Dan Hopper
Dan Hopper is an editor for Cracked.
Guest Appearances
June 30, 2019
Nothing says “summer” like a massive alien invasion of the planet Earth. Oh sure, that invasion never happens in life. But in movie after movie, space alien fleets descend on our little blue marble with intent to kill. Why do they tend to time that invasion with Northern Hemisphere summertime? Why are there so many common bonds between all alien invaders, even though the universe contains an infinite array of extraterrestrial possibilities? And how are audiences up for the same aliens losing the same battle every single movie?
On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editor/columnist/human resistance leader Dan Hopper to wonder about that exact thing. They’ll explore the bizarre way alien blockbusters line up with each other time and time again. They’ll dig into basic strategic errors that hamstring the alien fleets, even though us much less advanced humans know better. They’ll also leave you with The Two Kinds Of Alien Movies, and a greater sense of why we fill multiplexes to see motherships laser our cities at all.
Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/
April 14, 2019
Notes are annoying. Nobody likes to spend weeks and months crafting an idea only to be told what’s wrong with it. Flip side to that: we often have blind spots when it comes to our creative projects. And that goes for everybody, even the creators of the most famous and successful entertainment of all time, because surprise — almost every movie and TV show you love needed saving from creative notes that are (in hindsight) blisteringly obvious.
On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editor/columnist Dan Hopper and by writer/comedian Kandice Martellaro for a look at the most quotable, lovable, Oscar-winning movies of all time…and how they almost fell apart at the ideas step. They’ll also discover series-killing TV episodes that got rehearsed and staged and brought within a hair of terrifying America. And yes, don’t worry, they one hundred percent discover which iconic franchise almost made its villain a confusing monkey.
Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/10-great-movies-tv-shows-that-were-almost-disasters
March 3, 2019
We’re fresh off ‘Green Book’ achieving its dream Oscar night (CONGRATULATIONS you made-up Hero Dad Story you!!!). But this week’s episode is about EVERY Oscars ceremony. Why? Because the Oscars dictate most of your movie-watching year: October-December = “good movies”, January-February = “failed attempts at good movies”, summertime = “movies seeking the big green Oscar better known as MONEY.” So we asked ourselves a question. We asked what might happen if the Oscars stopped dictating that schedule? And what if they stopped dictating it because the Oscars stopped happening at all, freeing up all of pop culture to function differently (and maybe function better)?
On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, please enjoy the oracular brilliance and Hollywood wisdom of comedians/podcasters Caitlin Gill, Dan Hopper, Amy Nicholson, and Danielle Radford, who joined Alex Schmidt for this LIVE episode from the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. They’ll dig into the biggest possible pop culture thought experiment: what would happen if the Oscars went away.
Footnotes: http://www.cracked.com/podcast/what-would-happen-if-oscars-went-away/
January 13, 2019
The name “science fiction” is a pretty good descriptor of the genre, if you want to think of it as two big buckets for a writer to fill. Bucket 1: science! Fun tech and gizmos to entertain and inspire. Bucket 2: fiction! Narrative and story and other engaging ideas that make us laugh, cry, and consider what it means to be human. It’s amazing that one genre can bring us all that. But have you ever noticed some sci-fi does an incredible job of the “fi” part — and thanks to that brilliant “fi”, we let a lot of weird “sci” whoosh right past us?
On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Cracked) and Moujan Zolfaghari (Mission To Zyxx) for a trip down memory lane, into the future, where everybody WISHES they had tech half as great as WiFi. They’ll examine everything from ‘Minority Report’ to ‘Blade Runner’ to all generations of ‘Star Trek’, finding gizmo after gizmo that’s lower-tech than what we have in real life, and dig into why sci-fi stories where things are supposed to be more advanced than today ignore the actual ways technology advances.
Footnotes: http://www.cracked.com/podcast/12-sci-fi-movie-technologies-that-went-stupidly-backwards/
November 25, 2018
History: it’s the number one topic for filmmakers who want to win an Oscar. From serious movies about American history to serious movies about British history, no subject wins more votes and locks down more statues. Of course the people making those movies would tell you they’re super serious because history was that way, so what else can they do. But what if every period drama could be funnier AND realer if it got over itself? And what if eras from ancient Rome to the twentieth century Cold War featured real hijinks that are so hilarious, so wild, so straight-up funny, Hollywood refused to show them to you?
On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt and Dan Hopper explore that exact phenomenon. They’ll pick apart some of the greatest historical dramas and biopics of all time, take you behind the production curtain, and pick out the hilarious elements filmmakers just didn’t have the guts to put in. And they’ll dig into the biggest historical events of all time, illuminating funny real things no moviemaker would show you unless they’re making a comedy, and willing to forgo Oscar riches.
Footnotes: http://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-historical-facts-that-were-way-too-stupid-movies/
July 9, 2018
We live in exciting times, other than all the reasons we don’t. Why’s that? We live when TV shows got good. Over the last 15-20 years, high quality television became a normal thing there’s almost too much of, instead of a rare jewel hiding in a sea of cranked-out, time-constrained filler. But how did we reach this pinnacle? What failed experiments laid the groundwork for our present nirvana? And did Kanye West really get to create and film TWO entire TV show ideas in 2007?
On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Cracked) and Chase Mitchell (The Tonight Show) for a look back on the most bizarre decisions in TV history. They’ll uncover pilot episodes that boggle the mind, baffling ideas that ran for multiple episodes, and entire plotlines on massive hit TV shows that happened for idiotic reasons. They’ll also break down the process that turns one idea into 24 episodes. And if you’re patient, they’ll share with you the wonder that is BAYWATCH NIGHTS.
Footnotes: https://goo.gl/Uw6viH