Reader Mail

Here's a recent question from one of my favorite, longtime readers.

Anonymous asks:

Do you ever worry about posts like this one or the one about Lena Dunham hurting you professionally? Maybe I just know a lot of ass kissers, but the comedy writers I know would never trash a showrunner if there was a chance it would get back to them. 

Great question.

The answer is: Yes!!! I worry about it a lot. It keeps me from writing a ton of posts I'd really like to write. But let's take your two examples, and why I felt comfortable writing them.

Regarding Dan Harmon, if I were offered a job where he was the showrunner, I wouldn't take it. This may seem crazy, or bullshit, but it's true. I've heard too many horror stories. Like, a lot of horror stories. And that kind of misery just isn't worth it to me.

I love writing. But I also like being happy. And I've worked in miserable situations, and there is a line where the money isn't worth it. His antics cross that line for me. And I'm sure he wouldn't hire me anyway.

As far as Lena Dunham goes, I didn't think my post about her was "trashing" her at all. This may sound crazy, but I thought I was defending her.

First of all, I think it's pretty clear that she knows that she has a funny body. So me saying so isn't trashing it.

Second of all, I think it's almost a backhanded compliment to hold up what she's doing as this big, important thing simply because she's a young woman. My point was, she's a comedian, a comedy writer. She's doing shit the rest of us our doing. I said how I've used "comedy crutches" in my own work.

No one is calling Daniel Tosh "brave" for getting naked all the time and constantly inferring that he likes fucking dudes (Incidentally, in my opinion Daniel Tosh is a hundred times more brave in his comedy than Lena Dunham, but that's another blog post). Why? Because it's comedy! It's expected! Lena Dunham's doing the same thing, so stop treating her differently. 

But if you're not buying any of this, well then, if I were going up for a Dunham run show, I would probably pull all of these posts down, just to be safe...