American humor writer and editor
Jason Pargin
(born January 10, 1975)
[1]
is an American humor writer who formerly wrote under the name
David Wong
.
[2]
He is the former executive editor of humor website
Cracked.com
, a recurring guest on The Cracked Podcast, and has written seven novels:
John Dies at the End
(2007),
This Book Is Full of Spiders
(2012),
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
(2015),
What the Hell Did I Just Read
(2017),
[3]
Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick
(2020),
If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe
(2022), and
Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia
(2023).
John Dies at the End
was adapted into a
film of the same name
in 2012.
Early life
[
edit
]
Pargin was born in
Lawrenceville, Illinois
.
[2]
He and fellow Internet writer John Cheese (real name Mack Leighty) attended high school together and met during an art class they shared.
[4]
Pargin then attended the
Southern Illinois University
(SIU) radio-television program, graduating in 1997.
[5]
While at SIU, he was part of a TV show on
Alt.news cable TV
called
Consumer Advocate
. A number of episodes were produced.
[6]
He lived in
Marion, Illinois
,
[7]
[8]
until 2014, when he moved to
Nashville
.
[
citation needed
]
PWOT and Cracked
[
edit
]
In 1999, Pargin started his own humor site, Pointless Waste of Time (PWOT), which would eventually be absorbed into
Cracked.com
.
[9]
While working as a copy editor at a law firm, Pargin would spend his days copy editing insurance claims and nights posting humor articles on PWOT. Every Halloween on the site he wrote a new chapter of an online story that he published as a
webserial
.
[10]
An estimated 70,000 people read the free online versions before they were removed in September 2008. Pargin used the feedback from people reading each episode of the webserial to tweak what would eventually become the book,
John Dies at the End
.
[9]
Demand Media
hired Pargin to be the head editor for their revamped online magazine, Cracked.com, although Demand was not aware of Pargin's book deal.
[10]
As part of the deal, he merged PWOT into the Cracked forums. Pargin has described a disconnection between the old
Cracked
print magazine and the humor site Cracked.com due to multiple relaunches and almost entirely new staff.
[11]
As a child, he read
Cracked
magazine's biggest competitor,
Mad
magazine
.
[11]
In a popular article published at Cracked.com, Pargin coined the neologism "monkeysphere" which introduces the concept of
Dunbar's number
in a humorous manner.
[12]
Pargin referred to Dunbar's number again in his novel,
This Book Is Full of Spiders
.
When Pargin started PWOT, he took on the pseudonym of David Wong to keep his real and online lives separate. Since much of his writing involved situations similar to his real life, he did not want co-workers and his employers to think that his rants about fictional characters were inspired by real people. The origin of the name was a character from one of his first short stories:
[13]
It's not a very interesting story, 'David Wong' was the villain in a story I had written way back in the day, so when I was signing up for my first online accounts in 1998 I started using it. Then when hate mail started coming in with a bunch of racist anti-Chinese insults, I realized I had either gone badly wrong or badly right.
After his book and movie deal, his real name became common knowledge, but Pargin accepted it, saying, "It's not like I'm under the Witness Protection program or anything. I was just trying to keep things simple in my personal life."
[11]
In late 2020, Pargin announced that he was retiring the "David Wong" pseudonym, with future editions of his works being published under his real name instead.
[14]
Published works
[
edit
]
Pargin's first novel
John Dies at the End
was at first rejected by publishers, and he considered withdrawing it from consideration until indie horror publisher Permuted Press agreed to publish the novel in 2007.
[15]
A second edition by
Thomas Dunne Books
was published with additional material as a hardcover on September 29, 2009.
[16]
[17]
After enjoying some success, it came to the attention of
Don Coscarelli
, who decided to adapt it as a film.
[15]
In 2007, Coscarelli optioned the film rights to
John Dies at the End
.
[18]
Filming took place from late 2010 until January 2011 at locations in
Southern California
.
[
citation needed
]
The
film
, starring
Chase Williamson
,
Rob Mayes
,
Clancy Brown
, and
Paul Giamatti
, premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival
on January 23, 2012. It also played on March 12, 2012, at
South by Southwest
, in
Austin, Texas
.
[19]
[20]
[21]
The author stated in January 2018 that
Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick
,
[22]
the sequel to
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
, was nearing completion and scheduled for release in late 2020.
[
citation needed
]
The fourth book in the
John Dies at the End
series,
If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe
was released in October 2022.
[
citation needed
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
John and Dave
series
[
edit
]
Zoey Ashe series
[
edit
]
Standalone
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Pargin, Jason [@JasonKPargin] (January 10, 2023).
"Two things: I'm 48 years old today, somehow, and within the next week or so we'll be unveiling the cover and pre-order begging for the third Zoey book. Will the cover live up to this one I drew for the manuscript while I was writing it? That is in the eye of the beholder"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
May 17,
2024
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
a
b
"Wong, David, 1975 January 10?"
Archived
December 15, 2018, at the
Wayback Machine
. Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
- ^
"Jason Pargin on Earwolf"
.
www.earwolf.com
.
Archived
from the original on November 24, 2016
. Retrieved
November 18,
2016
.
- ^
Cheese, John (2012).
"Is there an origins story to your pseudonym"John Cheese"?"
. johncheesecracked.tumblr.com. Archived from
the original
on October 22, 2013
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
Mileur, Eli (February 22, 2012).
"SIU grad makes it big with comedy website"
.
The Daily Egyptian
.
Archived
from the original on September 11, 2014
. Retrieved
May 22,
2012
.
- ^
Consumer Advocate (1996).
"alt.news ? Consumer Advocate ? etch (1996 season one)"
.
Alt.news cable TV
.
Archived
from the original on January 29, 2014
. Retrieved
May 22,
2012
.
- ^
McCormick, Luke (November 30, 2009).
"Wong writes way into Hollywood"
.
The Daily Egyptian
. Archived from
the original
on January 18, 2013
. Retrieved
May 22,
2012
.
- ^
Testa, Adam (January 16, 2011).
"
'Cracked' Up: Local author finds niche in humor market"
.
The Southern Illinoisan
.
Archived
from the original on December 15, 2018
. Retrieved
May 21,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Lee, Jodi (November 7, 2010).
"Inter-review Sunday: David Wong & JDatE"
.
Archived
from the original on December 28, 2014
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Mileur, Eli (February 22, 2012).
"SIU grad makes it big with comedy website"
.
The Daily Egyptian
.
Archived
from the original on September 11, 2014
. Retrieved
May 22,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
Adhominem (2012).
"The many dimensions of David Wong"
. Adhominem.
Archived
from the original on April 16, 2012
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
David Wong (September 30, 2007).
"Inside the Monkeysphere"
.
Archived
from the original on May 11, 2021
. Retrieved
December 25,
2007
.
- ^
"r/BestofCracked - Comment by u/JasonDavidWongPargin on "I am Cracked Executive Editor David Wong aka Jason Pargin, I just wrote an article about the true meaning of Christmas, Ask Me Anything"
"
.
reddit
. December 22, 2014.
Archived
from the original on October 30, 2016
. Retrieved
October 30,
2016
.
- ^
"Update: As I mentioned back in December, I'm retiring the David Wong pseudonym as of the next release (the paperback of Zoey this October), we're also re-releasing all of my other books under my real name, I don't have the exact dates yet for those"
.
Jason "David Wong" Pargin
. Twitter. February 23, 2021.
Archived
from the original on February 23, 2021
. Retrieved
February 25,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Wong, David (September 25, 2011).
"John Dies at the End Teaser Trailer"
.
Cracked
.
Archived
from the original on May 12, 2015
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
Publishers Weekly (July 13, 2009).
"Fiction review"
.
Publishers Weekly
.
Archived
from the original on September 24, 2015
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
Wong, David (September 29, 2009).
"September 29, 2009"
. johndiesattheend.com. Archived from
the original
on September 7, 2012
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
Quint (October 21, 2010).
"Quint knows what Don Coscarelli's new movie is! And more importantly he knows Paul Giamatti and The Kurgan are in it!"
.
Ain't It Cool News
.
Archived
from the original on December 5, 2010
. Retrieved
January 12,
2011
.
- ^
Labrecque, Jeff (January 24, 2012).
"Sundance: 'Bubba Ho-Tep' director back with a vengeance ? VIDEO"
.
Entertainment Weekly
.
Archived
from the original on January 12, 2015
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
Sundance Film Festival
(December 19, 2011).
"Four Additional Films Selected for 2012 Sundance Film Festival"
.
Sundance Film Festival
.
Archived
from the original on September 28, 2014
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
South by Southwest
(2012).
"John Dies At The End"
.
South by Southwest
. Archived from
the original
on May 17, 2012
. Retrieved
May 12,
2012
.
- ^
"David Wong's Blog - Update on Suits 2 - January 28, 2019 07:57"
.
www.goodreads.com
.
Archived
from the original on August 20, 2020
. Retrieved
November 30,
2019
.
External links
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]
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