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Dan Harmon would love to be able to talk about his work on its own terms.
However, the ever-candid Harmon cannot easily separate the showCommunityfrom his experience working on it.
Fan-favorite scenes bring up memories of connection notes or fights with directors.
you’re able to read an excerpt from the transcript or listen to the full episode below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Thursday onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Stitcher,Overcast, orwherever you get your podcasts.
Like, Hes so dedicated to making this funny, he doesnt care how long hes making them work.
It was prime peak TV, auteur showrunner stuff.Yes, the myth of the auteur.
You have been candid about your significant shortcomings runningCommunityand trying to work on it.
And that should be a human right.
And were waking up to that being mental torture.
That four additional hours of people wanting to slit your throat in your sleep doesnt help.
And the less sleep makes you hit the drawing board in the morning in a state of confusion.
I would literally put myself in a daze back then.
I was popping Adderall like Pez and sleeping on my office couch.
And youre the one in charge of when its done.
How do you know when a joke is finished?
How do you know when a story is finished?
I would just sit, and then if you were obedient enough, you would sit with me.
Maybe youre here because you love me.And its like,No, you pay me to be here.
I cant leave or Ill get fired.
That is whyI transgressed those boundaries because I was in this fugue state.
I would sleep for 20 minutes and then think about the show for three hours.
It took me so long to realize thats not true!
You are not an architect.
You are not making blueprints.
I think maybe we should … Youre writing with others.
Youre not a novelist.
Youre not publishing a script thats then being adapted by your underlings.
Youre dancing with 300 people.
And I think that would even apply to live-action.
You get asked about bad fans a lot, but I was curious if you feel misunderstood.
And then I saw a meme that a Nazi used that says, Go fuck yourself.
Where the accountability comes in is I want to disabuse people of this limited thinking.
I dont like that people receive instruction from television.
Dont let this carnival ride make you carnival-ride dependent.
Get out there, make your own carnival ride, et cetera.
So, I do now check myself more than ever when were breaking stories.
Im like, Can this not feel like a soapbox of any kind?
Thats great, but I dont even want that much soapbox.
I want you to be soothed and welcomed in, and I want your obsession to be rewarded.
I do not want to send weird signals on top of that.
Like,Well, anyone that thinks that will surely be thrown off whenthishappens.
Humans suck in groups.
Those people number in the millions.
I have to die honest.
Were having arguments with teenagers.
Im not saying theyre bad people, but theyre teenagers, man.
You used to be able to just say, Get out of here.
You cant be here.
This is for grownups.
Theres boobs in here.
But now theyre just everywhere, and they can have an avatar of a guy in a beard.
And theyre like [in a dumb voice], I think critical race theory blah blah blah blah.
Dude, youre 15.
I was Republican too.
All I learned was America is great.
Get out of here, you kid.
You cant grow chin hair.
By the way, teenagers are great.
Keep watching the show and also buy merchandise.
There are T-shirts for teenagers and … skateboard wheels, I think?
I want to buy a third house.
We last spoke at theCommunityreunion at Vulture Festivaland, of course, I brought up the idea of aCommunitymovie.
And my conclusion was I dont think they did it right or wrong.
Heres the biggest philosophical question: Are you supposed to service a mythical new viewer?
The obvious, dogmatic, practical, off-the-street answer is like,No, you dont.
Why would there be aCommunitymovie?
They deserve to be punished.
Why are they doing that?
Its just speaking in gibberish.
What does this mean?
I dont know if thats arrogance, pretentiousness, responsibility, self-deprecation, torture.
I cant get myself out of that camp.
Yes, there will be inside baseball.
Yes, there will be fan service, but it has to be couched in …
It has to be a movie.Yes.
Meeep meep, moop moop.
Look what I used to do?
Yes, to some degree; no, to some degree.
Meep meep, moop moop.
Remember when we did this?
What are the next steps?
Like you need a deadline that is with a check.Yeah.
I started writing to keep my parents from hitting me, and I now only write to feel valid.
There is, like … a thing is happening.
Logistically, the locks are coming away.
And the only problems are becoming the creative ones, which is great, because I love those problems.
I love having these conversations, and theyre being had.
Thats a scoop you get, because I had a little Ketel One with my LaCroix.
