Dan Harmon: 'Community' Mastermind Apologizes For Season 4 Comments
Community showrunner Dan Harmon has apologized for the Season 4-bashing comments that he made on his podcast "Harmontown." Harmon, after promising not to trash the fourth season of Community, compared the season to a bad impression and said it was like "being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach."
In a blog post, the formerly ousted/ currently reinstated creator of NBC's cult favorite backtracked some statements he made in the podcast, calling them "very un-Community." He apologized first to the fans and then to the cast and crew.
"It was dishonest to imply that something you worked on was as hard to watch as my family being assaulted," he said. "I was riffing and tried to turn darkness into levity through shock and hyperbole. I was very much not thinking about anyone but myself while watching that season, which was the crime. I hope over time you'll forgive me."
He also took out a special section to apologize to everyone for making a rape joke, taking on the concept of "rape joke" as he did so.
"This is a subject that is, and should be, insanely volatile and provocative, because it combines the words "rape" and "joke." It puts them right next to each other, it's like putting a running chainsaw next to a puppy, it's just not something you can walk past without getting disturbed and invested. Does anyone think rape is funny? I hope not. Do we become more progressive culturally through the mitigation of inappropriate language? I don't know, it's sure worth continued discussion, if you feel strongly one way or the other you should come up on stage at the next Harmontown. In the mean time, I am deeply sorry to anyone I hurt by using the word "rape" in a comedic context. I am sorry to anyone I hurt by conjuring the concept of rape in a metaphor about my stupid hurt feelings. As you saw above, unless you skimmed this blog entry for the word "rape," I was not thinking about the impact of my words on the people that love Community and work on it. So I hope you can believe me when I tell you I was definitely not thinking about the impact of that word on people that are currently seeking to get it out of comedic contexts. I'm very sorry to have hurt and frustrated you and I will definitely be swayed from the use of that word in comedic contexts because I don't like hurting people and as an added bonus, I don't like getting yelled at on Twitter. Especially when the people yelling have phraselike "rape joke" on their side. It's kind of hard to think of oneself as being "pro rape joke." Don't want to be that guy. Done and done."
What do you think of Dan Harmon's apology?