Daniel O'Brien (comedian)

Dan O'Brien
Born January 1986 (age 29)
Hazlet, New Jersey
Pen name DOB
Occupation Writer, comedian
Language English
Nationality American
Alma mater Rutgers
Period Contemporary
Genre Humor
Subject Pop culture, history
Website
www.cracked.com

Daniel O'Brien (born January 6, 1986), also known as "DOB", is a humorist, author, and song writer for Cracked.com.

Early life

Dan grew up in Hazlet, New Jersey and later attended Rutgers University in New Jersey. His college job as a bartender was the inspiration for his unpublished online novel, Bartender.[1]

Cracked writer

In 2007, O'Brien started working for the Cracked.com website as senior writer and editor.[2] O'Brien has written over 200 articles for the site that have been seen more than 50 million times.[3]

O'Brien's writing encompasses a range from politics to pop culture. O'Brien mocked himself (such as in the sketch "Mug of Pens: The Coffee Mug (For Your Pens)"[4]), which also became popular on YouTube, the "character" of Daniel O'Brien presents himself as a wealth of pop-culture knowledge, often portraying an almost robotic, socially awkward character who openly admits to loving fictional characters (specifically Spiderman/Peter Parker) far more than his real friends. He has an extensive knowledge of past United States Presidents, and appears to be the Cracked resident expert on comic book knowledge and film information, among other subjects.

O'Brien is fond of Spider-Man and uses him as a sort of masthead mascot. He has written such themed articles as "Proposed Script for Spider-Man 4: The Grittiest Reboot Ever",[5] "Why Spider-Man Is a Dick",[6] and "3 Insane Spider-Man Movies You Won't Believe Almost Got Made".[7]

Agents of Cracked and Cracked After Hours

O'Brien and Michael Swaim have become the faces of Cracked, after starring in its many original web series like the award winning Agents of Cracked and Cracked: After Hours.[3][8][9][10]

The series premiered in November 2009, and the first 13 episodes were viewed nearly 4 million times.[3][11][12] After its first season, the series won the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Streamy Awards.[13] 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.[14] To date, the series has been seen more than 20 million times.[3]

Some of the material that ends up in the Agents of Cracked is based on real events, including an incident where Dan is confronted by Secret Service after writing an article titled "How to Kidnap the President's Daughter."[3][11]

O'Brien also co-wrote, produced and acted in Cracked's series Cracked After Hours, which has been seen more than 15 million times.[3]

Other work

O'Brien continues to work on other projects. In 2012, he revealed an upcoming book entitled How To Fight Presidents, which was purchased by Crown Publishing Group (Random House).[3] This was likely based on such articles as "The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time"[15] and "How to Fight Andrew Jackson: The Deadliest President Ever"[16] The book was published March 18, 2014, full title How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country and was illustrated by Winston Rowntree.[17] The book, in addition to analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of every president through Reagan, includes a brief summary of their life and term as president[17] and goes into some detail, much of it speculative, concerning the genitals of said presidents.[18] O'Brien uses a conversational tone and breaks the fourth wall repeatedly by referencing himself directly and by praising himself and the book in the third person. Although he does give tips and strategies on fighting each president, he makes no promises that one will be successful, making the book more useful as entertainment than as a literal how-to guide on defeating presidents should one travel backwards in time.

He was also a writer and editor on Cracked's The New York Times bestselling book You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News.[3] Recently he was featured on episodes of the History Channel's Your Bleeped Up Brain.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (2010). "About Bartender". obrienfiction.blogspot.com. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  2. ↑ O'Brien (2010). "Daniel". Cracked.com. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "EXCLUSIVE: How Comedian Daniel O'Brien Turned One Joke Into A Major Book Deal". Forbes.com. 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  4. ↑ O'Brien, Dan (March 15, 2009). "Mug of Pens". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  5. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (January 15, 2010). "Proposed Script for Spider-Man 4: The Grittiest Reboot Ever". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  6. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (November 5, 2010). "Why Spider-Man Is a Dick". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  7. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (March 22, 2013). "3 Insane Spider-Man Movies You Won't Believe Almost Got Made". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  8. ↑ Cracked.com adding two Web series The Hollywood Reporter, 4/2010 "Comedy Web site Cracked.com is working on ... "After Hours," created by Dan O'Brien and Jack O'Brien (no relation)"
  9. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (31 July 2010). "21 Questions with Daniel O'Brien". thenervousbreakdown.com. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
  10. ↑ Boose, Greg (February 4, 2010). "Talking Comedy and Disturbing YouTube Clips with Cracked.com's Michael Swaim". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Gould, Wendy Rose (October 26, 2010). "'Agents of Cracked' Infiltrating the Interwebs One Video at a Time". asylum.com. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  12. ↑ Watson, Adam (2010). "Why are there are no sport's in the 'Agents of Cracked?'". ESPN. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Winners of the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards".
  14. ↑ MacIntyre, April (Oct 6, 2010). "Agents of Cracked back for season two, preview". Monsters and Critics. Retrieved November 30, 2010. Agents of Cracked is Cracked.com's first original web series created by Abe Epperson, Dan O'Brien and Michael Swaim, three of Cracked's most popular and recognizable personalities.
  15. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (February 15, 2008). "The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  16. ↑ O'Brien, Daniel (February 17, 2012). "How to Fight Andrew Jackson: The Deadliest President Ever". Cracked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Amazon.com: How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country (9780385347570): Daniel O'Brien, Winston Rowntree: Books". amazon.com.
  18. ↑ "How to Fight Presidents".
  19. ↑ "Watch YOUR BLEEPED UP BRAIN on the History... - This Dan O'Brien".

External links