“Dan Harmon, creator of Community and co-creator of the cultish animated Adult Swim series Rick & Morty, has apologized for the ridiculous ‘baby doll rape’ video pilot he made in 2009 that surfaced online over the weekend. In the video, according to IndieWire, Harmon climbs through a window, then undresses and rubs his genitals on a doll figure. Harmon deleted his Twitter account as a result and on Tuesday issued a public apology.”
—Maria Sherman, Jezebel
The very concept of this video is so terrible that I almost dismissed it as unforgivable without watching it first.
I’m glad I didn’t, even if it is absolutely tasteless and not easy to watch. This wasn’t about somehow condoning childhood sexual assault. This was a critique of shock value programming, at a time in cable programming where the shows were all about shock value for audience retention.
And that context is important, if you’re trying to destroy someone’s job over it. The many contexts in these people’s histories being pulled up is important.
Dan Harmon didn’t make this video a week ago. He made it a decade ago, when these jokes were en vogue. And since then, he’s become out of EVERYONE accused in the me too movement, the ONLY ONE who has managed to apologize and make right in a way that brought peace to the woman he targeted. The woman he harassed sent followers to his apology calling it a master class.
James Gunn didn’t tweet about dead babies last month, he tweeted about dead babies a decade ago when these jokes were cool, and he made independent movies for a crowd that LOVED the macabre, not Disney.
And these past mistakes are not being outed by people that want accountability. They are being outed by alt-right figureheads, at least one of whom was convicted of ACTUAL RAPE, who are trying to kill people’s careers for disagreeing with them. For the sake of causing animosity, infighting, and turmoil.
—melony ppenosyne
Flommist Melony Ppenosyne is a writer and weird artist type. In the last year alone, she’s traveled to Virginia as a competing poet, co-written a play on mental illness that is presently being produced, and crafted a published essay checking the privilege and scope of art galleries. Copyright © 2018 Melony Ppenosyne.
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