You can probably forget about Community's fourth season being dismissed as just a dream or an alternate timeline or whatever

By Sean O'Neal | June 7, 2013 | 6:39pm

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Ever since Dan Harmon confirmed he would be returning to Community, there’s been a certain amount of wishful speculation (if that is such a thing) that he might undo the events of season four with a wave of his wizardly hand—dismissing them as an occasionally passable dream, or more likely, one of those alternate timelines he’s so fond of. But if Harmon’s recent comments to E! are any indication, that’s probably not going to happen when he starts work on Monday. “I'm not going to be a jerk about it. I know there were some great writers working on that show who bled with me for seasons one, two and three…the worst thing I can do is fart in their direction at all,” Harmon says of how he intends to approach absorbing the fourth season, most likely during a binge-watch this Sunday, then keep any noxious thoughts bottled around polite company, no matter the pressure to release them.

“I don't think it would be very Community of me to negate anything,” Harmon continued. “Season three was weird, season two was weird, season one was weird; they're all weird. So if season four was weird in a different way, season's five job is to reveal that all four of those weird things add up to some weird hip-hop dance that when you put it on a loop, you go, 'Oh, I get it!'” Of course, Harmon still hasn’t actually seen season four yet, so his opinions could certainly change. But from the sound of things, he’s just planning to roll with it—or possibly provide the ultimate Community fan service, by turning season five into one long animated GIF.