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Dan O'Brien: Cracked (dot com) Revolutionary

Shortly after Greta Garbo had achieved the height of her cinematic popularity, someone, it may have been Virginia Woolf, described the actress as “some new type of criminal.” Okay, it may have been “some new type of outlaw,” and perhaps it was Gertrude Stein who essayed the quote, but you get the idea. That description of Garbo may come to mind when you encounter the work of Dan O’Brien, a talented writer/performer who qualifies as one of the more interesting souls working with Demand Media. At first glance, Dan’s background doesn’t suggest anything out of the ordinary. He majored in English and pre-med at Rutgers, and might have pursued a medical career or written the proverbial “next great American novel,” but then Cracked.com intervened to change all that. In his current role, Dan regularly delivers his offbeat, off-center, off-everything column, "Dan Dan Revolution," and the in-touch but totally out-of-its-mind video series, "Agents of Cracked,” to a growing army—of eager fans. He recently took time off from looking at the world through a funhouse mirror and sat down at his keyboard for an email interview.

Will: We'll start with a simple question. Rutgers—what is that, a small school in Hoboken? And those courses: English—creative writing specifically—pre-med, plus a minor in music. I assume you picked that mix so if music didn't soothe the savage breast, you could cut it open and install a working sonnet, right?

Dan O’Brien: Rutgers is actually a pretty large school in New Brunswick, NJ. They do have a campus in Newark and Camden, but nothing in Hoboken, so whoever told you otherwise is a liar. As far as my kind of all-across-the-board studies, no one forced me into it, I just couldn’t really decide. I liked playing music, but I knew I didn’t have the training or proper discipline, so I minored in music to get a better understanding of theory. I wanted to be a writer, so I studied English, but I also know that plenty of people want to be writers and few are lucky enough to catch a break, so it seemed smart to have something to fall back on. I had the crazy idea that, if I couldn’t be a writer, I’d be a doctor, partly because I wanted to, but mostly because I got really into the show Scrubs. I’m thankful that I got a job working for Cracked before I had to start applying to med school, because I would’ve been a terrible doctor.

Will: It was some guy from the University of Connecticut who called Rutgers “a small school.” Let’s sue him. Other than a paycheck and a chance to write what you want, what do you get out of writing for Cracked.com?

Dan O’Brien: Well, I like writing, so it’s pretty fulfilling on a personal level. I get to make a living doing what I love doing. Additionally, the site is designed in a way where we can take a writer with a good idea and get them an audience, get them paid and get them experience. We don’t care how old you are or where you’re from or whether or not you have a degree; if you’re funny enough and talented, we want to turn you into a professional writer. I started out freelancing. I know how intimidating and terrifying it can be, and so does everyone else on the editorial team. It’s important to us to make our process as comfortable and as welcoming as possible, and I like being a part of that.

Will: Where did the inspiration for "Agents of Cracked" come from? What was the genesis of the series?

Dan O’Brien: The inspiration came from us having no budget for actors, sets or anything, really. We were told to make a show as cheaply as possible, so we a) cast ourselves to save on actors and b) shot it in the office to save on locations. Once we knew it would star the two of us as coworkers, it was just a matter of figuring out characters that played to our strengths; Michael has elevated being an idiot to an art form, and I’m just naturally awkward and socially inept.

Will: How would you explain the series to someone from another planet?

Dan O'Brien: A traditional workplace sitcom in a very non-traditional workplace.

Will: Sometimes "Dan Dan Revolution" reads like a wordsmith's ramble through old copies of Mad Magazine. Where do you come up with the ideas for each column?

Dan O’Brien: No clue where the ideas come from. With a weekly column, all you can do is constantly think about it. I read the news, I watch TV, I talk to people, and I always keep my eye out for something interesting or ridiculous that might someday make a column. If there's nothing going on in the news or pop culture that I can talk about, it's harder to come up with something. Often I'll go for a run or do something else that's mindless and mechanical, so I can clear my head.

Will: Where is Agents of Cracked going?

Dan O’Brien: Plot-wise, we have no idea. I wish I could say we have an epic, six-season-long arc that's all been precisely mapped out, but we we're going day by day on the show. The tide on the internet can turn so quickly that, one day, we might just not have an audience for the show. Right now, we have a very dedicated and passionate audience that wants as many episodes as we can make. And we're happy to oblige.

Will: In a perfect world, where might the series lead? More DVDs? A feature?

Dan O’Brien: In a perfect world, we keep making the show as long as A) people want to see it and B) we’re still proud of it. I would hate it if we had to keep making the show after we felt like we’d already told the best stories we could tell, or that we’d taken the characters as far as they could go. Similarly, I’d hate it if we didn’t have the good sense to not overstay our welcome, like if we kept making season after season after the audience had clearly moved on. In a perfect world, the show ends when everybody wants it to end.

Will: If the Agents of Cracked are all that stand between us and certain doom, what does that say about the future?

Dan O’Brien: It says nothing about the future, because if that’s the case, there is no future. Michael and Dan are in no way capable of handling any disaster, either in the show or in real life.