Dan Harmon apologizes and leaves Twitter after offensive 2009 short

Dan Harmon, co-creator of Rick and Morty and Community, has apologized for an offensive short spoof film from 2009. He has subsequently left Twitter.

An alt-right online community, headed by Mike Cernovich, has, over the past few weeks, been uncovering distasteful Tweets and other digital debris from comedians. According to Vox, they have then been staging their alarm of the idea that the creators are pedophiles.

This has been going on for some time. Polygon compiled a history of how comedians use Twitter, and concluded that late 2014 is when everything changed. Twitter became more politicized and aggressive, and the platform was used as a harassment tool. This has continued up until now.

Last week, 10-year-old Tweets were unearthed. Written by director James Gunn, they continued instances where Gunn made jokes about child abuse. Disney then fired him as director of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Harmon's short film was meant as a spoof of Dexter. Harmon breaks into a house and abuses a doll. He deleted it shortly after posting it in 2009, but it recently resurfaced on 4chan. Harmon apologized for the video in a statement on Monday.

Adult Swim is, however, sticking with Harmon, saying they believe the comedian has apologized for the mistake.