‘Rick and Morty’ co-creator Dan Harmon apologizes after offensive child rape parody video resurfaces

Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV series “Community,” claimed in a new interview that Chevy Chase would make racist jokes directed at Donald Glover while filming the show. (Splash News)

Dan Harmon, the co-creator of Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty,” issued an apology alongside the network for a video that recently resurfaced that contains some disturbing and offensive content.

While promoting the fan-beloved science fiction series, which recently got picked up by the network for 70 more episodes, at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con, the video Harmon made in 2009 titled “Daryl” reemerged online and began to be passed around by fans and critics alike.

In the video, Harmon begins by flippantly warning viewers that the content is explicit and offensive. He jokes that the skit is a “pilot” made in cooperation with Showtime. It’s meant to be a mock version of the network’s hit serial killer drama “Dexter” but in Harmon’s version, he’s a rapist who targets babies.

“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,” Harmon said in a statement (via Deadline). “Nobody should ever have to see what you saw and for that, I sincerely apologize.”

This isn’t the first time this year that Harmon has issued a public apology. In January, he was called out on Twitter by a writer he worked with on “Community.”

Megan Ganz, whose credits include “Modern Family,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Last Man on Earth” and more, called Harmon out for his previous behavior while they worked together. Harmon took to his weekly podcast, “Harmontown,” to explain his behavior and apologize for the way his feelings for her affected their work environment.
“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,” he said. “Especially her.”
Ganz later accepted his apology.