We all know Mr Poopy Butthole as a friend to the Smith family who was shot by Beth when she mistook him for a space parasite. After all, he fit the profile: a cartoonishly silly character that Beth could only remember fondly. However, when a parasite becomes injured, it immediately reverts to its true form and bleeds out in a matter of seconds. When Mr Poopy Butthole is shot by Beth, he remains somewhat composed, and is able to coherently communicate his pain. After receiving medical attention, he lives and undergoes physical therapy. It's fairly clear that he is not a parasite.
However, there definitely is reason to believe that he is somehow associated with the parasites. First of all, while the Smith family believes the memories implanted by the other parasites to be real and thus has difficulty telling who is real and who isn’t, the audience knows who the parasites are because their adopted personas have never existed in previous episodes. Mr Poopy Butthole is the same, having never appeared in any episode up to that point. Second, he at first tries to get Rick to ignore the potential infestation, saying “Maybe you got the first one in time, Rick.” These two facts alone, combined with the fact that the family has no bad memories of him, should be enough to at least create a shadow of a doubt. However, the most important connection is in the way the parasites multiply.
One parasite allows others to spawn by triggering a flashback to a memory involving other characters, the forms of whom are taken by the new parasites. After the Uncle Steve parasite is killed, the next one comes in the form of Cousin Donny from Brooklyn, who appears as a result of a flashback of the family being stuck in a stalled elevator. Though Rick kills Donny almost immediately, a flashback is still triggered which spawns Mr Beauregard, who then spawns Photography Raptor, Frankenstein’s monster, and Pencilvester, and the parasites multiply exponentially from there. But the first flashback, the one that allowed Cousin Donny to appear and begin the spread, was triggered by none other than Mr Poopy Butthole when he compared Rick’s locking down of the house to another time the family had been stuck somewhere together: the elevator shaft, from which they were all rescued by Cousin Donny. Indeed, it was Mr Poopy Butthole who appeared in the series at the same time as the parasites, it was he who wanted Rick to ignore the potential threat they posed, and it was he who started the chain of events that allowed them to overrun the Smith home.
Given that Mr Poopy Butthole’s appearances are limited to that episode, the season two finale, and a brief cameo in Morty’s Mind Blowers, I can mostly only speculate from here. However, we do know with certainty that Rick Sanchez has lots of enemies. Perhaps Mr Poopy Butthole is one such, who either changed his name and appearance so Rick wouldn’t recognize him, or simply removed Rick’s memories of their animosity when he implanted the fake memories in Rick. Perhaps, like the Galactic Federation, he is merely a being seeking to dominate everything, and sees Rick as his primary threat. In either scenario, infesting Rick’s current version of Earth with parasites seems like a good way to oppose Rick indirectly.
But, like I said, that’s all speculation. There is, however, one more piece of evidence to suggest that Mr Poopy Butthole is far more dangerous than he seems, and it is found in his appearance in the second season finale. You see, throughout the series, we see Rick C137 demonstrate a variety of powerful abilities, from stopping time, to traveling between dimensions, to turning himself into a pickle. However, he possesses one ability that is especially unique, surpassing even his most powerful foes. Not his Morty, nor the Gromphlamites, nor Fart, nor Evil Morty, nor even the other Ricks on the citadel can break the fourth wall and acknowledge the audience the way that Rick C137 can. Rick does this frequently, in premieres, finales, interdimensional cables, and even multiple times in the parasites episode alone. Only one other character in the entire series possesses this ability. That’s right, Mr Poopy Butthole, at the end of the season two finale, breaks the fourth wall. Not only does he address the audience like Rick is wont to do, but he takes it a step further as he is actually watching the episode on TV when he does. Rick seems to be aware of the fact that he’s in a TV show, but Mr Poopy Butthole can actually be on the outside looking in.
Now, it would be easy to say that these are coincidences. His similarity to the parasites was done intentionally for the sake of humor. His fourth wall break was simply a tool to build hype for the next season. These aren’t impossible. However, in a show where jellybeans are child rapists, violent half-alien monsters grow up to be best-selling authors, and major plot points go unaddressed for an entire season before coming back in an extremely significannt way, I would not put it past Harmon and Roiland to have implanted this seemingly innocent and unimportant character only for him to later be revealed as a major antagonist. Perhaps even the greatest antagonist of the series.
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Edited by Cobravert: 9/20/2017 1:58:36 PMI can't denounce any if your theory. I see where you are getting your ideas from and it does all make sense in regard that the show creators really reach far outside the confines of any single episode to create this Rick and Morty universe. Not to mention Morty having to defuse the bomb (s) "multiple" times as he did during the Vindicator episode, we had no prior knowledge of.
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I don't understand the appeal of that show
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What the actual -blam!-.