Adult Swim Releases Statement Regarding Dan Harmon's Offensive Sketch

Days after James Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy for offensive tweets from nearly a decade ago, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon received backlash for something very similar. A video of an unsavory comedy sketch that Harmon produced in 2009 resurfaced online, causing the creator to delete his Twitter account.

Adult Swim, the network that airs Harmon's Rick and Morty TV series, has decided not to fire the creator for the video, according to TVLine. Adult Swim did, however, release a statement regarding Harmon's actions, saying that they have "no place" at the network.

"At Adult Swim, we seek out and encourage creative freedom and look to push the envelope in many ways, particularly around comedy," the network said. "The offensive content of Dan's 2009 video that recently surfaced demonstrates poor judgement and does not reflect the type of content we seek out. Dan recognized his mistake at the time and has apologized. He understands there is no place for this type of content here at Adult Swim."

The video in question came from Harmon's pilot for a series called Daryl, which was a spoof of the beloved Showtime drama Dexter. In the video, the lead character was seen going back in time to stop serial killers by sexually assaulting them when they were younger.

After the video surfaced, Harmon deleted his Twitter account and released a statement regarding his decisions in the past:

"In 2009, I made a 'pilot' which strove to parody the series Dexter and only succeeded in offending. I quickly realized the content was way too distasteful and took the video down immediately. Nobody should ever have to see what you saw and for that, I sincerely apologize."

Gunn's firing from Disney came from a similar situation. Several of Gunn's tweets from nearly eight years ago featured "jokes" about pedophilia and were brought to light recently. Quickly after the tweets were discovered, Disney let go of the Marvel director.

Harmon will continue his work with Adult Swim, where Rick and Morty was recently renewed for 70 additional episodes.