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Pwned

Internet slang, as in commenters saying pirates pwn, that appears in many of the brothers' video titles.

Early context: Against commenters saying pirates pwn, John says pirates haven't been cool since Goonies, and names the online series Ask a Pirate as one of the best in history. — October 4th: Happy Dances, Feuds, and Raccoon Infestations 00:02:26

borrowed slang / meme (slang) · in 23 videos, 2007–2011 · peak 2008 (14 videos) · last heard 2011

Videos per year: 2007: 5 · 2008: 14 · 2009: 3 · 2011: 1

Forms heard

How the speakers say this one item, as transcribed from the videos, in order of first appearance.

form videos first heard last heard
“pwned” 12 2007-10-02 · Oct. 2nd: Brotherhood 2.0 on the Road (Literally) 00:02:21 2009-05-10 · What Could You Do with a Poe Bust?! 00:00:31
“pwn” 4 2007-10-04 · October 4th: Happy Dances, Feuds, and Raccoon Infestations 00:02:26 2008-11-17 · Life on Tour 00:01:24
“pwning” 1 2008-05-30 · The Dread Pirate Fireball Roberts! (And Housekeeping) 00:03:23
“pwns” 1 2008-06-19 · Memo to the Fourteenth Century (and to the Tobians) 00:02:18
“pwner” 1 2009-09-09 · Television Crime Shows Suck 00:02:59

Every video

2007

date video use what is said
2007-10-02 Oct. 2nd: Brotherhood 2.0 on the Road (Literally) 00:02:21 mention John signs off, quoting his friend Katie's arm: 'don't forget to be awesome'.
2007-10-04 October 4th: Happy Dances, Feuds, and Raccoon Infestations 00:02:26 mention Against commenters saying pirates pwn, John says pirates haven't been cool since Goonies, and names the online series Ask a Pirate as one of the best in history.
2007-12-04 December 4th: Question Tuesday!!!! 00:02:48 mention
2007-12-12 Dec. 12th: w00t is the WORD OF THE YEAR?! 00:01:33 mention John feels woot was not the perfect word of 2007, since it peaked in 2006; the word of 2007 should have been one invented in 2007.
2007-12-18 Dec 18th: The Project for Awesome and Question Tuesday!!! 00:01:38 mention John solves a viewer's tree-cutting rate problem (Ralph an hour per tree, Wayne 40 minutes), notes it looks like eighth-grade math, and tells the asker 'you've been pwned'.

2008

date video use what is said
2008-01-08 The Return of Question Tuesdays 00:03:02 mention John names 'New Partner' by the Palace Brothers as his all-time favourite song.
2008-02-14 The Puff Pwns Gravity 00:00:45 mention John says we need state representatives like Biss, whose math skills will 'pwn' the Illinois state budget every year.
2008-02-21 People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes 00:02:48 mention Asked to choose between the Iliad and the Odyssey, John picks the Odyssey.
2008-04-21 Belated Book-tacular Questions 00:01:22 mention John's favorite German writer is Goethe, whose individual sentences, he says, outclass his entire body of work.
2008-05-30 The Dread Pirate Fireball Roberts! (And Housekeeping) 00:03:23 mention John announces a second celebrity challenge: if and when the brothers pass Oprah on YouTube's most-subscribed list, Nerdfighters may challenge them any way they see fit.
2008-06-19 Memo to the Fourteenth Century (and to the Tobians) 00:02:18 mention Inspired by a post on his friend Lindsay's blog, John imagines what he would tell the people of the 14th century in a video only 60 seconds long.
2008-07-08 Hank Tried to Kill Me With a Hammer 00:01:44 mention On the phone, the brothers' mom says it was the other way around (Hank tried to kill John) and answers yes when John asks whether he ever tried to kill Hank.
2008-07-30 Audiobooks and 8 8 08 00:01:17 mention John declares The Bean the best public sculpture in American history, ahead of the Washington Monument.
2008-09-21 The Pwning of Oprah 00:00:50 mention John reads YouTube's most-subscribed directors list: the Vlogbrothers have 41,818 subscribers and Oprah 41,365, so they have 'pwned' Oprah.
2008-10-08 Hanks actual Vlog 00:00:32 mention Hank says the brothers asked Nerdfighters to help them 'pwn' Oprah, and together they got more YouTube subscribers than Oprah.
2008-10-31 Show 'n Tell Thursday 00:01:54 mention John shows a page from a fictional National Enquirer in which Oprah is pwned, with a headline 'Margo flips out over Tell All Book'.
2008-10-31 SPWNING Halloween in the title SPWNING Halloween
2008-11-17 Life on Tour 00:01:24 mention They arrive in Pittsburgh, where John jokingly contemplates how he will 'pwn' Maureen Johnson.
2008-12-26 Skoodilypooping 00:01:27 mention John says the many CAPTCHA codes produced made-up-sounding words for which Nerdfighters invented definitions: a Nerdfighter Captcha Dictionary.

2009

date video use what is said
2009-05-10 What Could You Do with a Poe Bust?! 00:00:31 mention John answers 'What could you do with a Poe bust?' with a run of comic uses: on his head, playing Wii, sunglasses, a talking 'nevermore', waterboarding, fitness equipment, a garden gnome.
2009-09-09 Television Crime Shows Suck 00:02:59 mention Hank lists things better than TV crime shows: John Green's books, all books, odd objects like fake hands, video games, and YouTube. · “pwner”
2009-12-02 This Machine Pwns n00bs: A Song 00:00:56 mention In the chorus Hank sings that his guitar ('this machine') pwns n00bs: like a headshot, a Mario star, the Pac-Man power dot or the Konami code, it makes him feel invincible on stage.

2011

date video use what is said
2011-08-08 Hackers, Cyber crime, and a New Kind of War. 00:00:00 mention Hank explains that to 'own' a computer or server is to take control of it, and that this is where 'pwn' comes from.