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Posts tagged as dan harmon

Fighting – or at Least Responding to – War and Terrorism with Comedy

Welcome to the latest installment of Tragedy Plus Time. Each segment will focus on a particular ‘life crisis’ — sometimes globally tragic, sometimes more of a personal affair — and we’ll explore how many of the comedians we know and love have dealt with it.

If you were following any social media during the Boston bombings last month, you would have observed the global dialogue quickly shift from mundane chatter to the somber details of the attack. Concerns for safety, information about what had transpired, and speculation on the culprits behind it dominated the national conversation. Remarks about any other topic were deemed callous and inappropriate. Especially jokes, on [...]

The Season 4 'Community' Halftime Report: Can They Turn it Around?

Whenever I am asked what my favorite television show of all-time is, I try to change the subject. To insult the many comedies and dramas that could make a strong case for the singular honor by not evoking its name would be tragic, and I may make a fool out of myself to the individual I'm having a conversation with by uttering the "wrong" answer and unknowingly conveying that I am a gigantic moron (human interaction is the worst.) When pressed, I used to say Community, the comedy that managed to lovingly comment on seventy years of television with clever satire and great silliness in a respectful manner while simultaneously [...]

Here's What It's Like to Spend 36 Hours with Dan Harmon

"When any television show is lionized for being 'smart,' someone's laughing all the way to the bank — some company … That there's a difference between any of this shit is the greatest joke that television ever told. I mean, as the creator of Community, I'm telling you: It's all garbage. And the idea that my garbage, y'know, needed a better time slot or deserved an Emmy or didn't deserve an Emmy, the idea that it was better or worse than 30 Rock or Arrested Development or Freaks and Geeks and all that shit — you only have to take a couple steps back before you realize that you're looking at a bunch of goddamn baby [...]

Dan Harmon and Jason Sudeikis Prank Called Chevy Chase as Joe Biden Last Night

Community creator Dan Harmon's whirlwind tour across America with his live show Harmontown is in progress, and at a show in Brooklyn last night, Harmon and guest Jason Sudeikis prank called Chevy Chase, who, like Harmon recently parted ways with the NBC sitcom that brought them together. Harmon had invited Chase to appear at the Harmontown show, explaining to the audience, "I texted him, 'I'm doing my show in Brooklyn tomorrow night; are you in New York?' and three hours later, he texted back the word country." Dan Harmon then proceeded to call Chevy Chase on speakerphone, holding his phone up to the mic. When Chase [...]

There Will Be a Documentary About Dan Harmon's Live Show/Podcast 'Harmontown'

Community creator Dan Harmon is taking his live show/podcast Harmontown on a nationwide tour beginning January 10th, and it was just announced via Facebook that the entire tour will be filmed for a documentary by director Neil Berkeley. For the uninitiated, Harmontown is a live show in which Harmon and sidekick Jeff Davis talk about whatever they want for an hour, with the conversation ranging from absurdly dumb to brilliant. Click this link for tickets to the tour, and you could end up in the background of what's sure to be the Gimme Shelter of comedy podcast tour documentaries (minus the tragedy).

Will Dan Harmon Come Back for 'Community's Fifth Season?

NBC renewed Community for a fifth season of 13 episodes Friday evening, and now, Deadline is reporting that Dan Harmon returning to the show is a possibility. Deadline has some pretty vague rumor-y statements about this hypothetical situation, writing, "there is speculation that Harmon may come back, especially if this turns out to be Community‘s final chapter" and "I hear there certainly is interest in bringing Harmon back in some capacity."

Since being fired as Community's showrunner last May, Harmon has been keeping busy with his animated Adult Swim show Rick and Morty, developing projects for CBS and Fox, opened a claymation studio, and [...]

The Annotated Wisdom of Dan Harmon

Dan Harmon has a lot of stuff in his head, stuff that he used to create and run three seasons of Community as well as found Channel 101 and create a new method for understanding story structure. In these projects as well as in older ones like The Sarah Silverman Program, his failed pilot Heat Vision and Jack, and his current live show and podcast (also the subject of an upcoming documentary) Harmontown, Harmon has made himself known for being both brilliant and hard to work with.

Fortunately for us Harmon won't stop creating any time soon, with an animated film written by Charlie Kaufman currently [...]

Dan Harmon Addresses Fans at Communicon, the First-Ever 'Community' Convention

"For two seasons, we wanted to do an episode where Jeff Winger pretended there was a class called "Nicolas Cage Appreciation," and then the Dean caught them and as punishment to them he was going to make that a real class and force them to watch all the Nicolas Cage movies in one night."

- Community creator Dan Harmon speaking at the world's first-ever Community convention. Head over to Flavorwire for other stuff he said during his speech.

Get Your Tickets Tonight to the 'Community' Convention

CommuniCon, the world's first convention for fans of the NBC sitcom Community is set to take place February 9th and 10th in Los Angeles, but the limited supply of tickets goes on sale tonight at 6PM PST/9PM EST. Head on over to the CommuniCon Tumblr for details on how to get tickets, and check out our summary of the event from a few months back. No NBC executives allowed.

Watch Dan Harmon Give One Heck of a Keynote Speech

Dan Harmon was the keynote speaker at the XOXO Festival, "an arts and technology festival celebrating disruptive creativity" this year, and here's his speech in its entirety. In it, Harmon makes more references to Inside Schwartz than anybody giving a public speech ever.

In other Dan Harmon-related news, he's going on a nationwide tour with his live show Harmontown next month (tickets available now), and you can watch him and Rob Schrab in this recently-unearthed sandwich restaurant training video from 1995 (embedded after the jump):

A Master's Degree in Comedy: The Evolution of 'Community'

This Thursday, Jeff Winger’s four-year run as a college student culminates in his (probable) graduation from Greendale Community College. Since its inception, Community has been a polarizing underdog; the internet’s version of a water cooler show. The series possesses an interesting combination of self-assurance and lovable tenacity; kind of like a more articulate Rocky Balboa. Despite numerous timeslots, highly publicized inner turmoil amidst frequent threats of cancellation, Community retained a rabid fan base that identified with its intrepid ambition. We’ve come a long way since Jeff Winger, curiously sporting the unlikely combination of a blazer and track pants, attempted to use his rudimentary foreign language skills to create a [...]

Watch Dan Harmon's Speech at the 'Community' Convention

Dan Harmon is still really, really good at talking about himself.

Talking to Dan Harmon About Harmontown, 'Community' Season 4, and His New Shows

It's been a turbulent year for Dan Harmon. After being ousted from his position as showrunner of the beloved but Nielsen-challenged NBC sitcom Community, Harmon quickly sold new shows to CBS, Fox, and Adult Swim, founded a stop-motion production company called Starburns Industries that's producing a Charlie Kaufman movie, started podcasting his live show Harmontown, released his first book, and went on a 20-city cross-country tour with Harmontown, which will be the subject of an upcoming documentary. I recently caught up with a fully-bearded Dan Harmon backstage at the final show of his Harmontown tour, a triumphant Los Angeles homecoming for Harmon and company after a month on the [...]

Dan Harmon's First Book 'You'll Be Perfect When You're Dead' Drops Tomorrow

Community and Channel 101 mastermind Dan Harmon is releasing his first book, a collection of the best writings from his amazing blog, "Dan Harmon Poops." The book, entitled You'll Be Perfect When You're Dead: The Collected Online Writings of Dan Harmon, was just announced as a surprise to fans yesterday by Harmon's girlfriend Erin McGathy on Twitter and Reddit to coincide with the tour of Harmon's live show "Harmontown." It's a 307-page book that will only be available for purchase on Harmontown.com tomorrow, 1/8/13, from 12AM to 11:59PST, or during stops on the Harmontown tour (if there are copies left). Only 900 copies of [...]

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