Overheard in New York is a blog that has perfected the art of eavesdropping, bringing all the whacky, witty, shocking, hilarious and outrageous conversations of New York City to the web daily.

Morgan Friedman, founder and editor of Overheard in New York, started the blog in 2003, inspired by a conversation he heard while sitting in a café in Brooklyn. A man sitting near him was talking on his cell phone and said, “You ask me how I’m doing and you bring it back to yourself. You always bring it back to yourself.” Friedman found this quote not only funny, but also indicative of many of his own personal relationships. Two days later, Overheard in New York was born.

Originally, Friedman and his friends were the only contributors to the site. He has since opened the gates to anyone wanting to submit, anonymously or not. Friedman says he now receives more than 100 submissions a day from people all over New York, but only publishes about 90 percent of them. The criteria for what is chosen ranges from humor to believability, avoiding conversations that sound manufactured. Friedman says he can easily distinguish which quotes are contrived.

“The way in which people speak is different than the way people write conversations,” Friedman says. “Real conversations are all over the place.” Friedman says that written humor follows a standard format of set-up and punch line, whereas his site mimics the grammatical construction of nuances of real contemporary language. “If I wrote this stuff, I would be the most brilliant writer ever.”

The chosen quotes seem to represent the extremity of New York City, and they never shy away from the offensive. Friedman says he doesn’t practice censorship and even encourages submissions that include all forms of racism, sexism and vulgarity. “The racist and anti-Semitic stuff is some of our funniest,” he says. “They expose a dark underbelly of New York, which is important.”

Friedman and his blog have seen a lot of success. The site has expanded with a staff of five editors and spawned four sister sites: Overheard in the Office, Overheard at the Beach, Celebrity Wit, and Overheard Everywhere.

Friedman also has had the opportunity to bring these conversations to print. “Overheard in New York,” the book, was published last year by Penguin Books and includes about 800 of Friedman’s favorite quotes from the site. The book did so well that Friedman has signed a contract for a sequel, “Overheard in the Office,” to be published near the end of the year.

The concept of publishing overheard conversations may not be unique, but with the onset of the internet, Friedman has found a new way to present and entertain audiences with it.

Overheard in New York is a sort of contemporary version of “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” except instead of kids, it’s New Yorkers. And instead of banking on the hilarities of youth, Friedman is banking on the ignorance, vulgarity, rudeness and complete lack of tact in New York that we all love so much.