THE AWL: One thing I like about your humor is that you are so fucking funny, but you're not mean.

MCALEER: Well I don't like to call people fat, but I feel like I can be mean. But it's the kind of mean that's honest, that people don't necessarily want to hear. And I also have this rule where I never take the first swing. If someone pisses me off, I will certainly hand their ass to them on a platter, but I'm not a bitch, for sure not. I want to find time to be inclusive. I care about other people.

THE AWL: Do your parents read your blog?

MCALEER: My mom reads me. I don't know if my dad Googles me or not, to be perfectly frank. My stepdad reads my blog when I write about him. The last time I was home I wrote something nice about him, and then he gave me a check. So my stepdad reads it sometimes, my mom reads it everyday. She has a really good sense of humor and has never really been concerned with anything I wrote. She reads it and she totally gets it. I mean, I came out of her body, so for her to act like she doesn't get it would be kind of ridiculous.

THE AWL: Do you have siblings?

MCALEER: I have step brothers and sisters, but I was totally an only child. I think that's why I am the way I am. I was 21 when my mom married my stepdad. My little brothers and sisters, we don't stay step brothers and step sisters, I call them my bonus brothers and my bonus sisters. And we all look alike, too, which is weird.

THE AWL: Why do you think you're funny?

MCALEER: My grandfather-John McAleer-was a writer. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he was a mystery writer and a biographer, a professor. He and my grandmother were both Irish Catholics from Cambridge who lived during the Depression, and they both had their own unique senses of humor. My mom had me when she was 22, so I lived with my grandparents with all my aunts and uncles until I was five. So I was treated like an adult when I was growing up, with my aunts and uncles just joking with me. They've always just been very open with me, and they are hilarious. I don't know if it's the Boston thing or the Irish Catholic thing or what. My uncles crack me up. I have an uncle that writes as well, but I'm really the one that kind of represents what the McAleer family is capable of, I guess.

THE AWL: Did you make a choice between New York and LA? Or did you always know it was going to be LA?

MCALEER: If I had to pick a city to wind up in in the end, it would be New York. But I figured my journey would kind of be a long one, and I figured if I moved out to LA first, it would squash any curiosities I had about LA in my mind. I thought it might be easier to make a name for myself here in LA. I think people are quicker to give young kids a chance in LA. In New York it is more the East Coast attitude I grew up with, which is that you have to sit at a desk for ten years before you get that job that will lead you to the job you want. It's not that I wanted to take short cuts, I just figured all my friends are going to be living in closets in New York together and trying to make it there, I'll just come out to LA and see what this town has to offer me.

THE AWL: Do you get star struck when you see celebrities?

MCALEER: I totally get star struck. It depends on the person. For the first two years I was here, it was all about having my Paris sighting. I love Paris Hilton, I do. There's just something so fantastic about her. My best friend Ed and I used to drive around and be like, we're going to see Paris. Tonight is the night. And one night we did! We saw the big blond top of her head, this was when she was doing the weave thing. And we freaked, but we knew that didn't count, that because it was only the back of her head, that it wasn't a real Paris sighting. And then later I saw on her the red carpet at the MTV Movie Awards when I was covering it for Defamer, and I died. For me the big ones are, like, Danny Devito. I've seen Jessica Alba, who is arguably a bigger movie star right now or whatever, but I'm not going to text that. I really more care about the Danny Devitos of the world.