Dylan O’Sullivan on Flat Characters, TikTok & Bad Art

About this episode

Matt Zeigler interviews Dylan O’Sullivan about character development, the impact of TikTok on attention, and the nature of taste in art.

In this episode of Just Press Record, Matt Zeigler sits down with writer and editor Dylan O’Sullivan (Essayful, Infinite Loops) for a conversation about flat vs round characters, TikTok’s effect on attention, and how to develop real taste in art. Sparked by a clip from Michael Perry and Aaron Gwyn about “Bob the one-eyed beagle,” they use the idea of a fascinating flat character as a way into comedy, identity, and why some people are interesting precisely because they never change. Along the way, they dig into defamiliarization, the atrophying pull of short-form video, why some books sharpen your mind while others are pure slop, and how taste is built through reps instead of passive consumption. They also wrestle with the “ship of Theseus” question of identity, the value of being a little bit “flat” in other people’s stories, and what it means to hold onto a core self while your work and life evolve. In this conversation, they get into: Bob the one-eyed beagle and why some “flat” characters are endlessly fascinating Flat vs round characters in fiction, comedy, and shows like Fawlty Towers and Breaking Bad Defamiliarization: making the grocery store, a stone, or your street feel…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Zeigler

Guest: Dylan O’Sullivan

Topics covered

• flat vs round characters
• TikTok and attention
• taste in art
• defamiliarization
• identity
• good vs bad art

Keywords

• flat characters
• round characters
• TikTok
• defamiliarization
• taste in art
• identity
• good art
• bad art

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: TikTok, Instagram Reels

Books & works: Fawlty Towers, Breaking Bad, Bob the one-eyed beagle

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