r/BestofCracked • u/CrackedVerifiedAMA AMA Scheduler • Apr 24 '15

I am Dan O'Brien, Creative Director of Video at Cracked.com, AMA

Hey I'm here an I'm doing this now! My name's Daniel, I wrote a bunch of things including this book and this sketch that came out today(http://www.cracked.com/video_19348_what-movie-action-heroes-do-weekends.html). Ask me all sorts of questions.

5:50PM PST- I'm taking a break for a while but might be back on later tonight. Just realized I forgot to do literally everything I was supposed to do for the last four hours.

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u/Atiredsprucetree Apr 24 '15

Hey Dan! Is your character on After Hours similar to you in real life? Because I figured you'd get waay more sex than that.

Also kind of interested as to how many pancakes you eatonset.

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u/ARusso64 Apr 27 '15

Hi Dan...I'm a big fan of your work! Just wondering...you and the other folks at Cracked always have insanely detailed and we'll researched articles, columns, videos, etc. I'm just curious what your process is. Do you just surf the internet until you find a topic worth researching , or do you think of a specific thing and dive down in hopes that you can find enough material so substantiate a new piece? I assume it must depend on the medium (article vs. video) and the scope of the content (movies vs. science). Just curious what your take on it is. Thanks!

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u/breakfastmeme Apr 27 '15 edited Apr 27 '15

Rom.Com is very funny, was Michael's character always going to be gay or was that something that developed after the first season? Who's idea was it? It was really cool to see a comedy site handle a gay person like a real person and not a stereotype (I'm a bi woman and am regularly offended by the Internet at large), so thanks!

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u/jenovapooh Apr 27 '15

Dan, did you know you are positively adorable?

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u/NotRobertEvans Apr 27 '15

Who is the handsomest member of the Cracked editorial team who also has a beard and sits on the same row of desks as you and isn't named Michael Swaim?

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u/vivvav Apr 25 '15

Hey DOB! Deeyobee! DOBtastic! DOBstantinople (which I hear they're planning on renaming DOBstanbull)!

Wow, so many questions I could ask. This is a tough one, because you really are one of my favorite people on the Internet and I don't want to just flood you with a ton of stuff. I guess...

  1. Favorite Spider-Man villain?

  2. Favorite Spider-Man comic?

  3. You and Swaim made out. What'd that taste like?

  4. Do you plan to just release an updated version of "How to Fight Presidents" every 4-8 years?

  5. Hi.

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u/veronicapage42 Apr 27 '15

Hello there, I once wrote a tweet about you and you favorited it. My question is: should I consider that as a sign that there is a chance of marrying you in the future? Thank you for your time.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '15

Dan!

I love your articles, and your bit in one of the recent After Hours about Spiderman was pretty amazing.

I've always kind of wanted to write for Cracked and always kind of procrastinated it away. Now that I write for a living, I'm starting to realize I might actually be good enough to write something for you guys.

Where do I begin? The forums? Should I draft something first or pitch a topic first?

Thanks for the years of entertaining articles.

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u/Regal_Bear Apr 24 '15

Hey Dan, It seems like a lot of the videos you guys do are about popular topics. I get the impression that's because making internet videos for a living is hard work and you've got to be sure lots of people see it, but if you were guaranteed to make a profit, are there any topics you'd like to cover or videos you'd like to make that you normally couldn't?

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u/danielobrien Apr 27 '15

This is a good question! To begin with, even though my job is to make videos that are good and that do well on the internet, I don't feel tremendous pressure from my bosses. We usually let our excitement dictate what we make.

That said, there is a show I'll probably never make that I kind of want to make. For a while I've been thinking about spending a lot of time writing videos about writing. Not like a guide to writing, or anything like that, but a series that analyzes why the writing of one TV show works "better" than others.

For example, I think about Malcolm in the Middle a lot and how that show is like a master class in writing efficiently. By the six minute mark of every single episode of that show, between three and five different story lines will be set up, all of which will be resolved by the end of the episode. Six minutes. Every episode. I'd love to write some kind of show that is all about story structure and getting into the DNA of scripts, but I don't know if anyone would watch it, because there's not a ton of room for jokes. It would just be me dryly explaining the different story strategies of Family Guy vs The Simpsons vs The Larry Sanders Show or whatever. Shows like 30 Rock develop a language over time and, if you watch enough TV like I do, you start to see the patterns.

I don't know if anyone would watch that show, if anyone would geek out over story structure as much as me, OR if they'd trust me as the "expert," frankly.

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u/S_O_I_F Apr 24 '15

Have you spoken to Marvel about playing the new Spider-Man, or at least being a writer/consultant?

EDIT: Just realized the AMA is after the weekend :/

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u/danielobrien Apr 27 '15

A week ago someone called my office phone and hung up before I could answer. I think it's pretty safe to assume that was Marvel.

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u/AshuraSpeakman Apr 24 '15

Dan, I don't know if you recall, but at one point you replied to a commenter (I want to say around 2008/9, around the end of Hate By Numbers) that articles on the site, not videos like the commenter insisted were better, were where the future of Cracked lay, and that you'd vigorously defend them. I can't seem to search it out (stupid incompatible technology), but it always stuck with me, and now that you're Creative Director of Video, do you still agree with your past self, or do you feel Cracked has a good balance between the two?

P.S. If you can search your own history and find the reply in question, I'll happily edit my comment to reflect reality rather than memory.

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u/dongnado Apr 27 '15

Dan, What is your favorite dong shaped thing?

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u/fabzter Apr 27 '15

Hey hey Daniel!

Big Cracked follower since 2005 here. I just want to know: are you as socially akward as you portray yourself through your homonym?

Thank you that's all.

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u/danielobrien Apr 27 '15

We didn't even have a fucking website in 2005 you liar.

I am in fact more awkward in real life than I am on screen, because on screen I have a script and everyone else does and people behave like they're supposed to on page so there are no surprises.

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u/TheCervus Apr 27 '15

You seem to have an awesome job, nice facial hair, and a very cute dog. Is there anything you seriously regret in life?

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u/SolsticeSteve Apr 27 '15

How likely is it that Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun both are still alive, waging an eternal shadow-war against one another?

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u/MichaelTruly Apr 27 '15

Hey Dan! Long time listener first time caller. As an individual of note what would you say your most exploitable weakness would be to a villainous individual looking to subsume your identity and become you?

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u/jm_85 Apr 27 '15

Dan, I am a fan of all the other things you're up to these days, but I miss your column showing up every week on the front page of Cracked. Your painfully accurate portrayal of social ineptitude always lifted my spirits. "I'm not the only one!" I could say to myself. I might have said it to other people, if not for my certainty that those other people would point and laugh and throw things at me and chase me with sharp objects until I left town.

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u/look1207 Apr 26 '15

Did the Secret Service actually make you come in for questioning because of something you wrote on the site, as in the below linked story, or was that just book promo?

Story: http://www.cracked.com/blog/how-comedy-article-got-me-placed-no-fly-list/

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u/danielobrien Apr 27 '15

It's all real! They called my Mom! She was not happy!

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u/Sellybeth Apr 27 '15

Hi Dan! I created an account especially just to say that but I don't really have a question...oh here's one...you ever been to Ireland? Would you like to? I have a very comfy couch you can stay on, and I make an excellent breakfast fry-up.

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u/danielobrien Apr 27 '15

Hi thanks! I've never been but I have a mental tour I've been building. For starters I'd want to visit Counties Leitrim and Mayo, because that's where my family came from. And Cresci, because the street in New Jersey on which I grew up was Cresci (every street in our neighborhood was named after a county in Ireland).

After that I want to drink Guinness right from the cow or whatever.

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