Jerry Smith is the ex-husband of Beth Smith, and the father to Summer Smith and a deceased Morty. Though, he currently acts as the father, and son-in-law, of the Morty Smith and Rick Sanchez from Dimension C-137, respectively. Jerry always tries to think of the best interest of the family, but his attempt to be the patriarch of the family can often be misguided by his self-centered nature. This causes him a great deal of conflict with Rick, as his father-in-law clearly has no respect for him whatsoever.
Appearance
Jerry's hair color is brown. He wears a dark green shirt, with a brown and beige stripe in the middle. He also wears light blue long pants and black shoes.
Personality
Jerry can sometimes become misguided by his insecurities. He frequently battles with bouts of insecurity and jealousy, being constantly reminded that his marriage is on rocky terms. He also has a habit of quitting when things get too difficult, which became problematic when he tasked a Mr. Meeseeks with helping him to improve his golf game.
In the episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes," Jerry's insecurities lead to helping Morty on a science project, to which he refuses to concede that Pluto is no longer a planet. This results in him and Morty being abducted to Pluto. Once on Pluto they are greeted by King Flippy Nips and other Plutonians who hail Jerry as a 'confirmation-bias' scientist. Jerry's popularity on Pluto quickly goes to his head, giving him an inflated ego but ultimately he tells them that Pluto is not a planet after realizing his relationship to his son is more important than being "right."
Despite Jerry's weaknesses, he has the ability to channel the inner strength to face his fears, such as directly confronting the army of Mr. Meeseeks, fighting off the mutated Cronenbergs, and destroying his and Beth's Mytholog's. He is also a film/TV shows geek ("Mortynight Run").
He eventually took a stand against Rick's behavior towards the family, apparent manipulation of Beth's father issues in order to live rent-free and his frequently putting the children in danger. He told Beth that it was him or Rick which led to the two deciding to divorce.
Relationships
Rick
Jerry and Rick hanging out on the couch.
Jerry constantly finds himself lacking compared to Rick's intelligence and resents him to a degree. Torn between wanting to disdain of Rick's adventures and join in and gain his father-in-law's approval. Jerry's life is frequently affected by Rick's shenanigans like the Meeseeks Box, the parallel reality goggles, and Rick's machine that can stop time.
Rick makes Jerry feel insecure about his intelligence and his marriage, causing Jerry to overcompensate in his efforts to prove he is better than Rick, though never successfully.
One of Jerry's insecurities is that his children look at Rick more favorably than him. One such instance of this is in "Something Ricked This Way Comes", when he sees Morty asking Rick for help with his science project rather than him, and insists that science fairs are traditionally "a father-son thing". He becomes angrily defensive when he thinks Morty is going to ask Rick if Pluto is a planet.
Jerry puts up with Rick to a degree because he knows how much it means to Beth that Rick be in her life after being absent for so long, and Rick, despite being constantly condescending toward him, does the same for Beth's sake.
Rick takes Jerry on a pity adventure during in The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy. It seems that they start to get along until Rick finds out that Jerry was involved in a plot to kill him. Rick and Jerry have an argument when Jerry is swallowed by Gibble Snake. Jerry blames Rick that he took his family. Rick tells him that he was the first one to take his family when he impregnated his daughter. He tells Jerry that Beth "lost options because she felt sorry for Jerry." According to Rick, Jerry acts as prey but is a predator who uses other people who feel pity for him. Jerry seems to admit that Rick is right. Jerry later tries to act less cowardly even though he is unsuccessful. The ending of the episode seems to imply that their relationship improved.
Morty
Jerry and Morty working on a science fair project.
Jerry loves Morty and only wishes for his success, academically and romantically. Jerry is often shown jealous of the time Morty spends with Rick at one point even apologizing he not as smart as Rick.
While Morty seems aware of his father's faults, he loves Jerry in return. In Something Ricked This Way Comes, Morty fully admits that while Jerry isn't as smart as Rick, he states that Jerry is genius at being his dad which causes Jerry to smile.
Beth
Jerry and Beth met in high school and had unprotected sex on prom night, resulting in Summer's conception. Afterwards, the two got married and had Morty. Their relationship is very rocky and strained, due to the fact that both of them missed out on fulfilling their dreams due to poor decision-making when they were younger. Their relationship is further strained by Beth's relationship with her father, Rick, and her willingness to let the family put up with his antics. Jerry seems to still love Beth quite a lot, and tries hard to keep their marriage together, but finds Rick's frequent insults about their relationship hard to ignore.
In "Rixty Minutes", Jerry and Beth both get to see an alternate version of themselves in a different reality, and find themselves unsatisfied with their current lives, eventually deciding that splitting up would be inevitable. However, the alternate Jerry and Beth eventually realize that they are miserable without one another, and get together after years apart. Seeing this renews Jerry and Beth's relationship and they opt not to split up.
Despite this revelation, the two of them continuously bicker with one another, to the point it got on Rick's nerves and he sent them to an outworld marriage consoling facility in "Big Trouble In Little Sanchez". It was stated by two different characters at the facility that they have "the single worst marriage" they have ever seen as the two hate each other and, yet, they still cooperate. However, once again, they managed to resolve their differences for the time being and pulled together to survive, including their marriage (which Beth afterward stated would last at least until Morty graduates high school). Still, after Jerry's bad decisions in "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", he is mostly belittled by Beth throughout the season finale episode.
Jerry does not consider Beth's profession as a horse surgeon to be all that big a deal, but tries not to mention it.
In "The Rickshank Rickdemption", Beth divorced Jerry, wanting to have Rick close to her, instead of being married to someone who hates him. His reaction to this was never seen.
Summer
In "Look Who's Purging Now" Jerry tries bonding with her. He attempts to create conversation, only to be dismissed by a moody Summer. Later, he succeeds, and talks to her about how much he enjoyed raising her and is proud to be her father; later revealed to be a trick to get Summer to loan him money to get his job back at the advertising company, Haas & Milan.
He does show some parental protectiveness being hurt when Summer reveals she has had a boyfriend, Ethan, for some time and has not informed him of the relationship and then being upset as the two blatantly make out in front of him.
Doofus Rick
Jerry and Doofus Rick playing with Lego bricks.
Jerry becomes friends with Doofus Rick in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", as Doofus Rick is not as intelligent or sarcastic as the other Ricks. Doofus Rick genuinely enjoys spending time with Jerry, and Jerry even goes as far as to suggest killing his version of Rick so that Doofus Rick could take his place. After Doofus Rick leaves, Jerry is extremely upset.
Sleepy Gary
In the episode, "Total Rickall", the Smith's house was infested by parasites that embedded memories into their heads so they can eat, sleep, and multiply in their homes. Sleepy Gary, one of the parasites, pretended to be Beth's husband, cheating on her with Jerry. Jerry and Gary were in a secret romantic relationship ever since their "cruise". Their relationship seems to imply the possibility that Jerry could be bisexual. But Sleepy Gary, and all his memories with the Smith Family turned out to be fake, and the parasite pretending to be Sleepy Gary was killed.
Appearances
Season 1
- "Rick Potion No. 9"
- "Raising Gazorpazorp"
- "Rixty Minutes"
- "Something Ricked This Way Comes"
- "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind"
- "Ricksy Business"
Season 2
- "A Rickle in Time"
- "Mortynight Run"
- "Auto Erotic Assimilation"
- "Total Rickall"
- "Get Schwifty"
- "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez"
- "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate"
- "Look Who's Purging Now"
- "The Wedding Squanchers"
Season 3
- "The Rickshank Rickdemption"
- "Rickmancing the Stone"
- "Pickle Rick" (mentioned)
- "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy"
Trivia
- Jerry majored in Civics in college.
- He has an "antique" coin collection that pictures R2-D2 instead of George Washington. He claims that Beth hates him for buying the coins in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind."
- In "Ricksy Business," it is heavily implied that Jerry was sexually assaulted earlier in life.
- Jerry is a big RMS Titanic fan, as he goes on a Titanic-themed romantic getaway with Beth in "Ricksy Business," and has a picture of the Titanic on his study wall in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind."
- He appears to be left-handed.
- Jerry's car is a green 1973 Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon.
- It is revealed in "Total Rickall" that Jerry is possibly bisexual, as he had fabricated a romantic experience with Sleepy Gary in a flashback.
- In "Mortynight Run" one of the Jerrys whose Rick never came back wore the same outfit as Jerry in the season two finale episode, "The Wedding Squanchers".
- One of Jerry's testicles is larger than the other. This is briefly mentioned at the beginning of Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate, when he is asked to donate his penis to function as a heart for Galactic Civil rights leader, Shrimply Pibbles.
- Jerry has appeared in every episode except for "Pickle Rick" and "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender".
- In The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy Jerry admits that he once wondered what it would be like to have a vagina.
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