The origin of the name was a character from one of his first short stories. 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. When Pargin started PWOT, he took on the pseudonym of David Wong to keep his real and online lives separate. Pargin referred to Dunbar's number again in his novel, This Book Is Full of Spiders. In a popular article published at, Pargin coined the neologism 'monkeysphere' which introduces the concept of Dunbar's number in a humorous manner. As a child, he read Cracked magazine's biggest competitor, Mad magazine.

Pargin has described a disconnection between the old Cracked print magazine and the humor site due to multiple relaunches and almost entirely new staff. As part of the deal, he merged PWOT into the Cracked forums. ĭemand Media hired Pargin to be the head editor for their revamped online magazine,, although Demand was not aware of Pargin's book deal. 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. An estimated 70,000 people read the free online versions before they were removed in September 2008. Every Halloween on the site he wrote a new chapter of an online story that he published as a webserial. While working as a copy editor at a law firm, he would spend his days copy editing insurance claims and nights posting humor articles on PWOT. In 1999, Pargin started his own humor site, Pointless Waste of Time (PWOT), which would eventually be absorbed into. He lived in Marion, Illinois until 2014, when he moved to Nashville. While at SIU, he was part of a TV show on Alt.news cable TV called Consumer Advocate.

Pargin then attended the Southern Illinois University (SIU) radio-television program, graduating in 1997. He and fellow Internet writer John Cheese (real name Mack Leighty) attended high school together and met during an art class they shared. Pargin was born in Lawrenceville, Illinois. John Dies at the End was adapted into a film of the same name in 2012. He is the former executive editor of humor website, a recurring guest in the Cracked Podcast, and has written six 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), Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick (2020) and If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe (2022).

Jason Pargin (born January 10, 1975), prior to 2020 using the pen name David Wong, is an American humor writer. Pop culture, news media, Americana, science fiction

Future violence and fancy suits