Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything) are usually good for a laugh, either because they go horribly wrong — as with Woody Harrelson and Steven Seagal — or because they go great and we see something new from a person we enjoy, like when Bill Murray talked about party crashing, Channing Tatum revealed the name of his penis, Nick Offerman shared his favorite Parks And Recreation scene, and Chris Pratt proved he and his Parks And Rec character are the same person.
Dan Harmon’s Reddit AMA falls into the second category. The showrunner/writer who’s had a hand in creating many cool things — Community, Rick And Morty, Harmontown, History’s Greatest Minds, HarmonQuest — took to Reddit and spoke on many topics. Some of the things he spoke about will be in a separate post later today, but for now, we wanted to highlight one question in particular.
No, Harmon didn’t have any updates on the Community movie, but he did answer a question regarding “something you’ve always wanted to be asked during a Q&A.” His answer was timely and poked fun at the current attitudes towards political correctness while still staying on the right side of history. He posed the answer as an impromptu, mock Q&A between himself and a fictional character named Kevin:
Q: “Dan, it seems like people tend to assume you’re sexist because you don’t shower and have that oppositional defiant disorder edginess that often comes with closet chauvinism among comedy writers, but is it true you’re, like, super pro-actively invested in the obliteration of the entertainment industry’s glass ceiling?”
A: I’m glad you asked that, Kevin, but you see, even with that question, we’re already slipping into progress’ biggest impedance within the male worldview which is the unspoken characterization of feminism as some kind of charity or favor. While pro-active steps need to be taken for any effective change to occur, in my opinion, my taking of those steps has never been me “doing right” by someone else. I’ve only followed my own inner sense of correctness in seeking out the most talented writers of any biological composition on the planet Earth and obliterating the obstacles between them and the achievement of their dreams.
Q: “Can I ask a followup question?”
A: Yes, if that’s allowed.
Q: “Can we assume the same goes for race, aren’t you, like, unbeknownst to most of the public, a huge advocate of racial people?”
A: Yes, Kevin, I have long said that racial people are just as great in any situation capitalism can muster as their more traditional, non-racial counterparts, but again, please stop giving me credit for making the world better because to me, I’m just engaging in common sense.
Q: “What about LGBTs?”
A: Kevin I hate to check you but I think you left a Q out of there –
Q: “- Oh, f*ck -”
A: – Kevin, calm down, we’re not going to become better people by punishing each other’s ignorance, it’s okay for you to be a flawed person. The answer to your question is yes, a thousand times yes, I am an advocate of literally everything it’s possible to advocate and you can look that up, there’s a paper trail, not that that’s what this is about.
Q: “So, in summary, is it safe to say that you’re like one of the only straight white middle aged men that the world shouldn’t punish for the cultural atrocities of the before-fore times?”
A: Look, you said it, not me! I’m just a writer!
We’re going to imagine the cat in the picture above is Kevin.
