Four-minute rule

ritual · in 42 videos (2007–2013)

Mentions by year: 2007: 6 · 2008: 13 · 2009: 5 · 2010: 3 · 2011: 2 · 2012: 4 · 2013: 9

Threads

• Four-minute rule for Brotherhood 2.0 videos (2007) — stage, rule-change, 2007–2012
• Hank: punishment for losing the Peeps contest and a video over four minutes (2008) — punishment, performed, 2008–2008
• Hank's song about Star Trek (2008) — stage, launch, 2008–2008
• Hank: punishment for his over-four-minute 'Eight Days of Awesome' video (2008) — punishment, performed, 2008–2008
• John asks Nerdfighters to vote on whether Hank should be punished for his 4:16 video (2008) — ask, reported back, 2008–2008
• Hank: punishment for his 4:16 video (2008) — punishment, performed, 2008–2009
• Hank: punishment for posting a 4:02 video (2009) — punishment, performed, 2009–2010
• John: punishment for his over-four-minute health-insurance video, ruled not educational by Our Pants (2013) — punishment, performed, 2013–2013

What the videos say

2007

• 2007-03-06 · Brotherhood 2.0: Peeps and Genocide — Hank notes the video runs over four minutes, asks not to be punished since no such rule exists yet, and makes it one: from tomorrow videos must be under four minutes. (00:04:28)
• 2007-03-08 · Brotherhood 2.0: Giving Away Peeps — Hank ends the video because he has to keep it under four minutes. (00:03:48)
• 2007-07-25 · July 25: Brotherhood 2.0's Youtube Comments Are Answered! — Because Hank gets too many comments to answer, John will read and answer as many YouTube comments as he can until his four-minute deadline. (00:00:10)
• 2007-08-24 · August 23rd: John's Secret Project Part 1 — At 11:55, not yet rendered, Hank says the video is too long but that's okay because birthday videos are an exception. (00:04:58)
• 2007-12-05 · December 4th: Question Tuesday!!!! — John opens Question Tuesday: though about 7,500 people are watching him talk to his camera, he will answer as many questions as he can within four minutes. (00:00:00)

2008

• 2008-02-08 · QUESTION TUESDAYS (On Friday) — John confirms he is still sticking to the four-minute time limit. (00:03:36)
• 2008-04-21 · Belated Book-tacular Questions — John says Hank will be punished too: he lost the Peeps contest without participating and made a video over four minutes without a photo montage, which breaks the rule. (00:00:00)
• 2008-06-25 · Questions Answered! — Hank is making a Star Trek song longer than four minutes that he can't shorten, so he invokes the longer-than-four-minutes clause, which requires a Nerdfighting montage. (00:03:12)
• 2008-07-19 · Book Eight...Another Harry Potter Song — Hank pre-empts punishment for going over four minutes: there was a montage, and the montage exception covers it. (00:04:36)
• 2008-08-12 · Eight Days of Awesome — Hank admits the video is longer than four minutes and says he will accept whatever punishment John sees fit. (00:04:09)
• 2008-09-14 · Hank Vlogs (and a String Quartet) — Hank acknowledges the quartet will make the video too long but says it is okay because it is pretty much a separate video. (00:03:30)
• 2008-10-22 · Punish Hank? Save Hank? YOU DECIDE. — John notes Hank's previous video was 4 minutes 16 seconds long and expects a 'weird semantic argument' against being punished. (00:00:36)
• 2008-10-22 · Punish Hank? Save Hank? YOU DECIDE. — John says Hank's 4:16 video contained no montage, which is clearly against the rules. (00:02:00)
• 2008-10-22 · Punish Hank? Save Hank? YOU DECIDE. — On the phone Hank argues his video was 3 minutes 50 seconds; the rest was black space because the song ran longer than the video track. (00:02:32)
• 2008-10-24 · Talking to Myself — In a phone skit with another Hank, Hank says he can see 'their point' and concedes his video was technically longer than four minutes. (00:00:00)

2009

• 2009-08-05 · Twitter Games and Truth or Fail — Hank hopes to fit all the sentences in, maybe not given his four minutes, and muses about working them into a song 'written by Twitter'. (00:01:22)
• 2009-11-22 · Hank in FAMY — John says Nerdfighteria has long wanted to punish Hank, but Hank keeps the rules: a video every Wednesday, a song every other Wednesday, never more than four minutes. (00:00:29)
• 2009-11-22 · Hank in FAMY — After Hank posted a video of four minutes and two seconds last week, he called John saying the overrun was only the subscription screen and that he is on tour. (00:00:59)
• 2009-11-22 · Hank in FAMY — John says that when Hank does break the rules, as when he briefly uploaded a seven-minute version of his Severed Hands of Star Wars video, he argues he broke the letter but not the spirit of the law. (00:00:59)
• 2009-12-02 · Shaving for Pakistan — John reports a Nerdfighter's calculation that the extra two seconds of Hank's punished video, watched about 55,000 times, cost Nerdfighteria 26 hours; 'we want our 26 hours back'. (00:03:03)

2010

• 2010-01-04 · It Hurts In My Toof: The 2010 Rules — John announces rule two: videos may not exceed four minutes, with the usual exceptions. (00:02:09)
• 2010-11-05 · God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I — John says that, with Nerdfighteria's permission, the brothers have temporarily suspended the four-minute rule to get through the week of educational videos. (00:05:18)
• 2010-12-07 · Tongue Twisters — Hank tells commenters demanding punishment for a video over four minutes that the 'Nerdfighter montage exception' applies, so he remains punishment-free. (00:04:06)

2011

• 2011-10-28 · Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars — John tells Nerdfighters not to punish him: Hank permitted this longer-than-four-minutes, unedited video, which saves him time for signing books. (00:00:14)

2012

• 2012-10-23 · Understanding the National Debt and Budget Deficit — In a P.S., John reminds that educational videos are allowed to be over four minutes. (00:06:28)

2013

• 2013-06-21 · New Channels, New Songs, and Just Plain News — Hank says Grace's video went over four minutes, but he is unsure whether the four-minute rule covers videos on the Vlogbrothers channel or only videos made by the Vlogbrothers. (00:00:00)
• 2013-06-25 · Thoughts from Places: Dog Days of Summer — She stops recording because she does not want to go four minutes like Grace did. (00:03:24)
• 2013-10-15 · Thoughts for Nerdfighteria — John says his last video ran over four minutes and Nerdfighters in Our Pants ruled it not educational, so he is punished. (00:02:39)
• 2013-10-15 · Thoughts for Nerdfighteria — For new viewers John explains: Our Pants is the forum; videos may not exceed four minutes unless educational; he likes pizza, Hank corn dogs; Nerdfighters fight to make the world suck less. (00:02:47)