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Videos performed in character

Videos that should be read as performances, not as the brothers' views. Back to the overview.

In character (42)

At least 40% of the statements are satire, parody, fiction, jokes or hypotheticals, or the video has two or more satire, parody or fiction statements. The few lines kept as sincere are listed under each video: usually credits, plugs, or the real point behind the bit.

2007 (8)

  • 2007-02-07 · Brotherhood 2.0: February 7, 2007 — 4 playful, 4 fiction (starts 00:00:10)
  • 2007-02-28 · Brotherhood 2.0: Everyone Poops in my Pants, a Picture Book — 3 playful, 4 fiction (starts video description)
  • 2007-09-12 · September 12: Paper Towns, Part 1 — 4 sincere, 4 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John reads to Hank from the first chapter of his new book Paper Towns, warning that the draft is rough and will sound different when it comes out next year (2008). (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description says Paper Towns will be published by Dutton in September 2008, provided John finishes it on time; John says it comes out next year (2008). (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John tells Hank his input on the draft chapter is welcome. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John tells Hank he will finish reading this flashback on Friday. (00:03:09)
  • 2007-09-13 · September 13th: HA! I read from MY Novel :-p — 6 sincere, 3 playful, 3 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he is ignoring John's question and, since John read from his novel, will read the first page of his own unpublished, unfinished novel. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he would not mind finishing the (short) chapter and asks to be told whether anyone is interested. (00:02:15)
    • kept as sincere: Hank remarks that seven years is a long time, referring to the time since September 11th. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says his novel is about a third of the way to normal novel length and that he began by simply writing down its first line. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank thanks everyone who shared their experiences of September 11th, especially people who were very young then. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Answering people who ask how to become a writer, Hank says writing is exploring, a walk in your own brain; don't worry about being a writer or novelist. (00:03:34)
  • 2007-09-14 · September 14th: Paper Towns, Part 2 — 2 sincere, 6 fiction (starts 00:00:05)
    • kept as sincere: John reads a cut-for-time version of the second half of the first chapter of his new book, Paper Towns. (00:00:05)
    • kept as sincere: John tells Hank he looks forward to hearing the rest of Hank's first chapter on Monday, after which the videos return to being funny. (00:03:45)
  • 2007-09-17 · Brotherhood 2.0: Unnamed Novel Par 2 — 5 fiction (starts 00:00:09)
  • 2007-10-03 · Oct 3rd: Baby I Sold Your Dog On EBay — 1 sincere, 1 playful, 3 fiction (starts 00:00:42)
    • kept as sincere: Hank asks John to talk about the happy dance project in tomorrow's video. (00:03:53)
  • 2007-12-05 · December 5th: The Adorable Cannibal (PG-13) — 2 sincere, 2 fiction (starts 00:00:01)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says two other people are doing projects similar to Song Wednesday: CharlieIsSoCool in the Vloglovers channel and Abby2R in her new Songs from a Hat series; he is very excited about both. (00:00:01)
    • kept as sincere: Hank tells John he fixed the newsletter: anyone can now sign up, and people who haven't received the confirmation email will soon. (00:03:26)

2008 (5)

  • 2008-07-10 · What Would Captain Picard Do — 2 playful, 3 fiction (starts 00:00:09)
  • 2008-09-29 · The Financial Crisis...Simplified — 1 playful, 9 satire (starts 00:00:07)
  • 2008-10-01 · The Man Who Throws the Tetris Piece — 2 sincere, 2 fiction (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank's description thanks Bill Martin for this cover of 'The Tetris Piece' and for putting the video together, and lists participants who left their names. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank's description says the song will be a free download on the Dr. Noise MySpace page once its player updates. (video description)
  • 2008-10-07 · John Green on the Debate — 1 sincere, 2 playful, 2 joke (starts 00:00:09)
    • kept as sincere: John says the debate was all about the economy and agrees with the plurality of undecided voters that Obama handles it with more clarity than McCain. (00:01:01)
  • 2008-10-14 · Paper Towns Reading — 4 sincere, 2 playful, 6 fiction, 1 joke (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John reports that nerdfighters voted on whether Hank should be punished for his slightly late video, and the consensus seems to be no. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John tells Hank he will read from his new book Paper Towns, which comes out on Thursday, over his next couple of videos. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John starts with the prologue, which he read several months earlier in a very different form, offering it as a possible insight into revision. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Paper Towns opens with two epigraphs, one from a poem written by a nerdfighter, Katrina Vandenberg. (00:00:56)

2009 (8)

  • 2009-01-14 · TIny Cars SUCK! — 4 sincere, 2 satire (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he just got back from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and wrote a song about it while there. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he will actually talk about what he saw at the auto show later in the week. (00:02:42)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces that this video marks the return of Song Wednesdays. (00:02:42)
    • kept as sincere: Hank plans to follow John's lead next Tuesday (20 January 2009) and go through his own old journals, and reads two sample entries. (00:02:42)
  • 2009-03-11 · I'm Not Edward Cullen: A Song — 1 sincere, 2 parody (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description says the song is on the album This Machine Pwns n00bs and gives the chords (C, F, G). (00:00:00)
  • 2009-03-25 · Squirrel Attack! — 2 sincere, 1 playful, 1 fiction, 1 joke (starts 00:00:06)
    • kept as sincere: Hank thanks six Nerdfighters for the Irish fiddling and penny whistle parts he cannot play himself, which he had them record for the song. (00:00:06)
    • kept as sincere: Hank could not use everyone's contributions because of sound problems and trouble getting the videos to work on his computer. (00:00:21)
  • 2009-04-08 · It All Makes Sense at the End — 4 fiction (starts 00:00:15)
  • 2009-06-24 · LOLCat with a Ball Bat — 1 sincere, 1 fiction (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description credits the illustrations to SharkeyeJones and the jazz guitar to John Bliss, a professor the uploader met in Oregon, and offers the images for download. (video description)
  • 2009-07-15 · This Isn't Hogwarts! A Harry Potter Song — 6 sincere, 2 fiction (starts 00:00:51)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he wrote the song partly because he truly believes the US school system is degrading quickly and thinks it could learn from Hogwarts. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank notes the song marks the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says it is nearly the third anniversary of 'Accio Deathly Hallows', the song that kicked the Vlogbrothers into the mainstream. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank and Katherine went to the midnight showing of Half-Blood Prince last night, found it awesome and saw Nerdfighters there. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces a Harry Potter Truth or Fail today, guest hosted by Kristina Horner of the Parselmouths and the Five Awesome Girls. (00:03:02)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he and Lauren Fairweather of the Moaning Myrtles wrote and recorded a song together and just made its video. (00:03:43)
  • 2009-08-18 · So Jokes: Video EP — 1 sincere, 5 playful, 1 fiction, 3 joke (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank thanks his Twitter followers for sending the photos used in the video's slideshow. (video description)
  • 2009-10-21 · Balloon Boy: A Short Song — 5 sincere, 1 playful, 3 satire (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he'll save what Balloon Boy tells us about America for tomorrow, when he thinks he'll talk about hoaxes being nothing new. (00:02:09)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says there's probably no reason to be surprised, since such hoaxes have happened hundreds of times since news media began. (00:02:09)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces that 'This Machine Pwns n00bs', written on his guitar, is the title of his new album, and shows its cover. (00:02:45)
    • kept as sincere: Hank hopes to release the album on November 16, about a month away; it has 17 songs, none duplicates or talking tracks. (00:03:15)
    • kept as sincere: Hank will probably post the track list on Twitter (twitter.com/hankgreen) and says viewers can also follow him on DailyBooth. (00:03:15)

2010 (3)

  • 2010-04-02 · Will Grayson, Will Grayson — 10 sincere, 2 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John says Will Grayson, Will Grayson, the new book he wrote with David Levithan, comes out in four days. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John points to a link in the description for pre-ordering Will Grayson, Will Grayson. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John describes the book: two different guys both named Will Grayson, David writing one and John the other; they meet mid-book at a porn store, with nothing pervy about it. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John says the book is definitely for high school students and up, not for middle school or younger readers. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John wrote the odd-numbered chapters and David the even ones; they have worked on the book for more than five years, since before Looking for Alaska was published. (00:00:44)
    • kept as sincere: John says it is crazy exciting and nerve-making to have the book finally coming out and to see its shiny cover. (00:00:44)
    • kept as sincere: John hopes viewers like the book and hopes to see a lot of them on tour. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: John asks Hank and Nerdfighters when they last cried; for him, he says, it was yesterday. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: John announces that the YouTube usernames of the advance reader's copy winners are in the description. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: John congratulates Hank on writing the best song ever about Chatroulette. (00:03:29)
  • 2010-05-31 · Farmville!!!!! A Song — 6 sincere, 1 playful, 2 satire (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he wrote the song a while ago, when FarmVille was a little more culturally relevant. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank thanks people who submitted 'photomatronifications' for the video: Photomatron is software he is working on, still in beta (his Twitter followers had learned about the Photomatron beta), and it does not yet work in Firefox. (00:02:11)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he has other plans for the Photomatron software and it's going to be pretty amazing. (00:02:32)
    • kept as sincere: Hank is releasing the song as a single on iTunes, something he has never done before and doesn't know if he will do again. (00:02:32)
    • kept as sincere: Viewers submitted their farms for the single's artwork; Hank used one in which a viewer had written 'nerdfighters' with FarmVille items, and thanks her. (00:02:53)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the link to buy the single is in the doobly-doo. (00:02:53)
  • 2010-12-08 · My Zombie Apocalypse Novella — 6 sincere, 1 playful, 5 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: John presents the beginning of his zombie apocalypse novella, a first-person story he performs as the video. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description sets the plan: an official thumbnail is coming, and on December 17 at noon Pacific everyone uploads their P4A videos at the same time. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: The project then goes on with everyone watching and commenting on P4A videos, and on Saturday YouTube hosts a huge live show from Los Angeles. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: John announces that the only copy of the novella that will ever exist will be one of many Project for Awesome raffle prizes. (00:03:15)
    • kept as sincere: John tells Nerdfighters he hopes they are working on their Project for Awesome videos and urges them to make them awesome. (00:03:19)
    • kept as sincere: John says that on December 17 and 18 Project for Awesome videos will be featured all over YouTube. (00:03:30)

2011 (3)

  • 2011-10-28 · Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars — 9 sincere, 3 playful, 6 fiction (starts 00:00:14)
    • kept as sincere: Instead of a real video, John reads the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars as a live-show video, something he has long wanted to do. (00:00:26)
    • kept as sincere: John says he tried this reading a few months ago but deleted that live show because he wanted to change things; this one stays. (00:00:33)
    • kept as sincere: John asks live viewers to tell newcomers they have not missed it, since the reading is recorded and can be replayed. (00:00:54)
    • kept as sincere: John says The Fault in Our Stars is dedicated to his friend Esther Earl. (00:01:12)
    • kept as sincere: In the author's note John says the book is fiction and that hunting for facts inside a story attacks the idea that made-up stories can matter, 'sort of' our species' foundational assumption. (00:02:16)
    • kept as sincere: John says the book is the story of Hazel and Augustus trying to come to terms with Hazel's opening soliloquy that everything will end in oblivion, and of their life together. (00:27:15)
    • kept as sincere: John points to doobly-doo links to pre-order a signed copy; all copies will be signed, nobody should feel obligated, and he prefers they reach Nerdfighter homes. (00:27:40)
    • kept as sincere: Showing the TFIOS-ometer, John says he is very nearly up to 135,000 signatures, with roughly 15,000 to 20,000 to go; he has not counted recently. (00:27:42)
    • kept as sincere: John thanks viewers for making it possible to sign all these books, after three months of TV, audiobooks and signing; it has been fun and he is grateful. (00:28:13)
  • 2011-11-25 · Chapter TWO of The Fault in Our Stars — 8 sincere, 2 playful, 8 fiction (starts 00:00:07)
    • kept as sincere: John reads Chapter 2 of his new book The Fault in Our Stars aloud, thanking his publisher Penguin for allowing it. (00:00:07)
    • kept as sincere: John says Chapter 2 won't make much sense without Chapter 1 and points to a doobly-doo link to watch, hear or read it. (00:00:07)
    • kept as sincere: John says he is nervous: apart from recording the audiobook, he has never read the book aloud. (00:01:23)
    • kept as sincere: John says The Fault in Our Stars comes out on January 10th, in about 48 days, and hopes viewers like it. (00:22:24)
    • kept as sincere: John says the chapter can also be read as text at scribd.com, with a doobly-doo link. (00:22:54)
    • kept as sincere: John puts links in the doobly-doo to all the places viewers can pre-order the book. (00:22:54)
    • kept as sincere: John says hearing him read the whole book is only possible via the special box set from his last video, thanks to Brilliance Audio; link in the doobly-doo. (00:22:54)
    • kept as sincere: John hopes viewers enjoy the rest of the book and is excited to share it so it is no longer just his. (00:23:24)
  • 2011-12-21 · 2011 Presidential Anagrams!! — 6 sincere, 2 playful, 7 joke (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description says donations are still being accepted at projectforawesome.com. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says Jon Huntsman, though far behind, is pretty much his favourite of the Republican field; his anagram is 'John's Math Nun'. (00:01:40)
    • kept as sincere: Hank has had a different poster on his wall every day for about a year, and auctioned them all off for the Project for Awesome, raising a bunch of money. (00:02:33)
    • kept as sincere: New thing: the poster on the wall in each video will go to that video's most interesting comment, judged by Hank in the first 24 hours or so; the winner gets a YouTube message and sends an address. (00:02:33)
    • kept as sincere: Hank thanks John for being great and for drawing Sharpie all over his face for charity. (00:03:07)
    • kept as sincere: Hank hopes that by Friday (23 December 2011) John will have the Project for Awesome voting results, showing which charities get the money everyone raised. (00:03:07)

2012 (1)

  • 2012-02-24 · CUTE-OCALYPSE! — 1 sincere, 1 playful, 5 satire, 1 joke (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description credits the Cute-ocalypse image to Vondell Swain and the sound and campaign poster to Michael Aranda. (video description)

2013 (2)

2014 (1)

  • 2014-05-02 · Hank vs. Hank: The Net Neutrality Debate in 3 Minutes — 13 sincere, 5 satire (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says broadband is currently regulated like TV or radio, which makes no sense; he wants it reclassified as a common carrier service. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank notes that a comment to the FCC goes into the public record, so commenters must give their real name and address; viewers can also email the FCC directly. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank names the organizations fighting the telecoms that viewers can support: Save the Internet, from Free Press, and Public Knowledge. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: As the internet user, Hank defines net neutrality: internet service providers give access to all of the internet at the same speed whatever the content, with no preference. (00:00:17)
    • kept as sincere: The internet-user Hank says ISPs are not law enforcement and shouldn't decide how users use the service, and fears throttling BitTorrent leads to throttling competitors like Netflix. (00:00:39)
    • kept as sincere: The internet-user Hank says this already happened: Comcast slowed down Netflix's connection and forced it to pay for faster access to Comcast's customers. (00:01:01)
    • kept as sincere: The internet-user Hank replies that speeding Netflix up without new bandwidth definitionally slows someone else, making the internet a non-level playing field for the first time in American history. (00:01:32)
    • kept as sincere: The internet-user Hank says what creates great economies is not profit but competition, which the cable companies are trying to destroy. (00:01:45)
    • kept as sincere: The internet-user Hank says the internet is not a business model but a technological, economic and cultural force for good everyone should access equally; middlemen have no right to set speeds. (00:02:12)
    • kept as sincere: Out of character, Hank says he is worried and wants the internet in America to remain open and neutral, for selfish and altruistic reasons. (00:02:58)
    • kept as sincere: Hank asks viewers to comment on the FCC website, which is asking for comments, telling it to classify broadband internet as a common carrier service so telecoms cannot close the internet. (00:03:06)
    • kept as sincere: For longer-term help, Hank points to organizations in the description that hire lawyers and lobbyists against the telecoms, asking for money, time and action, and to call Congress. (00:03:21)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he loves the internet and worries what will happen if the middlemen decide what it is like; frankly he does not trust them. (00:03:33)

2016 (1)

  • 2016-05-13 · The Time I Fell Asleep with an M&M in My Mouth (and a song) — 10 sincere, 1 playful, 2 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says he heads out on tour next week (week of 16 May 2016), so expect travel vlogging; all shows are all ages and tickets are about $20. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description links a tour playlist and a treat video only for people who want to see the tour but cannot come. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Asked how Hank Green differs from Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers, Hank says playing and listening to music is more fun with a band, so friends made one, but they play the same Hank Green songs. (00:00:11)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the shows will include Deathly Hallows, Anglerfish and Strange Charm, and newer songs like I Love Science, Oh JK Rowling and We Are All Bat People. (00:00:21)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says they will also play songs never performed live together, like his recently released We're All Gonna Die and the new song he premieres here. (00:00:29)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the tour is having trouble selling tickets: Kansas is doing amazingly, but Los Angeles, with more people, is doing less well. (00:02:41)
    • kept as sincere: Hank asks people in Austin, San Diego, Los Angeles, Anaheim or San Francisco who are considering coming to the show to consider it hard. (00:02:53)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says concerts always caused him anxiety, yet those shows are some of his most precious memories, and the band strives to be that for its audiences. (00:03:03)
    • kept as sincere: Since not knowing the songs bugs him at concerts, Hank has put together a limited set list of songs they will play, for those who want to know in advance. (00:03:20)
    • kept as sincere: Hank wants to get rid of the idea that you must be the most knowledgeable fan of a band: just have a good time; it's not about looking cool. (00:03:32)

2017 (2)

  • 2017-09-05 · John Reads the First Chapter of Turtles All the Way Down — 7 sincere, 13 fiction (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description points to pre-ordering a probably signed copy (out October 10) or an unsigned one anywhere, and invites viewers to see Hank and John on tour. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description says the chapter introduces Aza, whose obsessive thought spirals do not make her a particularly good detective. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: John says this video is him reading the first chapter of Turtles All the Way Down. (00:00:02)
    • kept as sincere: John says all you need to know is that the story is narrated by a 16-year-old girl named Aza Holmes. (00:00:06)
    • kept as sincere: The novel's epigraph, from Arthur Schopenhauer: man can do what he wills, but cannot will what he wills. (00:00:13)
    • kept as sincere: John thanks viewers for listening and admits he is very nervous. (00:10:21)
    • kept as sincere: John points viewers who want to pre-order the book to links below. (00:10:25)
  • 2017-11-24 · The Bizarro History of Black Friday: (AND 2017 CENSUS!) — 9 sincere, 4 playful, 3 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says one of the first acts of the first US Congress, in 1789, was to create the Lighthouse Service. (00:00:13)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says Black Friday is actually the day Christmas shopping begins, so companies lower prices a lot. (00:01:51)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces 20% off almost everything at DFTBA.com, including merch from the brothers, CGP Grey, Kurzgesagt, MinutePhysics and non-educational channels. (00:02:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says DFTBA is launching a Vi Hart store today: her merch is on sale for the first time. (00:02:12)
    • kept as sincere: DFTBA has 500 signed copies of Turtles All the Way Down from Penguin, sold with a tuatara pin and a turtle sticker pack. (00:02:17)
    • kept as sincere: DFTBA is doing a last sale of VidCon merch, and all VidCon ticket types are 10% off with the code TURKEYTIME. (00:02:39)
    • kept as sincere: The usual P4A calendar and t-shirt come before P4A this year (2017): a Vlogbrothers calendar from a silly photo shoot themed 'Silly brother, serious brother', proceeds to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck. (00:02:51)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces the newly launched SciShow Finds, cool things for science-loving people, basically stuff he would like to get. (00:03:15)
    • kept as sincere: Every year John and Hank run a census of Nerdfighteria: a long survey of about 20 minutes that helps them understand the community and decide what to do next. (00:03:24)

2018 (2)

  • 2018-09-21 · The Parable of the Perfect Pot — 14 sincere, 2 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: At VidCon Australia, Ashly Perez gave a talk about an allegory she read online, written by a man told it by a teacher; it resonated with Hank. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description asks viewers to come see John and Hank on tour at hankgreen.com; every ticket comes with a free book. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says however good you are, your first pot will suck, and however much you suck, your thousandth pot will be pretty good. (00:00:58)
    • kept as sincere: This is more or less Hank's philosophy for the last 11 years, and it worked well: make a pot, present it for judgment, use the feedback to make another. (00:00:58)
    • kept as sincere: Hank explains that in information security, brute force hacking hits a system with so many password iterations that one eventually works: not elegant or planned. (00:01:40)
    • kept as sincere: Hank calls himself a brute force creator, the only way he knows, but says a book can't be made that way: you can't write a hundred books and discard 99. (00:01:40)
    • kept as sincere: Nothing prepared Hank for half a decade with the same lump of clay: making it a pot, hating it, punching it back into clay, and again. (00:02:09)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says his hundreds of Vlogbrothers videos were a good writing apprenticeship, much of it creative nonfiction. (00:02:09)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says his book is in a way a nonfiction book written by a fictional character. (00:02:09)
    • kept as sincere: When Hank thought it done, his agent, editor, sensitivity readers, friends and family told him to punch it a few more times. (00:02:38)
    • kept as sincere: In the end Hank had what he, and mostly other people too, think is a pretty good pot. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: The process felt wrong to Hank: without having heard the allegory he believed in it, so doing what it says not to do seemed wrong. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank felt he had to work that way, as the only way to tell the story and say what he wanted; he did it and is happy. (00:03:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank will see John on Monday (24 September 2018) to prepare their very weird stage show and book tour, and viewers on Tuesday, the day his book comes out. (00:03:39)
  • 2018-10-12 · Hank Reads from 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing' — 11 sincere, 2 playful, 8 fiction (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank explains the channel tradition: when one of the brothers has a book out, he reads its first chapter in a video; so far only John, back to Paper Towns nine years ago. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the reading video is exempt from the four-minute rule, so he can go on as long as he wants. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description says this is probably the longest Vlogbrothers video and certainly the one with the most curse words, as the tradition demands. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description says Hank reads the first chapter of his first book, about April May, who meets a bizarre robot sculpture in Manhattan on her way home from a terrible UI design job. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank wants to tell people about his book because he is proud of it and thinks they will like it, hoping it is useful and enjoyable, which is what he aims for in life. (00:00:25)
    • kept as sincere: Hank reads the chapter himself; Kristen Sieh, who reads the audiobook, is fantastic. (00:00:54)
    • kept as sincere: Hank warns that his book has a lot of curse words and that this chapter has some. (00:00:54)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says, as Twitter followers may already know, he used part of his book advance to fund independent artists to make art based on the book; the pieces are on his Instagram. (00:18:56)
    • kept as sincere: Hank points to the fan-led thecarlsarecoming.com, where people fold paper Carls, photograph them and pin them to a map; there are lots all over the world. (00:18:56)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the responses and works people have made from his book are the most interesting part of creation. (00:19:26)
    • kept as sincere: Hank feels lucky: he has never had an experience like this book's reception, and it is special and awesome. (00:19:26)

2019 (2)

  • 2019-11-29 · My Most Controversial Opinion — 8 sincere, 2 playful, 3 satire, 2 joke (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description says the video was inspired by a really dumb conversation Hank and his friends had after recording SciShow Tangents, and thanks them and the people who engaged on Twitter. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: In a channel comment John adds that all of DFTBA's profits go to charity, links the Hank-erchief, and congratulates Hank on his book, asking when he can read it. (creator comment)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says his most controversial opinions are pretty controversial, and also nuanced and slow to explain. (00:00:20)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says Audible in the UK picked his first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, as a Black Friday deal, so it costs only three pounds there this week (week of 25 November 2019). (00:02:58)
    • kept as sincere: Hank announces his new book, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, out July 7, 2020, with pre-order links and a synopsis in the description; he'll talk about it more soon. (00:03:07)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says that through Monday DFTBA.com has free shipping everywhere in the world on orders over $50, plus lots of new Black Friday products. (00:03:22)
    • kept as sincere: Hank wears several new DFTBA pins, including a Stentor coeruleus pin from Journey to the Microcosmos. (00:03:29)
    • kept as sincere: Hank tells viewers to go to DFTBA.com right now. (00:03:46)
  • 2019-12-20 · Reading the First Chapter of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor — 8 sincere, 8 fiction (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: John pins his own channel comment, too excited not to, telling viewers to pre-order A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor at hankgreen.com. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Asked in the comments whether he has read any of the book, John says no: he heard the first chapter for the first time like everyone else. (creator comment)
    • kept as sincere: Hank's book A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor now has a cover, designed by Kaitlin Kall; followers on social media may have seen it. (00:00:02)
    • kept as sincere: The book is not completely done but done enough to read its first chapter, which he has taped inside a mock-up of the book. (00:00:13)
    • kept as sincere: Hank reads the first chapter of his second book, the sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. (00:00:27)
    • kept as sincere: Chapter three, where questions start getting answered, will have to wait for the book's release on July 7, 2020. (00:03:27)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says viewers don't have to wait for release: they can pre-order the book now. (00:03:39)
    • kept as sincere: Hank invites viewers to see live Dear Hank and John, live Anthropocene Reviewed and other weirdnesses with John in St. Petersburg, Raleigh and Atlanta in early January; tickets are in the description. (00:03:43)

2022 (1)

  • 2022-12-06 · AI tells me if AI will write novels. — 13 sincere, 1 playful, 2 parody (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description says AI wrote everything from 0:11 to 1:34, a text-generation AI promising John it won't replace him. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: In a channel comment John says he didn't change a single word of the AI's script. (creator comment)
    • kept as sincere: In a channel comment John stresses that the AI, not he, wrote 'it will always be so', which alarms him more; he doesn't think anything, not even the universe, will always be so. (creator comment)
    • kept as sincere: John reveals that the opening script, a vlogbrothers video in King James Bible style about whether AI can write novels, was written by ChatGPT. (00:01:27)
    • kept as sincere: John is super freaked out by the AI's attempt to reassure humans that they are unique, which he finds scarier than if it had boasted it would write the novels of the future. (00:01:27)
    • kept as sincere: John notes the AI relies on cliches like 'window into the soul' and 'tapestry of words', he thinks because they are evocative yet common enough not to be plagiarism. (00:01:57)
    • kept as sincere: John says to be more specific and compelling AI will need less cliche and more unusual sentences, and the easiest way is to plagiarize or rely on particular human brains. (00:02:26)
    • kept as sincere: John says that as a novelist he too depends on the linguistic constructions and narratives he has met: all writers work from a data set. (00:02:26)
    • kept as sincere: John says humans have fairly sophisticated strategies for deciding what counts as plagiarism among people, but maybe not for AI. (00:02:26)
    • kept as sincere: John is freaked out that this technology means we are already having vitriolic arguments on Twitter and other sites with people who are not actually people. (00:02:55)
    • kept as sincere: John's biggest worry: computers are nothing like us (we are far more like kangaroos), and as AI improves we may see human consciousness and cognition as digital rather than organic, a big mistake. (00:02:55)
    • kept as sincere: John says to be happy, and to create the word tapestries ChatGPT calls uniquely human, we need to live as organisms on a planet with other organisms. (00:02:55)
    • kept as sincere: John is not that worried about making technology more like us, but very worried about making us more like technology. (00:03:43)

2024 (1)

  • 2024-10-29 · If Hank and John Were God for 15 Minutes — 5 sincere, 4 playful, 6 hypothetical (starts 00:00:05)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says they saw a stand-up comedian last night whose hypothetical was being God for 15 minutes, and John suggested it as their video topic during the intermission. (00:00:05)
    • kept as sincere: The brothers conclude that actually being God would be very hard. (00:04:01)
    • kept as sincere: John says, for the record, that thinking of God as inherently omnipotent and moving all the chess pieces around is not the only way to think about God. (00:04:21)
    • kept as sincere: John cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer: God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is the only way God is with us to help us. (00:04:35)
    • kept as sincere: John is glad they are not God, since they would be bad at it, and says people who really want to be God or dictators are inherently unqualified, because wanting that is weird. (00:04:55)

2025 (1)

  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — 32 sincere, 2 satire (starts 00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says USAID does lots of amazing work and is a very cheap way to keep the world more stable, with more diseases controlled and fewer people suffering. (00:00:00)
    • kept as sincere: The description links news coverage of lawsuits seeking to halt the dismantling of USAID, plus Ezra Klein's video essay. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the shutdown of USAID is not the core issue: the core issue is the extent to which the Constitution matters anymore. (00:00:11)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says a narrow congressional majority seems to have happily given up its power, but Congress is not allowed to give its power to the president, since separation of powers is the nation's founding idea. (00:00:18)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says USAID was created by a law passed by Congress and is funded by laws passed by Congress. (00:00:36)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says Congress has the power of the purse: it decides how almost all money in America is spent, not the president. (00:00:42)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the president unilaterally dissolving USAID is illegal. (00:00:54)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the legal route would have been to work with Congress to pass a law dissolving USAID, which the president did not do. (00:00:59)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says this violates neither an ordinary law nor an amendment but Article 1 of the Constitution itself: Congress passes laws to determine how money is spent. (00:01:05)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says a president who can dismantle the work of Congress refutes the founding document, creates a logistical nightmare and calls into question why Congress exists at all. (00:01:19)
    • kept as sincere: 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. (00:01:32)
    • kept as sincere: Hank does not know whether USAID is a good first target for this, since it does not immediately affect many Americans and so has few defenders at home. (00:01:46)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the question is whether the president suddenly has a bunch of unconstitutional powers, and argues that he obviously does not. (00:01:57)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says a recent White House press release referred to Donald Trump signing an executive order into law. (00:02:05)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says that is not how laws get made and that forgetting it will stop the country working; Schoolhouse Rock exists so that when people try another way and the courts tell them they are wrong, everyone agrees with the courts. (00:02:08)
    • kept as sincere: Hank recommends Ezra Klein's recent essay on Trump's first weeks back in office, also a good YouTube video, and links it in the description. (00:02:27)
    • kept as sincere: Hank cites the line from Ezra Klein's essay he has been thinking about all week: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. (00:02:34)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the essay shows Trump is legislatively weak: the narrowest House majority since there have been 50 states, a narrow margin in Congress, and the highest disapproval of any incoming president since polling began. (00:02:42)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says perhaps, instead of creating durable change, Trump is governing largely through executive orders and other untested, probably illegal, unilateral actions. (00:02:55)
    • kept as sincere: Hank's second reading: perhaps a flood-the-zone tactic, keeping everyone distracted and trying everything fast to occupy the press, courts and public and see what sticks. (00:03:43)
    • kept as sincere: Hank's third reading: perhaps Trump wants change but knows legislation with narrow House and Senate majorities would likely fail, and he hates the idea of failing. (00:03:54)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the second and third readings look more like the reality at the moment. (00:04:06)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says lots of Trump's executive orders have already been nothing but brief news stories before being blocked as obviously unconstitutional. (00:04:09)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says there are two ways to see this: either ignoring the Constitution is fine when your side does it, or it is the unacceptable action of people too weak, politically or in character, to govern. (00:04:16)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the big way to stop this is simply not to believe them when they say they are more powerful than the Constitution. (00:04:29)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the Constitution is more powerful than Elon Musk or Donald Trump not just through legacy or law but because it is a good document that we collectively believe in. (00:04:36)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says separation of powers is a very good idea, created by people who had lived under a king and did not want to anymore, and that hard work produced America. (00:04:50)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says the times the US violated those principles are real and shameful, and we do not want to live through or be part of one. (00:05:10)
    • kept as sincere: Hank predicts that the law will stand. (00:05:21)
    • kept as sincere: Hank hopes Americans will say not merely that courts blocked Trump, but that his action was unconstitutional, and that they like no president as much as they like America. (00:05:21)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says multiple lawsuits have already been filed outlining why shutting down USAID is illegal. (00:05:40)
    • kept as sincere: Hank says Trump fans may call the lawsuits the deep state fighting back, but they are people saying laws exist not only to restrict but to uphold the structures that have upheld the nation for 250 years. (00:05:45)

2026 (1)

  • 2026-08-11 · Hollywood, Ending — 6 sincere, 8 fiction (starts video description)
    • kept as sincere: The description says John reads the first chapter of Hollywood, Ending, out everywhere September 22, the eighth part of a series since 2008 in which the brothers read first chapters. (video description)
    • kept as sincere: John says reading a new book's first chapter is a tradition going back to 2008, when he read the first chapter of Paper Towns before it came out. (00:06:46)
    • kept as sincere: John thanks Hank, who has already read the book, for reading it so generously. (00:06:46)
    • kept as sincere: John is nervous for readers to read the book: paradoxically, fiction is for him inherently more intimate than nonfiction. (00:06:46)
    • kept as sincere: John says the book comes out September 22 and signed copies are available for pre-order now. (00:07:24)
    • kept as sincere: John says he is going on tour and would love to see many viewers there. (00:07:24)

Mostly playful (78)

At least three quarters of the statements are playful or bits, but the jokes carry real news or points (the paraphrase records the meant core). Typical of the 2007 Brotherhood 2.0 vlogs.

2007 (33)

2008 (4)

2009 (17)

2010 (7)

2011 (2)

2012 (5)

2013 (3)

2015 (1)

2016 (2)

2017 (1)

2022 (1)

2024 (1)

2025 (1)