Calls go for favorite animated series Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty to cancel – in both senses of the word as co-creator Dan Harmon to backtrack for an old sketch.
Harmon is back for review for the old clip from 2009 that was recently released online.
The sketch itself is a parody on serious killer show Dexter, titled Daryl, which was considered very deeply unfavorable because Harmon simulates the rape of a puppet show for laughter.
The Daryl skit did the rounds on social media in 2018, asking for an apology from Harmon.
Get your unlimited Newsweek trial>
May Deadline, Harmon apologized at the time for the ‘indecent’ video.
“In 2009, I made a ‘pilot’ that struggled to parody the Dexter series and only managed to insult it,” Harmon said. “I soon realized that the content was too harmless and took the video down immediately. No one would ever have to see what you saw and for that I sincerely apologize.”
Adult swimming
He also deleted his Twitter account during the debacle.
Get your unlimited Newsweek trial>
Adult swimmers distanced themselves from Harmon, saying the Daryl clip “does not reflect the kind of content we are looking for.”
Their statement read: “At Adult Swim, we seek and encourage creative freedom and see the envelope printed in various ways, especially comedy. The offensive content of Dan’s 2009 video that recently surfaced shows a bad judgment and “does not reflect the kind of content we are looking for. Then he acknowledged his mistake at the time and apologized. He understands that there is no place for this kind of content at Adult Swim.”
Uproxx reports that the Daryl clip has recently been circulated online through a number of accounts targeting child trafficking and child abuse with the hashtag #savethechildren, which, according to Snopen, was co-opted by sharing some misinformation about conspiracy theories and pedophilia rings.
Wil Rick and Morty be canceled?
At the time of reporting, it is highly unlikely.
The series recently aired its fourth season and season 5 is arguably well underway with Adult Swim sharing a teaser for the final batch of episodes.
The show was renewed for a whopping 70 new episodes back in May 2018 before Season 4 came out, so that means there are still four seasons left to go to the next run.
Finally, Harmon already has to deal with backlog for the clip in 2018, so its resurgence is of dubious origin. Maybe it’s a byproduct of the cancellation culture crescendo of 2020, and maybe a lot of people discover the clip for the first time and react.
