Brow Beat

Rick and Morty Creator Dan Harmon “Loathes” the Show’s Sexist Viewers  

Dan Harmon (right) speaks at a Rick and Morty panel during the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour, alongside co-producer Justin Roiland.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has blasted his show’s sexist fans in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, calling their behavior “disgusting.”

It seems a number of the animated comedy’s biggest fans are fragile of masculinity: Incensed by the show’s recent decision to employ a gender-balanced writing team, these trolls have taken it upon themselves to harass, threaten, and dox its female writers for daring to encroach upon their white-male-nerd territory.

Harmon is livid that they think they are acting on his show’s behalf. “These knobs, that want to protect the content they think they own—and somehow combine that with their need to be proud of something they have, which is often only their race or gender.” Harmon, who is white and male himself, says he finds the fans offensive, members of “a testosterone-based subculture patting themselves on the back.”

Rick and Morty’s sexist following is no secret. Vox critic Todd VanDerWerff tweeted that these toxic fans are part of why he doesn’t write about the show more often, even though he loves it.

David Sims of the Atlantic retweeted VanDerWerff, adding that it was the most problematic fan community he’d ever seen.

In the EW interview, Harmon pointed out that having bad people watch your show is part and parcel of having a popular show. “If you’re lucky enough to make a show that is really good that people like, that means some bad people are going to like it too,” he said.

But while sexist trolls don’t represent the majority of Rick and Morty’s fan base, it’s not actually normal for “really good” shows to have a misogynistic following that is this vocal and this revolting. There is something about geek culture that seems to attract and accept this kind of sexism and harrassment, from Gamergaters to the man-children who drove Leslie Jones from Twitter. Harmon’s condemnation is only one step in a much larger battle against the insidious misogyny within online nerd culture.

As VanDerWerff added: