Daniel Kibblesmith

Daniel Jordan Kibblesmith (born October 9, 1983)[1] is an American writer and comedian who has written for television, comic books, and websites.[2] As a writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert he is a five-time Emmy nominee.

Early life

Kibblesmith is of Jewish ancestry through his mother.[3] He attended Oak Park and River Forest High School.[4]

Internet writing

Kibblesmith was an early employee of Groupon, joining in 2009. When he left the company in 2014, he was then the in-house comedy writer and senior marketing copywriter. He was also in charge of developing the company's morale boosters. He left the company to become a freelancer. Kibblesmith became a founding editor of ClickHole in 2014,[5] and afterward served as humor editor for BuzzFeed in 2015.[6][7]

Television writing

In 2015,[4] Kibblesmith became a staff writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[8][9] At the Late Show, he has received several Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series,[4] four for the original series, and one for the special Stephen Colbert's Live Election Night Democracy's Series Finale: Who's Going To Clean Up This Sh*t?.[10] He has also been nominated for Writers Guild Awards for Comedy/Variety Talk Series.[11] Kibblesmith was also the writer for the Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee television special in 2019.

Books

Kibblesmith is the author of the books Princess Dinosaur (2021),[12] We Wish You a Harley Christmas: DC Holiday Carols, and Santa's Husband (2017). Santa's Husband was inspired by a humorous tweet by Kibblesmith, who had heard of someone employed as Santa Claus at the Mall of America, who happened to be black. He wrote that he would tell future children that Santa Claus was black, and that any white Santa Claus was "Santa’s husband". Following the tweet, illustrator A.P. Quach created an image of a black and white Santa in romantic positioning.[13] He is also the co-author of the book How to Win at Everything (2013).

Comic books

In 2017 Kibblesmith was the writer for the satirical Valiant Comics book Quantum and Woody,[14] Valiant High,[15] and the Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special.[16] He is also the writer for several Marvel comics, including variants of Spider-Man,[17] Loki, Black Panther Vs. Deadpool,[18][19] and Lockjaw. In 2019 he discussed his Loki series, that it described Loki as the Marvel Universe's "bad roommate".[5] In March 2020, he was announced as writer for the relaunch of the New Warriors comic, for which he co-created Marvel's first non-binary character.[20][21] The direction of the new characters – particularly the use of pejorative internet slang in names as well as the perceived political agenda of the writing – was met with considerable backlash from online audiences[22][23] and was never published.[24] In October 2021, Kibblesmith wrote the one-shot The Darkhold: Blade, following Blade after an alternate ending to the 1998 Blade film.[25][26]

Social media

Kibblesmith developed the idea for GOP Teens in 2012 with a dormant website, which he first began using as a parody space in 2014. In addition to the tweets, Kibblesmith also developed a line of parody merchandise sporting the GOP Teens logo.[27] During the 2016 US Presidential Republican Primary, the parody Twitter account "GOP Teens" was described by Bustle as "a Republican youth outreach campaign that hilariously skewers politicians' misguided attempts to appeal to young people" by tweeting "messages written from the perspective of someone who doesn’t really understand how social media works".[28] Kibblesmith's personal Twitter account has also been covered by the news as he releases comic tweets and items such as fan theories.[29] He has also used his social media to issue parody comics focused on comic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes.[30]

Personal life

Originally from Oak Park, Illinois, he lives in New York City with his wife, Jennifer Wright, whom he married in 2017.[31][32] Prior to meeting his wife, he was listed as one of Elle.com's Most Eligible Bachelors.[33]

References

  1. Kibblesmith, Daniel, 1983- Library of Congress Name Authority File, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  2. The Clown Prince of Groupon Moves On Nymag.com, January 31, 2014, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  3. Jack Holmes. 'Santa's Husband' Is War-on-Christmas Trolling at Its Finest Esquire, November 1, 2017, retrieved July 24, 2020^
  4. Four chosen for OPRF's Tradition of Excellence award OakPark.com, 2017-08-01, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  5. Gregory Paul Silber. INTERVIEW: Daniel Kibblesmith says Loki is the Marvel Universe's terrible roommate - The Beat Comicsbeat.com, 2019-10-21, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  6. Megh Wright. No Joke, 'BuzzFeed' Just Hired 'Clickhole' Editor Daniel Kibblesmith Vulture.com, 2014-12-01, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  7. Dan Kois. ClickHole writers explain their craft: How the Onion's Internet parody spinoff became the best thing online Slate.com, June 8, 2015, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  8. Santa Is a Gay Man in an Interracial Relationship in This New Picture Book Time, 2017-03-28, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  9. Kevin Roose. The Clown Prince of Groupon Moves On Nymag.com, 2014-01-31, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  10. Daniel Kibblesmith - Emmy Awards, Nominations and Wins | Television Academy Emmys.com, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  11. 2020 Writers Guild Awards Nominees & Winners Writers Guild Awards, 2020-02-01, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  12. Rights Report: Week of March 4, 2019 Publishers Weekly, 2019-03-05, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  13. This Author Is Under Attack for Making Santa Black and Gay VICE, 2017-10-10, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  14. From political jokes to superhero laughs: A Colbert writer takes on 'Quantum and Woody' The Washington Post, 2017-09-28, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  15. Chris Sims. Preview: Kibblesmith And Charm's 'Valiant High' #1 Comicsalliance.com, February 16, 2017, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  16. Rich Johnston. The Late Show's Daniel Kibblesmith Joins David LaFuente For Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special Bleedingcool.com, 2017-08-10, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  17. Lan Pitts. From TV Late Night to Superhero Tights: DANIEL KIBBLESMITH Newsarama, 2019-04-25, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  18. Lan Pitts. From TV Late Night to Superhero Tights: DANIEL KIBBLESMITH Newsarama, 2019-04-25, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  19. Chris Arrant. This Week's LOKI #5 Reveals Series Has been Canceled Newsarama, 2019-11-21, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  20. Mike Hitch. Backlash as Marvel unveils first non-binary superhero Star Observer, March 24, 2020, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  21. Dana Forsythe. Marvel is rebooting New Warriors with writer Daniel Kibblesmith, who loves skateboarding heroes SyFy Wire, January 9, 2020^
  22. Anthony Gramuglia. Why Marvel's 'New' New Warriors Have Already Sparked Backlash CBR, March 19, 2020^
  23. Amy West. Marvel unveils first non-binary superhero - though their name has already sparked a big backlash Digital Spy, March 21, 2020^
  24. Timothy Donohoo. What Happened to the New Warriors' 30th Anniversary Celebration? CBR, July 4, 2022^
  25. Matthew Sardo. Exclusive: Daniel Kibblesmith To Write The Darkhold: Blade #1 Monkeys Fighting Robots, July 15, 2021, retrieved July 15, 2021^
  26. Drew Mollo. A Blade Comic Reveals the Dark Truth of the Original Movie's Villain Screen Rant, November 15, 2021, retrieved November 15, 2021^
  27. Emma Roller, National Journal. Two Parody Twitter Accounts That Perfectly Explain U.S. Politics The Atlantic, 2014-08-07, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  28. Lara Rutherford. The GOP Teens Parody Twitter Just Made Debate Season A Lot More Bearable, If You Can Handle The Sass Bustle, August 11, 2015, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  29. Riley Little. Theory: Doctor Mario is Actually A Third Mario Brother Screen Rant, 2019-12-14, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  30. Brian Cronin. Daniel Kibblesmith Takes the Terrible 'Adult Calvin' Strips to the Extreme CBR, 2019-11-28, retrieved 2020-05-14^
  31. Daniel Kibblesmith Daniel Kibblesmith, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  32. Jennifer Wright, Daniel Kibblesmith The New York Times, 2017-08-27, retrieved 2019-11-29^
  33. Meet Elle.com's 41 Most Eligible Bachelors Elle, retrieved 2019-11-29^