Provocative Show Runner, Rehired at ‘Community,’ Apologizes for New Provocative Remarks

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Dan Harmon, the creator and show runner of “Community.”

Hardly a week after he was reinstated as the show runner of “Community,” Dan Harmon, the beloved but unpredictable creator of that NBC comedy, offered his employers an unpleasant reminder of the loose-cannon qualities that got him fired in the first place by making remarks on a podcast that drew outrage and for which he apologized.

Last week Sony Pictures Television, the studio that produces “Community,” said that Mr. Harmon was returning to the series for its coming fifth season. The surprise move followed his acrimonious exit from the show in 2012 after it was narrowly renewed for a fourth season, and which Mr. Harmon confirmed in a blog post that took a few parting shots at Sony and NBC.

But in an episode of his “Harmontown” podcast that was posted on Monday, Mr. Harmon was not exactly ready to let bygones be bygones. He said that while the producers who replaced him on Season 4, David Guarascio and Moses Port, had “tried their best,” the overall result was “obviously not somebody doing what they do and trying really hard to make people happy.”

“It is very much like an impression,” Mr. Harmon continued. “An unflattering one.”

“Writers fighting other writers” is the “American dream in the eyes of Sony,” Mr. Harmon said, using an expletive. “That is what they want. They want creative people rewriting each other. They want creative people replacing each other. They want us interchangeable.”

Referring to plot developments that occurred on Season 4 of “Community” over which he had no control, Mr. Harmon said sarcastically: “There’s something awesome about having all of those preconceived notions kind of ripped away from you. It’s exciting. There’s something awesome about being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach.”

As transcripts of his podcast remarks began to circulate, Mr. Harmon offered a brief message of penitence on his Twitter account, writing: “I feel bad if I made anyone feel bad with my comments in harmontown. It’s a dirty, personal comedy podcast, not charismatic for quoting.”

In a later post on his personal blog Mr. Harmon gave a fuller apology to fans of “Community” and the show’s cast, crew and writers. “What I said was disrespectful to your love for this show, love that I sometimes erroneously equate with validation of me as a person,” Mr. Harmon wrote to its viewers. “I am unwittingly and unfortunately infamous for the amount I care about your opinion.”

He added: “Obviously the solution is to stop talking about my job in my podcast until production is safely complete. That will protect the show you love, and your love of it, from the creator with the Mouth from PR Hell. I will do this. But more importantly, I am sorry.”

Mr. Harmon also apologized “to anyone I hurt by using the word ‘rape’ in a comedic context” and “to anyone I hurt by conjuring the concept of rape in a metaphor about my stupid hurt feelings.”

“I was not thinking about the impact of my words on the people that love ‘Community’ and work on it,” Mr. Harmon wrote. “So I hope you can believe me when I tell you I was definitely not thinking about the impact of that word on people that are currently seeking to get it out of comedic contexts. I’m very sorry to have hurt and frustrated you and I will definitely be swayed from the use of that word in comedic contexts because I don’t like hurting people and as an added bonus, I don’t like getting yelled at on Twitter. Especially when the people yelling have phrases like ‘rape joke’ on their side. It’s kind of hard to think of oneself as being ‘pro rape joke.’ Don’t want to be that guy. Done and done.”