Dan Harmon offers new Jeffrey Dahmer analogy for Community, which goes over about as well as you'd expect
Continuing the mission to bring back the Dan Harmon era of Community by saying as many instantly regrettable things as possible, Dan Harmon has followed his recent, instantly regretted comparison of the show’s fourth season to watching his family getting raped by likening that same season to rapist serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Much as those earlier comments were prompted by the proximity of Harmon to a microphone, so his latest were made necessary by the rare occasion of someone on the Internet criticizing Community—in this case, various people on the subreddit thread “Unpopular Opinions About The ‘Unpopular Opinions About Community,’” which Harmon actively sought out and participated in. Because without Harmon weighing in, the creation of a subreddit thread dedicated to criticizing the anonymously submitted opinions on a slightly larger Reddit thread regarding a niche television show might have been regarded as something less than significant.
Harmon’s reason for responding, other than the fact that he is fueled by self-loathing, was that he once again read someone saying that the maligned fourth season could be directly blamed on the third season—a “pseudo scientific observation” that Harmon says makes him “want to barf when I read it.” And so he did, producing a splatter of comments that contained another comparison of season four to a terrible crime involving family members—this time committed by a man synonymous with murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, and necrophilia—to add to his earlier, now rather quaint rape analogy:
Saying season 3 sucked is like punching my brother. I wish it wouldn’t happen but my brother probably deserved it, he’s kind of nuts. But I love him, you know? I don’t talk to him, but he’s my brother.
Saying season 4 sucked is like punching…let’s say Jeffrey Dahmer. He’s from my home town, but I didn’t know him and he ate 17 people.
Saying season 3 sucked so bad that it made season 4 suck is like feeding my brother to Jeffrey Dahmer. I have no idea if he deserves it, it doesn’t matter if he does, it bums me out, there’s nothing I can do, but definitely no need to argue about it.
Explaining why season 4 is season 3′s fault and how it’s important to state your opinion and I should really calm down is like feeding my brother to Dahmer really slowly, while wearing Harry Potter glasses that you keep pushing up on the bridge of your nose.
Saying anything about community sucked is like punching. It would be great if it never happened but so would having a gumdrop-exhaust-powered jet pack.
Anyway, while Harmon’s feelings are certainly valid (certainly in regard to the awesomeness of jet packs), his expression of such would seem to run counter to what he said the last time he had to apologize for them, back when he acknowledged that it was “disrespectful” to fans, the writers and producers who worked on the show after he was fired, and anyone who might take issue with rape being used as a stand-in for someone’s emotions about the TV show they got themselves fired from. It would also seem to run counter to Harmon’s avowal to “stop talking about my job in my podcast until production is safely complete”—though perhaps this not happening on Harmon’s podcast qualifies as a loophole.
And while his former collaborator Megan Ganz, for one, seemed to take Harmon’s last volley in stride, her tolerance seems to be wearing thin: “Anything you have to say about season 4 could be accomplished by writing a really great season 5. Then fans will do your bashing for you,” Ganz tweeted, adding in reply to Harmon, “Just remember the old adage: "You catch more flies with cool guest stars than with Dahmer comparisons.” (Thankfully, no one has pointed out that Dahmer probably also caught plenty of flies, until we did, just now.)
In related news, Community is reportedly a fun comedy show, and not actually just a collection of news stories about behind-the-scenes problems and Dan Harmon saying things.