Harmontown is a weekly podcast hosted by the creator of Community, Heat Vision and Jack and Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon. Harmon presides as Mayor of Harmontown, while his Comptroller Jeff Davis (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) acts as announcer, co-host and DJ.
Recorded before a live audience, previously in the backroom of Meltdown Comics and Collectibles in Hollywood but more recently at a dedicated venue at Harmon's Starburns Castle, the show typically features frenetic, free-form discussions concerning society, race, gender and whatever else is on Harmon's mind that day.
Starting in the eighth episode, each session included a Tabletop RPG segment, in which the hosts, guests and occasional audience members take control of the characters. The games were run by Spencer Crittenden, who was recruited right out of the audience. The show began with a Dungeons & Dragons campaign featuring heroes Sharpie Buttsalot and Quark Pffffft, then transitioned into a Shadowrun game before the roleplaying element was phased out and spun into HarmonQuest. Spencer continued to serve as a sort of secondary co-host rather than a dungeon master until the roleplaying segment was reinstated, using the Pathfinder ruleset, in 2017.
Guests who have appeared regularly include Dan's fiancee/wife/ex-wife Erin McGathy, Kumail Nanjiani and Curtis Armstrong; additional guests have included Bobcat Goldthwait, Greg Proops, Duncan Trussell, Doug Benson, DC Pierson, Eric Idle, Mitch Hurwitz, and Robin Williams.
A complete archive of the show can be found here
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Provides Examples Of:
- The Alcoholic: Both Dan and Jeff are hard drinkers and usually perform the show in various states of inebriation. Dan is rarely onstage without his trademark cup of Ketel One.
- Audience Participation: The show heavily relies on Audience Participation, to the point where several audience members have become regulars on the show. Dan often brings people up to speak with them, and the audience is encouraged (to an extent) to ask questions and interact with the performers. This is most evident in the case of Spencer, who became a permanent part of the show after volunteering to DM a D&D session.
- Author Appeal: The show contains RPG segments because Dan played RPGs as an adolescent. He played mostly Shadowrun, which is was featured for a time on the show.
- Call-Back: "#2 Inception of Girlfriends" is rife with these.
- Catchphrase:
- Dan:
- "Dumb. Dumb, dumb."
- "I don't wanna get off on a lot of tangents."
- "It's okay; my sister's retarded."
- "We'll edit this out."
- "It's 9:11!"
- Erin:
- "I FIRE TWO ARROWS!''
- "ADVENTURE!''
- Jeff:
- "Wait, I'm sorry, what?"
- CLIFFHANGERRR!
- SPORTS CORNERRR!
- Spencer:
- "That happens".
- "Who knows, man."
- Kumail:
- "Can I just say..."
- "I was about to say something horrible."
- Dan:
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Jeff disappeared for five months in 2014 without an explanation, but returned in December. He apparently went on tour and took a break after returning to LA.
- Deadpan Snarker: Spencer says just about everything deadpan, causing Dan and Jeff to often mistake his jokes for anger.
- Every Episode Ending: Jeff playing "Xanadu" (before they had to stop using licensed music) and thanking all participants in the show by name.
- The Hero's Journey:
- Dan's obsession with Joseph Campbell means that this is brought up on a regular basis.
- In the documentary film version of Harmontown Dan realizes that if anyone is the hero it's Spencer, and Dan is the villain. It eventually led to Spencer's role as Annie's brother on Community and the creation of Harmonquest to give him a starring role.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dan and Jeff.
- Insufferable Genius: Dan sometimes comes off as this, especially when playing D&D.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Jeff, to the point where he admitted trying on women's clothes for the hell of it.
- Left It In: Dan will often state that he's going to "edit all this out," as a joke. Sometimes he'll shout something horrible like, "Hitler had some good ideas!" and say that it's a reminder to edit out that whole section.
- Lyrical Tic:
- Dan's raps almost always contain the rhyme "Mouth/South".
- He fucks mamas so much that Open Mike Eagle called it a crutch. He's tried to stop. He hasn't succeeded.
- Only Sane Man: Jeff is sometimes this especially when Dan goes on a long rant.
- Running Gag
- Dan's Liam Neeson impression.
- Dan's Bane voice.
- Jerry McSeinfeld
- Dan's improvised raps almost always focus on the line "I fucked your momma!"
- The Droopy Dog/Johnny Carson voice.
- "Yardage, yardage, yardage!" during Sports Corner.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Jeff always wears a nice suit and says that it feels like "armor."
- Shout-Out: The names of various D&D characters are shout-outs:
- Kumail's character Chris de Burgh is an expy of the
One-Hit Wonder musician of the same name. He often refers to his hit single "Lady in Red." - Quark the gnome is obviously a reference to the short-statured Ferengi of the same name in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- Dignity Sarsgaard's surname is almost certainly inspired by actor Peter Sarsgaard.
- Kumail's character Chris de Burgh is an expy of the
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Jeff, quite often.
- The Unpronounceable: Dan asked two audience members respectively to pick the first and last name of Jeff's D&D character. The first audience member suggested the name "Quark," but the second person responded with an inarticulate noise; thus, "Quark Pfffftt" became the character's permanent name.
- Verbal Tic: Dan's adorable stutter.
