Community: Dan Harmon’s 3 Secret Cameos Explained

Dan Harmon is best known as the creator of the comedy show Community, but he also had several secret voice cameos over the course of the series. Community, which followed the lives of seven students attending the fictional Greendale Community College, is often considered one of the best comedies of the past 15 years and has cemented itself as a cult classic. Despite coming to an end in 2015 after a six-season run, the show maintains a vocal fanbase who are still holding out hope for the perfect Community movie.

Over the course of the show, Community had a wide and impressive variety of guest stars, with celebrities featuring as everything from minor, one-off characters, to comedically warped versions of themselves. The cameos that best reflected the show’s meta-humor, however, were those of Dan Harmon himself. Although Harmon did not have a physical cameo in the show, he provided his voice for characters on three separate occasions.

Harmon’s first cameo was in the season 3 episode, “Curriculum Unavailable,” in which he voices an alternate version of the recurring character, Garrett. After being expelled from Greendale, the study group is forced to see a psychiatrist, who, unbeknownst to them, is actually an actor hired by Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) to trick them. The fake psychiatrist informs them that Greendale is actually an asylum where they were all admitted following mental breakdowns, and although they quickly uncover the lie, several of Community’s iconic scenes are recreated in an asylum setting in a quick montage. One of their classmates, Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen) takes on the role of a doctor, and his usual high-pitched, childish voice is replaced with a more distinguished, lower one done by Harmon. Harmon would make his next appearance in the season 5 episode “G.I Jeff,” where he voices a rejected G.I. Joe soldier named Sleep Apnea. Not only does Harmon voice the character, but his appearance is modeled on him, too. One of Community‘s animated episodes, “G.I Jeff” is done partially in the style of the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoons, and Sleep Apnea is a perfect cartoon Harmon.

Harmon’s third voice appearance was in the series finale, “Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television.” In the show’s last end tag, the series parodies the merchandising of franchises with a fake advertisement for a Community board game. The advertisement starts out as stereotypical and predictable but quickly becomes a meta-commentary on the show and its self-aware nature. Harmon, as the commercial announcer, drives this commentary and makes references to his tumultuous relationship with NBC, the dedicated fanbase, and the changes the show went through over the years. Unlike with his previous cameos, Harmon makes his presence known, ranting about his status as the Community’s creator and changing roles over the seasons. The scene is a perfect way to end the show, and it’s fitting that Harmon is the last voice ever heard on Community.

With creative storytelling, referential humor, and unique spins on classic tropes, Community was able to become an essential contribution to the sitcom canon, with no small thanks to Dan Harmon. With his voice cameos, Harmon was able to further leave his mark on Community and showcase the various forms that the series could take on. Although he never physically appeared in the show, Harmon’s cameos were all iconic in their own ways and helped to make the episodes all the more memorable.

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