| Dan O'Brien | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1986 (age 25–26) Hazlet, New Jersey |
| Pen name | DOB |
| Occupation | Humorist: Internet |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genres | Satire |
| Subjects | Pop culture, news media, Americana |
|
www.cracked.com |
|
Daniel O'Brien (b. 1986), also known as "DOB", is a humorist, roller blade enthusiast, BattleBot aficionado, Ritz Crackers connoisseur, and senior writer for Cracked.com. Cracked magazine has existed in print since 1958 but was relaunched in its present form in 2006. O'Brien, as well as being one of the senior editors, also appears in many of the site's web videos including the award winning series, Agents of Cracked.
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Dan grew up in Hazlet, New Jersey. While working as a bartender, he studied creative writing at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It was this work that inspired his online novel, Bartender.[1]
In 2007, O'Brien started working for the Cracked.com website as senior editor and blog contributor.[2] A print magazine similar to Mad Magazine, Cracked had been around for decades before becoming a strictly online venture that was purchased by Demand Media in 2007.[3] In November 2010, Cracked.com received one billion hits to its webpage for the year 2010 alone. O'Brien himself has written over 200 articles for the site that receive tens of millions of hits.
O'Brien and Michael Swaim have become the faces of Cracked, especially after starring in its many videos like the award winning Agents of Cracked.[4][5] In an interview with The Huffington Post Swaim talks about how the popularity of the videos have created the misperception that Michael Swaim is the most famous writer of Cracked, but as Swaim says Daniel O'Brien's blog is "huge" while his own are some of the "least-viewed things on Cracked."[5]
O'Brien and Swaim started working together as their collaborative writing skills really jelled, although in real life Swaim says O'Brien has the drunken lout personality while Swaim is the mild-mannered straight man.[5] In another interview, O'Brien stated that, "We wanted to do a series that was not only a big flagship series [that represented what Cracked is about], but also something that felt classic."[6]
The series premiered in November 2009, and the first 13 episodes were viewed nearly 4 million times.[7][8] After its first season, the series won the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Streamy Awards.[9] The Agents of Cracked was renewed in October 2010 and ran for another 13 episodes, followed the next year by a third season of 10 episodes.[10]
Some of the material that ends up in the Agents of Cracked are based on real events, including an incident where Dan is confronted by the FBI and Secret Service after writing an article titled "How to Kidnap the President's Daughter."[7]
O'Brien continues to work on other projects including co-writing Fielder's Choice which was optioned into a American film production of the same name and released on TV in 2005.[11]