Public figures: politics & public life
213 people with no personal tie to the brothers in the registry, grouped by the field in their registry kind, most-mentioned first. Back to the people overview.
| person | date | role | what is said | video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barack Obama (politician) | 2007-02-07 | joke | The narrator says Barack Obama's poop kind of makes him believe in America again. | Brotherhood 2.0: February 7, 2007 (00:02:20) |
| 2007-03-01 | recommended | John thinks Brotherhood 2.0 should endorse a candidate, and in the primary, naming Barack Obama. | Brotherhood 2.0: March 1, 2007: Sophistication. And balls. (00:02:19) | |
| 2007-05-30 | criticized | Hank grants that Obama is photogenic and well-spoken, but his support for coal-to-liquid technology turns Hank off. | May 30th: Ranavalona and Clean Coal (00:03:08) | |
| 2007-05-31 | subject | John objects to Hank dissing Barack Obama as merely well-spoken and attractive, saying Brotherhood 2.0 tries to present a united front. | Brotherhood 2.0: May 31: Yogurt eating (00:00:41) | |
| 2007-06-01 | subject, criticized | Hank says John's response to his derision of Barack Obama was unconvincing; to Hank's 'well-spoken and attractive' John only added 'smart'. | June 1: Barack Saabama (00:00:09) | |
| 2007-06-06 | subject | John appreciated Hank's John McCain retraction on the forum, but says Hank is still underestimating Obama. | June 6th: Lindsay Lohan's Bikini and My Pants (00:01:35) | |
| 2007-08-09 | joke | Democrats: Albert Gore (not running) yields 'retro bagel'; John Edwards 'jihad drowns'; Hillary Clinton 'lynch a trillion'; Barack Obama 'maraca kebab' and, with Hussein, 'Bushmania Cobra Sake'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:01:28) | |
| 2007-08-09 | passing | The local election near Chicago got Hank thinking about the coming national election; he is scared and doesn't know who to vote for, though the brothers are 'supposed to be Obama guys'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:00:58) | |
| 2007-10-05 | subject | Hank recalls the brothers' Obama-Edwards argument: Brotherhood 2.0 hasn't endorsed a candidate because Obama 'has a problem with coal', which apparently doesn't bother John. | October 5th: Feuding, Goonies and Politics (00:00:45) | |
| 2007-10-08 | subject | John answers Hank's Friday video on feud topics, which included the 2008 presidential election: Hank is mostly for John Edwards, John mostly for Barack Obama. | October 8th: Zombies v. Unicorns (00:00:00) | |
| 2007-10-09 | subject | Hank is upset that John called John Edwards a schmuck: John favors honest discussion yet treats a gut feeling about a candidate as more important than what the candidate plans to do. | October 9th: The Feud Continues (00:00:10) | |
| 2007-10-10 | subject | John likes John Edwards and is now equally for Edwards and Barack Obama, conceding that Hank has won that part of the feud. | October 10th: A Spoilerific Attack on Unicorns (00:00:39) | |
| 2008-02-04 | subject | Hank says a black president would be amazing and Obama seems ready to take on the system; he likes the way Obama talks. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:02:02) | |
| 2008-04-10 | subject | The video opens with a mock press conference: a speaker calling himself John, who 'works for the city', says he announced to his wife, dog and cat that he endorses Senator Barack Obama. | Barack John Obama Green (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-04-16 | joke, passing | Hank has a rash over his entire body; his doctor says it is a side effect of a viral infection he probably got at the Barack Obama rally. | ITCHY MUSIC! (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-04-24 | passing | Hank says the illness he blamed on Barack Obama last week (week of 14 April 2008) was actually an allergy to sulfasalazine; his blood pressure fell to 80 over 40 and he needed IV rehydration. | Pills Pills Pills (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-06-04 | subject | John notes it is Wednesday, June 4, the day after Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination for president; the open question is his running mate. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-06-16 | passing | Hank says John will deliver political commentary and news, while Hank will punish himself in return for donations to Barack Obama and other Democrats, starting with Daniel Biss. | Maine Inspires Deep Thoughts (00:00:40) | |
| 2008-09-25 | subject | Hank explains that his old idea of the brothers punishing themselves for donations to Obama's campaign was dropped: good, but not achievable alongside Nerdfighters, EcoGeek and Paper Towns. | Obama llama Duck (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-09-26 | subject | The song urges listeners to vote for Barack Obama, wishes him luck and says he will be the next president. | Obama Llama Song (00:00:02) | |
| 2008-10-07 | subject | John says Barack Obama was the debate's second winner, sounding smart, ready and fired up, while John McCain wandered the stage as if lost. | John Green on the Debate (00:00:49) | |
| 2008-10-07 | subject | Hank reports Obama's answer: he would ask Americans to use less energy, grow Peace Corps enrolment and let young people serve, unlike being told to shop after 9/11. | Hank on the Debate (00:00:58) | |
| 2008-11-07 | joke | Hank jokes that John Green should have become president but lost to 'this scoundrel' Barack Obama, and that he himself would not have been John's vice president. | Vlogging from Gadsden (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-11-24 | passing | Hank says the label's first release is his own album (joking about a 'promising young artist' with songs about Harry Potter, Barack Obama and Helen Hunt); the digital version is on sale now. | DFTBA Records (00:00:53) | |
| 2009-01-18 | subject | John says that on Tuesday Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:00:00) | |
| 2009-01-20 | recommended | Hank cheers the new president and recommends watching Barack Obama's inauguration speech, calling it pretty amazing. | Hank's Journal!!! (00:03:32) | |
| 2009-02-15 | passing | John argues that to avoid the spiral, now is the time to cut taxes and raise spending, which is exactly what the stimulus bill the president signs tomorrow is designed to do. | Stimulus Plan Explained (00:02:22) | |
| 2009-07-11 | passing | Argument one, that the US already has a suitable president, John grants as fair, except that he is not a Wookiee. | Chewbacca for President! Let the Wookie Win! (00:00:00) | |
| 2009-12-30 | passing | The song's refrain: many important things happened in 2009 (Iran's election, the recession, Obama's inauguration), yet what cable news covered seemed dumb. | The STUPIDEST NEWS STORIES of 2009 (a song) (00:01:09) | |
| 2010-08-22 | subject | John notes Obama repeatedly says he is a Christian but also repeatedly said he'd allow importing prescription drugs from Canada, which hasn't happened, so they won't take his word. | Is Obama a Muslim? Examine the Evidence! (00:00:08) | |
| 2010-11-26 | cited | Hank says they just spoke with YouTube, which is giving them treatment like Conan O'Brien and the President get: a four-hour live stream on YouTube. | p4a, Space Pasta, and Giant Squids of Anger (00:00:54) | |
| 2011-05-02 | subject, quoted | In his address Obama announces that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. | Osama Bin Laden is Dead (00:00:41) | |
| 2011-05-23 | quoted | John says he long said he doesn't believe in spoilers but, borrowing President Obama's phrase, his position is evolving: he now believes in them. | Eating the Unicorn (00:01:50) | |
| 2011-07-11 | passing | Hank says NASA has clearly embraced the spirit of Nerdfighteria, which means a great deal to him; he thanks NASA for understanding the community and Nerdfighteria for being awesome, noting that Charlie Bolden's boss is Barack Obama. | Hank Talks to NASA About the Space Shuttle (00:00:00) | |
| 2012-01-20 | passing | Hank thanks the internet, President Obama, Nerdfighters and John. | Thoughts on SOPA From New Orleans (00:02:01) | |
| 2012-04-03 | cited | To be fair, John adds, some congressional Democrats want to reform Medicare, a few congressional Republicans thought the FAA funding fight an embarrassment, and President Barack Obama has consistently supported smart Medicare reform despite huge blowback from his own party. | Idiotic Governance: How Our Political Discourse Hurts Our Economy (00:00:00) | |
| 2012-07-27 | joke | In the song Hank portrays Tumblr as a compulsive, dopamine-chasing scroll that keeps him glued to his screen, full of cats, memes, fandoms and GIFs. | Tumblr: The Musical (00:00:07) | |
| 2012-09-14 | cited | Since then John has had a baby and Hank got a dog, while the world got the last Harry Potter book, a new president and a new fundamental particle; video went from 240p to 1080p. | 1000 VIDEOS!!! (00:00:12) | |
| 2012-10-16 | passing | Asked whether Barack Obama's Tumblr really posted Hank's voting video, John first says no, then, surprised, tells Hank he is on the President's Tumblr. | Burning Peeps, My OTP, and Velociraptors: It's Question Tuesday (00:02:37) | |
| 2012-10-23 | subject | John says Obama and Romney both favour unspecified spending cuts; Romney also favours a 20% across-the-board tax cut, Obama rolling back the Bush-era tax cut on income over $250,000. | Understanding the National Debt and Budget Deficit (00:05:25) | |
| 2012-11-04 | subject | Obama's deficit-reduction plan would cut most families' taxes but tax income over $388,000 at 39%; Romney's would cut that top marginal rate to about 28%. | Policy and Politics: Brotherhood 2.0 Week Begins (00:00:00) | |
| 2012-11-07 | cited | Hank calls the election one for the history books: the first female amputee in Congress, first female Asian American senator, first openly gay senator, first second term for a black president, and first legalizations of recreational marijuana and gay marriage. | The 51st State (00:00:00) | |
| 2013-01-04 | joke | 53 Terrible Jokes! (00:01:27) | ||
| 2013-02-12 | subject | John says that on Thursday he will be in a Google+ Hangout with President Barack Obama, and will probably have a cold sore, which he has begun to develop. | Talking to the President (00:00:37) | |
| 2013-02-15 | subject | Hank reports that John got to interview the President a bit this week (14 February 2013), and shows a highlight. | Baby, Harlem, Obama, Dance Crazes, Big Week (00:01:47) | |
| 2013-02-19 | passing | John and his wife are expecting their second child, whom the President told not to forget to be awesome. | Doing Things, On the Importance of (00:00:05) | |
| 2013-03-12 | subject | John says sequestration, originally proposed by President Obama, meant automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion over ten years if no deal: half defense, half other spending, very little to mandatory programs. | Understand the Sequester (Spoiler: It's Bananas.) (00:03:17) | |
| 2013-05-17 | passing | On GIF pronunciation, Hank says they say 'jif' though neither is incorrect; his question-asking double considers switching because the president said 'gif', but Hank won't. | GIFs, JIFs, Whip Pans, Trivia, and BATMAN! (00:00:24) | |
| 2013-09-13 | subject | Hank says the conflict was long outside the international spotlight until chemical weapons; President Obama had said their use by Syria would cross a red line. | Syria in Five Minutes (00:02:49) | |
| 2013-12-20 | joke | The description thanks the P4A volunteers and credits volunteer support to Manar, Valerie, Katie, KT, Lindsay, Blaze, Julian, Monica, Laura, Rosianna, Kristen, Alan and Monica. | Best Moments of the Project for Awesome (00:00:00) | |
| 2014-01-21 | joke | Joking, John invokes a 'rule of Twitter following' he just made up: you may call anyone you follow on Twitter by first name — like Barack, Beyonce and Ellen. | Are Poor Countries Doomed? (00:00:46) | |
| 2014-01-28 | joke | Asked which US presidents should play TFIOS film characters, John casts the whole film, e.g. Obama as Gus, Jefferson as Hazel, Andrew Johnson as Van Houten, Carter as Patrick. | Question Tuesday! TFIOS Movie Trailer, Penguin Knees, and Backflips (00:02:24) | |
| 2015-01-16 | subject | Hank says President Obama just announced he will try to make two years of community college free for all students. | Is School Broken? (Also...ANNOUNCEMENTS OF IMPORT) (00:02:48) | |
| 2015-01-20 | subject | Asked by John whether he is nervous about interviewing the President of the United States, Hank says yes; he is trying to golf. | REUNION MINIGOLF (00:00:13) | |
| 2015-01-23 | takes part | Greeting Hank, President Obama jokes that the White House is the people's house and he is only leasing it, with the lease running out in two years. | Interviewing the President (00:02:51) | |
| 2015-01-23 | subject | Hank insists the interview is not all theater and hopes to surprise the President at least a little bit. | Interviewing the President (00:00:27) | |
| 2015-01-30 | personal story | Hank says interviewing President Obama is something he could never regret, but being thrown into the public eye brought some people saying nasty things about him, which he is not used to. | Thoughts from the Edge (00:00:11) | |
| 2015-02-06 | cited | Hank lists his successes: touring in a rock band, being written about in the New Yorker, helping raise over 2 million dollars for charity, Crash Course in thousands of schools, interviewing the President. | You Will Be Forgotten ...And That's OK (00:01:16) | |
| 2015-04-24 | joke | Hank says the Bat People shirts are on sale only for roughly another 12 or 24 hours: this is the last chance. | Mother Pheasant Plucker - A Song (00:03:23) | |
| 2015-10-23 | criticized | Hank says that, depending on who you ask, the Obama administration was either too optimistic about Libya's path to stability or criminally negligent in pretending all was well for political reasons. | Benghazi: Explained (00:01:26) | |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says that in August 2009 someone started a Tumblr called 'Obama is literally Hitler', satirizing comparisons between Obama and Hitler. | Literally Hitler (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-04-22 | passing | Hank says both candidates share President Obama's plan to limit tax deductions taken by higher-income households. | Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! (00:04:53) | |
| 2016-07-19 | cited | John says nicknames from 'Canadian Cruz' and 'Crooked Hillary' to 'Lying Donald' and 'Barry Obama' undermine and demean people too vaguely to defend against. | Pretty Bad Ways to Start a Conversation (00:01:14) | |
| 2016-11-25 | performed | Nathan says he is not good at a lot of things: sports, pottery, juggling, and he would make a terrible doctor. | You're Not Good Enough (00:00:18) | |
| 2016-12-13 | joke | P4A 2016 Hilarity Reprise - OVER $2M RAISED!! (00:01:04) | ||
| 2016-12-23 | joke | After a run of butter puns, Hank says it really happened: Organic Valley sculpted him out of butter because enough people voted on Twitter. | 41 Dad Jokes in 4 Minutes! (with special guest star...) (00:03:23) | |
| 2016-12-30 | personal story | Hank lists the dream-like things of his ten years: friends, touring in a rock band, Carnegie Hall, a first home, creating VidCon, SciShow and Crash Course, a bobblehead, 2D glasses, interviewing the president. | The Most Interesting Thing I've Ever Done (00:00:09) | |
| 2017-01-31 | cited | The seven nations seem to have been chosen because 2015 and 2016 laws signed by President Obama required their residents to get a visa to visit the US. | Understanding Trump's Executive Order on Immigration (00:00:29) | |
| 2017-08-04 | cited | Hank says President Obama did a great job of keeping gas and energy prices low by having a lot of fracking happen in America. | Why Bullets are Good for the Environment (00:00:23) | |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says deepfake technology has been used to make Donald Trump, Barack Obama and many others say things they haven't actually said. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:00:29) | |
| 2019-03-19 | personal story | Michelle Obama says people see her and Barack as relationship goals and only see the good stuff; not telling how hard it was would be dishonest about what it takes to build what they have. | Writing and Marriage Advice from Michelle Obama (00:01:30) | |
| 2020-06-09 | passing | The description points viewers to the whole YouTube graduation event, featuring everyone from BTS to ASAP Science to Barack Obama. | i could use a little fuel myself (00:00:00) | |
| 2021-01-01 | cited | The timeline put the first black president in 1999, not an election year, but Hank notes that did come true. | In 1990 I Made a Bunch of Predictions About 2020...Here they Are (00:01:51) | |
| 2021-02-19 | personal story | Recalling his Barack Obama interview, Hank says he didn't cut his hair, was told to dress as usual, and on arrival was told they would take him to a store. | Bean Meme Review (00:07:52) | |
| 2022-10-28 | personal story | Hank recalls celebrating Barack Obama's first election with John, he thinks while they were on tour. | I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics (00:00:29) | |
| 2024-05-10 | passing | In a channel comment Hank jokes that nine years ago (2015) he was interviewing Obama, so interviewing the Secretary could be a step down. | Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg (00:00:00) | |
| 2024-07-05 | passing | Hank says one of Trump's best-known accomplishments, appointing more Supreme Court justices in four years than Obama did in eight, was something he could not have avoided. | Should I Run for President?? (00:02:59) | |
| 2024-08-07 | passing | Their dad chose where to move from Florida with a spreadsheet scoring places, including Obama vote share; he picked Asheville, North Carolina, but now lives in Indianapolis. | Dear Hank and John Livestream! (00:33:12) | |
| 2024-09-13 | cited | Busse says that although Trump may win Montana by 10 to 20 points, Obama lost the state by only about three and a half to four points. | My Governor is Weirder than Yours (00:25:15) | |
| 2025-11-14 | subject | Hank recalls that when John interviewed Obama on a Google+ Hangout about the penny, Obama said many small things that should be done are blocked by entrenched structures or the interests of a few. | The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) (00:00:56) | |
| Donald Trump (politician) | 2010-04-30 | joke | After telling Hank to stop watching, John tells Nerdfighters there is still time to participate in 'our secret project' and to click for more info. | The Greek Debt Crisis Explained in Four Minutes (00:03:38) |
| 2011-05-02 | passing | Hank cannot imagine Donald Trump making that phone call and is glad Barack Obama was in charge just then. | Osama Bin Laden is Dead (00:02:46) | |
| 2015-08-11 | joke | John's pledge: he will begin caring about the US presidential election 100 days before Indiana's May 3rd primary; if Donald Trump is still a candidate on January 23rd, 2016, he will think about Trump for the first time. | 454 Days: Understanding America's Ridiculous Political Campaigns (00:03:03) | |
| 2016-03-22 | cited | John says that in Missouri's primaries last week (week of 14 March 2016) Trump beat Cruz statewide by about .19 percent and Clinton beat Sanders by a similar margin. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:00:21) | |
| 2016-03-25 | joke | Hank recalls that on Dear Hank and John they joked there were only two multiverse futures in which Donald Trump became the Republican nominee, one requiring a meteor to kill all but 12 Americans. | Snapchat Question Time! (00:00:39) | |
| 2016-03-29 | criticized | Asked his honest opinion of Donald Trump, John quotes Cyrus Ching: never wrestle with a pig; you get filthy, and the pig likes it. | My New Book, Marriage Advice, and Hamilton: 50 Snapchat Questions Answered! (00:02:00) | |
| 2016-04-19 | criticized | John says all the presidential candidates have name-called, but, not wanting a false equivalence, that Donald Trump does it by far the most. | Literally Hitler (00:02:36) | |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says Hitler and the Nazis are now compared to everyone: on social media Clinton, Trump, Cruz and Sanders are each likened to Hitler. | Literally Hitler (00:00:33) | |
| 2016-04-22 | passing | Hank says John will give his analysis of Ted Cruz's and Donald Trump's tax plans on Tuesday. | Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! (00:07:15) | |
| 2016-04-26 | subject | John says that today he will discuss the tax plans put forth by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. | Understanding the Tax Plans of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (00:00:04) | |
| 2016-06-10 | joke | Hank raps that most of his audience wants him to 'feel the Bern', but he is too old for revolution and just doesn't want Donald Trump. | Hank Roasts Himself Diss Track - Roast Yourself Challenge (00:00:46) | |
| 2016-07-19 | cited | John says nicknames from 'Canadian Cruz' and 'Crooked Hillary' to 'Lying Donald' and 'Barry Obama' undermine and demean people too vaguely to defend against. | Pretty Bad Ways to Start a Conversation (00:01:14) | |
| 2016-08-12 | criticized | Hank says with no signal you check the news back at the hotel and learn Donald Trump has again said something disgusting and inexcusable that somehow hasn't disqualified him from the presidency. | AMERICA, DAMMIT! - Thoughts from Glacier National Park (00:01:33) | |
| 2016-10-11 | subject | John says comparing Clinton's and Trump's tax plans first requires understanding the current US tax system, which is not uncomplicated. | Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans (00:00:11) | |
| 2016-10-14 | criticized | Hank says he is voting for Hillary Clinton, not only because he thinks Trump treats the world as a game to win at any cost and would raise the (still low) odds of apocalypse, but because she has done much good and he relates to her. | Compassion, Weakness, and the 2016 Election (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-10-18 | subject | John recommends the Commonwealth Fund's tool comparing side by side what Clinton and Trump propose for the health care system's problems. | Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-10-25 | criticized | John says one major-party candidate loudly claims the election will be rigged, with widespread fraud, people voting ten times and undocumented immigrants voting, and that these are all simply lies. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:06:03) | |
| 2016-11-09 | criticized | John says more Americans appear to have voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, but Trump won most Electoral College votes and is president-elect. | My Post-Election Thoughts (00:00:05) | |
| 2016-11-11 | criticized | Hannah says some people voted for Donald Trump to be president, and moreover 46% of people didn't vote at all. | The Trouble with Wishful Thinking (00:00:27) | |
| 2016-12-13 | passing | P4A 2016 Hilarity Reprise - OVER $2M RAISED!! (00:01:04) | ||
| 2017-01-20 | criticized | In the description Hank says he is not hopeful or pleased about the new president but very worried, since the president is actively antagonistic toward many things he cares about. | Behind the Scenes of My Life (00:00:00) | |
| 2017-01-31 | criticized | John reports that on Friday afternoon President Trump signed an executive order reshaping US immigration law, causing confusion, even within government, about whom it affects. | Understanding Trump's Executive Order on Immigration (00:00:01) | |
| 2017-02-03 | criticized | Hank says that as part of Trump's refugee ban, federal funding to local organizations helping refugees find work, training and basics like toothpaste and tampons has been eliminated. | Are We Making Things Worse? (00:02:26) | |
| 2017-03-17 | subject | Hank says Trump's proposed budget leaves untouched programs like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment and Social Security; these and other mandatory spending take up 73% of the US budget. | Trump's Budget Explained (00:00:06) | |
| 2017-03-21 | cited | John is not convinced twittering makes him better informed: he knows a lot about Trump's handshakes with foreign leaders but little about South Korea's ousted president, Brazil's corruption scandals or the Fed's monetary policy. | My Information Diet (00:01:50) | |
| 2017-04-28 | cited | Hank says the destruction of expertise and its results, from feeling ill-informed to electing a reality TV star president to denying the biggest crisis humanity has faced, is all our fault. | Can You Trust Mainstream Media? (00:03:01) | |
| 2017-05-23 | joke | Demanding happier news, John refuses to answer questions on Russia and Trump and on AFC Wimbledon failing to score in their final six games. | Boxes, Butterflies, and Regular Aunts: Live from the Past, It's Question Tuesday (00:02:58) | |
| 2017-06-02 | criticized | Hank says that if Congress's majority party and the President deny human-caused climate change and keep investing in Edison-era energy systems, US progress will stall. | The Paris Accord: What is it? And What Does it All Mean? (00:04:48) | |
| 2017-09-26 | subject | DHS and the ODNI have stated with high confidence that the Russian government sought to influence the US presidential election in Trump's favour over Clinton. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:00:50) | |
| 2018-02-13 | passing | John says the letter's question whether saving kids' lives will lead to overpopulation is easy to answer: no, it won't. | What Can't a Billion Dollars Buy? (00:01:25) | |
| 2018-03-23 | criticized | Bullock says delegitimizing and tearing down the media, calling anything he disagrees with 'fake news', is not how representative democracy runs. | Trump, Guns, and Net Neutrality...With Governor Steve Bullock?! (00:05:15) | |
| 2018-03-23 | passing | Hank says that in Montana's last big election Donald Trump won 70% of the vote while a Democratic governor was reelected with 54%, which he wants explained. | Trump, Guns, and Net Neutrality...With Governor Steve Bullock?! (00:00:07) | |
| 2018-04-13 | passing | More than 100 years later that future is now: personalized news has become information and entertainment feeds, from your cousin's baby to the President's unfiltered thoughts. | Who is in Control? (00:00:21) | |
| 2018-04-27 | passing | The study found that bedtime cortisol rose after the election in young people who didn't vote for Donald Trump, more so in women and non-dominant groups such as LGBT people and people of color. | Finding Respite in 2018 (00:00:54) | |
| 2018-05-22 | cited | A conspiracy theory, which may prove true, holds that the affair was really between the woman and Donald Trump, and that Broidy covered it up and made the payment. | The Liger Delusion (00:02:02) | |
| 2018-10-26 | criticized | President Trump doesn't talk like that: before the 2016 election he repeatedly said Democratic Party plots would deprive him of victory. | The Rigged Election (00:01:23) | |
| 2019-01-18 | passing | Hank notes that John, off Twitter, probably doesn't know the President of the United States invited a football team to the White House to eat McDonald's. | Should You Burn Dirty Fuel? (00:00:00) | |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says deepfake technology has been used to make Donald Trump, Barack Obama and many others say things they haven't actually said. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:00:29) | |
| 2019-09-06 | criticized | Hank says that a couple of days ago President Trump shared an earlier map of Hurricane Dorian's projected path. | Trump is Abnormal, It's His Superpower (00:00:00) | |
| 2019-12-27 | criticized | Hank says the US just impeached its president over his lack of respect for the process, and he is worried about that. | Why I'm Worried about 2020 (00:01:14) | |
| 2020-07-31 | criticized | Hank says the Trump administration is hurting universities: making it harder for international students to stay and having the Treasury investigate revoking nonprofit universities' tax-exempt status. | Your Brain Gets Smart, but Your Head Gets Dumb (00:00:42) | |
| 2020-08-25 | cited | After Noah's claim that Trump will be re-elected, John says many social media algorithms value engagement over accuracy, so engaging predictions beat well-informed ones; sports talk radio shows it offline too. | Somebody once told me… (00:01:27) | |
| 2020-08-28 | passing | Hank says TikTok is in turmoil: its CEO just quit, and Microsoft and Walmart are teaming up to buy its US operations because otherwise the president might ban it. | Break the Mold (00:01:06) | |
| 2020-10-02 | subject | The description says Hank doesn't want Donald Trump to suffer, from illness or from his terror of losing power, his mistaking cruelty for toughness, or his belief that illness is a character flaw. | I ain't she was with well and I so and it's and but so and I'll and (00:00:00) | |
| 2020-10-12 | criticized | The description says Hank began this video thinking about Donald Trump: how a hollow perception of strength, bullying and gathering power could be so integral to someone's self-worth; it makes sense now but is no less sad. | What Matters (00:00:00) | |
| 2020-10-13 | subject | John notes the main news on the morning he films: the US President has been hospitalized for COVID, and many people close to him caught it after indoor maskless gatherings. | Me from the Past: A Pizzamas Miracle (00:01:56) | |
| 2020-10-14 | criticized | Asking why Trump's town hall was at the exact same time, Hank jokes that maybe his favorite debate format is talking over his opponent the whole time. | John Predicts the Future! (00:01:57) | |
| 2020-10-23 | cited | Hank says that would not have happened if everyone who thought Trump would win anyway had skipped the polls. | 10 Reasons to Vote RIGHT NOW (00:01:27) | |
| 2020-10-27 | criticized | John says the Trump administration has no comprehensive responses because its idea of governance is populism, not policy: a clear us and them, with only a Trump vote stopping them. | The time I met Joe Biden (00:02:26) | |
| 2020-10-30 | subject | His son was born in the days before the 2016 election, which Hank was very worried about, so many searches are about Donald Trump. | Four Years Ago (00:01:27) | |
| 2020-11-06 | criticized | Hank thinks that if Biden is ultimately elected, many people will see it as a failure of Trumpism. | Just Some Election Thoughts… (00:00:58) | |
| 2020-11-20 | cited | Politicians don't develop vaccines, and the rules for testing vaccine safety did not change at all in the last year: scientists deliberately changed nothing. | Would I Take a COVID Vaccine? (00:01:30) | |
| 2021-01-15 | criticized | The description says Facebook, Fox News and Trump, blamed separately for radicalization, increasingly feel like the same thing: each informs the others in a loop, Trump being the essence of a conservative radio host. | Influencers and Insurrectionists (00:00:00) | |
| 2021-03-05 | criticized | Hank calls it a relief that a mean, petulant, victimhood-based presidency was being forgotten quickly, maybe a little too quickly. | How Much Hope is OK? (00:00:00) | |
| 2021-03-26 | criticized | We are exiting four years of a president whose favorite pastime was fanning the flames of anger and frustration with each other. | Why I'm Worried about 2021 (00:02:55) | |
| 2022-08-12 | passing | Joe Manchin forced in oil and gas leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico that Trump authorized and Biden paused; Hank calls it weird, frustrating and outside normal process. | The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? (00:15:53) | |
| 2022-10-28 | passing | Hank says Trump won Montana by 16% in 2020 and 20% in 2016, yet in 2016 Montana also elected a Democratic governor, and it has a Democratic senator, Jon Tester. | I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics (00:01:06) | |
| 2023-11-03 | cited | Hank says the share of nerdfighters who voted for Donald Trump is much lower than in the general population. | We Need to talk about Sarapocial Relationships (00:03:28) | |
| 2024-01-05 | subject | Hank is certain Donald Trump will be on the ballot in November, which puts him way too close to being president again, something absolutely possible. | I'm Scared of 2024...So Here's 3 Optimistic Thoughts (00:01:03) | |
| 2024-07-05 | cited | Hank points to Donald Trump as a sign that outsiders aren't effective: his was the most dysfunctional administration in living memory. | Should I Run for President?? (00:02:59) | |
| 2024-07-19 | cited, passing | Hank says he gets stuck on the internet after major events like the attempted assassination of Donald Trump; when Katherine asked why, he couldn't explain. | The Assassination Attempt and the Comfort of Certainty (00:00:00) | |
| 2024-09-13 | criticized | Busse says that although Trump may win Montana by 10 to 20 points, Obama lost the state by only about three and a half to four points. | My Governor is Weirder than Yours (00:25:15) | |
| 2024-11-08 | subject | Hank says maps that colour land make it seem the whole country votes Trump, but land does not vote. | These Maps are Lying (if you let them) (00:02:13) | |
| 2024-11-22 | subject | Hank says Trump is a product of a post-media-revolution rise in populism, with grievances, attacks on institutions and a new unregulated medium, without being the same as Coughlin or Hitler. | Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment (00:06:11) | |
| 2024-12-20 | passing | Hank reports internet theories that the drones are aliens, a deep state plot against Donald Trump, or a distraction from healthcare frustration and the murder of Brian Thompson. | Fine, I'll Talk About the Drones… (00:01:27) | |
| 2025-02-07 | criticized | Hank says a country cannot run if everything is burned down every four years, but Trump, Elon Musk or whoever seem to want to test the country's limits, and are doing so. | What Trump's Doing (00:01:32) | |
| 2025-02-28 | criticized | Hank's script predicts his representatives will eventually stand up to Donald Trump taking away their power, asking whether they will be among the first, as he hopes. | We Will Eradicate Measles (00:07:56) | |
| 2025-03-07 | criticized | Hank says President Donald Trump definitely knew this when he raised it in the State of the Union this week (week of 3 March 2025). | How Social Security Fraud Actually Works (00:05:04) | |
| 2025-04-04 | criticized | The description says a president openly unfaithful to every wife is seen by many as a moral actor because he promises to control people in ways that feel morally imperative; Hank dislikes it. | Morality (00:00:00) | |
| 2025-04-08 | passing | John says one of the broadest current misconceptions about the US government is that the Trump administration is shrinking the federal government through DOGE. | DOGE Is Not Cutting Government Spending (00:00:00) | |
| 2025-04-11 | criticized | Hank says Trump-era news is too much to keep track of, so he sorts the weird parts of the Liberation Day tariff story into a YouTube tier list by level of crazy. | How Actually Crazy is This Mess? (00:00:00) | |
| 2025-04-15 | criticized | Schiff is confident people will one day ask how that man ever became president; the only questions are how fast and how much damage along the way. | Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? (00:10:21) | |
| 2025-06-10 | criticized | John says the Trump administration's latest budget proposal would cut US funding for the Global Fund by 50% and change how that funding works. | 90,000,000 Lives for $20 (00:01:56) | |
| 2025-06-13 | criticized | Paraphrasing his hankschannel video, Hank says the Trump team widens rifts and capitalizes on chaos: infringing rights faster than courts can act makes people try to stop them, creating conflict. | Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) (00:00:29) | |
| 2025-08-15 | criticized | Hank says President Trump's attacks on universities are, to his eye, less intense than those cases or than they could be, but reflect the same broader pattern. | What Trump is Doing to Universities (00:00:24) | |
| 2025-11-14 | criticized | Hank says the penny is still legal and US law still requires the necessary amount to be made, but the Treasury under Trump has decided the necessary number is zero. | The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) (00:00:07) | |
| 2025-11-25 | criticized | John says it is impossible for Henry and Isatu to visit him in the US because the Trump administration has imposed a total travel ban on people from Sierra Leone. | Poverty Is Expensive (00:02:26) | |
| 2025-12-19 | criticized | Hank describes the basic MAGA story: a cultural elite in charge, out of touch with real Americans, wants to take America where real Americans do not want it to go. | My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun (00:01:57) | |
| 2026-02-03 | cited | John says the video won't reach a representative sample of America: a recent Nerdfighteria Census found more community members voted for Jill Stein than for Donald Trump. | Does the truth still matter? (00:00:29) | |
| 2026-10-30 | cited | Hank recalls Pizzagate, and Donald Trump being elected president just days after Hank's son was born, which he found weird. | The Last Normal Year (00:01:30) | |
| Joe Biden (politician) | 2007-08-09 | joke | After the Republicans (Ron Paul 'Lunar Op', Mitt Romney 'Metro Minty' and 'Are Not My Time', Rudy Giuliani 'Godly I Ruin'), Hank ends with his favourite: Joe Biden, 'I need job'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:02:31) |
| 2008-06-04 | cited | On Joe Biden: the best grasp of foreign policy in the Senate and knows Sunnis from Shias, unlike certain Republican nominees; but he is too 'Joe Biden-y'. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:01:15) | |
| 2008-08-29 | joke | John adds that Palin's husband is a semi-professional snowmobiler who races snowmobiles. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:01:34) | |
| 2008-10-11 | joke | John says Joe Biden anagrams to 'I Need Job' and Sarah Palin to 'Las Pirana'. | Question Friday (00:01:43) | |
| 2016-03-11 | cited | Leslie, by contrast, works in the trenches of local government and is clearly deeply progressive, liberal and a huge Joe Biden fan. | The Politics of "Parks and Rec" (00:01:42) | |
| 2017-11-07 | subject | John will miss PodCon's first day, Saturday, because he is interviewing former Vice President Joe Biden; there will still be plenty of live Dear Hank and John. | Definitely Not A Pecan Orchard: A Pizzamas Question Tuesday (00:01:08) | |
| 2020-10-14 | passing | Because of COVID a virtual town hall debate was planned; Donald Trump dropped out, Joe Biden decided to do the town hall alone, then Trump scheduled a different town hall. | John Predicts the Future! (00:01:28) | |
| 2020-10-23 | passing | Reason eight, a clip: a Boston woman voting at Fenway, Dunkies in hand, says she is ready to vote for Joe Biden though she wishes it were Bernie Sanders, because it is a team sport. | 10 Reasons to Vote RIGHT NOW (00:02:11) | |
| 2020-10-27 | subject | A while back John was asked to host a book event with Joe Biden. | The time I met Joe Biden (00:00:00) | |
| 2020-11-06 | subject | Hank thinks that if Biden is ultimately elected, many people will see it as a failure of Trumpism. | Just Some Election Thoughts… (00:00:58) | |
| 2020-11-20 | cited | Politicians don't develop vaccines, and the rules for testing vaccine safety did not change at all in the last year: scientists deliberately changed nothing. | Would I Take a COVID Vaccine? (00:01:30) | |
| 2021-01-08 | subject | Hank thinks Joe Biden is going to be president in two weeks (by 22 January 2021). | In Which Hank Worries for a Little Bit and then Looks at Microbes (00:00:26) | |
| 2021-08-13 | passing | President Biden has said he will not sign his $1.2 billion infrastructure package unless there is also a climate plan on his desk; 'here's hoping'. | How We Fix the Climate (00:14:07) | |
| 2022-04-05 | cited | John wishes Biden were a little younger, and thinks Biden wishes so too. | Celebrities I've Met and Whether I'd Vote for Them??? (00:01:27) | |
| 2022-08-12 | passing | Hank says Joe Biden is probably signing today the largest single piece of climate legislation any country has ever enacted. | The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? (00:00:00) | |
| 2022-10-07 | joke | John jokes that Dan Quayle, an Indiana boy now living in Arizona, could be a future Crown Hill Cemetery resident, and he thought of writing to suggest it. | Planets Don't Exist (00:09:12) | |
| 2022-10-28 | personal story | When Joe Biden's team invited Hank to the White House to hang out with the president, he wanted to go, but he has limited time this year (2022) and is focusing on his community. | I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics (00:01:36) | |
| 2024-05-10 | passing | Pete says EVs are where gas cars were around the Model T; Biden set a 500,000-charger goal for the decade, with federal funding where the market won't build. | Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg (00:09:33) | |
| 2024-07-19 | cited | Hank says Crooks googled where Joe Biden and Donald Trump would be, and also Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray and an unnamed member of the British royal family. | The Assassination Attempt and the Comfort of Certainty (00:05:57) | |
| 2024-08-09 | passing | Hank says the rule became possible when Joe Biden nominated Lina Khan, widely seen as very pro-consumer in a way that has angered big businesses. | Why isn't This Illegal? (00:03:49) | |
| 2024-11-08 | cited | Hank shows a graph spread widely on Twitter to suggest Joe Biden got oddly many votes in 2020, as if many were fake. | These Maps are Lying (if you let them) (00:00:13) | |
| 2026-03-10 | passing | John says US global health and tuberculosis funding are both relatively flat from the Biden years. | Is Hank Green Running for Congress? (00:05:31) | |
| Hillary Clinton (politician) | 2007-06-01 | passing | Hank likes hearing Obama talk, while Hillary Clinton's talking makes him nauseous, but says that is no reason to vote for a candidate. | June 1: Barack Saabama (00:01:58) |
| 2007-08-09 | joke | Democrats: Albert Gore (not running) yields 'retro bagel'; John Edwards 'jihad drowns'; Hillary Clinton 'lynch a trillion'; Barack Obama 'maraca kebab' and, with Hussein, 'Bushmania Cobra Sake'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:01:28) | |
| 2008-01-04 | criticized | John says Hillary Clinton claimed in two recent interviews that Musharraf was a candidate on the ballot in the delayed elections; he is not. | Nerdfighting in 2008, Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton (00:02:33) | |
| 2008-02-04 | subject | Hank weighs Hillary Clinton: a woman president would be awesome, and she has experience and connections. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:01:32) | |
| 2008-06-04 | cited | On Hillary Clinton: 18 million people voted for her this year, she is popular with voters Obama struggles to win, and she has both the highest favourability and unfavourability of any potential VP. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:00:46) | |
| 2009-10-18 | cited | John says the family had been on Wife Swap twice and the father believes Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting reptilian and that a secret cabal of reptilians runs the world. | The Balloon Boy Hoax (00:01:34) | |
| 2009-10-21 | joke | Singing as the Balloon Boy, Hank has him say everyone thought he was in the balloon while he hid in a box; his dad 'needs a shrink', and now he's famous too. | Balloon Boy: A Short Song (00:00:00) | |
| 2015-10-23 | subject | Hank calls it an awful terrorist attack and a tragedy, and says what people think about it depends largely on how they feel about President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. | Benghazi: Explained (00:02:55) | |
| 2016-03-22 | cited | John says that in Missouri's primaries last week (week of 14 March 2016) Trump beat Cruz statewide by about .19 percent and Clinton beat Sanders by a similar margin. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:00:21) | |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says Hitler and the Nazis are now compared to everyone: on social media Clinton, Trump, Cruz and Sanders are each likened to Hitler. | Literally Hitler (00:00:33) | |
| 2016-04-22 | subject | Hank says that instead of talking about candidates as personified ideology and yelling, as everyone else does, he will just talk about Sanders' and Clinton's tax plans. | Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! (00:00:13) | |
| 2016-04-26 | passing | John lists his sources: analyses of both Cruz's and Trump's plans from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the right-leaning Center for Federal Tax Policy (Tax Foundation), a primer on Cruz's VAT or "business flat tax", the National Priorities Project on the federal budget, and Wikipedia on US federal income tax. | Understanding the Tax Plans of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-06-10 | joke | Hank raps that he pays people to do things and help him create: capitalism, a system he supports though his former self would hate it. | Hank Roasts Himself Diss Track - Roast Yourself Challenge (00:01:27) | |
| 2016-07-19 | cited | John says nicknames from 'Canadian Cruz' and 'Crooked Hillary' to 'Lying Donald' and 'Barry Obama' undermine and demean people too vaguely to defend against. | Pretty Bad Ways to Start a Conversation (00:01:14) | |
| 2016-10-11 | subject | John says comparing Clinton's and Trump's tax plans first requires understanding the current US tax system, which is not uncomplicated. | Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans (00:00:11) | |
| 2016-10-14 | subject | Hank says he is voting for Hillary Clinton, not only because he thinks Trump treats the world as a game to win at any cost and would raise the (still low) odds of apocalypse, but because she has done much good and he relates to her. | Compassion, Weakness, and the 2016 Election (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-10-18 | subject | John recommends the Commonwealth Fund's tool comparing side by side what Clinton and Trump propose for the health care system's problems. | Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-11-09 | subject | John says more Americans appear to have voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, but Trump won most Electoral College votes and is president-elect. | My Post-Election Thoughts (00:00:05) | |
| 2017-09-26 | passing | DHS and the ODNI have stated with high confidence that the Russian government sought to influence the US presidential election in Trump's favour over Clinton. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:00:50) | |
| 2020-10-30 | passing | Hank also searched about Huma Abedin's laptop, a story about Hillary Clinton's assistant that felt very big then and that he no longer remembers. | Four Years Ago (00:01:27) | |
| George W. Bush (politician) | 2007-01-04 | joke | John says he did not vote in 2000 even though he could have voted in Florida, and comically blames himself for George Bush. | Brotherhood 2.0: Eating Toilet Paper (00:00:40) |
| 2007-01-23 | joke | John says he didn't recycle until he watched An Inconvenient Truth and is still iffy on it, and didn't vote in 2000 though he could have in Florida, comically blaming himself for George Bush. | Week 1 Condensed! (00:02:50) | |
| 2007-02-07 | criticized | In a comic jab, John's story calls George W. Bush so incompetent he failed to poop in Hank's pants, then denied intending to, as did his administration. | Brotherhood 2.0: February 7, 2007 (00:01:37) | |
| 2007-02-15 | cited | Voicing the popular side as George W. Bush and Tom Brady, John answers poker-style with famous nerds, from Bill Clinton and Lincoln to all four Beatles, and declares 'We win!' | Brotherhood 2.0: February 17, 2007 (00:01:39) | |
| 2007-05-25 | cited | Thinking of national mourning for a president, Hank realises that, being much younger than George Bush, he will probably live to see him die, which briefly makes him happy, then ashamed. | May 25th: FreeMonkey's Tour (00:02:40) | |
| 2007-06-06 | joke | John is happy people 'in my pants' discuss what it means to be human, like whether George W. Bush is evil enough for the Evil Baby Orphanage. | June 6th: Lindsay Lohan's Bikini and My Pants (00:01:35) | |
| 2007-10-10 | criticized | John's example of a politician whose promised cards (avoid nation building, no preemptive war) turn out to be the Joker ends with George Bush as a belligerent, anti-intellectual, mean-headed Decepticon. | October 10th: A Spoilerific Attack on Unicorns (00:00:39) | |
| 2007-11-05 | criticized | John sarcastically faults George W. Bush's judgment of foreign leaders: he claimed to see Putin's good soul and praised Musharraf. | November 5th: John's Not Happy about Pakistan (00:02:15) | |
| 2007-11-06 | criticized | Hank says he supports the impeachment of Dick Cheney, joking that Bush looked into Cheney's soul and saw a good person, and that he has about 328 other reasons. | Nov (00:01:09) | |
| 2008-02-04 | criticized | Hank argues McCain would continue Bush's work, pointing to a picture, and is not the candidate for change. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:03:29) | |
| 2008-09-26 | criticized | The song says 'we' are tired of the current president, whom everyone hates, and that he is leaving town. | Obama Llama Song (00:00:02) | |
| 2011-01-14 | passing | In 1933 a group of wealthy American capitalists, including George W. Bush's grandfather, tried to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install a fascist dictatorship. | Top 5 Actual Conspiracies (00:02:15) | |
| 2011-12-14 | passing | Associating from 'rich people', Hank names Mountain Brook and says that is where the brothers are right now. | Greek Phallic Disco Golf Balls: A Free Association Game (00:01:01) | |
| 2016-10-25 | cited | John says Bush did not steal the Bush–Kerry election in Ohio, pointing to Farhad Manjoo's complete analysis of the vote-rigging claims. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:00:00) | |
| 2018-02-13 | passing | John says the US AIDS treatment programme begun under George W. Bush cost a few billion dollars a year and, despite flaws like abstinence-only focus, a 2009 study found it saved 1.2 million lives. | What Can't a Billion Dollars Buy? (00:03:16) | |
| 2018-10-26 | cited | The 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by 537 votes in Florida. | The Rigged Election (00:00:09) | |
| 2021-09-14 | passing | John has been making Vlogbrothers videos for almost 15 years: since the George W. Bush administration, before the iPhone, before his children, one now in sixth grade. | I do this every. single. tuesday. (00:00:00) | |
| 2024-01-02 | passing | John recalls 2007: George W. Bush was president, AFC Wimbledon played in the seventh tier of English football, and neither Instagram nor the iPhone existed. | Being Old on YouTube (00:00:12) | |
| 2025-04-08 | passing | John says George W. Bush's program PEPFAR has saved tens of millions of lives. | DOGE Is Not Cutting Government Spending (00:00:58) | |
| Abraham Lincoln (politician) | 2007-02-15 | cited | Voicing the popular side as George W. Bush and Tom Brady, John answers poker-style with famous nerds, from Bill Clinton and Lincoln to all four Beatles, and declares 'We win!' | Brotherhood 2.0: February 17, 2007 (00:01:39) |
| 2007-10-19 | passing | Hank says a Montana casino-bar-restaurant-gift shop (and more) displays over 10,000 silver dollars that people gave it, which he says only readers of Neil Gaiman's American Gods might understand. | October 19th: Missoula to Seattle (00:00:53) | |
| 2008-02-21 | joke | Asked which Republican presidential candidate he'd vote for, John jokes Abraham Lincoln; of living ones, he votes for the individual not the party and wants none of them. | People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes (00:02:17) | |
| 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) | |
| 2009-01-18 | cited | John says Obama will take the oath with his hand on the Bible, the same Bible Abraham Lincoln used. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:00:54) | |
| 2009-02-22 | quoted | John adapts the Lincoln line about fooling people: when it comes to math you can fool all the people all the time. | Big Oil RIPS YOU OFF — via Unfair Mathematics (00:01:27) | |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2010-09-06 | cited | John says reform won't happen first because we're a species of sentimentalists who grew up with pennies and like Abraham Lincoln. | I HATE PENNIES!!!! (Also Nickels.) (00:02:50) | |
| 2012-10-09 | cited | John says that although Washington and Lincoln seem to belong to different epochs, Lincoln was born just ten years after Washington died. | Attacked by Squirrels and Neoclassicism: Thoughts from Places, Washington D.C. (00:02:10) | |
| 2012-11-23 | cited | Until the 1860s states held Thanksgiving on different days, until Lincoln declared a national day; after the Civil War reunion it became the national holiday, the fourth Thursday in November. | Black Friday: An Accident of History (00:00:33) | |
| 2014-01-17 | joke | 54 JOKES! In Four Minutes! (00:03:10) | ||
| 2015-09-29 | passing | John tours the wall's relics: Willy, a puppy-sized elephant, a card of Hank humping Peeps, Daniel Biss's 'bloated triangles' paper, an Agloe road map, An Imperial Affliction 'stolen' from the movie set. | Writing, Walling, Racing, and Wizard Schooling (00:01:35) | |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says that before Hitler a common uber-villain was the Pharaoh of Exodus: in the Civil War abolitionists called slaveholders pharaohs and Southerners called Lincoln a modern pharaoh. | Literally Hitler (00:00:22) | |
| 2021-05-21 | passing | The description says the thread got a further 900 replies with more facts he would have listed: spacewalking astronauts often lose their fingernails for unknown reasons, sharks predate Saturn's rings, and Abraham Lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame. | The 19 Best Facts (00:00:00) | |
| 2023-11-24 | cited | Hank says most states held Thanksgiving at the end of November, Lincoln made that national, and after the Civil War and Reconstruction everyone celebrated it then. | It Wasn't Supposed to be Thanksgiving Yesterday (00:00:58) | |
| 2026-02-13 | passing | John shows the background behind his desk, filled with things Nerdfighters have given him over the years. | Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! (03:08:43) | |
| 2026-06-02 | cited | No one could watch McKinley or Lincoln be assassinated frame by frame, but people could witness JFK's, only two-dimensionally on a screen, as now with countless horrors. | The Instagramification of Human Experience (00:02:26) | |
| Vladimir Putin (politician) | 2007-11-05 | cited | John sarcastically faults George W. Bush's judgment of foreign leaders: he claimed to see Putin's good soul and praised Musharraf. | November 5th: John's Not Happy about Pakistan (00:02:15) |
| 2008-08-12 | criticized | John says that after a week Dmitry Medvedev, president in name only since Putin runs everything, declared Georgia punished, literally using the Russian word for punished. | PEANUT BUTTER FACE (while discussing the Georgia-Russia War) (00:02:27) | |
| 2014-03-04 | criticized | John says the number of 'mysterious poisonings' in Russia and Eastern Europe has skyrocketed since Putin came to power. | Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context (00:03:14) | |
| 2014-04-29 | joke | John says he is delighted and honored to have been included anyway and gets to go to the party with others on the Time 100. | Influence, Airports, and the Nerdfighter Book Club (00:00:45) | |
| 2015-04-10 | subject | Hank thinks Vladimir Putin has probably not just ordered people to be killed but physically killed people himself. | This Video Makes No Sense (00:02:38) | |
| 2016-05-03 | joke | John, a big IndyCar fan, thought pace driving was ceremonial, but at practice found he must drive about 110 mph on the straightaways; he is very scared and asks TV viewers to remember he is doing his best. | No Fumar (00:01:06) | |
| 2017-09-26 | subject | Russia and the US are adversaries; Putin's regime has sought to undermine democracy worldwide and, in the US's view, invaded a sovereign nation. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:00:19) | |
| 2018-06-12 | passing | Russia is hosting the tournament, and John won't say more because he is genuinely scared of Vladimir Putin. | Your 4-Minute Guide to ALL 32 TEAMS at the 2018 World Cup (00:02:54) | |
| 2018-08-24 | cited | Honorable mentions: a Congress GIF, 'surprise Putin' (which has audio), and John scared of squirrels, which Hank loves. | The Top 10 John Green GIFs (00:02:19) | |
| 2022-03-11 | criticized | Hank understands the gloom: the pandemic isn't over and we are entering the instability of a dictator with nukes starting a horrific, unnecessary war on a neighbouring country. | Is it All Hopeless? (00:01:19) | |
| 2022-03-15 | criticized | John says Putin, directly or indirectly Russia's leader for over 20 years, does not view Ukraine as a legitimate nation. | Ukraine and Russia: What Caused the War? (00:05:21) | |
| 2023-03-31 | cited | Hank asks what a society looks like with such entities roving in it, controlled by anyone from the Orlando teenager to Vladimir Putin, and says he does not know. | The Coming AI Invasion (00:02:18) | |
| 2024-08-13 | passing | In a comment John explains he starred out Putin's name in the title so Putin and his cronies would not find the video by searching. | The Time a Spy Visited Me Because of P*tin. (00:00:00) | |
| Bernie Sanders (politician) | 2016-03-22 | cited | John says that in Missouri's primaries last week (week of 14 March 2016) Trump beat Cruz statewide by about .19 percent and Clinton beat Sanders by a similar margin. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:00:21) |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says Hitler and the Nazis are now compared to everyone: on social media Clinton, Trump, Cruz and Sanders are each likened to Hitler. | Literally Hitler (00:00:33) | |
| 2016-04-22 | subject | Hank says that instead of talking about candidates as personified ideology and yelling, as everyone else does, he will just talk about Sanders' and Clinton's tax plans. | Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! (00:00:13) | |
| 2016-04-26 | passing | John lists his sources: analyses of both Cruz's and Trump's plans from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the right-leaning Center for Federal Tax Policy (Tax Foundation), a primer on Cruz's VAT or "business flat tax", the National Priorities Project on the federal budget, and Wikipedia on US federal income tax. | Understanding the Tax Plans of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (00:00:00) | |
| 2016-06-10 | joke | Hank raps that most of his audience wants him to 'feel the Bern', but he is too old for revolution and just doesn't want Donald Trump. | Hank Roasts Himself Diss Track - Roast Yourself Challenge (00:00:46) | |
| 2017-01-06 | subject | Asked whether Bernie would have won, Hank sings that he doesn't know and nobody does; anyone sure is wrong, since it is too easy to be certain of the unprovable. | Too Excited about Pears! (Question Tuesday with Hank) (00:02:17) | |
| 2017-03-28 | passing | John says the most cited fix is single payer, Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All; studies show it would lower overall costs, probably not to European levels, through less administration, advertising and stronger price negotiation. | Why Can't America Have a Grown-Up Healthcare Conversation? (00:04:40) | |
| 2020-10-23 | passing | Reason eight, a clip: a Boston woman voting at Fenway, Dunkies in hand, says she is ready to vote for Joe Biden though she wishes it were Bernie Sanders, because it is a team sport. | 10 Reasons to Vote RIGHT NOW (00:02:11) | |
| 2021-02-19 | joke | Recalling his Barack Obama interview, Hank says he didn't cut his hair, was told to dress as usual, and on arrival was told they would take him to a store. | Bean Meme Review (00:07:52) | |
| 2022-03-04 | passing | Hank says Ettore from Save the Children visits every P4A stream to talk about the charity's work. | The 2022 P4A Meme Review!!! (00:07:22) | |
| 2025-04-18 | passing | Hank went to see Bernie Sanders and AOC in a packed basketball stadium in Missoula but left after AOC's speech to bike to the hospital cancer center for an oncology appointment. | I Still Don't Have Cancer (and I'm Still Scared) (00:00:00) | |
| John McCain (politician) | 2007-06-01 | cited | Hank would vote for Obama against Mitt Romney but might not against John McCain. | June 1: Barack Saabama (00:00:59) |
| 2007-06-05 | subject | In a forum thread Hank regretted his earlier remark and says he is never actually going to vote for John McCain; sometimes you just like to make your older brother mad. | Jun 5th: S-S-S-Somethin From the Forum (00:02:35) | |
| 2007-06-06 | passing | John appreciated Hank's John McCain retraction on the forum, but says Hank is still underestimating Obama. | June 6th: Lindsay Lohan's Bikini and My Pants (00:01:35) | |
| 2008-02-04 | criticized | Hank says Romney and Huckabee scare him, while McCain only half scares him. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:00:41) | |
| 2008-02-14 | passing | John asks all Nerdfighters to vote for Daniel against stiff competition; in one category he is nominated alongside John McCain, John Edwards and Mitt Romney's five sons. | The Puff Pwns Gravity (00:01:36) | |
| 2008-08-29 | criticized | John expects the McCain camp to say her inexperience doesn't matter because McCain has plenty; he jokes that holds only while McCain is alive, which he thought was why one picks a vice president. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:01:47) | |
| 2008-10-07 | criticized | John says Barack Obama was the debate's second winner, sounding smart, ready and fired up, while John McCain wandered the stage as if lost. | John Green on the Debate (00:00:49) | |
| 2008-10-07 | criticized | Hank says McCain's answer, that the sacrifice would be cutting spending, is not a sacrifice asked of citizens like him. | Hank on the Debate (00:00:58) | |
| 2009-02-15 | passing | John wears his bronze medal from the 1994 Alabama State Academic Decathlon, joking it shows he was once ranked a third-best high-school economist. | Stimulus Plan Explained (00:00:00) | |
| 2009-06-14 | cited | Reason one: Tabriz, Mousavi's home city, historically votes for him or his ethnic group's candidate, yet apparently voted 2 to 1 for Ahmadinejad - like John McCain winning Chicago. | Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results (00:01:48) | |
| 2017-01-31 | cited | John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a statement that the ban may be remembered as a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism. | Understanding Trump's Executive Order on Immigration (00:03:00) | |
| Mitt Romney (politician) | 2007-06-01 | cited | Hank would vote for Obama against Mitt Romney but might not against John McCain. | June 1: Barack Saabama (00:00:59) |
| 2007-08-09 | joke | After the Republicans (Ron Paul 'Lunar Op', Mitt Romney 'Metro Minty' and 'Are Not My Time', Rudy Giuliani 'Godly I Ruin'), Hank ends with his favourite: Joe Biden, 'I need job'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:02:31) | |
| 2008-02-04 | criticized | Hank says Romney and Huckabee scare him, while McCain only half scares him. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:00:41) | |
| 2008-02-14 | passing | John asks all Nerdfighters to vote for Daniel against stiff competition; in one category he is nominated alongside John McCain, John Edwards and Mitt Romney's five sons. | The Puff Pwns Gravity (00:01:36) | |
| 2011-12-14 | joke | Associating from 'rich people', Hank names Mountain Brook and says that is where the brothers are right now. | Greek Phallic Disco Golf Balls: A Free Association Game (00:01:01) | |
| 2011-12-21 | subject | For Mitt Romney Hank passes over 'not my merit' for 'Yo, Mr. Mitten' and declares he will call Romney Mr. Mitten from now on. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:01:10) | |
| 2012-10-23 | subject | John says Obama and Romney both favour unspecified spending cuts; Romney also favours a 20% across-the-board tax cut, Obama rolling back the Bush-era tax cut on income over $250,000. | Understanding the National Debt and Budget Deficit (00:05:25) | |
| 2012-11-04 | subject | For a married couple with one kid making $500,000, John says Obama's plan means about $5,000 more tax and Romney's about $36,000 less; most people are unaffected. | Policy and Politics: Brotherhood 2.0 Week Begins (00:00:29) | |
| 2012-11-07 | cited | The UN, President Obama, Governor Romney and both the Democratic and Republican platforms all agree Puerto Rico should decide for itself whether to become a state. | The 51st State (00:01:35) | |
| 2023-12-24 | passing | John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated (01:59:03) | ||
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt (politician) | 2007-02-15 | cited | Voicing the popular side as George W. Bush and Tom Brady, John answers poker-style with famous nerds, from Bill Clinton and Lincoln to all four Beatles, and declares 'We win!' | Brotherhood 2.0: February 17, 2007 (00:01:39) |
| 2008-12-08 | quoted | John jokingly boasts that he has shown physical courage and proven 'once and for all' that Nerdfighters are tough. | I Am Afraid of Heights (00:02:53) | |
| 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) | |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2011-01-14 | subject | In 1933 a group of wealthy American capitalists, including George W. Bush's grandfather, tried to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install a fascist dictatorship. | Top 5 Actual Conspiracies (00:02:15) | |
| 2011-12-05 | cited | John's favourite headline: the Washington Post printed that FDR was in bed with a 'coed' instead of a cold; FDR asked for 100 copies, but they had been pulped. | 5 Worst Typos of History (00:01:37) | |
| 2017-08-04 | passing | Hank says the Pittman-Robertson Act, an obscure but popular law named after the two senators who thought it up, was signed into law by FDR in 1937. | Why Bullets are Good for the Environment (00:00:47) | |
| 2023-11-24 | subject | Hank says that in 1939 FDR on his own moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday (23 November 2023) of November to give people more shopping time before Christmas, announcing it on October 31. | It Wasn't Supposed to be Thanksgiving Yesterday (00:01:27) | |
| 2024-11-22 | passing | Hank says Coughlin urged US cooperation with Nazi Germany and attacked FDR and Jews; as tensions rose, the public and government got stations to drop his broadcasts. | Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment (00:05:22) | |
| John Edwards (politician) | 2007-08-07 | joke | Hank says Biss had his biggest traffic day ever yesterday (6 August 2007) and is now second on ActBlue only to 'a guy called John Edwards'. | August 7th: Curd Fighter Nurt (00:01:41) |
| 2007-08-09 | joke | Democrats: Albert Gore (not running) yields 'retro bagel'; John Edwards 'jihad drowns'; Hillary Clinton 'lynch a trillion'; Barack Obama 'maraca kebab' and, with Hussein, 'Bushmania Cobra Sake'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:01:28) | |
| 2007-10-05 | subject | Hank says there could be a real feud if John Edwards becomes a more substantial candidate, because he likes Edwards a lot. | October 5th: Feuding, Goonies and Politics (00:02:39) | |
| 2007-10-08 | subject | John answers Hank's Friday video on feud topics, which included the 2008 presidential election: Hank is mostly for John Edwards, John mostly for Barack Obama. | October 8th: Zombies v. Unicorns (00:00:00) | |
| 2007-10-09 | subject | Hank is upset that John called John Edwards a schmuck: John favors honest discussion yet treats a gut feeling about a candidate as more important than what the candidate plans to do. | October 9th: The Feud Continues (00:00:10) | |
| 2007-10-10 | subject | John likes John Edwards and is now equally for Edwards and Barack Obama, conceding that Hank has won that part of the feud. | October 10th: A Spoilerific Attack on Unicorns (00:00:39) | |
| 2008-02-04 | personal story | Hank says he used to post every other day but now posts about every other week, and has about 400 video ideas that won't get made without the pressure. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-02-14 | passing | John asks all Nerdfighters to vote for Daniel against stiff competition; in one category he is nominated alongside John McCain, John Edwards and Mitt Romney's five sons. | The Puff Pwns Gravity (00:01:36) | |
| 2016-05-17 | cited | John says that after the National Enquirer reported John Edwards had a child outside his marriage, Edwards called it tabloid trash, praised his wife, and finally called the story false. | A Brief History of the Non-Denial Denial (00:00:52) | |
| Al Gore (politician) | 2007-01-10 | joke | John jokes that paying Al Gore $96 would clear his name of global warming; the exchange that follows (voices unclear) has Gore eating the carbon and pooping political gold. | Brotherhood 2.0: January 10, 2007 (00:02:18) |
| 2007-04-20 | joke | Recalling his earlier-video claim that Al Gore eats carbon and poops gold, John jokes that 942 pounds of it, stolen and donated to Daniel Biss's campaign, would give Biss $10,429,824. | Brotherhood 2.0: Carbon Neutralizing Youtube (00:03:02) | |
| 2007-08-09 | joke | Democrats: Albert Gore (not running) yields 'retro bagel'; John Edwards 'jihad drowns'; Hillary Clinton 'lynch a trillion'; Barack Obama 'maraca kebab' and, with Hussein, 'Bushmania Cobra Sake'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:01:28) | |
| 2007-10-05 | subject | Hank says he would vote for anyone, of any party, who brings Al Gore into the cabinet as chief of environmental affairs and climate research. | October 5th: Feuding, Goonies and Politics (00:03:08) | |
| 2007-10-12 | subject | John reports that Al Gore, whom he calls a noted American nerdfighter, just won half the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change. | October 12th: Carbon Re-Neutralizing Brotherhood 2.0 (00:00:14) | |
| 2011-01-10 | cited | Hank reads a 'direct quote' from Icke's website listing Al Gore, vice president to Clinton, as Illuminati, Satanist, serious blood-drinker and reptilian shape-shifter. | Top 5 Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories (00:03:11) | |
| 2012-02-07 | subject | John says Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet; he claimed to have taken the initiative in creating it, an exaggeration but not the one he is accused of. | 10 Misconceptions Debunked! (00:01:55) | |
| 2018-10-26 | cited | The 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by 537 votes in Florida. | The Rigged Election (00:00:09) | |
| Louis XVI (king of France) | 2010-11-05 | subject | John says that while France was broke, King Louis XVI was not, and he and Marie Antoinette lived comfortably in the palace of Versailles, which would annoy a starving peasant. | God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I (00:01:05) |
| 2010-11-10 | subject | John says General Bouillé offered Louis and Marie Antoinette refuge at his country estate, and for this was later likened to a bloodthirsty despot in the French national anthem. | Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II (00:00:54) | |
| 2010-11-11 | subject | John sums up: after more than a hundred thousand lives lost, a decade of suffering and a continent-wide war, France went from one supreme ruler to another. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:03:34) | |
| 2010-11-11 | cited | John says that more than that, the study of history is essentially an exercise in empathy: imagining being a peasant, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette or Robespierre. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:04:17) | |
| 2015-11-03 | passing | John says the French Revolution, which promised democracy, freedom and equality, failed spectacularly, as revolutions often do, replacing a despot named Louis with one named Napoleon. | Monkey Hangers (00:00:45) | |
| 2018-02-06 | passing | John says at the comet appearance before 1910, Louis XVI's cousin Philippe I was king of France, after the so-called Second French Revolution, caused partly by failed harvests and rising bread prices. | Sawdust Bread (00:01:41) | |
| 2022-08-02 | passing | John says Napoleon Bonaparte became France's de facto leader in 1799 and crowned himself emperor, and was succeeded by King Louis XVIII, the previous Louis's brother. | Liberty Leading the People: How Revolutions Turn (00:00:29) | |
| 2026-03-24 | passing | John says little Louis Joseph, son of Marie Antoinette and the king, heir apparent to the French throne and one of the world's richest kids, got tuberculosis as a little boy. | How Panda Express Is Tuberculosis (00:03:29) | |
| John Kerry (politician) | 2007-05-07 | subject | Hank says an assistant of John Kerry emailed asking whether he would like to interview Kerry; he would, and calls it a nice birthday present. | May 7th: Birthday Extravaganza (00:00:12) |
| 2007-06-19 | passing | Hank appeared on The Weather Channel's Forecast Earth in an episode about heat that starts with John Kerry; it was his first national TV appearance and he thinks Brotherhood 2.0 was mentioned. | June 19: GOOD LUCK JOHN (00:02:19) | |
| 2007-10-10 | joke | John thanks his 2004 'Vote Kerry' playing cards for helping him with the joke. | October 10th: A Spoilerific Attack on Unicorns (00:00:39) | |
| 2013-09-13 | subject | Hank says Assad and Russia need each other, which is why John Kerry's offhand remark that Assad could avoid attack by handing over his chemical weapons was taken up by Russia - an accidental act of diplomacy. | Syria in Five Minutes (00:03:52) | |
| 2016-10-25 | cited | John says Bush received about 3 million more votes than Kerry across the country in 2004. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:00:11) | |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says democracies are not immune: a completely fake photo of John Kerry with Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally was widely distributed during the 2004 presidential election. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:01:57) | |
| Marie Antoinette (queen of France) | 2010-11-01 | cited | As examples of French Revolution trivia, John says a significant event happened in an indoor tennis court, and that Marie Antoinette's actual last words were 'Sir, I beg your pardon' after stepping on her executioner's foot. | Consider the Lemming (00:02:16) |
| 2010-11-05 | subject | John says that while France was broke, King Louis XVI was not, and he and Marie Antoinette lived comfortably in the palace of Versailles, which would annoy a starving peasant. | God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I (00:01:05) | |
| 2010-11-10 | subject | John says General Bouillé offered Louis and Marie Antoinette refuge at his country estate, and for this was later likened to a bloodthirsty despot in the French national anthem. | Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II (00:00:54) | |
| 2010-11-11 | subject | John says Marie Antoinette never said 'let them eat cake' and, like almost everyone killed in the Terror, posed no threat to the government. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:01:27) | |
| 2010-11-11 | cited | John says that more than that, the study of history is essentially an exercise in empathy: imagining being a peasant, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette or Robespierre. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:04:17) | |
| 2022-08-02 | passing | John recalls that the late-18th-century French Revolution removed King Louis XVI and his wife, who never actually said 'let them eat cake', from power. | Liberty Leading the People: How Revolutions Turn (00:00:00) | |
| 2026-03-24 | passing | John says little Louis Joseph, son of Marie Antoinette and the king, heir apparent to the French throne and one of the world's richest kids, got tuberculosis as a little boy. | How Panda Express Is Tuberculosis (00:03:29) | |
| Ronald Reagan (politician (historical)) | 2009-02-08 | cited | After public outcry Williamson agreed to reconsider the historical evidence of the Holocaust, which John likens to reconsidering whether America had a president called Ronald Reagan. | All Aboard the Fail Boat (00:01:00) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John says the last words of Franklin Pierce, Chester A. Arthur, William Howard Taft and Harry Truman are unknown, and Nixon's and Reagan's were not recorded. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:03:25) | |
| 2014-01-28 | joke | Asked which US presidents should play TFIOS film characters, John casts the whole film, e.g. Obama as Gus, Jefferson as Hazel, Andrew Johnson as Van Houten, Carter as Patrick. | Question Tuesday! TFIOS Movie Trailer, Penguin Knees, and Backflips (00:02:24) | |
| 2016-05-17 | cited | John says both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan used 'There's no evidence of that' and 'I can't recall'. | A Brief History of the Non-Denial Denial (00:02:21) | |
| 2016-10-11 | cited | John grants lower taxes can encourage investment and growth, but insists tax cuts do not pay for themselves: the Reagan and Bush tax cuts boosted growth yet lowered federal revenues. | Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans (00:07:10) | |
| 2023-07-18 | cited | John thinks Ronald Reagan first mentioned HIV four or five years after it emerged in the United States. | Tuberculosis Fighters Have a Posse (00:01:27) | |
| Sarah Palin (politician) | 2008-08-29 | subject | John tells Hank, who does not like watching the news, what he needs to know about presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, a pick that surprised John. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:00:02) |
| 2008-09-04 | passing | John welcomes the nearly 2,000 subscribers who joined since the Sarah Palin video. | Paper Towns Tour Dates! (00:00:00) | |
| 2008-10-11 | joke | John says Joe Biden anagrams to 'I Need Job' and Sarah Palin to 'Las Pirana'. | Question Friday (00:01:43) | |
| 2008-10-22 | cited | A Penguin publicist told John that Hank is his 'Sarah Palin' who fires up the base, while John is the serious old one. | Punish Hank? Save Hank? YOU DECIDE. (00:03:15) | |
| 2009-07-05 | subject, passing | John offers four possible reasons why Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced her resignation, noting she is not a usual politician. | Sarah Palin Resigning! Four Possible Reasons Why (00:00:00) | |
| 2009-12-30 | cited | The song says the news media fail by sending a dozen camera crews whenever Sarah Palin is mentioned, though she is not news. | The STUPIDEST NEWS STORIES of 2009 (a song) (00:00:36) | |
| Theodore Roosevelt (politician) | 2009-01-18 | cited | John says Teddy Roosevelt took the oath of office without putting his hand on anything. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:00:54) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2016-01-05 | passing | John summarises: for about 800 years the land was Northern Paiute land, until the US won a war, deported them and held it until Theodore Roosevelt made it a bird refuge in 1908. | Who Owns Oregon? Some Historical Context on the so-called Militia Occupation of Public Lands (00:03:00) | |
| 2016-03-25 | joke | Asked about Snapchat filters, John admits he barely knows Snapchat, but says in Jordan their interpreter used the filters with kids, who loved them, and he found them amazing. | Snapchat Question Time! (00:01:27) | |
| 2017-06-23 | passing | Teddy & Alice (1987) fictionalises Teddy Roosevelt and his daughter Alice; Frank Rich of the New York Times compared it to a high-school halftime show, and Hank gives it zero teddy bears. | Reviewing Musicals from their Wikipedia Pages (00:03:31) | |
| 2020-12-15 | passing | John shows the grave of Charles Fairbanks, VP from 1905 to 1909 under Teddy Roosevelt, mostly remembered for working against the policies of the president he served. | America's Capital of Dead Vice Presidents (00:00:58) | |
| Thomas Jefferson (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2009-10-04 | subject | John says John Adams's last words claimed Thomas Jefferson still survived, which was untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:32) | |
| 2011-09-21 | passing | John names winners three to five: a song about bizarre fruits, a rant about romanticizing fictional characters, and what he calls the best musical about Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. | NERD FACTOR (00:01:58) | |
| 2014-01-28 | joke | Asked which US presidents should play TFIOS film characters, John casts the whole film, e.g. Obama as Gus, Jefferson as Hazel, Andrew Johnson as Van Houten, Carter as Patrick. | Question Tuesday! TFIOS Movie Trailer, Penguin Knees, and Backflips (00:02:24) | |
| 2021-06-01 | cited | At his estate Monticello, Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people. | My Two Favorite Books of the Year (00:00:35) | |
| 2024-09-13 | cited | Busse says that unlike US constitutional cases arguing what the framers thought, Montana has nine living framers; its environment article was written by Mae Nan Ellingson, then 24. | My Governor is Weirder than Yours (00:41:16) | |
| Bill Clinton (politician) | 2007-02-15 | cited | Voicing the popular side as George W. Bush and Tom Brady, John answers poker-style with famous nerds, from Bill Clinton and Lincoln to all four Beatles, and declares 'We win!' | Brotherhood 2.0: February 17, 2007 (00:01:39) |
| 2007-06-22 | cited | John got his haircut at Louie's in D.C., whose barber had cut the hair of Bill Clinton and Willie Nelson, figures John admires but whose hairstyles he doesn't want. | Brotherhood 2.0: June 22: The Senator (00:01:13) | |
| 2011-01-10 | passing | Hank reads a 'direct quote' from Icke's website listing Al Gore, vice president to Clinton, as Illuminati, Satanist, serious blood-drinker and reptilian shape-shifter. | Top 5 Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories (00:03:11) | |
| 2015-03-06 | joke | WE WON! Net Neutrality and Re-Thinking Cynicism (00:03:44) | ||
| 2016-05-17 | cited | John says Bill Clinton's denial of sexual relations with 'Miss Lewinsky' first seemed unambiguous, but Clinton was using 'sexual relations' to mean a specific sexual act. | A Brief History of the Non-Denial Denial (00:01:30) | |
| John F. Kennedy (politician) | 2008-06-19 | quoted | John notes that in recent weeks they have asked a lot of Nerdfighters: money for Daniel Biss, Tetris pieces, T-shirt ideas and a collaboratively written novel. | Memo to the Fourteenth Century (and to the Tobians) (00:03:17) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2011-08-31 | passing | John says Booklist colleague Ilene Cooper, author of 20+ children's books, agreed over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory that his vague boarding-school novel idea sounded great. | How to Become An Adult (00:02:03) | |
| 2015-08-11 | cited | John says that as more people could vote and primaries gained traction, John F. Kennedy made history in January 1960 by declaring his candidacy very early, almost a full year before the election. | 454 Days: Understanding America's Ridiculous Political Campaigns (00:01:44) | |
| 2026-06-02 | passing | Warhol's series of Jackie Kennedy just before and after JFK's assassination explores how repeating even a poignant image makes it less emotionally engaging with each picture. | The Instagramification of Human Experience (00:01:56) | |
| Jon Tester (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Jon Tester: seven fingers from a farming accident, the same six-dollar flat-top haircut in the same Montana place all his life, funny; but almost no political experience. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:02:13) |
| 2008-11-04 | joke | Hank jokes that he is wearing his Montana Grizz shirt because it brought about the election of 'seven-fingered' Jon Tester in 2006. | Election Night In Indianapolis! (00:00:44) | |
| 2016-06-17 | subject | Hank thanks Senator Jon Tester, with whom he agrees more often, for supporting common-sense gun regulations, noting this is not an easy position in Montana and his moderate views hurt him. | Hey, Let's Change Some Things (00:00:00) | |
| 2022-10-28 | cited | Hank says Trump won Montana by 16% in 2020 and 20% in 2016, yet in 2016 Montana also elected a Democratic governor, and it has a Democratic senator, Jon Tester. | I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics (00:01:06) | |
| 2024-10-30 | passing | Hank saw Pearl Jam in concert recently; a band member is from Jon Tester's small hometown and did an event for Tester. | Sipping the Tea with Hank (00:32:06) | |
| Kamala Harris (politician) | 2016-11-09 | quoted | Kamala Harris, quoted by John: this is a time to fight for who we are. | My Post-Election Thoughts (00:01:57) |
| 2020-11-06 | passing | The description says a Biden/Harris presidency is vital and hard fought and will make the world very different, and Hank is grateful to everyone who took part. | Just Some Election Thoughts… (00:00:00) | |
| 2024-08-07 | passing | John finds it distressing to turn his self into a capitalized resource, the purest capitalism, where the influencer economy measures a person's value by how well they monetize themselves. | Dear Hank and John Livestream! (00:24:05) | |
| 2024-10-18 | cited | Hank's mail-in ballot made him angry: in all three federal races (five presidential, four Senate, three House candidates) the Democrat, including Kamala Harris and Monica Tranel, is listed last. | My Ballot Made Me Angry (00:00:00) | |
| 2024-11-08 | cited | Hank says the graph makes Biden look as if he got almost double Kamala Harris's votes, but the zero on its x-axis is 50 million people. | These Maps are Lying (if you let them) (00:00:29) | |
| Millard Fillmore (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2010-10-08 | cited | John corrects Looking for Alaska: he quoted Millard Fillmore's last words as 'the nourishment is palatable', but they were 'the nourishment is palpable'. | GEEKING OUT Over Dying Declarations (00:01:54) | |
| 2014-01-07 | subject | John says US President Millard Fillmore was born on this day in 1800 and that the last thing he ate was one spoonful of warm soup. | Warm Things for Cold Times (00:01:16) | |
| 2014-01-28 | joke | Asked which US presidents should play TFIOS film characters, John casts the whole film, e.g. Obama as Gus, Jefferson as Hazel, Andrew Johnson as Van Houten, Carter as Patrick. | Question Tuesday! TFIOS Movie Trailer, Penguin Knees, and Backflips (00:02:24) | |
| Ted Cruz (politician) | 2016-03-22 | cited | John says that in Missouri's primaries last week (week of 14 March 2016) Trump beat Cruz statewide by about .19 percent and Clinton beat Sanders by a similar margin. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:00:21) |
| 2016-04-19 | cited | John says Hitler and the Nazis are now compared to everyone: on social media Clinton, Trump, Cruz and Sanders are each likened to Hitler. | Literally Hitler (00:00:33) | |
| 2016-04-22 | passing | Hank says John will give his analysis of Ted Cruz's and Donald Trump's tax plans on Tuesday. | Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! (00:07:15) | |
| 2016-04-26 | subject | John says that today he will discuss the tax plans put forth by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. | Understanding the Tax Plans of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (00:00:04) | |
| 2016-07-19 | cited | John says nicknames from 'Canadian Cruz' and 'Crooked Hillary' to 'Lying Donald' and 'Barry Obama' undermine and demean people too vaguely to defend against. | Pretty Bad Ways to Start a Conversation (00:01:14) | |
| Kim Jong Il (politician) | 2009-02-08 | joke | Dressed as Hank (or as John in a Hank costume), John sends best wishes to cheer up Australian Nerdfighters, then shows a Nerdfighter-made John disguise. | All Aboard the Fail Boat (00:03:04) |
| 2009-04-05 | subject | John notes two differences from himself: North Korea is run by 'a crazy dude', Kim Jong-il, and has nuclear weapons. | The EVIL BABY ORPHANAGE Returns for North Korea (00:01:37) | |
| 2010-11-11 | cited | John says this happened under the Committee of Public Safety, led by Maximilien Robespierre, a paranoid despot who foreshadowed Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:00:46) | |
| 2011-07-22 | joke | John says there is three times more irrigated turf grass in the US than corn. | Your Yard Is EVIL (00:00:21) | |
| Mike Huckabee (politician) | 2007-12-18 | joke | John shows Hank that the most discussed page of YouTube is filled with Nerdfighter videos (and one Mike Huckabee video). | Dec 18th: The Project for Awesome and Question Tuesday!!! (00:00:00) |
| 2008-02-04 | criticized | Hank says Romney and Huckabee scare him, while McCain only half scares him. | Obama Says Subscribe (00:00:41) | |
| 2008-02-21 | joke | John jokes he'd play Twister with Mike Huckabee, who doesn't look flexible, and that Ron Paul's Twister would drop every colour but yellow for freedom and cost; he expects Paul's supporters to attack. | People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes (00:03:07) | |
| 2010-12-20 | cited | Hank jokes that Mike Huckabee's attempt to 'hack' the Republican presidential nomination kept P4A from taking over the whole first page of 'most discussed', but P4A's hack was more successful. | Thoughts on the Project for Awesome (00:00:19) | |
| Pervez Musharraf (politician) | 2007-11-05 | criticized | John tells General Musharraf, as if he watched the show, that he is angering John and to stop it. | November 5th: John's Not Happy about Pakistan (00:00:54) |
| 2007-11-06 | subject, passing | Hank says he doesn't understand John's Pakistan update and asks him to explain what is happening, who the bad guy is and why, while consuming something inedible. | Nov (00:00:40) | |
| 2007-11-07 | criticized | John recounts that Sharif fired army chief Musharraf while he was abroad and barred his plane from landing at Karachi; the army seized the airport and the plane landed with minutes of fuel left. | November 7: Discussing the Political Situation in Pakistan (00:01:02) | |
| 2008-01-04 | criticized | John says Musharraf, the dictatorial president of Pakistan, has used Bhutto's death to delay the parliamentary elections that were due this month (January 2008). | Nerdfighting in 2008, Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton (00:01:34) | |
| André Carson (politician) | 2012-05-05 | passing | For Hank's birthday John wrote an email to his congressman, Andre Carson, asking him to make sure NASA gets the funding it needs. | It's HANKO DE MAYO!!!!! (00:01:13) |
| 2013-01-01 | cited | John says his Indianapolis congressman is Democrat Andre Carson while his across-the-street neighbour in the same zip code has Republican Dan Burton, because the district was redrawn to take in pricier houses expected to vote Republican. | Why Does Congress Suck? (00:01:45) | |
| 2016-06-21 | cited | John says more than 3 million Americans today are Muslims, from Dave Chappelle to the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars to his congressman André Carson. | Syrian Refugees in the United States: One Family's Story (00:02:28) | |
| Bashar al-Assad (politician) | 2012-03-06 | criticized | John says Assad tried to bring Alawism into the mainstream, praying in public and building mosques, but many Sunni and even Shia Muslims still see Alawis as apostates. | Know Your News! Understanding the Syrian Revolution in Under 4 Minutes (00:01:56) |
| 2013-09-13 | criticized | Hank says the Assad regime answered peaceful pro-democracy protests with jail, then killing; as protests turned violent, it tortured protesters' children and killed their families. | Syria in Five Minutes (00:01:48) | |
| 2015-09-08 | criticized | Long-reigning dictator Bashar al-Assad refuses to give up power and has fought the rebellion with astonishing violence, including torturing children and gassing his own people with chemical weapons. | Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe, Syria, and around the World (00:01:06) | |
| Benazir Bhutto (politician) | 2007-11-07 | subject | John says that in 1988 Pakistan held its first free election in a decade, won by Benazir Bhutto. | November 7: Discussing the Political Situation in Pakistan (00:00:33) |
| 2008-01-04 | subject | John reports that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was recently assassinated and that it is not yet clear who was responsible. | Nerdfighting in 2008, Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton (00:01:05) | |
| 2009-12-01 | cited | John says Benazir Bhutto, controversial but politically talented, was assassinated in late 2007, blaming the Pakistani Taliban, who he says keep killing talented politicians. | Shaving for Pakistan (00:02:04) | |
| Benito Mussolini (historical dictator) | 2007-08-13 | joke | Hank tours the exhibits: flower arrangements, zucchinis dressed up like Mussolini, a pig and penguins, carved zucchinis, giant zucchinis, pumpkins and white eggplants. | August 13: The Fair!!!! (00:00:43) |
| 2015-10-20 | cited | In a clip, Daniel says that when frustrated he asks whether something is broken and corrupt or he just doesn't get to be Emperor; when it's the latter, that's good, because it means no Mussolini. | Nerdfighteria's Resident Comptroller? (00:02:35) | |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says faked photos have long spread disinformation and changed history: Mussolini hid that he needed a horse trainer to look like Napoleon. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:01:27) | |
| Dick Cheney (politician) | 2007-04-06 | criticized | Among the things that never rest John lists Dick Cheney, whom he accuses of intentionally misleading Americans about a relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. | Brotherhood 2.0: April 6: Nerdfighters Never Surrender (00:00:56) |
| 2007-11-06 | criticized | Hank says he supports the impeachment of Dick Cheney, joking that Bush looked into Cheney's soul and saw a good person, and that he has about 328 other reasons. | Nov (00:01:09) | |
| 2008-09-26 | joke | The song urges listeners to vote for Barack Obama, wishes him luck and says he will be the next president. | Obama Llama Song (00:00:02) | |
| Franklin Pierce (politician) | 2009-01-18 | cited | John says John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce took the oath with their hands on books of law; he jokes that both were really bad presidents. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:00:54) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2023-08-22 | cited | John says Pierce's secretary of state was mourning a son who had just died of tuberculosis, and his vice president was in Cuba trying to cure his own tuberculosis. | The Panera Phenomenon (00:01:10) | |
| Jimmy Carter (US president) | 2014-01-28 | joke | Asked which US presidents should play TFIOS film characters, John casts the whole film, e.g. Obama as Gus, Jefferson as Hazel, Andrew Johnson as Van Houten, Carter as Patrick. | Question Tuesday! TFIOS Movie Trailer, Penguin Knees, and Backflips (00:02:24) |
| 2015-02-06 | joke | In the end screen Hank says video games give clear problems and achievements, which is why Games with Hank is back today with a new series, Hank Green Plays The Sims. | You Will Be Forgotten ...And That's OK (00:02:59) | |
| 2015-03-06 | joke | WE WON! Net Neutrality and Re-Thinking Cynicism (00:03:34) | ||
| John Adams (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2016-10-25 | cited | John notes it is sometimes said Washington's greatest presidential moment was handing office to John Adams, setting the precedent for ceding power. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:03:56) | |
| John Engen (politician) | 2011-02-21 | takes part | Hank feels that if you have a chance to talk to your mayor, you should. | Hank Interviews His Mayor (00:00:45) |
| 2011-02-23 | passing | John loved Hank's interview with the mayor of Missoula and wishes he could be his mayor without moving there. | WE ARE 812 YEARS OLD (00:00:04) | |
| 2022-08-19 | personal story | Hank's friend John Engen, mayor of Hank's town for the last 15 years, has died. | What if a lot of the Cynicism is Unjustified??? (00:01:37) | |
| John Quincy Adams (politician) | 2009-01-18 | cited | John says John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce took the oath with their hands on books of law; he jokes that both were really bad presidents. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:00:54) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| 2016-10-25 | cited | John says if no candidate gets an electoral majority the House chooses the president, as in 1826 when Congress chose John Quincy Adams although Andrew Jackson had more votes. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:01:02) | |
| Louis XIV (monarch) | 2007-11-01 | passing | On Halloween night a six-year-old Nerdfighter came to John's door trick-or-treating dressed as Louis XIV, announcing 'L'etat c'est moi'. | November 1st: When Nerdfighters Fall in Nerdfighter-Like (00:00:49) |
| 2017-10-03 | passing | City of Light, City of Poison is a history that reads like a thriller about Paris's first police chief investigating poisonings possibly involving aristocrats close to Louis XIV; John found it bonkers and loved its portrait of ordinary 17th-century Parisian life. | Let's Talk about Books (00:01:57) | |
| 2020-08-18 | cited | Ten billion seconds ago, Louis XIV was king of France. | what's wrong with taking the back streets? (00:02:55) | |
| Muammar Gaddafi (dictator) | 2011-03-04 | subject | To keep the game challenging, John says he will translate Gaddafi's quotations from Arabic, since otherwise the giveaway would be whether it is in Arabic. | SHEEN or GADDAFI? (00:00:20) |
| 2011-08-24 | joke | As mock presents Hank 'gives' John the week's news: a potential end to Gaddafi's rule, an embarrassed East Coast, Liverpool beating Exeter City 3-1, Hurricane Irene, a Barbie set, a Twitter founders' product. | HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN! (00:00:00) | |
| 2015-10-23 | passing | Hank says revolutions promise rapid change for good, as hoped after Gaddafi was killed, but their usual immediate outcome is a power vacuum and armed groups fighting to control the country. | Benghazi: Explained (00:01:04) | |
| Nelson Mandela (politician) | 2007-02-15 | cited | Voicing the popular side as George W. Bush and Tom Brady, John answers poker-style with famous nerds, from Bill Clinton and Lincoln to all four Beatles, and declares 'We win!' | Brotherhood 2.0: February 17, 2007 (00:01:39) |
| 2010-07-20 | joke | John calls Hank's decision not to use that title almost heroic, then backs off the word since it is the day after Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday. | I Like Balls (00:01:14) | |
| 2017-08-18 | quoted | Hank says Nelson Mandela's line is true: no one is born hating another person because of the colour of their skin. | What I've Been Thinking About (00:02:07) | |
| Ron Paul (politician) | 2007-08-09 | joke | After the Republicans (Ron Paul 'Lunar Op', Mitt Romney 'Metro Minty' and 'Are Not My Time', Rudy Giuliani 'Godly I Ruin'), Hank ends with his favourite: Joe Biden, 'I need job'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:02:31) |
| 2008-02-21 | joke | John jokes he'd play Twister with Mike Huckabee, who doesn't look flexible, and that Ron Paul's Twister would drop every colour but yellow for freedom and cost; he expects Paul's supporters to attack. | People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes (00:03:07) | |
| 2011-12-21 | subject | Ron Paul anagrams to 'our plan', which Hank ties to people asking the Occupy movement what its plan is. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:00:29) | |
| Silvio Berlusconi (politician) | 2011-11-11 | passing | John calls Silvio Berlusconi, whose resignation has been promised, a national embarrassment. | The Bank of Nerdfighteria (00:00:00) |
| 2011-12-14 | criticized | John recalls an Economist cover on Silvio Berlusconi headlined 'The Man Who Screwed an Entire Country'. | Greek Phallic Disco Golf Balls: A Free Association Game (00:03:25) | |
| 2023-12-24 | passing | After their word-association game, John asks Nerdfighters to continue it in comments, starting from Silvio Berlusconi. | John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated (02:02:12) | |
| Vladimir Lenin (revolutionary, Soviet leader) | 2007-02-07 | joke | The list of pant-poopers: his mom, dad and brother John, Kirsten Dunst while filming Spider-Man 2, Liverpool Football Club, Günter Grass, Stephen Dedalus, Al Roker and Lenin. | Brotherhood 2.0: February 7, 2007 (00:01:12) |
| 2008-06-24 | cited, joke | Lenin loved cats and had lots of them; Hank adds that Lenin sort of opened the door for Stalin to take over after he died. | Questions Answered! (00:02:42) | |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says Hitler did the same to Goebbels and Lenin to Trotsky, and it happened often in China, most famously in a photo of Mao's funeral without the Gang of Four. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:01:57) | |
| Winston Churchill (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2013-02-05 | passing | John visited the Penguin offices, which have a 'very schmancy' display for The Fault in Our Stars and a view Churchill once had in WWII, then the Guardian. | Headless Statues and Elton John's Piano: Seeing Sights in London (Thoughts from Places) (00:00:29) | |
| 2026-05-12 | passing | John learns Bart Giamatti died in office in 1989, so he never gave the Kenyon address in 1999 and was never a former commissioner. | Lies, Damn Lies, and Bart Giamatti (00:01:27) | |
| Ali Khamenei (head of state) | 2009-06-14 | criticized | John explains that Iran is an Islamic Republic whose president matters less because its domestic and foreign affairs are decided by a council of religious leaders led by the Ayatollah. | Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results (00:00:23) |
| 2009-06-14 | passing | John adds that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has declared the vote legitimate. | Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results (00:00:00) | |
| 2009-07-12 | passing | John says it still matters who Iran's president is, despite the Supreme Leader: Ahmadinejad ruined Iran's economy and unleashed morality police, and relations were better under his less crazy predecessor. | On Iran, Islam, and Amazingly Stupid Comments (00:01:27) | |
| Asif Ali Zardari (politician) | 2009-12-01 | criticized | John says Pakistan lacks political leadership: its president, Bhutto's widower, is qualified mainly by having been married to her, and no one good is waiting in the wings. | Shaving for Pakistan (00:02:00) |
| 2011-05-02 | passing | Obama ordered the assault just before flying to Alabama to survey tornado damage, and during the attack phoned Pakistan's president to tell him, without asking permission. | Osama Bin Laden is Dead (00:02:27) | |
| Che Guevara (revolutionary) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2026-03-03 | joke | In middle school John wore a knapsack instead of a backpack, fancying himself a seventh-grade Che Guevara; he now keeps memorabilia in it. | The Best Fan Mail I Ever Received (00:00:15) | |
| Cleopatra (Ptolemaic queen of Egypt) | 2013-01-04 | joke | 53 Terrible Jokes! (00:01:08) | |
| 2021-09-28 | cited | Frank Snowden's Epidemics and Society helped John see that infectious disease has always been among history's most important forces: we think of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra, but it's mostly microbes. | 11 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read (00:00:58) | |
| Dipendra of Nepal (royal) | 2007-10-26 | subject | John says the crown prince wanted to marry a woman from the wrong clan; when his parents opposed it, he took a machine gun and killed most of his family, then shot himself. | OCT. 26: DISCUSSING NEPAL WHILE EATING TOILET PAPER (00:00:37) |
| 2021-06-25 | joke | John's chat calls the deal made in an indoor tennis court the most interesting moment in world history, except for when the prince of Nepal became a serial killer. | The Surprising Origin of Crash Course (00:00:29) | |
| Dmitry Medvedev (politician) | 2008-08-12 | criticized | John says that after a week Dmitry Medvedev, president in name only since Putin runs everything, declared Georgia punished, literally using the Russian word for punished. | PEANUT BUTTER FACE (while discussing the Georgia-Russia War) (00:02:27) |
| 2010-08-22 | cited | From Obama's public schedule: during evening prayers on April 8, 2010 he dined with Dmitry Medvedev, and during noon prayers on April 5, 2010 he hosted the White House Easter Egg Hunt; no one saw him pray. | Is Obama a Muslim? Examine the Evidence! (00:00:48) | |
| Elizabeth I (monarch) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes W.C. Fields's last words were addressed to Carlotta, his mistress, not his wife Hattie; he says he tones the quote down for young nerdfighters. | Famous Last Words (00:02:37) |
| 2016-10-04 | cited | At the National Portrait Gallery John reflects that portraits are artworks but also historical artifacts: the pictures we keep show who and what mattered to us. | Drowzees and Masterpieces: Thoughts from London (00:00:41) | |
| Elizabeth II (monarch) | 2008-10-17 | passing | John says Charlie came to the party instead of meeting the Queen of England. | Vital Status Report from NYC (00:00:00) |
| 2015-08-11 | passing | John says campaign cycles are getting longer worldwide, but in the UK people only start paying proper attention five weeks before the election, when the Queen dissolves Parliament. | 454 Days: Understanding America's Ridiculous Political Campaigns (00:00:35) | |
| Hafez al-Assad (politician) | 2012-03-06 | subject | John says defense minister Hafez al-Assad became president in a bloodless coup in 1970 and oversaw Syria's first stable period, a new constitution and a state-run economy with significant per capita GDP growth. | Know Your News! Understanding the Syrian Revolution in Under 4 Minutes (00:00:58) |
| 2013-09-13 | passing | Hank says that in the Cold War Russia took Syria as an ally and, through diplomacy and guns, helped the ostensibly socialist, Alawite-run Ba'ath Party, led by the current Assad's father, take control. | Syria in Five Minutes (00:00:48) | |
| Harry Baals (politician) | 2011-02-28 | cited | John says Harry Baals, a beloved former mayor, is in the news because Fort Wayne has moved to name a building after him. | Harry Baals & Dick Trickle: The Funniest Names in History (00:01:37) |
| 2011-03-02 | cited | Responding to John's video on Ima Hogg, Harry Baals and Chris P Bacon, Hank says a parent's job is to help a child avoid unnecessary anguish, and a bad name can cause significant anguish. | How to Name Your Baby Properly (00:00:10) | |
| Hosni Mubarak (president of Egypt) | 2011-01-31 | subject | John introduces Hosni Mubarak as the 82-year-old dictator of Egypt, whose 30-year rule is in peril. | Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction (00:00:11) |
| 2013-07-05 | subject | Hank calls Hosni Mubarak, by 2010 really a military dictator, terrible: head of a kleptocracy extracting resources for himself and his cronies, who jailed Brotherhood members. | Egypt....Explained! (00:02:18) | |
| John Kasich (politician (Governor of Ohio, 2016 presidential candidate)) | 2016-03-22 | cited | John says the same day in Ohio Kasich got 47 percent of the Republican vote but all 66 delegates, because Ohio's Republican rules give all delegates to whoever gets the most votes. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:02:13) |
| 2016-04-26 | passing | John says he would discuss John Kasich's tax plan, but Kasich has not yet put out a detailed one. | Understanding the Tax Plans of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (00:00:08) | |
| John Sedgwick (general) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2009-08-21 | subject | Purported fact one, posed as one of two options: American Civil War general John Sedgwick's last words were 'they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist(ance)'. | Truth or Fail: John Green Books (00:00:29) | |
| Joseph Kony (militia leader) | 2014-04-22 | subject | John says the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has murdered and tortured people for decades in the CAR's east, and many believe Kony hides in the CAR. | Understanding the Central African Republic (00:01:59) |
| 2022-09-29 | cited | Hank says the solar roadways moment, like Kony 2012 two years earlier, came from a good impulse, hopefulness: people felt the internet might stop a Ugandan warlord or create roads that melted ice, warned about moose and generated more electricity than their cars used. | The Kony 2012 of Roads - Solar Freakin' Roadways (00:02:36) | |
| Kathleen Sebelius (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Kathleen Sebelius: a brilliant red-state governor who gets things done in a bipartisan way, but it is unclear how good she is at campaigning, and the ticket's name doesn't trip off the tongue. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:01:44) |
| 2008-08-29 | cited | John calls Palin a very Alaska-centric governor who, unlike governors such as Kathleen Sebelius or Rod Blagojevich, has not led on national issues. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:02:02) | |
| Kim Il Sung (politician) | 2009-04-05 | subject | John proposes putting Kim Jong-il's dead father Kim Il-sung in the Evil Baby Orphanage, which he says would save millions of lives and reunify Korea. | The EVIL BABY ORPHANAGE Returns for North Korea (00:02:15) |
| 2014-04-29 | joke | John says he is delighted and honored to have been included anyway and gets to go to the party with others on the Time 100. | Influence, Airports, and the Nerdfighter Book Club (00:00:45) | |
| Larry Langford (politician (former mayor of Birmingham, Alabama)) | 2013-07-19 | cited | John says Larry Langford, now in prison, was mayor of his quasi-hometown Birmingham, Alabama, and ran for mayor with the motto 'Let's do something'. | TFiOS Movie, Bees, Babies, and More! (00:02:01) |
| 2019-04-16 | cited | John says a Birmingham, Alabama mayoral candidate's slogan, 'Larry Langford, let's do something', became a catchphrase in his family. | Doing Somethings (00:02:26) | |
| Leon Trotsky (revolutionary) | 2015-08-18 | joke | John says he won't run a negative campaign, then jabs at Hank's hair: a haircut Tyler Oakley discarded in 2011, a young Republican's haircut, a de-mustachioed Leon Trotsky's face. | The Cold War of Nerdfighteria (00:02:57) |
| 2019-02-05 | cited | John says Hitler did the same to Goebbels and Lenin to Trotsky, and it happened often in China, most famously in a photo of Mao's funeral without the Gang of Four. | Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images (00:01:57) | |
| Louis Philippe I (monarch) | 2018-02-06 | cited | John says at the comet appearance before 1910, Louis XVI's cousin Philippe I was king of France, after the so-called Second French Revolution, caused partly by failed harvests and rising bread prices. | Sawdust Bread (00:01:41) |
| 2022-08-02 | passing | John says that in 1830 Charles X tried to dissolve parliament and restore press bans, leading to the July Revolution, which removed him and brought the citizen king Louis-Philippe under a constitutional monarchy. | Liberty Leading the People: How Revolutions Turn (00:01:27) | |
| Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (politician) | 2009-06-14 | criticized | John calls the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 'a bit of a douche-nozzle'. | Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results (00:00:57) |
| 2009-07-12 | criticized | John says it still matters who Iran's president is, despite the Supreme Leader: Ahmadinejad ruined Iran's economy and unleashed morality police, and relations were better under his less crazy predecessor. | On Iran, Islam, and Amazingly Stupid Comments (00:01:27) | |
| Martin Luther King Jr. (activist) | 2007-07-05 | passing | John objects to the soundtrack mashing up Neil Diamond and Martin Luther King: 'You're embarrassing us!' | July 5th: The Regions Bank Freedom Blast (00:02:21) |
| 2010-11-19 | cited | John says he always looks for interesting places in airports, like Atlanta's tiny interfaith chapel with Mecca's direction inked in, Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize and a Chewbacca portrait. | I'm Not Going Down: Thoughts from Amsterdam (00:00:00) | |
| Maximilien Robespierre (French revolutionary) | 2010-11-11 | subject | John says this happened under the Committee of Public Safety, led by Maximilien Robespierre, a paranoid despot who foreshadowed Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:00:46) |
| 2010-11-11 | cited | John says that more than that, the study of history is essentially an exercise in empathy: imagining being a peasant, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette or Robespierre. | REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III (00:04:17) | |
| 2022-08-02 | quoted | John quotes Robespierre writing that the basis of popular government in a revolution is virtue and terror, adding that some would say he leaned more on the terror. | Liberty Leading the People: How Revolutions Turn (00:00:29) | |
| Monica Tranel (politician) | 2022-10-28 | subject | Hank first met Monica Tranel, who is running for Congress, when he emailed her and she helped him make Hanklerfish art for Project for Awesome donors. | I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics (00:00:00) |
| 2024-10-18 | cited | Hank's mail-in ballot made him angry: in all three federal races (five presidential, four Senate, three House candidates) the Democrat, including Kamala Harris and Monica Tranel, is listed last. | My Ballot Made Me Angry (00:00:00) | |
| Nancy Pelosi (politician) | 2007-11-06 | passing | Hank says he looked up that Speaker Nancy Pelosi would take over if both President and Vice President were removed, and calls that worth it. | Nov (00:01:54) |
| 2025-04-11 | joke | Hank approves of Republicans in Congress saying the Constitution gives the power to levy new taxes to Congress, not the president. | How Actually Crazy is This Mess? (00:17:13) | |
| Nawaz Sharif (politician) | 2007-11-07 | subject | John says the prime ministership of Pakistan then went back and forth between Bhutto and Sharif. | November 7: Discussing the Political Situation in Pakistan (00:00:33) |
| 2016-01-26 | cited | John says Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's film inspired the prime minister of Pakistan to finally denounce honor killing, a small but real step toward a better world. | Billionaires and Radical Hope: Thoughts from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (00:03:11) | |
| Nero (Roman emperor) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| 2022-10-11 | cited | John says most people ever born lived and died before Nero or Mansa Musa, before minutes and seconds, guns, global Christianity and Islam, and potatoes or pineapples in Afro-Eurasia. | Most People Have Never Been 20 (00:00:58) | |
| Park Geun-hye (politician) | 2013-04-05 | cited | Hank says South Korea just got a new president, and North Korea tests each new South Korean president by acting crazy. | North Korea: Explained (00:00:56) |
| 2017-03-21 | cited | John is not convinced twittering makes him better informed: he knows a lot about Trump's handshakes with foreign leaders but little about South Korea's ousted president, Brazil's corruption scandals or the Fed's monetary policy. | My Information Diet (00:01:50) | |
| Rand Paul (politician) | 2015-04-21 | joke | John says last year (2014) he often had to explain his Time 100 place; he jokes Rand Paul would dismiss 'French the llama', so this year (2015) he'll be Rand Paul's date. | A Stunning Turn of Events (00:01:38) |
| 2022-04-05 | cited | John met Rand Paul at a dinner party once and would not vote for him. | Celebrities I've Met and Whether I'd Vote for Them??? (00:02:55) | |
| Rudy Giuliani (politician) | 2007-08-09 | joke | After the Republicans (Ron Paul 'Lunar Op', Mitt Romney 'Metro Minty' and 'Are Not My Time', Rudy Giuliani 'Godly I Ruin'), Hank ends with his favourite: Joe Biden, 'I need job'. | August 9th: Anagramming Guide to the 2008 Elections (00:02:31) |
| 2007-10-08 | criticized | John puts ten incredulous questions to supporters of Rudy Giuliani ('seriously?', 'as president?'), noting Giuliani lacks even the support of his own kids. | October 8th: Zombies v. Unicorns (00:00:39) | |
| Ryan Zinke (politician) | 2016-06-17 | subject | Hank sent basically the same letter to Senator Steve Daines and Representative Ryan Zinke, who hold very similar positions. | Hey, Let's Change Some Things (00:00:00) |
| 2016-10-21 | passing | Hank (description) says a gay, American Indian, Democratic woman was nominated against incumbent Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, and has several times polled within the margin of error. | Coming Out, Goats, Government, and Attack Ads with Denise Juneau (00:00:00) | |
| William Henry Harrison (politician) | 2009-01-18 | cited | John says William Henry Harrison, elected in 1840, refused a coat on a cold inauguration day, gave the longest address ever, got pneumonia and died 31 days in. | PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugurated: Some Historical Background (00:02:12) |
| 2009-10-04 | cited | John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. | NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words (00:00:27) | |
| Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (military officer) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says the head of the military did not install himself but made the head of the constitutional court interim president. | Egypt....Explained! (00:06:45) |
| Adly Mansour (judge; interim president) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says the head of the military did not install himself but made the head of the constitutional court interim president. | Egypt....Explained! (00:06:45) |
| Ahmed Shafik (politician) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says the presidential election's top two, Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and an old-regime candidate, got 25 and 24 percent, while over 50% went to excluded liberal candidates. | Egypt....Explained! (00:04:30) |
| Alejandro García Padilla (politician) | 2012-11-07 | cited | Statehood remains extremely divisive inside Puerto Rico, which just elected a governor, 'basically their president', who is not in favor of statehood. | The 51st State (00:02:46) |
| Ange-Félix Patassé (politician (CAR president 1993-2003)) | 2014-04-22 | subject | John says the economy first grew under Patassé, but he failed to pay the military and civil servants; amid corruption and coup attempts he stayed president until a 2003 coup succeeded. | Understanding the Central African Republic (00:01:35) |
| Anwar Sadat (president of Egypt) | 2011-01-31 | cited | In 1979 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel, making Egypt, in Western eyes, the politically and militarily moderate Arab state. | Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction (00:00:35) |
| Augustus (Roman emperor) | 2016-01-01 | passing | Hank's description corrects him: Caesar was not technically Rome's first emperor; he was dictator for life, and his successor Augustus founded the monarchy. | Why Does January First Start the New Year? - New Year's Explained (00:00:00) |
| Aung San Suu Kyi (politician) | 2009-05-17 | subject | John says protest leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the 1990 elections the junta agreed to under international pressure, but the military refused to honour the result. | Burma! Myanmar? BURMA! (00:02:00) |
| Ayman al-Zawahiri (militant leader) | 2011-05-02 | subject | Hank says Ayman al-Zawahiri remains al-Qaeda's number-one man, long its chief of operations, but per his reading and leaked CIA documents lacks bin Laden's charismatic following. | Osama Bin Laden is Dead (00:02:05) |
| Bampett Muhammad (soldier) | 2016-06-21 | cited | John notes that American soldiers in the Revolutionary War included Yusuf ben Ali and Bampett Muhammad. | Syrian Refugees in the United States: One Family's Story (00:02:22) |
| Beatrix of the Netherlands (monarch) | 2011-05-09 | passing | John explains that Queen's Day celebrates Queen Beatrix's mother's birthday and involves a city-wide garage sale, the freemarket, with street performers and carnival games. | Trading Underwear for Rice Crispy Treats: Queens Day in Amsterdam (Thoughts from Places) (00:00:40) |
| Ben Nelson (politician) | 2009-12-29 | criticized | John says Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson sold his vote, shown wearing an 'asshat'. | Adorable Puppy Explains Health Care Bill (00:02:40) |
| Bill Richardson (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Bill Richardson: a popular governor in a state Obama needs, and a Spanish speaker; John jokes that media doubts about his vetting are 'code' for his cheating on his wife. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:03:12) |
| Brian Schweitzer (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Brian Schweitzer: funny in person, a down-home style that plays well in Appalachia, a popular red-state governor; the joke downside is his bolo ties. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:00:46) |
| Bruce Rauner (politician) | 2015-10-20 | criticized | John says neither Illinois's Republican governor nor the Democratic legislative leaders are serious about the reform needed to end decades of fiscal mismanagement. | Nerdfighteria's Resident Comptroller? (00:02:24) |
| Catherine Samba-Panza (politician (CAR interim president from 2014)) | 2014-04-22 | subject | John says Djotodia resigned in January 2014 and was replaced by Catherine Samba-Panza, but there is not currently much of a government to lead. | Understanding the Central African Republic (00:04:18) |
| Charles III (monarch) | 2023-05-09 | cited | John playfully describes seeing, over the weekend, an elderly man receive a very fancy hat encrusted with minerals from every corner of the earth except where he lives. | on hope (00:01:39) |
| Chief Joseph (Nez Perce leader) | 2011-05-25 | quoted | Hank quotes Chief White Bird, October 22, 1877: the Nez Perce left their homes as wanderers, robbed of their wealth by white man's greed and made beggars with no country, people or home. | Thoughts from a Battlefield (00:00:00) |
| Chris Ashby (lawyer) | 2016-10-25 | cited | John cites election law expert Chris Ashby on why the presidential vote will not be rigged: machines cannot be secretly adjusted, and the decentralized system makes widespread fraud extremely unlikely. | Will the U.S. Presidential Election Be Rigged? (00:00:00) |
| Chris Christie (politician) | 2016-05-17 | cited | John says that during the Bridgegate investigation Chris Christie said 'I am not a bully' in response to a question that was not about whether he was a bully. | A Brief History of the Non-Denial Denial (00:02:29) |
| Chris Dodd (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Chris Dodd: John says he has no idea why Dodd is considered a first-tier vice-presidential candidate and doesn't understand why anyone would vote for him. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:01:44) |
| Chris Kennedy (politician) | 2018-02-20 | passing | John says Daniel has a very good chance of winning the March 20th Democratic primary, though his opponents are a billionaire who spent tens of millions on ads and a literal Kennedy. | When Your Friend Runs for Governor (00:02:09) |
| Chuck Hagel (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Chuck Hagel: a moderate Republican opposed to the war, a Vietnam veteran, Western and Catholic; but his opposition to stem cell research won't fly with many Democrats. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:03:12) |
| Chuck Schumer (politician) | 2022-08-12 | passing | Jenkins recalls that, as he was leaving for vacation with his family, he got the call from Senator Schumer's staff that the bill was dead. | The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? (00:18:50) |
| Claire McCaskill (politician (US Senator from Missouri)) | 2016-03-22 | cited | John says Clinton would have won more delegates even losing by 0.2 percent, because the Missouri Democratic Party's 13 superdelegates, free to back anyone, mostly endorsed her; they include Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:01:06) |
| Condoleezza Rice (politician) | 2008-06-04 | joke | John jokes that 'anybody' excludes the 54% of Americans under 35 and anyone who is non-white, non-Christian, non-male or indicted, leaving old white people and Condoleezza Rice. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:00:00) |
| Corrine Brown (politician) | 2026-02-15 | personal story | John's first technical job was working for Congresswoman Corrine Brown, later ousted for corruption; his first real job was the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. graveyard shift at Steak 'n Shake, and his second was at Outtakes, a 50s Hollywood-themed restaurant in Alabama. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! (02:50:53) |
| Daniel Webster (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes W.C. Fields's last words were addressed to Carlotta, his mistress, not his wife Hattie; he says he tones the quote down for young nerdfighters. | Famous Last Words (00:02:37) |
| Davy Crockett (American frontiersman and politician) | 2014-02-25 | joke | John says the brush was so thick that he would have given up if he didn't have to meet Chris, whom he didn't want to leave worrying. | John and Chris Meet in the Middle (00:02:00) |
| Denise Juneau (politician) | 2016-10-21 | takes part | Hank introduces Superintendent Juneau, who is running for Congress to represent Montana. | Coming Out, Goats, Government, and Attack Ads with Denise Juneau (00:00:12) |
| Dennis Kucinich (politician) | 2007-03-02 | joke | Hank jokes that Dennis Kucinich's wife is attractive, cites Daniel Biss calling her the Democrats' one success of 2004, and says he could 'dig' her as First Lady. | Brotherhood 2.0: March 2nd: Politics and Butt Explosions (00:01:04) |
| Diana, Princess of Wales (royal) | 2007-04-04 | joke | Someone in the group asks whether a floodlight can have a beam rather than a cone for a passage about insects dancing in light; the group suggests a 'skirt' of light. | Brotherhood 2.0: April 2: A Day in the Writer's Life (00:02:11) |
| Dick Armey (politician) | 2011-02-28 | cited | Among unfortunate Dicks John also names Dick Sweat, the former congressman, and Dick Army. | Harry Baals & Dick Trickle: The Funniest Names in History (00:00:44) |
| Dick Swett (politician) | 2011-02-28 | cited | Among unfortunate Dicks John also names Dick Sweat, the former congressman, and Dick Army. | Harry Baals & Dick Trickle: The Funniest Names in History (00:00:44) |
| Dilma Rousseff (politician) | 2016-03-18 | subject | Hank says Moro claims no interest in politics but doesn't seem to act that way; with two impeachment hearings under way, many want Moro to run if Rousseff is impeached. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:06:52) |
| Dolores (hr-worker-and-labor-activist) | 2023-08-01 | subject | John introduces Dolores, who works in HR at the Green Coffee Company in Salgar, a large producer focused on its farmers and community that runs 36 farms employing hundreds of people. | Three Mornings (00:02:34) |
| Edward Hulse (soldier) | 2020-12-31 | quoted | Captain Sir Edward Hulse recalled a Christmas sing-along that ended with Auld Lang Syne, joined by English, Scots, Irish, Prussians and Württembergers; Hulse was killed less than four months later. | Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed (00:16:28) |
| Elizabeth Dole (politician) | 2008-11-04 | subject | The brothers note that Elizabeth Dole no longer has a job, thanking their Dad and Mom for not voting for her; 'we just don't like Elizabeth Dole'. | Election Night In Indianapolis! (00:00:44) |
| Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (politician) | 2014-04-29 | cited | John calls it an unearned honor: he can name several thousand more influential people who did not make the Time 100, such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Laverne Cox and Ai Weiwei. | Influence, Airports, and the Nerdfighter Book Club (00:00:13) |
| Ethan Allen (general) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes W.C. Fields's last words were addressed to Carlotta, his mistress, not his wife Hattie; he says he tones the quote down for young nerdfighters. | Famous Last Words (00:02:37) |
| Farouk of Egypt (monarch) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says the old regime began when Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk, whom he calls sort of a puppet king of the British. | Egypt....Explained! (00:00:15) |
| Franz Joseph I (emperor) | 2010-11-24 | cited | John says urns in St. Stephen's catacombs hold the pickled innards of various Habsburgs, including Franz Joseph I. | Babies and Catacombs: VIENNA (Thoughts from Places) (00:01:53) |
| François Bozizé (military leader, CAR president 2003-2013) | 2014-04-22 | subject | John says military leader François Bozizé took power by waiting until the president was out of town and then quickly seizing the government. | Understanding the Central African Republic (00:01:53) |
| François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé (French general) | 2010-11-10 | subject | John says General Bouillé offered Louis and Marie Antoinette refuge at his country estate, and for this was later likened to a bloodthirsty despot in the French national anthem. | Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II (00:00:54) |
| François Duvalier (politician) | 2011-03-07 | criticized | Hank says the longest stability came under the Duvaliers, François then Jean-Claude, whose forces killed and raped while they pocketed foreign aid and all tax money. | Why is Haiti Poor? (00:02:43) |
| François Hollande (politician) | 2014-04-29 | cited | John jokes that French President Francois Hollande's daily decision not to use France's nuclear arsenal to end the human species is extremely influential. | Influence, Airports, and the Nerdfighter Book Club (00:00:32) |
| Frederick William II of Prussia (king of Prussia) | 2010-11-10 | passing | John says Leopold II, fearing a republic next door, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz with Frederick William II of Prussia, promising to restore the French monarchy and further radicalising the revolutionaries. | Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II (00:03:37) |
| Gabby Giffords (politician) | 2011-01-19 | cited | That same system, badly damaged, is somehow still functioning in Congresswoman Giffords, proving again that the truth resists simplicity. | YOU ARE WRONG! (00:03:08) |
| Gamal Abdel Nasser (head of state) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says the old regime began when Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk, whom he calls sort of a puppet king of the British. | Egypt....Explained! (00:00:15) |
| Gamal Mubarak (banker; politician) | 2013-07-05 | passing | Hank says Mubarak's Europe-educated son returned with a banking degree wanting to overhaul military control of the economy, so the regime angered the Brotherhood, the youth and the military. | Egypt....Explained! (00:02:33) |
| Gardiner Greene Hubbard (lawyer and businessman) | 2010-10-15 | cited | Hank says in 1876 Western Union, owning America's communications, rejected Hubbard's telephone patent as an 'electrical toy'; Bell then founded AT&T and the telephone became history's most valuable patent. | TOP 7 FAILS OF HISTORY (00:02:24) |
| Glen Doherty (security officer) | 2015-10-23 | subject | Hank says the rest of the staff went to the CIA compound, which was later attacked; two security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed by mortar fire. | Benghazi: Explained (00:02:20) |
| Greg Ballard (politician (mayor of Indianapolis 2008-2016)) | 2015-07-28 | personal story | On stage with host Akilah Hughes, John felt a wave of energy; the mayor of Indianapolis declared July 14, 2015 John Green Day, which John found very weird. | Paper Towns, Agloe, and Touring: Thoughts from (Many) Places (00:01:50) |
| Gyanendra of Nepal (royal) | 2007-10-26 | subject | John reports a long-standing theory that the uncle who survived and became king might have done the shooting himself; John calls the prince's suicide 'a little bit suspicious'. | OCT. 26: DISCUSSING NEPAL WHILE EATING TOILET PAPER (00:01:33) |
| Hadrian (Roman emperor) | 2017-01-17 | cited | John says Hadrian's most famous statue was recently found to be a forgery: his head was put on someone else's body 1700 years after his death. | How Young Is History? (00:00:11) |
| Hammurabi (Babylonian king) | 2016-01-12 | cited | John says that 3,750 years ago the Babylonian king Hammurabi developed a legal code that famously takes an eye-for-an-eye approach to legal retaliation. | Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things (00:00:50) |
| Henry VIII (monarch) | 2026-02-14 | passing | John, an Episcopalian, finds it clarifying to belong to a church founded so that Henry VIII, a very powerful, wealthy man, could get a divorce and steal all the monasteries. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! (01:29:26) |
| Herman Cain (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Hank says Herman Cain is no longer really running, hoping only for money at think tanks or on Fox News; he rejects 'canine harm' for 'inane charm', which sums up Cain's campaign. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:00:29) |
| Idi Amin (dictator) | 2008-05-20 | joke | Choosing between a million dollars and punching Hitler, John would time-travel to put evil baby Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin and others in the Evil Baby Orphanage in Tibet, then sell the time machine. | Guys Love Giraffe Love (00:02:42) |
| Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (judge) | 2007-11-07 | subject | John says a quasi-independent judiciary kept Pakistan from full dictatorship; in early 2007 Musharraf asked the Supreme Court's leader to resign, he refused, which symbolized Musharraf's weakening. | November 7: Discussing the Political Situation in Pakistan (00:02:25) |
| Ingrid Newkirk (activist) | 2009-03-03 | subject | Hank reports that PETA's president has rewritten her will, asking that her body's meat be used as meat, her hide for purses, her legs for umbrella stands and an eye sent to the EPA. | Eating Man Meat (00:00:00) |
| Isabella I of Castile (monarch) | 2008-09-04 | joke | John says much of Paper Towns is set in Orlando, Florida. | Paper Towns Tour Dates! (00:02:13) |
| Ivan III of Russia (grand prince) | 2011-03-18 | cited | John says Ivan III married a Byzantine lady whose dowry was a library of jewel-encrusted illuminated manuscripts, so valuable that it was hidden in an underground library beneath Moscow. | TERRIBLE (00:02:35) |
| J. B. Pritzker (politician) | 2018-02-20 | passing | John says Daniel has a very good chance of winning the March 20th Democratic primary, though his opponents are a billionaire who spent tens of millions on ads and a literal Kennedy. | When Your Friend Runs for Governor (00:02:09) |
| J. Christopher Stevens (diplomat) | 2015-10-23 | subject | Hank says Ambassador Chris Stevens and diplomat Sean Smith were in a safe room and both died of smoke inhalation after the compound was set on fire. | Benghazi: Explained (00:02:12) |
| Jacques Chirac (politician) | 2014-02-07 | joke | Hank says we are in an environmental crisis (climate change, oil spills, dead zones, garbage patches, meltdowns, mass extinction) whose root is people, created to satisfy human needs or whims. | Kill All The Humans (00:00:00) |
| Jair Bolsonaro (politician) | 2019-08-23 | criticized | Hank says this year's (2019) many fires are not because it is hotter or drier than normal; what changed in Brazil is who the president is. | The Amazon isn't "Burning" - It's Being Burned (00:01:56) |
| James Comey (government-official) | 2017-09-26 | cited | The day after Flynn resigned, Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation altogether. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:04:50) |
| James II of England (monarch) | 2009-01-03 | joke | Asked whether he is Kurt Vonnegut, John says he wishes he were. | Giraffe Love and Other Questions ANSWERED (00:01:47) |
| Jared Kushner (government-official) | 2017-09-26 | cited | The most serious evidence of collusion so far is a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer attended by Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:05:58) |
| Jay Nixon (politician (Governor of Missouri)) | 2016-03-22 | cited | John says Clinton would have won more delegates even losing by 0.2 percent, because the Missouri Democratic Party's 13 superdelegates, free to back anyone, mostly endorsed her; they include Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill. | Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party (00:01:06) |
| Jean-Claude Duvalier (politician) | 2011-03-07 | criticized | Hank says the longest stability came under the Duvaliers, François then Jean-Claude, whose forces killed and raped while they pocketed foreign aid and all tax money. | Why is Haiti Poor? (00:02:43) |
| Jeff Sessions (politician) | 2017-09-26 | cited | Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after his undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak were revealed. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:03:51) |
| Jim Hogg (politician) | 2011-02-28 | passing | Ima Hogg, daughter of Texas governor Big Jim Hogg, was known as the First Lady of Texas, collected Picasso and Matisse, was a philanthropist and had an honorary degree. | Harry Baals & Dick Trickle: The Funniest Names in History (00:01:16) |
| Jim Webb (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Jim Webb: former Republican and Secretary of the Navy, a big military guy who writes genuinely good novels; but he has a reputation for misogyny. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:02:42) |
| John Gibbon (US Army officer) | 2011-05-25 | criticized | At the Battle of the Big Hole the unsuspecting Nez Perce were ambushed at night; most losses were women, children and elderly in their teepees as General Gibbon's force rode through. | Thoughts from a Battlefield (00:02:39) |
| Jon Huntsman Jr. (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Hank says Jon Huntsman, though far behind, is pretty much his favourite of the Republican field; his anagram is 'John's Math Nun'. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:01:40) |
| Juliana of the Netherlands (monarch) | 2011-05-09 | passing | John explains that Queen's Day celebrates Queen Beatrix's mother's birthday and involves a city-wide garage sale, the freemarket, with street performers and carnival games. | Trading Underwear for Rice Crispy Treats: Queens Day in Amsterdam (Thoughts from Places) (00:00:40) |
| Kevin McCarthy (politician) | 2015-10-23 | criticized, quoted | In a clip, Kevin McCarthy says everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, but after the Benghazi special committee, he asks, what are her numbers today? | Benghazi: Explained (00:05:07) |
| Kim Jong-un (politician) | 2013-01-15 | joke | John says he dreamt Chick-fil-A opened four restaurants in North Korea and that he should make a video about it; awake, he wishes it would so he'd have a topic. | North Korean Chicken, Stagecoach Travel, and other Thoughts from before Carnegie Hall (00:00:32) |
| Lauren Boebert (politician) | 2024-07-05 | cited | Hank jokes that Lauren Boebert got intimate at a touring production of Beetlejuice and was thrown out for vaping, and everyone forgot, so his own past should be fine. | Should I Run for President?? (00:00:29) |
| Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (Holy Roman Emperor) | 2010-11-10 | subject | John says neighbours grew nervous, especially the Holy Roman Empire (per Voltaire neither holy nor Roman nor an empire), whose emperor Leopold II, Marie Antoinette's brother, directly ruled only Austria. | Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II (00:02:56) |
| Liz Truss (politician) | 2022-10-25 | joke | John's joke tweet about the former UK Prime Minister got 20,000 likes and generated over 100 new followers. | Instantly Debateable (00:00:58) |
| Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (politician) | 2016-03-18 | subject | Hank says Lula was a revolutionary socialist union organizer against the dictatorship, then head of the new Workers' Party, which gained traction only once he became 'Lula lite', willing to work within the system and help big corporations. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:02:14) |
| 2016-03-18 | quoted | Hank says Lula's 1988 line - in Brazil a poor man who steals goes to jail, a rich man who steals becomes a minister - is thrown back at him on social media as predicting his own future. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:09:19) | |
| Malala Yousafzai (activist) | 2014-12-26 | subject | Hank says Malala's acceptance speech made him cry and gave him hope about some very depressing, seemingly hopeless situations. | The Best and Worst of 2014 (00:00:51) |
| Malcolm X (activist) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes W.C. Fields's last words were addressed to Carlotta, his mistress, not his wife Hattie; he says he tones the quote down for young nerdfighters. | Famous Last Words (00:02:37) |
| Marco Rubio (politician) | 2025-02-28 | cited | Hank says everyone seems to agree USAID should continue its life-saving missions, including Marco Rubio, who runs USAID. | We Will Eradicate Measles (00:06:08) |
| Mazie Hirono (politician) | 2012-11-07 | cited | Hank calls the election one for the history books: the first female amputee in Congress, first female Asian American senator, first openly gay senator, first second term for a black president, and first legalizations of recreational marijuana and gay marriage. | The 51st State (00:00:00) |
| Michael Flynn (military-officer) | 2017-09-26 | cited | Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, failed to disclose payments from an arm of the Russian government, which is illegal for former military officers. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:04:00) |
| Michel Djotodia (Séléka leader, CAR president 2013-2014) | 2014-04-22 | subject | John says Séléka took northern and central towns; despite troops from Chad and others, Bangui fell in March 2013, Bozizé fled and Séléka leader Michel Djotodia, a Muslim, became president. | Understanding the Central African Republic (00:03:10) |
| Michele Bachmann (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Hank found no good anagram for Michele Bachmann, probably because he was trying too hard to find one containing 'maniac'. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:01:10) |
| Mikhail Gorbachev (politician) | 2009-09-06 | joke | Step three: Dad said John needed a crowbar; John, likening crowbars to handguns, resisted but was eventually convinced to buy one. | How To (Not) Demolish a Wall (00:01:35) |
| Mikheil Saakashvili (politician) | 2008-08-12 | subject | John says that since Mikheil Saakashvili became president a few years ago, he has seen Georgia's future with Western Europe, favouring NATO membership and eventually the EU. | PEANUT BUTTER FACE (while discussing the Georgia-Russia War) (00:01:50) |
| Mir-Hossein Mousavi (politician) | 2009-06-14 | subject | John says two quasi-reformist candidates were allowed to run, including former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. | Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results (00:01:08) |
| Mohamed Morsi (head of state) | 2013-07-05 | subject | Hank says the presidential election's top two, Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and an old-regime candidate, got 25 and 24 percent, while over 50% went to excluded liberal candidates. | Egypt....Explained! (00:04:30) |
| Muhammad (religious leader) (religious leader) | 2012-02-07 | passing | John says the Quran does not say all martyrs get 72 virgins in heaven; the tradition comes from a hadith, a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which is very poorly sourced. | 10 Misconceptions Debunked! (00:00:11) |
| Nancy Astor (politician) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| Nathaniel Woodhull (Revolutionary War general) | 2013-01-01 | cited | John jokes he is happy a post office is now named after Revolutionary War general Nathaniel Woodhull, who said 'God save us all' instead of 'God save the Queen' and was killed. | Why Does Congress Suck? (00:00:45) |
| Newt Gingrich (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Newt Gingrich's name contains 'right wing', a riddle like Tom Marvolo Riddle; adding his middle name Leroy yields 'right-wing Cylon', which 'genuinely' freaks Hank out. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:02:06) |
| Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet leader) | 2014-03-04 | passing | John says Stalin's successor Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Peninsula from Russia to Ukraine in 1954. | Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context (00:01:44) |
| Numa Pompilius (legendary king of Rome) | 2016-01-01 | subject | Hank says Numa Pompilius, an early king of Rome, added January and February at the start of the year in the 700s BC, making January 1 the Roman New Year. | Why Does January First Start the New Year? - New Year's Explained (00:01:16) |
| Osama bin Laden (militant leader) | 2011-05-02 | subject, passing | In his address Obama announces that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. | Osama Bin Laden is Dead (00:00:41) |
| Pancho Villa (revolutionary) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| Paulo Maluf (politician) | 2016-03-18 | cited | Hank says Paulo Maluf, wanted by Interpol and unable to leave Brazil, won re-election with the slogan 'I steal, but I deliver'. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:09:10) |
| Prescott Bush (businessman and politician) | 2011-01-14 | cited | In 1933 a group of wealthy American capitalists, including George W. Bush's grandfather, tried to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install a fascist dictatorship. | Top 5 Actual Conspiracies (00:02:15) |
| Rafael Prince (diplomat) | 2016-03-18 | credited | Hank thanks diplomat Rafael Prince, journalist Alex Cuadros, whose book Brazillionaires is out in July, and the Brazilian Nerdfighter Facebook group for their help. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:10:03) |
| Reince Priebus (politician) | 2017-01-31 | cited | John lists his sources: two Cato Institute analyses (on terrorism and immigration risk, and on the order's little national security benefit), the 2015 visa waiver law HR 158 and the 2016 addition of three countries, Reince Priebus on Meet the Press, NOAA's odds of death by lightning, the McCain and Graham statement, a Washington Post fact check that Obama slowed but did not stop Iraqi refugee applications in 2011, NPR on the 18-to-24-month approval process, the State Department on resettlement, and Pew on where 2016's refugees came from. | Understanding Trump's Executive Order on Immigration (00:00:00) |
| Rick Perry (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Rick Perry yields 'prick' plus pirate slang ('Yar! Prick!'), which Hank says any pirate would say on seeing Perry's ads in the Bible Belt. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:00:29) |
| Rick Santorum (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Rick Santorum anagrams to Rick Santorum: Hank says nothing needs doing to his name to make it funny any more. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:01:40) |
| Robert E. Lee (general) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| Robert Mueller (lawyer) | 2017-09-26 | cited | If firing Comey was meant to end the investigation it failed: days later the Justice Department appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to look into collusion. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:05:35) |
| Rod Blagojevich (politician) | 2008-08-29 | cited | John calls Palin a very Alaska-centric governor who, unlike governors such as Kathleen Sebelius or Rod Blagojevich, has not led on national issues. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:02:02) |
| Ross Perot (businessman-politician) | 2007-11-09 | joke | John notes that the Brotherhood 2.0 rules require a video every other weekday for all of 2007 but never require a long one. | Nov. 9th: Sick Day (00:00:00) |
| Sean Smith (diplomat) | 2015-10-23 | subject | Hank says Ambassador Chris Stevens and diplomat Sean Smith were in a safe room and both died of smoke inhalation after the compound was set on fire. | Benghazi: Explained (00:02:12) |
| Sebastián Piñera (politician) | 2010-10-13 | joke | John doesn't know whether Chile's president is good at being president, but says he is good at making John cry. | On Hope and Chile (00:00:38) |
| Sergey Kislyak (diplomat) | 2017-09-26 | cited | Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after his undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak were revealed. | Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't) (00:03:51) |
| Sergio Moro (judge) | 2016-03-18 | subject | Hank describes Judge Moro as using lessons from Italy's nineties anti-mafia campaign, dealing with criminals, bending rules for public support and accepting adulation; Brazilians moved their love for Lula to him. | Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? (00:06:28) |
| Shin Dong-hyuk (North Korean defector, human-rights activist) | 2013-04-09 | subject | John says Shin Dong-hyuk is the only person ever known to have escaped Camp 14, which is thought to be the worst camp for North Korean political prisoners. | Inside North Korea (00:00:16) |
| Siad Barre (dictator) | 2009-01-11 | passing | Somalia, on the east coast of Africa, became independent in 1960 and had a military coup in 1969 that brought General Barre to power. | SOMALI PIRATES! France Penetrates Chad! (00:01:30) |
| Smedley Butler (general) | 2011-01-14 | cited | Hank voices Butler turning the plotters down: he and Roosevelt are 'totally like buds', so why would he lead a coup against 'my man Frankie D'? | Top 5 Actual Conspiracies (00:03:06) |
| Stonewall Jackson (general) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| Stuart Drummond (politician; mascot performer) | 2015-11-03 | subject | John says in 2002 Stuart Drummond, the man in the H'Angus costume, ran for mayor as a team-backed stunt promising free bananas for schoolchildren, beat the real parties, and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. | Monkey Hangers (00:02:18) |
| Tammy Baldwin (politician) | 2012-11-07 | cited | Hank calls the election one for the history books: the first female amputee in Congress, first female Asian American senator, first openly gay senator, first second term for a black president, and first legalizations of recreational marijuana and gay marriage. | The 51st State (00:00:00) |
| Tammy Duckworth (politician) | 2012-11-07 | cited | Hank calls the election one for the history books: the first female amputee in Congress, first female Asian American senator, first openly gay senator, first second term for a black president, and first legalizations of recreational marijuana and gay marriage. | The 51st State (00:00:00) |
| Tim Kaine (politician) | 2008-06-04 | cited | On Tim Kaine: he could help turn Virginia blue and, as a very religious Catholic, help Obama with Catholics; but John finds him boring. | VEEPSTAKES! (00:02:13) |
| Tim Pawlenty (politician) | 2011-12-21 | subject | Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out early, gets 'Latent Wimpy'. | 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! (00:01:40) |
| Todd Palin (politician-spouse) | 2008-08-29 | passing | John says Palin is married to a commercial fisherman, which he counts in her favour. | Sarah Palin: An Introduction (00:01:04) |
| Tyrone Woods (security officer) | 2015-10-23 | subject | Hank says the rest of the staff went to the CIA compound, which was later attacked; two security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed by mortar fire. | Benghazi: Explained (00:02:20) |
| Vespasian (Roman emperor) | 2008-12-15 | quoted | John notes that John Adams's last words, that Thomas Jefferson still survived, were untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. | Famous Last Words (00:00:25) |
| Viktor Orbán (politician) | 2015-09-08 | criticized | John calls some European governments' xenophobic responses shameful; Hungary's prime minister, saying Muslims must be kept out to 'keep Europe Christian', denies Europe's multi-religious history and international refugee law. | Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe, Syria, and around the World (00:06:28) |
| Viktor Yanukovych (Ukrainian politician) | 2014-03-04 | subject | John says the 2004 election, amid widespread reports of vote-rigging, was won by the Russian-friendly Viktor Yanukovych. | Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context (00:02:54) |
| Viktor Yushchenko (Ukrainian politician) | 2014-03-04 | subject | John says opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko led massive street protests in Kiev, the Orange Revolution, and was disfigured and almost died from a mysterious poisoning. | Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context (00:03:01) |
| Xi Jinping (politician) | 2014-10-03 | passing | Hank says China's president Xi Jinping just did a massive crackdown on corruption, making enemies of officials who benefited from it. | Hong Kong Protests Explained (00:03:07) |
| Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukrainian politician) | 2014-03-04 | passing | John says that by 2010 Ukraine was led by the Europe-friendly, somewhat corrupt Yulia Tymoshenko, and the presidential election, declared free and fair by observers, was won by Yanukovych. | Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context (00:03:57) |
| Yusuf ben Ali (soldier) | 2016-06-21 | cited | John notes that American soldiers in the Revolutionary War included Yusuf ben Ali and Bampett Muhammad. | Syrian Refugees in the United States: One Family's Story (00:02:22) |
| Zog I (monarch) | 2007-05-29 | cited | Ranavalona reminds John of another favourite monarch from history, King Zog I of Albania. | Brotherhood 2.0: May 29: The Goth Scene and Evil Ladies (00:02:12) |