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Puns and allusions

How names are played with and how things are pointed at without being named, from the per-video entity mentions: each mention records whether its spoken form plays on the name (pun, parody, portmanteau) and whether the thing was named, described or only implied.

  • Puns on names — 377 plays on names: 250 puns, 97 parodies, 30 portmanteaus (189 by John, 148 by Hank, 17 by others, 23 in titles or descriptions).
  • Allusions — 178 quoted lines, lyrics and riffs that evoke something without naming it.
  • Described, not named — 1148 references by description to 803 outside things.

By year

Year Videos Puns Parodies Portmanteaus Allusions Described Per video
2007 258 62 16 2 20 72 0.39
2008 130 17 7 3 10 42 0.28
2009 185 27 6 5 18 116 0.30
2010 157 11 9 0 11 74 0.20
2011 155 25 14 4 12 88 0.35
2012 111 10 8 2 13 63 0.30
2013 107 23 8 4 18 71 0.50
2014 114 18 2 2 8 84 0.26
2015 115 15 7 4 10 80 0.31
2016 114 10 4 1 9 74 0.21
2017 113 3 2 0 3 38 0.07
2018 109 4 1 0 5 33 0.09
2019 110 3 2 0 2 39 0.06
2020 108 4 2 0 27 40 0.31
2021 106 6 3 0 2 41 0.10
2022 108 5 2 1 3 34 0.10
2023 107 2 2 0 2 30 0.06
2024 114 3 0 1 0 57 0.04
2025 107 0 0 0 2 40 0.02
2026 95 2 2 1 3 32 0.08

Per video = puns, parodies, portmanteaus and allusions per video that year.

Most played-upon names

Entities whose names are punned or parodied two or more times (items on the puns page).

Entity Plays Videos Forms
in your pants 34 34 “Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone From Your Pants”; “Everyone Poops in My Pants by Hank Green”; “we'll continue this discussion of John McCain in my pants”; “my pants are full of people” (+20)
Brotherhood 2.0 forum 17 16 “people in my pants”; “into my pants”; “Brotherhood 2.04 in my pants”; “nerdfighters in my pants” (+8)
Thoughts from Places 6 6 “Thoughts from The Well”; “Thoughts from a Battlefield”; “Thoughts from Tour”; “Thoughts from Dead Animals” (+2)
DFTBA 4 4 “Don't forget to beat all malaria”; “DFTBA con four”; “don't forget to be awesome”; “DFTNYBR”
Everyone Poops 4 4 “the issue of everyone poops”; “everyone poops”; “Everyone Poops in My Pants by Hank Green”
nerdfighter 4 4 “Nerd Fighters”; “the invisible nerdfighter”; “Nerdfightarion”; “an actual, literal nerdfighter”
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 4 4 “will you miss me when I'm gone”; “Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone From Your Pants”; “Will You Miss Me When”
Your Pants 4 4 “a pole in your pants”; “a poll in your pants”; “your pants is coming back”; “your pants”
Barack Obama 3 3 “Barack Saabama”; “Barackoli”; “Squirrel-bama”
Mad About You 3 3 “mad about you”; “Eh, mad about her.”; “you know I'm mad about you”
Moby-Dick 3 3 “The Moby Moby Dicktones”; “There is one knows not what sweet”
None pizza with left beef 3 3 “none pizza with left John”; “Nun Pizza with Left Hank”; “none pizza with right beef”
Pisa 3 3 “Pisa John”; “Pisa”
pwned 3 3 “SPWNING”; “Edgar Allan Pwned”; “pwner”
Sarah Urist Green 3 3 “Yeti”; “the Yeti”
The Fault in Our Stars 3 3 “The fault is in our stairs”; “No Fault in These Stars”; “The Fault in Our Potatoes”
Aero Fighters 2 2 “Nerd Fighters”; “They had Nerdfighters! Nerdfighters!”
An Abundance of Katherines 2 2 “An underabundance of Catherines”; “abundance of catherines”
As Good as It Gets 2 2 “as good as it gets”
Blank Space 2 2 “I got a Hank face baby”; “Blank space, baby.”
Charlie Bit My Finger 2 2 “he bites people's fingers”; “Charlie McDonald biting my finger”
Chewbacca 2 2 “Chewy”
Count Chocula 2 2 “I vote count chocula”; “you vote count. Chocula.”
Emily Dickinson 2 2 “Emily Dickinson”
Everything That Rises Must Converge 2 2 “Everything That Rises Must Converge”
French the llama 2 2 “French llama”; “French, the puppy-sized llamaphant!”
Hank Green 2 2 “the Green Brothers”; “Hank is a large flippered marine mammal”
Holden Caulfield 2 2 “Holden turtle fields”; “Holden Clawfield”
John Lennon 2 2 “John”; “John and green”
John's planned picture book 'Everyone Poops in My/Your Pants' 2 2 “Everyone Poops in My Pants by Hank Green”
Katherine Green 2 2 “An underabundance of Catherines”; “a Catherine”
Little Pea 2 2 “Little Pee in Your Pants”; “Little Pea in your pants”
Llama Song 2 2 “the original llama song”; “Obama Llama Song”
Mars 2020 2 2 “that rover landed on the red planet”; “Perseverance rover”
NAFADOYBIMSCOM 2 2 “NaFadoyBimScom”
oinkbarf 2 2 “oinkbarf”
Paper Towns 2 2 “Paper Towns anagrams to Pants Power”; “this paper town”
Pizza John 2 2 “Pizza Bowie John shirt”; “Pisa John”
Ravenclaw 2 2 “Ravenpuff”; “Slytherclaw”
Rickrolling 2 2 “HANKROLL'd”; “Hankroll”
Sydney Green 2 2 “the corners of Sydney and Green”; “our mother”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 2 “Mutant Ninja Turtles”; “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”
That's Not My Name 2 2 “They call me Gussie, say I'm a Horsey”; “They call me Brian, they call me Nargle, the call me Amber, they call me Jeff”
The Mountain Goats 2 2 “The Mountain Goats”; “mountain goat fan”
The Road Not Taken 2 2 “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood”
The Waterdance 2 2 “water dance”
Twister 2 2 “twister”; “twister of my burning want”
Wookiee 2 2 “Wiki? Wookie? Wookie!”; “the wiki wiki wookie”
Yeti 2 2 “Yeti Researcher”; “the Yeti”
YouTube 2 2 “Youtube-versary”; “YouTube”

Most alluded-to

Works, people, characters and other outside things evoked or described without their name in two or more videos. News events, places, organisations and policies, which are routinely described ("the election", "the President's health law"), are on the described page.

Entity Videos Implied Described Example wording
All Star 23 22 1 “the meteor men beg to differ, judging by the hole in the satellite picture” (The Meteor Men Beg to Differ // Judging by the Hole in the Satellite Picture, 00:01:01)
The Fault in Our Stars (film) 15 3 12 “something so cool” (In Depth Viewing of the TFiOS Trailer, 00:03:28)
Donald Trump 14 1 13 “anything that he might disagree with” (Trump, Guns, and Net Neutrality...With Governor Steve Bullock?!, 00:05:19)
Barack Obama 12 1 11 “a new president” (1000 VIDEOS!!!, 00:00:18)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 8 1 8 “the epilogue” (Book Eight...Another Harry Potter Song, 00:01:42)
GIF pronunciation 6 0 6 “it's pronounced like jif” (Tumblr: The Musical, 00:01:07)
Google Autocomplete 5 0 5 “auto-correct” (Is bronchitis contagious? Is black a color?, 00:00:06)
Song of Myself 5 3 2 “sound my barbaric yop” (Signing Psychosis Takes Over, 00:01:41)
Doctor Who 4 1 3 “"Who."” (DOCTOR GREEN, 00:00:00)
Looking for Alaska (miniseries) 4 0 4 “eight-episode miniseries on Hulu” (Looking for Alaska Movie (BUT BETTER) and YouTuber Things, 00:00:23)
Richard Heene 4 0 4 “the dad of this family” (The Balloon Boy Hoax, 00:01:34)
The Great Gatsby 4 3 1 “my younger and more vulnerable years” (Baby on the Road: Thoughts from Places, 00:00:33)
This Star Won't Go Out (book) 4 0 4 “this book” (TFiOS Movie Casting, New Books, and Groundhog Wars: An Old School Vlogbrothers Video, 00:00:29)
"Hope" is the thing with feathers 3 1 2 “the kind that sings the tune without the words and never stops at all” (on hope, 00:03:04)
Alexei Leonov's spacewalk drawing 3 0 3 “this drawing” (It's My Birthday. I Gave Myself This Video., 00:00:20)
Carl's Jr. portobello mushroom burger 3 0 3 “portobello mushroom black Angus $6 plus tax sandwich thingamaboober” (JOHN'S PUNISHMENT! Eating Carl's Jr John's Way, 00:00:29)
Ironic 3 2 1 “It is not, however, ironic.” (Stop Embarrassing Yourself, 00:00:53)
Low 3 1 2 “shorty got low” (Shawty Got Low, Tritube and Blurbing, 00:00:04)
Paper Towns (film) 3 0 3 “the movie” (Lacey and Angela Question Tuesday: Pizzamas Day 2, 00:00:26)
planned Paper Towns film (2008 Mandate Pictures option) 3 0 3 “movie rights to Paper Towns” (Paper Towns MOVIE1!!!11!, 00:01:21)
Star Wars 3 2 1 “I've always been for the Empire” (Giraffe Love and Other Questions ANSWERED, 00:00:16)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3 1 2 “Star Wars” (We're All Gonna Die - A Song, 00:02:32)
the guide (Detroit urban explorer) 3 0 3 “the guide” (Brotherhood 2.0: March 19th: Urban Exploration, 00:00:05)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 3 3 0 “until the human voices wake you.” (Solving Your Problems!, 00:03:26)
The Show with Ze Frank 3 0 3 “a hilarious video every weekday” (March 16th: Mom, ZeFrank, and Stock Options, 00:00:03)
The Star-Spangled Banner 3 0 3 “our national anthem” (50 THINGS!! That I'm Thankful For, 00:00:00)
Turtles All the Way Down (film) 3 0 3 “going to be a movie” (Hank and John Discover Chippy Butties, 00:00:29)
Twilight 3 3 0 “nerd boys don't sparkle in the sunshine” (How to Make Guys Like You, 00:02:33)
AFC Wimbledon scarf 2 0 2 “AFC Wimbledon scarves” (The Best Worst Thing, 00:00:45)
As Long as We Got Each Other 2 1 1 “We got each other, sharin' the laughter and love” (June 11: SURPRISE, 00:00:03)

How these lists are made

  • Source: the wordplay and named fields of each entity mention (pipeline/MARKUP.md §4). Read-check of seeded samples against the transcripts: wordplay 43 of 50 correct (the misses are mostly list games where the name itself is said straight — the sentence shown with each item carries the play); named = described/implied 23 of 25 correct; the allusion and description selection 24 of 25.
  • Puns: every mention whose form plays on the name; one form evoking several entities is one item.
  • Allusions and descriptions: only things outside the channel (the brothers, family, own projects and Nerdfighteria are referred to as "you", "mom", "this channel" all the time), never paraphrased ideas, and descriptions only when they do not contain the name.
  • The sentence shown is cut from the transcript the mention was anchored in (human captions or Whisper), trimmed to about 16 words on each side.