Megan Ganz Calls Dan Harmon’s Apology for Sexual Harassment a “Master Class on How to Apologize”

Last week comedy writer Megan Ganz accused her former boss, Dan Harmon for sexually harassing her while they worked together on the show Community.  The conversation started on January 2nd with Harmon implicating himself in a tweet calling 2017 The Year of the Asshole (“myself included” he wrote) and Ganz replying, “Care to be more specific? Redemption follows allocution.”

A back and forth with Harmon followed, with Harmon admitting to treating her like garbage and claiming foggy memories of what happened between them, but promising to speak about it further. On Ganz’s part, she said she wished there was a way to fix what happened, as it took years to believe in her talents again and trust in the people she worked with. “You want relief? So do I. I want to watch the first episode of television I wrote again without remembering what came after. Figure out how to give me that relief and I’ll return the favor.”

This week Harmon got more specific on his Harmontown podcast, with a seven minute public apology that Ganz called “a master class in how to apologize” and asked people to give it a listen. “I’m not being flippant,” she tweeted. “I didn’t bring up this mess just to sweep it back under the rug. But I find myself in the odd position of having requested an apology publicly and then having received one—a good one—also publicly. I waited 6 years for it,” she said. “He’s not rationalizing or justifying or making excuses. He doesn’t just vaguely acknowledge some general wrongdoing in the past. He gives a full account.”

You can hear the apology at 18:38 in on harmontown.com.

In it Harmon admits to being attracted to Ganz, an employee of his at the time, although he did not refer to her by name. She was a writer, and he was a showrunner and details his bad behavior toward a writer whom he paid too much attention to, being flirty and creepy, and says he was so attentive that his girlfriend and others questioned whether his intentions toward her were strictly work-related or something more. Harmon says he would argue with anyone who questioned him, saying that they were being sexist or jealous and referring to himself as a supportive mentor. Harmon also says he knew that his behavior was harming her career, her integrity and her self-esteem. The abusive behavior continued for two years, Harmon even broke up with his girlfriend and upped his attention.

Once she outright rejected him he says he felt humiliated and says he retaliated. “Now I wanted to teach her a lesson. I wanted to show her that if she didn’t like being liked in that way then, oh boy, she should get over herself. After all, if you’re just going to be a writer then this is how ‘just writers’ get treated,” he said. “The entire time I was the one writing her paychecks and in control of whether she stayed or went and whether she felt good about herself or not, and said horrible things. Just treated her cruelly, pointedly, things I would never, ever would have done if she had been male and if I had never had those feelings for her.”

He closed the apology with a plea to others in positions of power. “No matter who you are at work, no matter where you work, in what field you’re in, no matter what position you have over, under, or side by side with somebody, just think about it. Because if you don’t think about it, you’re going to get away with not thinking about it and you can cause a lot of damage that is technically legal and hurts everybody,” and a personal plea regarding Ganz. “Please don’t hurt her. Please don’t make this worse on anybody but me.”

Ganz not only accepted the apology, she says she feels vindicated, and forgives Harmon for his behavior six years ago.

Read more comedy news.