Daniel O'Brien's Blog, page 30

cracked:Did you know all of Chuck Jones’s Wile E....

cracked:

Did you know all of Chuck Jones’s Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner deathmatches follow nine simple rules?

(And yes: we know Chuck broke #4 once in a while.)

THIS WEEK: special guest host Dan O'Brien is joined by Cracked editors Soren Bowie and Alex Schmidt to discuss the secret rulebooks that keep everything from detective stories to Community afloat, and how applying strict guidelines to TV shows both maintains their continuity and keeps them watchable.

Hidden Rules Behind Famous TV Shows

I took over the Podcast this week since Jack was out of town scouting wrestlers for a side project he’s working on.

liartownusa:Ice-T Law & Order SVU Part III

liartownusa:

Ice-T Law & Order SVU Part III

sorenbowie:This woman is from a small tribal community in...

sorenbowie:

This woman is from a small tribal community in Brazil. Her village banished her after three children were born deaf because they thought she was a witch cursing the community. A tourist discovered her barely alive in the jungle and brought her to the US. Now she’s a scientist and she’s best known for inventing cochlear implants. Never judge anyone you meet. Share if you were inspired.

Wow.

cracked:IT’S FINALLY HERE

cracked:

IT’S FINALLY HERE

A brief sample showing off the variety of messages I receive on...

A brief sample showing off the variety of messages I receive on this ridiculous website.

Do you have any upcoming books on the horizon? I think you're a very funny person and I'd like to give you more of my money.

Thanks! Donate that money to your favorite charity!

Random House had me adapt How to Fight Presidents into a children’s book called ASSEMBLING YOUR PRESIDENTIAL DREAM TEAM (I think). We’re just now putting the finishing touches on it and it should be out in the fall of 2016.

This book ended up being more work and time-intensive than I think the publisher and I initially anticipated. Nothing went WRONG and it wasn’t a bad experience by any means, I think we just assumed that it would be as simple as swapping out the bad language for better language, but the more we thought about it the more we wanted to make it better and more educational. Emily, my wonderful and enthusiastic editor, has a vision where this book ends up in classrooms, which would be surreal. So a book that was supposed to be finished last January is just now going to Random House’s copyeditor. Like, literally tomorrow.

As I was putting the finishing touches on this one I thought I’d take a year or so and just focus on Cracked and life and just general self-improvement, because between my two books and the two Cracked books, I’ve done lots and lots of work on a book a year for the last four years, I think. And that’s a lot. It often feels like I’ve been working two full-time jobs for four years.

Also, and this is a downer thing that people might not think (or want to hear) about, but finishing a book is really depressing. (For me, anyway. I’m sure it’s different for everyone. I’ve never talked to other authors about this.) It’s kind of hard to explain. There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment (positive thing!) and when you hand in a finished project and you no longer have a deadline looming, you feel really good and the anxiety goes away (another positive thing!). The depression aspect surrounds suddenly not having this “thing” anymore. You’re living with a book for a long time and feeding it and giving it all of this energy. You set aside time for it, you make appointments for it, you get frustrated at it when the words aren’t right and you do fucking backflips on the rare occasions that they are. And then when you hand it in, it’s just gone, and there’s nothing that immediately steps in to occupy the time and space that it used to take up.

When I totally finished How to Fight Presidents, I really broke down and had a month where I just felt totally bad and wrong and didn’t understand why. The people closest to me were saints, because I was making a lot of strange decisions and acting out without understanding what was causing me to be so weird. In retrospect, it was obvious: for years, I was living with this book as a part of my life and a part of me and then it was gone and I didn’t know what to do with myself or my time. It’s the same depression that settled in the day after I’d completed my first marathon*, and the depression that I remember settled in when I finished a high school or local theater play. I didn’t play sports growing up, but I’d bet a lot of money that it’s the same depression players would feel when a season was over.

So, for those reasons (and more!) I thought I’d take a break from books for a while. Buuuuuut I probably won’t. Because even though the depression part is real, all of the good stuff is real, too. I genuinely like having lots of work to do. If I don’t throw myself into another book immediately, maybe it’ll be a screenplay or the musical I’ve wanted to write for-fucking-ever, or some other thing. It’s just hard for me to conceive of an immediate future that doesn’t have me hunched over a computer writing for hours on a Monday night.

*WEIRD FACT THAT I JUST NOTICED: I turned over the final source doc for the book this morning and then almost immediately signed up for a 10K in September. I didn’t think anything of it or make any connections until writing this Tumblr response, but I’m almost positive that my decision to sign up for a race for the first time in two years is one hundred percent subconsciously linked to finishing a project and seeking out another thing instantly.

cracked:“It’s just your powers are new information to all of...

cracked:

“It’s just your powers are new information to all of us? Also you covered everything in winter that one time?”

The Terrifying Aftermath Of Disney’s Frozen

Subscribe to Cracked on YouTube for these and more Disney parodies!

I wrote this thing and we filmed it in a castle for absolutely no reason. Sarah was terrific and I was very sweaty!

Breaking this sketch was very fun. That’s when the whole team gets in the room together to pitch jokes and ideas before one of us runs off to actually write it. All credit goes to Soren for pitching the bit about the butterflies dying out.

Please watch and fucking share and fucking subscribe and whatever.

Hey, and chance you will be at San Diego Comic-Con in an official or non official capacity?

Oh, man, def probs not. At the risk of losing my nerd cred, I fucking hate Comic-Con. I used to have to go for Cracked and even 6 years ago it was already too big and crowded and overwhelming and horrible. And I always got sick, which is a thing that happens when you stick way too many people together in the same place, breathing the same, dead air. Cracked eventually realized that I would be more valuable to the company if I didn’t have a crowd-induced panic attack and throw myself into the ocean.

I DO enjoy the other Cons we get to do (Comikaze, Calgary Expo). Those were just great opportunities for actually meeting and connecting with fans and other people who make cool stuff.

liartownusa:Shameful Dawn by United States Supreme Court...

liartownusa:

Shameful Dawn by United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

“A terrifying look at America’s slick, glistening future…"—American Conservative

heyjustin:btaspodcast:The legendary Batman comic and...

heyjustin:

btaspodcast:

The legendary Batman comic and animation writer and creator of Harley Quinn stops by the podcast for an incredible interview! But first, Mark Rennie (The Onion, UCB) talks about his love of Baby-Doll, the potential happy ending of a tragic character, and the desperate need for a tumblr focused on the shoes of the DC Animated Universe. Then, Paul Dini (BTAS, Lost) talks about injecting comedy into Batman, learning to trust the collaborative process and the never before heard origin of creating Baby-Doll. If that’s not enough for you, today marks the beginning of #PodQuestCast, a new multi-part story arc that will continue next episode! Also featuring Kirby Howell-Baptiste (House of Lies, 2 Hot Dogs), Marissa Strickland (Newsreaders, Happy Endings) and Harry Chaskin (Adult Swim). Sponsored by Mary Dahl’s Adult Dollpers. Rate + Subscribe in iTunes.

I interview Paul Dini about Baby-Doll and so much more in the new episode of Batman: The Animated Podcast. Listen uppppp!