Disgraced CNN anchor Rick Sanchez has claimed to be the inspiration for the identically named character in hit animated series Rick And Morty.
Speaking on his podcast, Sanchez – who was fired from CNN’s Rick’s List in 2010 for making disparaging remarks about Jon Stewart and suggesting that Jewish people controlled the media – pointed out that Cartoon Network and CNN are owned by the same company.
Sanchez also presented a home video from Rick And Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, filmed around 2006, in which Roiland and a friend perform a sketch in which they turn on a news programme that features a masked news anchor, also played by Roiland. “Hello, I’m Rick Sanchez,” he says, “and welcome to the seven o’clock news.”
“In some ways, it’s kind of flattering that a famous cartoon character is now named after me or has my name,” Sanchez said on Rick Sanchez News. “But it’s also really frustrating. Because it’s kind of like my name was hijacked, right?”
Watch the clip below.
“It seems to me they knew exactly who I was at the time,” Sanchez continued. “Either that, or it’s one of the biggest coincidences that could have ever of happened.”
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However, as Entertainment Weekly noted, Rick’s List premiered in January 2010 and was cancelled later that year, meaning that Roiland’s video was made several years before Rick’s List first aired. Rick and Morty launched in 2013.
“When [CNN] fired me, they gave, or allowed, my brand and name to end up on a cartoon character,” Sanchez added. “Maybe there’s a part of me here that should be flattered, but then again it kind of sucks when you wake up one day and everything you ever worked for to create, your brand, your name, is gone.”
In May, meanwhile, Adult Swim announced that an anime spin-off of Rick And Morty is in development.
Takashi Sano (Tower Of God) will direct the 10-episode series titled Rick And Morty: The Anime. Sano previously directed two anime shorts based on the show, Rick And Morty vs. Genocider and Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil), which have amassed more than 10million combined views on Adult Swim’s digital platforms.