The Morning Watch: 'Rick And Morty' Prank Call, 'Stranger Things' Character Introductions & More

(The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.)

In this edition, Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland prank calls Joel Osteen's church in Texas completely in character as the perpetually drunk but brilliant Rick. Plus, a video essay looks at how characters are introduced in the first season of Stranger Things, and a new episode of The Dan Cave looks at why video game movies typically suck.

While appearing on the H3 Podcast recently, Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland prank called Joel Osteen's church in an effort to speak to the famous preacher who didn't immediately open up his church to Hurricane Harvey victims until some people made a big stink about it. Roiland gets through to the church's prayer line, in character as Rick Sanchez, and this somehow results in the woman speaking to him in tongues. It's strange and hilarious.

A new video essay from Karsten Runquist explores how skillfully and cleverly Netflix's series Stranger Things introduces the characters. The way that a character is introduced hints at what their role will be for the rest of the first season. Right off the bat it's impressive to see how quickly we get a sense of what kind of characters the young boys at the center of the story really are and how they will interact with each other as the series goes on. Watch the entire video for more insight.

Finally, Dan Casey from Nerdist has delivered a new episode of The Dan Cave where he examines why video game movies have consistently been terrible ever since the subgenre first kicked off with the abysmal Super Mario Bros. back in 1993.