Rick and Morty Creator Dan Harmon Apologizes for Creepy Behavior Towards Writer

It’s rare we get such a public apology and that accounts for their own mistakes, but tragically the actions that Dan Harmon is apologizing for are a lot less rare. Although the story began a long time ago, our knowledge of it began when comedy writer Megan Ganz responded to a Tweet from Dan Harmon about how we have to leave assholes (including himself) in 2017. Megan Ganz replied —

The thread — which can be read if you click on the date — vaguely alludes to the events, that involved Dan Harmon pursuing an inappropriate relationship with Ganz and then reacting inappropriately. Harmon offered an apology and said he will do it, however, it needs to be done. And it seems it has been done — publicly on his podcast Harmontown.

The podcast — which can be heard here, and the segment in questions begins at the 18:30 mark — involves Harmon talking about how he was attracted to Ganz and gave her special attention. He would flirt with her and make creepy overtures, thinking it wasn’t wrong because he didn’t do anything directly — even while Megan Ganz told him he is making it hard for her to do her job. Harmon ended up breaking up with his then-girlfriend, telling Ganz he loves her, and when Ganz told him this is inappropriate decided to sabotage her career, which ended up being one of the reasons he got fired from Community.

Harmon apologized and took ownership of his actions on the podcast, saying that female showrunners told him —

If you’re true to your word and you are sincere about how you want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, you know, please talk about how you’ve been part of the problem.

Which is exactly what he did, and in a part of the segment says —

The most clinical way I can put it in fessing up to my crimes is that I was attracted to a writer that I had power over because I was a showrunner. And I knew enough to know that these feelings were bad news — that was easy enough to know. I knew that they ran the risk of undercutting people’s faith in my judgment, her faith in her talents, the other writers’ respect for me, the entire production, the audience. I knew that I wasn’t doing anybody favors by feeling these things and so I did the cowardly, easiest, laziest thing you could do with feelings like that and I didn’t deal with them and in not dealing with them I made everybody else deal with them, especially her.

Then in the end adds —

I never did it before and I will never do it again but I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it if I had any respect for women. On a fundamental level, I was thinking about them as different creatures. I was thinking about the ones that I liked as having some special role in my life, and I did it all by not thinking about it.

Ganz has praised the apology, saying —

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