Dan Harmon of "Rick and Morty" deletes Twitter account after rape joke video resurfaces
Dan Harmon shut down his Twitter account after a 2009 video of the "Rick and Morty" co-creator pretending to rape a baby doll resurfaced. Harmon was also the creator of "Community"; in January, he apologized for behaving inappropriately toward a former staffer on the show.
The resurfaced video is from a comedy pilot called "Daryl," a spoof of Showtime's "Dexter." ComicBook.com reports that in the video, Harmon's character enters a home through a window and, half-naked, rubs his genitals against a baby doll on a couch. At the time, he added a disclaimer to the video, calling it "controversial." Harmon originally posted the video on Channel 101, a website he co-founded.
The video resurfaced while Harmon was at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, which he attended with Adult Swim's "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland.
Some slammed Harmon for the "tasteless" video.
But some defended Harmon, saying that he was always known to push the envelope. A number of Twitter users also likened the situation to the recent firing of James Gunn, who was dropped from directing the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise after old tweets in which he made jokes about pedophilia and rape resurfaced.
"Can we stop punishing people for things they said a decade ago? There's a line of course, but a joke, regardless of how funny it is, is still a joke," one user tweeted. Another wrote, "The Dan harmon thing is waayyyy less of a big deal than the Gunn thing, which wasn't a big deal in the first place."
Last week, Gunn's old tweets from 2008 to 2011 were resurfaced by the conservative website Daily Caller, including offensive jokes like, "I like when little boys touch me in my silly place" and "The best thing about being raped is when you're done being raped and it's like 'whew this feels great, not being raped!'" He was subsequently fired by Disney and Marvel.
Ironically, Harmon's "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland complained about Gunn's firing on Twitter and said, "Yeah... I mean... they're jokes. That's the whole point."
In May, Harmon and Roiland announced that "Rick and Morty" is returning to Adult Swim for 70 more episodes.
