The Stupidity of Outrage Culture: Dan Harmon's Pilot Daryl
Late this afternoon, just a few hours ago, my girlfriend stormed into the room. Phone in hand and wild eyed she exclaimed, "the co-creator of Rick and Morty is a fuckin' pervert!". I looked back at her, wondering what she was talking about, and gave her a, "what the hell ya' talkin' 'bout?", And she said, "wait, just watch this.". She had my full attention as she clicked play on the video that she had found on Facebook.
The video featured a younger, less round Dan harmon explaining that the video we were about to see was the pilot of a show that he had created named, "Daryl", that was supposed to air on Showtime. After the quick introduction, the screen cut to black, and the name Daryl appeared on the black screen. After the title screen, we are met with Harmon playing the role of a psychiatrist named, you guessed it, Daryl. Across from Harmon, lying on a couch, was another actor who I didn't recognize playing the role of Daryl's client. Through a bit of dialogue you quickly learn that this client is struggling to cope with everyday mundane tasks as well as having the added stress of being a new father.
By this point, I glance over at my girlfriend and shrug my shoulders. I just didn't understand. Reading my body language, she says to me, "just wait, you'll see what I mean in a second.". So, I turn my attention back to the phone screen, rewind the video by 15 seconds, and once again begin to intently watch trying to make sense of her accusatory statement.
Finally, the client gets up to leave and the psychiatrist explains that he's wrote a prescription of sleeping pills for the client to take and get a well deserved good night's sleep. An inner monologue of the character Daryl, the psychiatrist, (Harmon) begins letting the viewer in on his thoughts. The viewer is quickly made aware that Daryl has only one thing in mind: molesting the clients child. As this inner monologue is going on, telling us viewers that he really only prescribed the meds to knock the client out, Harmon can be seen slipping through the clients window, into his child's room, where Daryl (Harmon) begins to rape the child. Yes, you see this happen. Harmon pulls his pants down, showing the camera his ass, and proceeds to simulate the act of raping a child. The screen fades to black and the video ends.
My girlfriend looks at me and I look back at her with a puzzled expression. She says, "Now we know how he really thinks.". I roll my eyes. She then asks me, "you're okay with this??", and I respond with a simple, "yeah, it's not real." I see her getting frustrated as she walks away saying, "I don't even wanna talk to you about this anymore" with a disgusted look on her face. I ask her what's wrong, and she replies, "I can't believe youre okay with that." I am left alone in my room completely bewildered.
Do people really not understand that a story is just that? Am I the only one who sees this as repugnant?? To brand someone a child predator because they wrote a show about a child predator is like branding someone a murderer for writing the Dexter series, or believing that I.K Rowling is a witch because she wrote Harry Potter. I can't even get an answer out of her as to why she feels this way, which leads me to the point of this post: Does creating, starring, or having some creative control over a despicable character make the person creating it despicable in your eyes? I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, but, please, BE RESPECTFUL. We're all entitled to an opinion no matter how wrong we may think it is so long as it doesn't outright hurt someone.