Fan: Hey, I'm a huge fan from Switzerland. I realize there's almost no chance you'll read that, considering how many comments there already are, but whatever, in the off chance that you'll read it, I'm willing to make a fool of myself for the whole internet to see. Okay, wine must help.
I just wanted to tell you that your work on Community really, really made my life better these past three years. Not because you made me laugh - you did, but because you made me cry. A lot. A Troy-lot.
I know you must get this all the time but... here we go again. Through Abed, you broke my heart so many times I stopped counting, because where people would find him funny, I felt like I finally could relate to someone. You know that part in Watchmen where Ozymandias says he's often felt stupid for being unable to relate to anybody ? Well, it was the same for me, until Abed. And then Abed made me curious about you. Because he was something else, and I'm not just talking about the number of pop culture references. I'm talking about what I felt like they were hiding. And I stalked you, like the slightly neurotic girl I am.
Through your tweets and tumblr post (and the years of archives on your myspace, but I'm definitely ashamed of reading all of that, so... oh fuck it), you did the same. You provided me with the kind of guidance I couldn't find anywhere else. Even if at times you didn't seem happy, you were... well, to me, you are a genius, and that was enough for me to know. Because when I get depressed, when I get broken, when I feel like everything is falling apart, I just re-read stuff you wrote, I re-watch bits of Community, I listen to your podcast, and I just know that everything will be okay, and that I'm not the only one feeling like that. That amazing people can feel like complete shit too.
So I don't really have any question. I guess lately I've really wanted to ask you "Are you okay ?" because that's how you make me feel, like the kind of person you deeply want to be happy. But you seem to be better than a few months ago, so I won't.
I just wanted a chance to tell you all of this, and to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for what you did (and considering I'm way too far to ever go see Harmontown, it's pretty much the only way). You didn't do it on purpose, but you helped, and you didn't deserve the way Sony treated you, and it made me angry and sad, but whatever. I'm sure you'll do amazing stuff in the future, and I'll be around to watch it. Please, keep bringing unique stuff to the screen.
Dan Harmon: Thank you. Second time I've cried in one AMA. I hope you understand that this is the reason I do what I do - I am, to quote Yvette Nicole Brown, a "broken" person, and to quote Hilary Winston in her first interview to work on season 1, this is a show about broken people. All of them are quite alone, some involuntarily, some by their own hand, some without realizing it, but none of them come to the study room table with the emotional advantages held by that mythical creature known as "a normal person." There are no normal people, there are just different kinds of weird, all of it is human and all humanity is better than everything inhuman. So I urge you to keep expressing yourself as honestly as you can, and know that the backpedals and second-guesses really aren't necessary - they don't hurt but they're wasting your time - because when you are truly human, as we all are, and when that is your honest message to anyone, you are beyond reproach, there is no way to screw it up. I love Abed very much, too, for the obvious reason that he's a character able to connect with others through comparatively limited channels. I had a TV show, he has ...other people's TV shows. You have a reddit account. And maybe a bunch of other ways. And when you tell me that our show was somehow helpful to you, that it somehow inspired you to use whatever channels you have to connect yourself to others, well, water squirts out of my eyes, because there's no higher goal a writer (or carpenter or zookeeper or bank robber) can have. So thank you. As for the idea of me never seeing what you have to say: it may often be true, but I think what the internet, which is increasingly becoming the real world, needs most, is a big fat dose of everybody assuming that EVERYBODY CAN SEE THEM. I think we have to stop using this place as a toilet or an Eyes-Wide-Shut orgy and start using it to be who we really are because I don't see a lot of roller rinks being built and we're running out of mountains to climb, so, better or worse, this is it, we are all entering Abed's box now. God speed to you and follow your bliss!
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