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
Text messages in this Misinformation age are worth shit. Videos can be fake, where not even professionals can tell the difference and AI is on the rise. All legal charges against him where dropped and the accusators admitted that they made it up.
The domestic violence charges against him brought forth by his ex were dropped, the accusations of child abuse and assault have not be dropped and are currently ongoing. As far as I can tell no one has said that they “made it up,” including his ex. The domestic violence charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, which can be hard to prove 3 years after the fact, when he was acquitted. If you have anything to show something contrary, I’ll gladly read it, but if you don’t, please don’t add your voice to the “misinformation age.”
What about the plan tickets and the receipts ?
What about no evidence that he did something illegal? He can fly where the fuck and buy and sleep where he wants. That’s no evidence of anything.
He is not the first nor is he the last pedo using power who is hiding in plain sight in the animation industry. Bring them all down.
The article says that he waited until they were 18. While I don’t condone his using his celebrity / wealth / power to coerce young women / people into sexual scenarios, he doesn’t appear to be a pedo. Stop diluting the meaning of the word.
Pedopologist
What a truly stupid article.
Darn right! I sure didn’t need an article to tell me Justin Rolland was a child groomer, I could’ve guessed that.
He knew he could take advantage of the fans. What an ass.
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that story was to do with him being charged with assault and unlawful imprisonment
This really has me wondering how many people are doing the same thing but haven’t been caught.
Everyone is doing that. That’s the whole point of being famous.
Women DM famous people all the time and randomly fuck them. I personally some that have done it. They are just like meet me at this hotel.
Which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with, provided both parties are over 18
No one is upset that he fucked fans, there upset that he at least tried to fuck underaged fans.
Frankly if you don’t see a difference, I’m scared for you
Oh muricans… Have to be 18 to fuck and have to be 21 to drink. The hell is wrong with you, prudes?
Found Polanski’s account.
Plenty of folks arguing now that literally any imbalance of power is unacceptable – I’ve heard people argue that it is also not time-limited. So rich people can’t fuck poor people, a professor can’t ever fuck a former student even if they meet years later at a conference, and don’t even think about workplace romance ever again if you are talking about college educated folks. The insane rules mean that you’re only allowed to date someone precisely the same as you in every way. These are the same cis het allies that helped alienate and target the trans community through absolute absurdity.
The comment chain didn’t imply any of what you said about my comment. You’re putting words in my mouth, I’ll leave it at that.
A person who otherwise wouldn’t be noticed suddenly getting attention they never received thrown at them can easily abuse it if they don’t control their behavior with a moral compass, which is becoming less and less a priority. When something feels good, many indulge. When you overindulge, you justify. When you get good at justifying, you can make anything okay in your head. If you don’t have a line drawn, it’s wild how far people will go… he went way too far and he should endure the consequences.
I think getting to be super famous is much easier if you have no moral compass to begin with.
Or a successful politician
I contend it’s not that it’s less of a priority but rather we’re (as a society) getting better at collecting evidence, identifying un aceptable behaviour, and taking people seriously when they present an accusation. I firmly believe humans have done and do worse all the time.
I agree, actually. It’s actually unreasonable to think people were any better or worse before, there’s always good and bad… The difference is what’s accepted by the rest of us. Great response, I appreciate it!
You’re only just now wondering this?!
I’m gonna get downvoted for this, but it’s always funny to me how modern society “forgets” that men are literally biologically programmed to be attracted to girls are soon as they start looking “old enough”.
And guess what, that doesn’t magically happen when they turn 18, it often happens at a younger age.
And no, that doesn’t mean men should flirt with and date young girls. I’m just trying to say it’s biology. It’s science. Facts even.
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This guy right here, officer.
You’re getting downvoted because it’s irrelevant and honestly quite creepy to bring up. There’s plenty of shit people did in the distant and not so distant past that isn’t ok today because we now know better.
Rockstars would literally brag about shagging a high schooler. Different times and vibes. We know better now that it’s predatory and we should move forward advancing society with that knowledge.
In addition he’s getting downvoted because this is fucking sexist bullshit. In non-sexually repressive environments most kids get sexually attracted to other kids irrespective of their gender fairly early. Arguably girls might get there a couple of years earlier, arguably. And so throughout the gender spectrum people don’t fuck despite their attraction because they have heads on their shoulders as you rightfully point out.
You do realize people have the ability to not act upon every urge right
So who cares? You’ve got a brain for a reason
I think there’s too much sexual supression, especially through religion. The 2nd largest serial killer in the world was a paedo because he knew he liked boys at a young age but due to Christianity having a big emphasis on don’t be gay, he suppressed those urges and they came back out later in life, except he was still attracted to the boys at the age he realized he was gay.
Girls can look “cute” but if you’re well integrated into society in the first place, you can find them attractive, but not sexually attractive if that makes sense.
I think there is too much sexual suppression in the US. Here in Denmark the age of consent is 15, and I honestly think it is a much safer place for my daughter than the US.
Same here in Slovenia. I have two early teenage daughters and will have no problem with them being responsibly sexual with partners of same age or a couple years older when they are 15 if they want to. We will talk about everything of course. In america there seems to be some cognitive dissonance - everything is sexualized but also forbidden.
Yo, so why am I attracted to 30’s-ish taller women with bush and armpit hair that also look like they could crush my bones?
Don’t start pulling biologically programmed out your ass when describing your own tastes.
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.
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.
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And before that it was, being of a certain “status” with power and wealth.
JFC, you know it’s bad when you use GPT to summarize the article and it thinks you are violating policy.
Have fun in prison, creep
What is the crime?
Statutory rape at best, and pedophilia/rape or SA at worst.
He lives in California. You’re citing wiki articles about age of consent laws in other states when the only states law that matters is where he resides and where the assaults allegedly took place. Allegations seem to mostly or all take place in California. Showing the age of consent and statutory rape laws of Ohio mean nothing in CA.
In CA, age of consent is 18. Some of the women and people were 16. So he is a pedophile.
In CA, age of consent is 18. Some of the women and people were 16. So he is a pedophile.
According to my reading of the article, he would wait to meet said women until they were 18, and I don’t know enough about the law to know if sending sexually charged texts to 16-year-olds counts as a crime in CA. I don’t suspect it does.
all around impropriety, [n]o doubt it.
but yeah, legally this appears to be rather flimsy, although i thought there were new laws on books for grooming. not sure how they operate tho.
Why suspect anything when you could just iunno LOOK IT UP?!
“As noted, sexting with a minor is illegal even between two minors, regardless of whether they gave consent. Under Penal Code 288.2 PC, it’s a crime to send, distribute, or offer, using electronic communication, harmful matter to a minor with the intent to sexually gratify, seduce, or arouse.”
You know IANAL but that sure as fuck sounds like it’s illegal to me
Well then why victims ain’t going to the police?
Do you say that about all rape victims that don’t report their rape? Are we victim blaming now?
only the ones that asked for a trial by the public instead of using proper legal process
“She’s lying because she let everyone know about it” is a weird way to victim-blame.
Rape victims don’t go to the police for a variety of reasons, even if they tell everyone about their rape. Maybe you trust the police, but many people don’t.
You keep saying victim blame… nobody has done that in this posts.
You are being disingenuous while attempting derail any discussion.
Not victim blaming. If someone went on a date again and asked for money, then I find it a little hard to believe that they were a victim at all.
If you think people never end up staying with the person who raped them, you know nothing about this entire subject.
It’s not airtight proof, but if it happens on the first date and they come back for more several times, that would push me a bit towards ‘reasonable doubt’.
If it about someone who has been married 15 years and has 3 kids with the guy it is a very different situation.
Trial by social media is far easier. And he doesn’t get a to mount a defence. It’s like the shortcut for those in the know.
No doubt there is some impropriety here.
But the brain dead mob got mobilized on some vague claims…
Where did alleged rape occur? Was stat or forced?
It’s right in the article. Forced a woman to perform oral sex. She was not underage at the time. He ‘apologized’ later via text, saying he thought she wanted to be forced (I’m paraphrasing, but it’s still gross). It’s still rape.
I didn’t realize he got off on the DV charges.
There are many reasons sexual assault victims don’t come forward. It’s not exactly easy to face the person that raped you in court. Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t matter in the court of public opinion. There’s been enough smoke around this guy for me to write him off without a conviction.
Any number of reasons. Trials of a public figure will forever brand you as “that person who was raped by X”. Not to mention the incredible imbalance in legal resources of a regular person vs Justin Roiland.
Well, the worst crime alleged in the article is rape.
Such allegations should be made to the police/prosecutor.
This is just PR.
Oftentimes police do nothing when people report sexual assault and rape. Bringing these things to public attention can sometimes be the only way to bring awareness to what happened. You can decide to not believe the alleged victims but there’s nothing wrong with them coming out with allegations.
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!
Danny Masterton 2.0.
Also, John Kricfalusi 2.0.
I don’t think so. Masterson seems like straight up rape. Roiland seems like a creep. Maybe a groomer, but I don’t know if it’s worth watering down the really horrendous groomers.
He’s a creep who regularly took advantage of his fame to manipulate young women into sex. And it looks like in at least one the manipulation went both ways.
He deserves to be fired. He deserves to be known as a creep.
From the article, really buried: “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.”
After reading the whole article it doesn’t seem like he did anything sexual with anyone under 18. My takeaway is that he’s a creep, abuses his fame and power (part of a big club there), he’s manipulative, and he plies underage people with alcohol to get them to sleep with him, but it appears he’s not a pedo. Or at least smart enough not to get caught.
No he’s a pedo that just barely skirts the law so he doesn’t get gang raped in prison.
Not a pedo, just a regular rapist. Talk about low bars.
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Don’t mistake my comment as a defense of him as a person. He’s been accused of domestic violence, forced oral sex, and taking advantage of intoxicated women under the drinking age. Despite him getting off on the DV charge, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. He’s obviously a pretty terrible human being.
I just don’t like people throwing around ‘pedo’ unjustly, because it waters it down and takes away the impact when used against even worse monsters.
Even the “forced” oral sex seems really suspect.
But he should have been able to read the situation as well as anyone. If she seems to be setting a trap, maybe don’t fall for it?
Either way, the dude seems to be tiptoeing around the borders laws that nobody should be near. Dude’s sitting and watching the clock for when his prey turns 18. Even if he might comply with the letter of the law, he’s clearly violating the spirit.
16 is not prepubescent which is what pedo is there is another term for teens but i forgot.
The only people who care about this distinction are pedophiles / whatever that term is.
No, by grouping children in with postpubertal humans who engage in age appropriate sexual acts you downplay pedophilia. You’re an idiot and you insist on being one.
Lmao a 16 year old being hit on by a 30 year old is not age appropriate sexual acts, it’s about mental maturity
You’re saying fucking a two year old is the same as fucking a 16 year old you sicko. I never mentioned 30 years anyway, you’re also putting words into my mouth.
The term is “ephebophilia”
Now you’ve read my comment
Now you know what that term is
Now you’re a pedophile
It’s that easy! See you in Thailand!
I said people who care about the distinction, not people who know the term
lol whatever pedo
Ephebophilia I believe. He’s also a groomer, how fun…
Libertarian?
You say he abuses his fame and power. I don’t really see and power accept money and fame. If people are attracted to fame and power, then why should he not be allowed to use his? Why is that different than a woman who shows off her breasts to get a date?
You don’t see why unbalanced power dynamics lead to abusive situations?
So you are saying that all golddiggers are automatically victims now because there is an ‘unbalanced power dynamic’?
Yes, that’s what OP is saying.
So now I have to feel sorry for girls who choose to only date old millionaires? Crazy…
Welcome to 2023. Accountability went out in the 90s.
I don’t really get the people that bitching about using their fame to get laid either. Are we only allowed to date within our own social class? If they’re being coercive, yea, that’s a problem but it’s possible to have a relationship without coercion.
I’m not defending this dude but the problem with him was that he was pursuing minors not that he was famous and successful.
This is textbook grooming
“Hey how old are you?”
- “16”
(ends conversation)
That’s not grooming.
Those three conversations started with people who said they were 16 at the time, and continued for years, until they were 18 and older.
This is a quote from the comment you’re responding to… It IS textbook grooming. He didn’t stop talking to them when he found out they were underage.
Except he didn’t end the conversation. Read the article, fuckwit
You kiss your daddy with that mouth?
Only below the waist
According to the screenshots shared by Twitter user @/MartyAmericaUSA, Roiland asked the minor to run away from school and go into “sx slavery.” He also allegedly addressed her as a “ft btch,” called her “jailbait,” and said she would go into “cam w*ing” once she turns 18.
A Facebook user called Janna Waters also claimed that Roiland texted on Twitter when she was 16 and called her “insanely hot.” The user also alleged that the Rick and Morty co-creator allegedly had a “predatory scout” named Christy who used to find “young girls who looked a certain way” for the creator.
No, dude’s a pedo. “Starting the conversation” with someone who’s underage then waiting til 5 minutes after their 18th birthday to make a move doesn’t make you not a pedo, it makes you a pedo who doesn’t want to go to prison. Even then, there are at least two documented cases where he didn’t wait. Because he’s a pedo.
And continued for years is the key.
He made sexually explicit comments to minors for years. And solicited pictures? That’s solicitation of child pornography
The guys a pedo. Rather or not he gets charged with something related to under age girls, we’ll see.
Fucking disgusting, I will never understand people like this.
That’s a man in a position of power
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AMIPOPAB
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All Men In Positions Of Power Are Bastards
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So the only thing stopping you from doing stuff like this is power?
Glad to see more reporting on this. The way they swapped out Roiland’s voice in Solar Opposites was absolutely perfect, it really hasn’t lost anything imo.
“This is what my voice sounds like now. I don’t care if it’s jarring, get over it. And that Voice Changer Ray had chronotons in it, so this is what I’m gonna sound like in flashbacks too. You got a problem with that? Then tough shit, it’s called science!”
Wait, he was voiced by Roland? I thought they were just taking a shot at Roland and Rick and Morty, that’s 10x funnier
I still fucking laugh thinking about it.
It was so unexpected for me that they would make a change to a hoity British accent and just run with it like nothing happened.
Brilliantly handled. I’m actually looking forward to how they are going to make the change for Rick and Morty now.
They’ve said that they’re using soundalikes for R&M, so no British Rick.
Not just any hoity British accent, that’s Dan Stevens. Main character in Legion if you’ve seen that show.
Maybe a cockney British accent. Oi Mor-y iss time for nother venture get in da car cunt.
It’s an adventyah, innit?
What the the hell was that supposed to be? It sure as hell isn’t cockney. There’s not one bit of rhyming slang in there.
