Earthworm Jim

The 1994 sidescrolling run-and-gun Earthworm Jim, to me, is the prototypical High on Life (it has spent the majority of its life on online browser emulators, which is why I’m counting it here). I can only explain this by imagining that some aspect of being a wise-cracking worm has resonated with men prescribing to the U.S.’ interpretation of masculinity for nearly two decades. We need to figure that out.

But the character Earthworm Jim does not have time for introspection. He’d prefer to flop around his empty, skinny pink scalp and win. He was a normal worm until a high-tech bodysuit gave him muscles and sentience, and gameplay involves gunning down characters like Doc Duodenum, a mucousy piece of intestinal tract, trying to pursue poor Princess What’s-Her-Name, who is too much of a girl to earn a real name, and navigating levels like “Buttville.” Yeah, this is Rick and Morty 1.0 made worse by its transphobic, Breitbart-contributing creator

Its crass creativity is worth remembering and discussing, though. That’s how we figure out how to keep what made Earthworm Jim initially fun and enticing in newer pieces of media while cutting out its bad attitude, something that has unfortunately endured in culture. Interplay is also trying to make it into a TV show. Rick and Morty 3.0.