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Rick And Morty Co-Creator Apologizes After Offensive Video Resurfaces [Update]

Rick Sanchez and his portal gun may not be able to locate Harmon at this time either.

26 Comments

Update: Both Adult Swim and Harmon himself have now commented on the matter. At least at this point, it doesn't appear we'll have a repeat of the James Gunn situation where the two sides part ways.

"At Adult Swim, we seek out and encourage creative freedom and look to push the envelope in many ways, particularly around comedy," an Adult Swim spokesperson told GameSpot. "The offensive content of Dan's 2009 video that recently surfaced demonstrates poor judgement and does not reflect the type of content we seek out. Dan recognized his mistake at the time and has apologized. He understands there is no place for this type of content here at Adult Swim."

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Now Playing: Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Director James Gunn Fired - GameSpot Universe News Update

As for Harmon, he said in statement shared with GameSpot, "In 2009, I made a 'pilot' which strove to parody the series Dexter and only succeeded in offending. I quickly realized the content was way too distasteful and took the video down immediately. Nobody should ever have to see what you saw and for that, I sincerely apologize."

Original story: Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has disappeared from Twitter following a slew of criticism and harassment over a decade-old comedy pilot, ComicBook reports. Any searches for Dan Harmon under Twitter profiles does not pull up the comedy writer's official account at this time.

The video in question, titled Daryl, stars Harmon in a five-minute comedy satire of Showtime serial killer drama Dexter. The video, which was created in 2009, shows Harmon acting indecently towards baby dolls in several scenes.

Harmon introduces the video as his "controversial new pilot Daryl" and prefaces it with a warning. As the video continues, Harmon proceeds with his warning, saying he "originally made it with Showtime for their audience because it's a little groundbreaking for normal people to handle." Later in the video, Daryl admits that he's a monster that rapes babies. The video was reportedly taken offline in 2012.

Harmon's swift exit from Twitter comes not long after Guardians of the Galaxy 3 director James Gunn was fired by Disney for tweets spanning 2008 to approximately 2011. Gunn, who has directed the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, said, "It's not to say I'm better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago" in response to the criticism he's received regarding his early use of Twitter.

It's unclear if Adult Swim will let go of Dan Harmon following the level of backlash.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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vega2505

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In a few years when all the creative talent have all been erased due to "controversy" we'll see if the people in charge realize their mistakes when there's nothing worth a damn coming out to make them money anymore.

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thomaswmak

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No way CN fires him for the cash cow that is Rick and Morty. Gunn is a Director, in theory who can be replaced. Creator of Rick and Morty can't be replaced.

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jimmywolf

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Edited By jimmywolf

It funny back when we tried speak out on censoring games we were called kids who needed to get over are lust of pixel

Now they went for other media and suddenly it a issue it need to stop, it was ok to be self righteous when your burning other people's things they enjoyed but when they come for your things then it needs to stop...

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deactivated-6793e8ba0e8bf

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Pretty distasteful stuff. Glad they didn't make a show of it.

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ToadstoolPeach

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There was nothing funny about that video, in fact it was disturbing but seriously this witch hunt needs to stop.

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93ChevyNut

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Good on Adult Swim. Finally a reasonable reaction!

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wicked_laugh

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I'd be willing to bet the person who 'ratted' on Harmon isn't some PC watchdog prowling the web for old material to get offended about, but instead a fanboy who has followed Harmon's career closely. Said entitled twerp is probably angry that the next season of Rick and Morty is not coming soon enough, or believes that Harmon has somehow 'sold out just like everyone else.'

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Nabinator

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@wicked_laugh: Your conspiracy theories are shit. Don't quit your day job

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streamline

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@wicked_laugh: Or a competitor or someone on a high horse who gets off on bringing down people.

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bat725

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Kudos to CN. Disney sucks. I hope Gunn does Lobo for DC/WB.

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fishnpeas1

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The more I read on Twitter the more I keep wondering when we will start wearing silly hats and putting big buckles on our shoes. This puritanical crap need to stop.

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Kyrylo

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the only solution to this trash I see is to bann anybody who starts moaning about being offended on spot. There is not other way to clean this pool.

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VFighter

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This shit is REALLY getting out of hand now.

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streamline

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Edited By streamline

@vfighter: It goes to show that hands aren’t the way to handle shit...at least not directly.

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Pliger

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Edited By Pliger

When Adult Swim of all people has to come out and give a statement like this, you know the whole social media fascism movement is reaching critical mass. How many Adult Swim shows have openly and gleefully joked about things like rape and pedophilia? Herbert from Family Guy and its spin-offs? Tim & Eric singing about wanting to f*ck their little sister? Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Robot Chicken? Superjail? The Boondocks? The Eric Andre show? Literally at least 70% of their original programming?

I'm glad he left Twitter anyway. While he apparently feels like he has no choice but to apologize for god damn jokes and silliness with the public-facing statement, I take the Twitter departure as him saying what all sane, reasonable people are thinking and saying: "F*ck. This."

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redhedjack

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George Carlin didn't die for this.

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Pliger

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Edited By Pliger

@redhedjack: https://youtu.be/L3mFj5M3Cbs

And as far as we know, no one else did either. No one left the theater that night and raped any little girl or killed anyone's parents... Imagine that!

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R34Vegeta

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Edited By R34Vegeta

This is getting out of hand. Is there some lonely, angry, no-life having muppet in a dank basement somewhere literally spending all their time looking for shit like this just to try and ruin people after an entire decade?

There needs to be a statute of limitations on dumb shit you can be held accountable for on social media. Other than the fact that some snowflake will get their feelers hurt by words on a digital piece of paper, there is literally nothing else going on. If you don't like what the big bad person on the internet said...gtfo the internet!

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rodent347

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@R34Vegeta:

His name's Mike Cernovich.

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Megawizard

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@R34Vegeta: Sure seems like it, doesn't it?

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asnakeneverdies

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Babies can't tell a rape joke from a regular joke. They're stupid.

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jinzo9988

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Edited By jinzo9988

For ****'s sake. This was a comedy pilot. This was literally for the purpose of a potential TV show. Are we fucking going to harass actors that appeared on Law and Order SVU who played the role of pedophiles next? Because that's literally what we're doing here minus the pilot being on TV.

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santinegrete

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Did he stole a Teddy Bear of someone that just worked his ass to get a video taken offline six years ago?

With the Gunn thing... Is there a witch hunt going on?

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smashthestars

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@santinegrete: There is. If you're famous you have to watch what you say since you're now some kind of ambassador for a brand. If I was famous I would prob scrub the web of all my social media posts and just have one ran by a marketing company to be safe. With the whole outrage of the week thing going on, I think people need to understand that theres a difference between being nasty towards people, and just messing around whether that is in bad taste or not.

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Dr_Vancouver

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I hate the world now. Are they just going to stop making any entertaining movies/tv shows all together just because Kevin Spacey grabbed a few wieners? People need to man the ***k up seriously. The whole world started turning to shit when we let a man win "woman of the year", now everything offends somebody, and nobody is allowed any fun at all unless you put your genitals in a blender first- but if you do MURDER is absolutely fine because of your "bravery". It's time to hand our planet to a hostile alien race, they'll take better care of it I'm most certain.

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Dudeman315

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@dr_vancouver: We'll make great pets!

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