That’s really interesting because, yeah, if you had one person of a gender or a race, I feel like there would also be a desire to—every time you’re writing something about a woman or a black person—to turn to them and [laughs] ask them, “Is this going well?”

Dan: Yeah, and writers are strong people and they’ve come up through the world and they’re smart so it’s not like they’re shattered by that experience, but I do think they’re probably compromised by it. I think they’re probably not going to be able to be the best writer they can be and give everything they’re capable of giving if they’re also, to any degree, an ambassador.

Right. Sort of like the Keith David situation in season six of Community.

Dan: Yeah, don’t everybody look at me because someone said the word “black,” please. I’m not taking that responsibility of, like, my humanity for an hour.

I’ll ask one more thing about Anomalisa. It was Kickstarted and I assume you didn’t have a ton to do with the actual Kickstarter, did you? I assume you just, like, endorsed it.

Dan: Yeah, I’ve never understood the range of Kickstarter. I offered some reward tiers that I’m woefully derelict in. There’s a couple of rewards I still gotta see to. But yeah, I certainly didn’t do the nuts and bolts. And the nice thing about Paramount coming into our little family is they’re a big enough and modern enough studio that they actually have people for that.

I don’t know how great a job we were doing for the Kickstarter donors. I heard some third-party, backchannel, grapevine stuff that we weren’t the greatest Kickstarter attendees in terms of letting people know what was going on. And the difficulty there was what was going on was secret. Charlie doesn’t like the open source, let-me-know-how-I’m-driving process. That’s not how you get the best Charlie, so we couldn’t just pop on there every week and say, “Here’s the deal: the budget has gone up enormously, this is a full feature film now, not a short. You did help us Kickstart this thing, but it’s now becoming a very real thing that we think could end up at the Oscars and we really want to tell you this, but we can’t.”

I won’t use that as an excuse, but the happy ending to that story is Paramount coming in and going, “We can treat this right. Let’s make sure this thing gets the reception it deserves. And also can we take over your Kickstarter and make sure that everybody is happy and informed and gets to come to screenings and gets their DVDs and stuff.” So that was awesome.

If Paramount comes in I guess it’s a very different situation. Because Kickstarter is quite a daunting notion because you’re beholden to the fans in such a different way. So I guess you haven’t had much direct experience with it, but I was going to ask… I’m assuming eventually we’re getting the Kickstarter for the Community movie?

Dan: [laughs]

I don’t know, what do you think? I’m sure there’s nothing yet. [laughs]

Dan: Yeah, I’m still reeling from the guilt of Yahoo reporting a loss on their TV venture and our biggest benefactor at the place leaving.

Well, maybe it was more Paul Feig’s fault. [Ed. note: Paul Feig also had a Yahoo original series called Other Space.]

Dan: Yeah, let’s just blame Paul Feig for things. [laughs] He’s doing well enough that he’ll take it with his usual smile in his sharp suit.

But, no, it’s been a relief to not think about Community. I don’t want to make anybody upset saying that because it’s not the same as saying I don’t like Community. It’s just it’s exactly what it is: it’s been a relief for that very reason that I really lived by the sword of the fan approval on that project. I made no bones about ringing that dinner bell and going “Guys, this is your show. This is a show for you. I am one of you. Let’s do it. Sony hates nerds, let’s get ‘em. On my mark.” So, those people not getting everything that they want is a terrible thing. Because they did so much more than people who just watch a TV show, which is really their only job. They don’t even have to do that, but they did so much more.

You get into a relationship where you feel responsible for people’s feelings. It can be a messed-up thing when you’re not the most attentive, intimate guy. I don’t have instincts for base-level friendliness and stuff. I just know how much I owe that legion. So, anyway, for that reason, what’ll feel really good is coming back at some point, going, “Okay, yeah, let’s do this.” And it’ll be when it feels right because obviously everybody on that cast needs some time to reap the rewards of their full-time service to that army.

It wasn’t like the days of Seinfeld or Friends where, because that show was beloved, they all kept getting to renegotiate their contracts or walk out into the parking lot to find a fleet of Porches one day because God forbid they got sad. These were the new days of the golden age of television, which really means, for actors, a lot of hard work for not the payment that you’d think in your fantasies. So those guys, in a lot of ways, have earned the right to just go out there and sow oats and see what they can reap.

Once they have done that and feel nostalgic enough to do something that we can all do from the bottom of the hearts and we can get them to commit to something, then I can write a movie around people that are committed. Because the last thing you want to do is write the script based on an assumption of participation and that doesn’t happen. I’d rather work with what we’ve got.

Well, I did just want to say the Community finale was fantastic. It was awesome.

Dan: Well, thank you very much. Thank you.

And thanks a lot! We’ve talked a long time.

Dan: Well, thank you. Yeah, sorry we only talked about trigger warnings last time. I hope you were able to put a trigger warning warning on that article.

We did not do that. [laughs] We should’ve, in retrospect.

Dan: All right, thanks, my friend. I’ll talk to you another time. Thanks so much for your attention and break a typewriter.

[laughs] Absolutely. Thank you very much, Dan.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.