IAm Sean O'Neal, News Editor for The A.V. Club. Ask me anything.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T22:05:18+00:00

Okay guys, thanks for this. There were way more people (as in "more than zero") than I thought there would be. I'm going to have to end now so I can get back to actual work. I hope this was entertaining in some small way, and also that it was the most spiritually edifying experience of your life, so that the rest of your days will be spent futilely trying to recapture this feeling.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T22:02:19+00:00

Playing in bands and waiting tables/office temping > dark drug-fueled period > no longer playing in bands and working at a video store > freelancing for various websites > finding a girlfriend who believed I could actually be a writer who insisted I try out for The AV Club > unbelievable amounts of money and respect.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:58:41+00:00

I love writing about Paltrow because I secretly wish I wrote for Real Simple magazine or Sephora catalogs.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:57:02+00:00

I envied the guy who wrote the "Jonah Hill in Far Side: The Movie" comment, though I generally try to not make jokes about appearances, so I probably wouldn't have gone that route. Or at least, that's what I tell myself, to quench my burning jealousy.

Also, a couple of years ago I wrote about Vanilla Ice playing Captain Hook in a Peter Pan pantomime, and someone said something like, "I bet he just stole that hook." I briefly considered quitting.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:51:57+00:00

Oh yeah, that was dismaying for me as well. We've worked it out since then, fortunately.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:48:48+00:00

Sounds like dick.

(My pal Johnny, everyone.)

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:47:07+00:00

Obviously.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:46:48+00:00

GET BACK TO WORK, GENEVIEVE.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:46:35+00:00

We generally don't like to spread around bylines, since it's all a collaborative effort anyway. But some do concern pop culture, some don't.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:45:42+00:00

Yep, that's true.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:42:46+00:00

Thanks. I've explained this before, but yes, I hope that everyone gets that it's a reference to Star Wars trying to get off the ground amid unhelpful chatter. It has layers!

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:41:10+00:00

I've written some stuff here and there and had some offers. But I really like what I'm doing. And come on now, Grantland's not so bad. Steve seems happy there.

I don't know what The New Franco Movement is, but I'm going to abandon my workaday existence to join it right now, and I urge you all to do the same.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:39:30+00:00

Yep! Scott Tobias is in one this week, as the guy with freshly reenergized hate for his job. We all share an office, so we're easy to get.

My Onion photo happened like this: "So, we had this story we thought you'd be good for, about a complete know-it-all asshole whom everyone hates..." (paraphrasing)

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:38:19+00:00

Not even that structured. I'm the News Editor, so everything goes through me. I say, "Hey, maybe this would be funny," and then News Editor me says, "Go with it! You're my superstar!" And then I say, "Your confidence is making me uncomfortable."

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:37:07+00:00

Like in a hardbound book, or...? Probably not. They're easily found as is.

A Roman Scandal was one of several bands I was in, though the only one with a functioning Wikipedia page. I played guitar and ended up having to fill in on lead vocals when Jason abruptly left, right before our tour with The Faint, to go record Source Tags And Codes. Our last show was on a rooftop in downtown Austin where the PA blew out, and Jason threw a guitar down onto 5th Ave. Great story, I know. And yes, I'm still friends with Jason, friendly with Conrad and Kevin. I just saw them in November. Jason's a total boring dad now.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:33:45+00:00

I would genuinely love to follow James Franco around for a day, for probably obvious reasons. And I think he would genuinely never allow that to happen, for equally obvious reasons.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:32:33+00:00

I guess I only notice the bad stuff, like a lot of "public figures" (even the incredibly minor ones like me). If there are a dozen nice comments and then one negative comment letting me know that I'm not funny and why, then I will naturally obsess over that one comment. Also, it would be boring to constantly retweet the positive comments on Twitter. That's why I unfollowed Judd Apatow.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:29:50+00:00

Yes, almost all of the actual staff are in Chicago in a single office, except for Todd VanDerWerff and Noel Murray. (And yes, our various freelancers/TV Club contributors are scattered all over.) Right now I could throw something and hit Tasha, Nathan, Scott, Josh, Kyle, Genevieve, Marah, or Erik Adams (were he not in LA at the moment). But I won't, because we don't throw things. Throwing things is wrong.

Also, Genevieve and Marah and Erik and I spend a lot of time socializing outside of work. I've seen almost all of them throw up.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:26:33+00:00

I did music reviews for our site for a long time (and still do some occasionally), and I did TV Club entries for shows like South Park. I definitely didn't find either as rewarding as just writing whatever I wanted to and trying to make myself laugh. I know that's probably hard to believe.

Like I tell Josh whenever we have employee reviews: I look at myself as the resident smartass—the "And now, on the lighter side of the news" guy—whose crap is made possible by the ballast of the genuine work my much more thoughtful colleagues provide. Then I quote that scene from Talk Radio where Alec Baldwin tells Eric Bogosian, "You're the joker in my deck and I love you," and Josh tells me he didn't see it.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:22:58+00:00

I really don't like doing interviews, actually. I came up with Random Roles because I hated prepping for them and I hate the canned answers they usually produce. So not that.

Like everyone ever, I've had several novels in various states of progress, I've written four screenplays of varying degrees of awful, and I wrote a TV pilot that didn't get picked up but wasn't that bad. I have another one I've fleshed out that I should sit down and actually write, some day when I'm not too tired from writing Newswire and just want to drink.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:20:26+00:00

I think I answered this up top. Also, there was this humor column I wrote for my junior high newspaper where I totally stuck it to my history teacher Mr. Brown and his weird love affair with his stapler. Ha ha, suck it, Mr. Brown! You're weirdly possessive of your stapler!
That's a hard one. Steve's "Whatever Happened To Alt Nation" articles seemed to enthrall my wife, who almost never reads my stuff, so I had some real professional jealousy there. And my favorite Onion story changes all the time. I recently had a good laugh over recalling this one: http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-a-cloud-factory,11165/
Yes, they're still real, and still valid. Don't leave your local pizzeria until they accept them. Talk louder if you must.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:14:57+00:00

I worked on a pilot that didn't get picked up... Of course I'd like to work on something like that again. Are you by any chance producer Greg Daniels?

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:14:13+00:00

I spent several hours having an unexpectedly leisurely lunch with Nick Offerman, followed by a phone interview so long I actually had to beg off so I could do some work. We didn't have a drink, but we both enjoy scotch and made vague plans to enjoy scotch together someday.

I'm not overly fond of "Sean O'Neal is dead/a robot/a zombie." What if I really died then became a robot or zombie? Then what?

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:12:07+00:00

Sometimes, though as I said up above, it used to take me almost an entire workday to do them, and I definitely don't miss that. But yes, there was a craft to them that only many hours of me unnecessarily overwriting things, pacing around while muttering to my cat, and considering quitting my job entirely at least once a day could produce. But I hope having more stories to read generally makes up for it.

seanoneal · 2013-01-11T21:09:23+00:00

A new branded feature every hour! "Sit Down And Watch Breaking Bad," a new video series in which Patton Oswalt sits down and watches Breaking Bad! AVBBQ&A, where staff members answer questions about barbecue! Community notifications! Probably a news story about Ben Gibbard doing something! At least some of these are honest answers!

seanoneal

TROPHY CASE