Rick And Morty Episode Debuts Online Ahead Of TV Broadcast – Via 109 Instagram Videos

The Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland-created show Rick and Morty, which loosely parodies the extremely unlikely and bizarre relationship between Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd’s Dr. Emmett Brown, has returned to its online roots with an advance airing of this coming Monday’s new episode. The twist? To watch it, you have to watch 109 separate Instagram clips at 15-seconds each.

The half-hour series normally airs on the Cartoon Network at 10:30 ET/PT on Mondays, but this time the network has taken the unusual tack of releasing the episode in its entirety in advance on the Rick and Morty Instagram account, Variety reports. Instagram introduced video sharing last year, but users will recall that they also limited total clip length to just 15-seconds max when they did so, emulating Twitter-owned competitor Vine with a focus on brief clips.

The experience of actually watching this on Instagram is surreal, but not as odd as you might think. Rick and Morty, if you haven’t seen it, is a highly frenetic comedy that features a lot of non sequitur and barely makes any logical sense plot-wise even if you’re watching it in an unbroken, half-hour streak. Plus, this episode was clearly designed to be consumable in bite-sized increments, which is in itself a noteworthy approach to marketing on Instagram.

In the end though, this is probably more pomp than circumstance, so don’t expect it to become a habit. But if you aren’t watching this show yet, this is a good enough excuse to start.