Dan Harmon, the co-creator of 'Rick and Morty' and creator of 'Community,' sat down with THR on the set of his cover shoot to reflect on the last time someone quoted one of his shows to him, he googled himself, he re-watched 'Community' and got good advice. Plus, he reflected on his early days in comedy and the best advice he's ever received, as well as the last time he ran into someone from the cast of 'Community.' Spoiler alert: it was Joel McHale.
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00:00 if you're gonna get up on stage for 40 minutes one day,
00:03 it needs to be 40 minutes of stuff that was for you
00:07 the best of the best.
00:10 Hi, I'm Dan Harmon. I'm here with The Hollywood Reporter,
00:13 and we're gonna play "The Last Time I..."
00:15 The last time I Googled myself was definitely
00:21 when I started being in all of the autocompletes,
00:24 even stuff that I wasn't even trying to find out about myself.
00:29 Like, oh, my sync is clogged, and then I start typing into Google,
00:33 "Why is my..."
00:36 And then the autocomplete would be like,
00:39 "Why is my internet filled with this fat wingback Dan Harmon,
00:43 and how do I murder him?"
00:45 And I'm like, "I just wanted to unclog a sync, man."
00:49 The last time I got good advice,
00:51 I was in a bowling league this fall.
00:54 Beverly told me to keep my hips straight.
00:57 Can I tell you the best advice that I think, just overall,
01:01 like, not most recently,
01:03 but it's funny because he ended up doing a lot of voices for Rick and Morty.
01:06 Like, when I was still living in Milwaukee with Rob Schraub,
01:09 we used to work the comedy tent at this thing called Summerfest,
01:15 and a lot of big headliner comics would come through,
01:18 and we would always ask them for advice.
01:19 Got to talk to Jon Stewart, Louis Anderson, like, Norm MacDonald.
01:24 We were still just kids, and we're getting to meet all these headliners.
01:27 And Tom Kenny, when we asked him for comedy advice,
01:30 in reference to stand-up, what Tom Kenny said is,
01:33 "Go home and get out your set list and cross off every single joke
01:40 that didn't make you laugh out loud when you thought of it."
01:44 And Rob and I heard that advice, and we're like,
01:48 "Yeah, but that's like 90% of our, oh."
01:50 Like, and it's like, yeah, that's how hard stand-up is.
01:55 If you're going to get up on stage for 40 minutes one day,
01:59 it needs to be 40 minutes of stuff that was for you the best of the best.
02:06 The last time I re-watched an episode of Community,
02:08 I would have been drunk, because that's the only time I'll do it.
02:12 It happens because there'll be, like, somebody will upload a,
02:15 there'll be a clip, and then it'll be in my algorithm.
02:19 And then I'll go, like, I'll click on the clip,
02:22 and then I'll be overwhelmed with this nostalgia,
02:25 and then I'll end up, if I'm frankly drunk enough,
02:30 that'll overcome the kind of fear of watching stuff again,
02:35 and then I'll end up watching, like, an entire season.
02:39 Last time I reunited with someone from the cast of Community
02:42 was Joel McHale came to a Dodgers game.
02:46 I was there with the Fox executives, had a little box,
02:52 and they were watching a Dodgers game,
02:53 and Joel's on something, their crime scene kitchen, or snake patrol?
03:00 What's Spider, Spider Cops? What's McHale doing?
03:05 Now that I've released him to the wild? Anything.
03:10 Last time somebody quoted one of my shows to me,
03:15 it would probably be at the bar I drink at.
03:20 Nine times out of ten, it's something real cool.
03:24 Like, I'll order a drink, and then maybe even the bartender will go,
03:27 "Here you go, man. Wubba lubba dub dub."
03:30 And I'll be like, "Oh, that's awesome. That guy looks cool.
03:33 He's got a tattoo on his forearm."
03:35 And it's not of my show. It's of a scorpion.
03:38 And he's quoting the show. I should be, like, really happy.
03:47 I'm Dan Harmon. Thank you for watching me on The Hollywood Reporter.