Dan Harmon on 'Rick and Morty' and Why He's Still Miserable

Dan Harmon garnered an unusually devoted fanbase as the creator of the cult-hit NBC sitcom Community. But he has also earned a reputation as a difficult, tormented, grouchy artist, especially after he had his crew chant “F-ck you, Chevy” at the actor Chevy Chase during a wrap party, then played the voicemail where Chase berated him for the chant on his podcast Harmontown. After he was fired from Community, Harmon created the animated show Rick and Morty for the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim nighttime block. The show, which just wrapped its third season as TV’s most popular comedy among Millennials, captures the mood of the moment in a way not seen since South Park.

Right now, however, the hit show is not in production. Harmon started a frenzy recently when he responded to people telling him to hurry up and write the show by saying, “It can be challenging, especially with crippling lazy alcoholism, to write a show that hasn’t been ordered by a network.” Harmon recently inked a 70-episode deal with the Cartoon Network earlier this month, but GQ writes that Harmon’s writing process is still basically an endless spiral of procrastination, and that he spends more time than probably any other writer thinking about writing. But there are other deeper issues at work too, he admitted.

“My therapist said, ‘You’re sitting on this script because this is your last chance to be the curator of your own misery before moving on to what normal humans do, which is let the universe give them their good luck,’ ” Harmon told GQ. “Self-destruction is a control freak’s way of monopolizing their own fortune. It’s gotta be the most narcissistic thing to hijack God’s cockpit and go, ‘No, I’ll decide whether it’s a good day or a bad day.’ ”