I'm not gonna go as far as to say that Rick and Morty is a show for idiots and assholes but one thing I will say is that Rick and Morty is a show about idiots and asshole, a lot of which see themselves in it because they feel like it's portraying them sympathetically. As someone who actually pay attention to the things he watches I'm well aware that Rick isn't supposed to be an inspirational character by any means but on occasion I feel like it's something the writer tend to forget. Not always, mind you, when they do play off of that is when the show comes closest to being more than shallow parody of various science-fiction properties whos defining feature it is to be worse at it than Futurama. But most of the time it's hard not to roll my eyes at it.
The reason why it's so dang tempting to miss that Rick is actually an awful person is because of how rarely he ever faces consequences. In any other show he'd make a really fun villain. A competent but ruthless and irresponsible mad scientist who's given in to his most selfish urges, coming out acting like... well, an overgrown fratboy with a god complex. In Rick and Morty he's a protagonist and he gets away with most of what he does.
Let's take one of my favourite cartoons for comparison: Venture Brothers. One of my pet opinions I like to annoy people with is claiming that Dr. Venture is Rick done right. They're pretty different characters in a lot of ways for sure but they do cover some common ground. Both are mad scientist with questionable ethics, both act as the parental figures to two teenagers which they recklessly endanger, both have major substance abuse issues, both never learned to take responsibility for their actions. The key difference is that Rusty Venture is a failure. His entire life is pretty much the logical and realistic consequence of his actions. He's a washed up, bitter loser in the shadow of his much more talented (though, as a person, even more awful) father and his even more talented (and, as a person, much better) younger brother. Being a failure is what makes Rusty likeable. When he does manage to score a victory you're actually somewhat sympathetic because, as bad as a person he may be, he does deserve a break once in a while. Rick, most of the time, is portrayed as an escapist character who gets away with most of what he does. There are a lot of people who are very eager to idolize an awful person if that person does the things they wish they could do. That makes him an inspirational character for assholes and very dislikeable one for people who actually want to see him get his comeuppance which he practically never gets.
The reason why it's so dang tempting to miss that Rick is actually an awful person is because of how rarely he ever faces consequences. In any other show he'd make a really fun villain. A competent but ruthless and irresponsible mad scientist who's given in to his most selfish urges, coming out acting like... well, an overgrown fratboy with a god complex. In Rick and Morty he's a protagonist and he gets away with most of what he does.
Let's take one of my favourite cartoons for comparison: Venture Brothers. One of my pet opinions I like to annoy people with is claiming that Dr. Venture is Rick done right. They're pretty different characters in a lot of ways for sure but they do cover some common ground. Both are mad scientist with questionable ethics, both act as the parental figures to two teenagers which they recklessly endanger, both have major substance abuse issues, both never learned to take responsibility for their actions. The key difference is that Rusty Venture is a failure. His entire life is pretty much the logical and realistic consequence of his actions. He's a washed up, bitter loser in the shadow of his much more talented (though, as a person, even more awful) father and his even more talented (and, as a person, much better) younger brother. Being a failure is what makes Rusty likeable. When he does manage to score a victory you're actually somewhat sympathetic because, as bad as a person he may be, he does deserve a break once in a while. Rick, most of the time, is portrayed as an escapist character who gets away with most of what he does. There are a lot of people who are very eager to idolize an awful person if that person does the things they wish they could do. That makes him an inspirational character for assholes and very dislikeable one for people who actually want to see him get his comeuppance which he practically never gets.