Careercow Dan Harmon - Creator of Community, co-creator of Rick and Morty, and barely functional alcoholic

Baffledking said:
Can't disagree with that, and your definitely right about how he has characters deliver dialogue.

To avoid this just devolving into sperging about the show though there were some things I remember from the podcast I don't think were brought up yet.
(I listened to a ridiculous amount of it and I can't be arsed to go back and find the specific episodes, never again...)

His weird obsession with a particular mannequin leg and putting panty hose on it, and rubbing his nipple with its big toe. I only remember this because it came up more than once. I think a dog chewed up the specific one and he tried to get his assistant to find a replacement of the exact same model. (He talks a lot about his fetishes on the show and is very open to elaborating on them. I think mannequins and panty hose in general he digs.)

Bought a real doll to keep him from getting into more relationships and emotionally abusing the women till she leaves. Apparently didn't leave his apartment much during this time. Says he had some poor assistant get rid of it once it was used up.

That's all I got that's really notable, it's been a long time since I worked my way through the podcast and I only stopped once he kept sperging out on trump non stop. If anyone knows more or wants to dig feel free to clarify/correct me.
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Yeah this was brought up earlier in the thread and the mannequin shit predates Harmontown and is brought up early in Channel 101. There's even a scene in one of his shows where he's doing it, I forget which one though. It might have been Laser Fart. It's the weirdest thing because he's so open about it and even included "easter egg" references in Community.
I also listened to a lot of Harmontown, right from when it launched online right up until around episode 110. I even paid actual money I worked for to see it live. I had to give up on it. I fucking hate Spencer Crittendon and people could probably make a whole thread just about that sperg. Also Kumail, the human arced eyebrow, pisses me off too.


Baffledking said:
Finally I'm pretty sure he got into a fight with some chicks that ran a fan group for community around the time he came back to the show. (Live on Harmontown) They were basically arguing that they love community and don't want it be ruined with Dan being an asshole. Dan's responses were mostly dismissive and coming down to "I'll just keep being an asshole and there really is nothing you can do about it." I think they both resigned from running the group afterwards.
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You've gotten to the core of his pathology and it could be explained with other examples too, but this is it: Dan hates "bullies." When he goes on an anti-government rant and an anti-Hollywood rant, it's because he sees them as bullies. The problem is, he sees his fans as bullies too. Anyone who tries to "tell him what to do" is an enemy to him. How do we know this? Because he has said it many times. Early in Harmontown he probably says it every second episode. I think he said it in exactly those words too, "I hate people telling me what to do." Like a fucking child.

He is an asshole to people because he thinks everything that isn't praise is someone trying to control him, or destroy him. I don't think he consciously does it most of the time, but this is how fucking insane he is. "You're going to tell ME not to be an asshole? Well FUCK YOU, SUIT!" He snaps on people regardless of the preamble they have, you could write a whole paragraph explaining you're a fan of the show and tell all your friends and are obsessed with whatever, but if you even briefly mention that you don't agree with such and such he will make an example of you on Twitter. Being drunk 24/7 probably doesn't help either.
 
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Doug_Hitzel said:
It’s so weird. He’s calm and fairly together on video and audio, but a complete sperg on social media.
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It's Aspergers. They're all like that. In real life they're deadpan mumbling sarcastic druids, but online they are the most pretentious assholes you'll ever see. I'm convinced one of the symptoms of having Aspergers is a massively inflated ego. If the autism spectrum was LGBT they would be the bisexuals. Nobody likes them and most people don't think it's real and they're more trouble than they're worth.
 
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Rekkington said:
Funny, that's actually my least favorite part. And I'm not saying that because I'm trying to shit on Dan, the dialogue is where everything falls apart on that show for me. The thing is, I can tell exactly where Dan's influence comes in, and it's where the characters just make an emotional dump and explain where they are mentally. They act like their own instruction manuals. I like Dan Harmon because of his promotion of Joseph Campbell's work, but he is the enemy of "show, don't tell." He loves deigning random characters the ability to explain the entire story or universe at any given time. Any time Jerry decides to grow some balls and become enlightened and behave totally out of character, that's Dan doing one of his Harmontown rants about how he thinks it all works.

I know this is probably a realization others have made, but it hit me the other day that R&M is just a really hamfisted, shittier Futurama. All the things I liked about R&M were done better in Futurama, and done funnier, with better characters, and better storylines. And it still had that wild "you can do anything you want" feel. Except - get this - every planet isn't full of aliens modeled after dicks and pussies! And they could do their seasons on time! And they didn't build entire episodes or plotlines around shitty "ironic" voice acting!
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The other thing about is that Harmon, much like Joss Whedon, gives off the distinct impression that a lot of his praise seems to stem from taking credit by omission for other people's work, and when he actually has to work on his own he falls back on all his usual writing crutches as if to say "remember that thing you liked that I worked on?" in lieue of new ideas.
 
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Rekkington said:
It's Aspergers. They're all like that. In real life they're deadpan mumbling sarcastic druids, but online they are the most pretentious assholes you'll ever see. I'm convinced one of the symptoms of having Aspergers is a massively inflated ego. If the autism spectrum was LGBT they would be the bisexuals. Nobody likes them and most people don't think it's real and they're more trouble than they're worth.
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This is probably the most accurate way I would describe Asperger's people I have both met in life, and worked with. Honestly the ones who have it more together and had some therapy when they were younger can actually pull of the sort of lovable deadpan snarker, but as soon as you trigger them they can go off on tangents about anything
 
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acceptable said:
people will go on and on about how autism and Aspergers are behind the worlds best art. and that creativity is just a natural gift they all have. not only is that not always the case, but there are plenty of studies that prove that they often have a harder time with being creative.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10478731

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022163403479
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Talking primarily from experience working with them, usually when they are creative they have a hard time getting out of that "mental zone" and can't really switch between being creative and looking at the real world
 
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http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...-harassing-community-writer-article-1.3752204

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What is it about Dan Harmon being able to illicit so much sympathy where even when he admits that he took advantage of his position to harass a female co-worker for not sleeping with him; but then he gives the most half-assed and self-serving apology ever, even the chick who was on the receiving end of his shit will go "well at least he admits he's an asshole!" when Harmon's entire history indicates his admissions to assholery are simply hand waves to excuse himself from consequences as he pulls the same exact shit five minutes later.

Everything I've seen of Harmon shows he has about 0 charisma, and once you know his formula and schtick his work is predictable and average at best, so what the hell is it about him that has even the people he treats like garbage defending him when way more influential people in his industry have been strung up for less?
 
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One Man Bland said:
What is it about Dan Harmon being able to illicit so much sympathy where even when he admits that he took advantage of his position to harass a female co-worker for not sleeping with him; but then he gives the most half-assed and self-serving apology ever, even the chick who was on the receiving end of his shit will go "well at least he admits he's an asshole!" when Harmon's entire history indicates his admissions to assholery are simply hand waves to excuse himself from consequences as he pulls the same exact shit five minutes later.

Everything I've seen of Harmon shows he has about 0 charisma, and once you know his formula and schtick his work is predictable and average at best, so what the hell is it about him that has even the people he treats like garbage defending him when way more influential people in his industry have been strung up for less?
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He's such a pathetic schlub that no one can work up the effort. He is, quite literally, beneath contempt.
 
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