.
So they do dumb stuff, that they should have learned not to do when they were young, but again, nerds gonna nerd, and nerds have not always been celebrated like they are today. I think he just going through a slutty phase
Kinda sounds like youre equivocating powerful old dudes grooming kids to boys will be boys…
his texts he doesn’t come off as a predator, but as a person who’s so used to being told “no,” that he doesn’t know what to do with himself or how to act once they started saying “yes.”
The simple fact that he’s talking to several 16 year old about sex is predatory in and of it’s self.
Maybe its because I’m closer to his age than most people on here, but the thought of chatting up anyone close to 16 years old is fucking gross. I have nothing in common with a sixteen year old girl, he has nothing in common with a sixteen year old girl.
He just a gross asshole, and anyone who defends him because you like the same shitty played out subculture… is also a gross asshole.
If I did what I did as a kid now I would find myself an asshole
You’re joking… right?
JFC, you know it’s bad when you use GPT to summarize the article and it thinks you are violating policy.
Whys it talking about 11 people? The hell are the other 8 alleging?
This is journalism
UNACCEPTABLE!
