The President

Recurring fictional U.S. President in Rick and Morty.

President Andre Curtis, first known just as The President, appears in Rick and Morty and stars in his own spin-off, President Curtis. Voiced by Keith David, he has a rocky relationship with Rick Sanchez, sometimes seeking his help and other times trying to destroy him. With a pompous, abrasive style and amusing incompetence, the character earned positive reviews and became playable in Pocket Mortys in December 2022.

Quick Facts

Series

Rick and Morty; President Curtis

Creator

Wes Archer; Tom Kauffman

Designer

Justin Roiland

Voice

English: Keith David
Spanish: Angel Balam
Anime: Fuminori Komatsu
ja
文法コマｓつ (Japanese); Shawn Hamilton (English)

Species

Human

Affiliation

The Pentagon
United States Congress
United States Marine Corps

First

"Get Schwifty" (2015; Rick and Morty)

Gender

Male

Facts from the source article.

Development

The President first appeared in the 2015 Rick and Morty episode "Get Schwifty," where Wes Archer and Tom Kauffman created him as a generic, unnamed stand-in for Barack Obama. By September 2017, Dan Harmon explained that writing for the end of season three, which overlapped with Donald Trump's campaign, was shaped by "the idea of a cartoonishly bad president." This led to a different portrayal in "The Rickchurian Mortydate," contrasting the original and reflecting "how out of control presidential power has gotten." Keith David provides the character's voice; he had previously voiced a fictionalized version of himself as Vice President in Saints Row IV and also played Reverse Giraffe in the season two episode "Total Rickall."

Biography

The President of the United States first appears in the first season episode "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" while Rick Sanchez is stuck in a holographic simulation. An ambulance arrives with paramedics shouting that the President is having a stroke and needs ten CCs of concentrated dark matter to survive. This is part of a scheme by Zigerion scammers to trick Rick into giving up the recipe. Only the President's simulated hand is visible under a sheet. In the second season episode "Get Schwifty", the President meets Rick and his grandson Morty Smith at the Pentagon after they teleport in to explain that a giant alien head called a Cromulon has appeared over Earth, disrupting gravity and causing disasters. The Cromulon demands a live performance of a catchy new song or the planet will be destroyed. The President orders Rick and Morty to write a song to save everyone, and after they succeed, he declares them heroes. In "Lawnmower Dog" and "A Rickconvenient Mort", Summer Smith mentions that Barack and Michelle Obama were previous presidents, meaning the current President took office after them. In the third season finale "The Rickchurian Mortydate", the President has called on Rick and Morty many times before. He asks them to eliminate an alien creature in the Kennedy Sex Tunnels under the White House. When they refuse and leave, he has them arrested while they try to make first contact with a tiny civilization in the Amazon rainforest. The President shrinks himself to meet the aliens but finds Rick and Morty have already dealt with them. He then declares war on the duo. Rick agrees to leave their reality for good in exchange for another one, on the condition that Morty gets a selfie with the President. Rick indirectly kills most of the Secret Service agents, leading to a long fight with the President that ends in a truce. In the fourth season premiere "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", Rick finds himself in a cloned body in a fascist dimension and briefly sees a signed photo of his counterpart shaking hands with the President's counterpart, signed "M. Romney". In the fifth season episode "Mortyplicity", the President is told by his staff about the Smith family decoys killing each other across America.

In other media

In the comic "Close Rick-counters of the Drippy Kind," which takes place on May 31, 2017, the President shows up at the Smith home seeking Rick's input on how to handle the "space racists" known as Spatio 5 Culus. The Galactic Federation had already cleared their armada to invade Earth. Instead of listening to Rick, the President follows the advice of Jerry Smith, Rick's son-in-law. Within ten minutes, Jerry gets into a fight with the aliens' leader. When the President learns that Congress could not stop his poor choice of using Jerry because they were busy at Capitol Hill, he sends Jerry home. Rick then wipes out the alien race. Once the crisis is over, the President returns to the Smith house to thank Rick, saying "We owe you one, baby!" before heading off again. In "Rick and Morty: Wormageddon," a living episode that aired before and runs at the same time as the season six premiere "Solaricks," a different version of the President goes to a party at the Smiths' place and later teams up with his dimension's Rick to defeat one of the invading worms. In December 2022, the President became a playable character in the video game Pocket Mortys. He also appears as a minor antagonist in the comic limited series Crisis on C-137 and has a supporting role in the story arc The Space Shake Saga.

Reception

Critics have generally responded well to the character. Inverse called the President a "petulant manbaby who can't take criticism or disobedience" in "The Rickchurian Mortydate," viewing him as a Donald Trump stand-in when compared to his earlier appearance in "Get Schwifty," and declared his final fight with Rick Sanchez "the single greatest action sequence in Rick and Morty history." Vulture found the character "anachronistic," while IndieWire noted that the feud between Rick and the President works because "each of them think they're too good at their job," describing their interactions as "a subtle jab at the rest of the TV world" and praising Keith David's vocal performance for handling the presidential shame list with the same joyful enthusiasm as shouting "You suck!" Reason highlighted the political commentary on the "imperial presidency" and "how out of control presidential power has gotten," appreciating that the show avoided modeling the President on any specific real-life figure, making it "a stinging commentary on the office itself." Screen Rant called the President "a welcome addition as a great antagonist for Rick and sometimes ally," hoping their rivalry continues to expand. Variety, however, criticized the character's increased role in season five, arguing that "Rick and the President messarounds have never actually been the most interesting or exciting plots," though it expressed interest in a future appearance exploring a romantic connection between them.