Over the weekend, Dan Harmon was working with one of his writers, Chris McKenna, on a season five script, and I guess at some point, he got bored, or anxious, or felt a particular powerful urge of self-loathing, and ended up on the Unpopular Opinions About the “Unpopular Opinions About Community” subreddit, which is basically like running in front of a firing squad. Anyway, he ended up spending some time kind of feeding the trolls, and then defending his need to feed the trolls. Basically, someone suggested that season four of Community, which most agree was not very good, was all Dan Harmon’s fault because season three was a mess. This is not only an unpopular opinion, but it’s not a deeply held opinion anywhere except for, like, three guys on Reddit. Nevertheless, Dan Harmon felt the need to rebut that unpopular, minority opinion because Dan Harmon is kind of crazy. IN A GOOD WAY.
Basically, the gist of it is this: Harmon feels that blaming season four of Community on season three of Community is like feeding his brother to Jeffrey Dahmer. That will make more sense in the context of his quotes. Here are some select passages from the subreddit:
It can never be proven that I’m not sick of reading people saying it. It’s how I feel. I want to barf when I read it. That’s science fact … If I see one more pseudo scientific observation that season 4 was season 3′s fault I’m going to make every episode of season 5 about the teenagers from season 2.
…
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.
…
It makes me feel bad when people blame season 4 on season 3. It bums me out. It’s a bummer that a result of the political and creative disruption of the show should have to be people saying it’s bad, and then people arguing with those people, not by saying it’s good, but by saying more of it was bad. It’s a bummer. It feels like bad guys that don’t even watch the show are somewhere laughing about how they broke us. It’s a bummer. It is important to be able to say that.
Dan Harmon seeks self-therapy in the strangest places, y’all.
Anyway, Community is still on NBC’s backburner, waiting for a timeslot, and given the ratings mess on Thursday nights with the three new sitcoms (and Parks and Rec), that time is probably coming sooner, rather than later. I’d estimate that Community will be back in time for November sweeps. And right about now, season FOUR of Community would be better than any of the other three new NBC sitcoms that night.
