Hank's crush on Helen Hunt (2007)
running joke · status: running joke (last seen 2026) · last event: callback (2026-05-29)
In April 2007 Hank posted a love song for Helen Hunt, and his crush became a running joke with a standing challenge to prove she had seen it; in 2011 she tweeted him about the song, and Hank still joked about his high-school crush in 2026.
Told alongside: John asks Nerdfighters to prove Helen Hunt has seen Hank's song about her (2008) · Letters asking a school to return Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle to its shelves (2007) · 'In your pants' suffix game (2007) · John's wife Sarah as 'the Yeti' (2007) · Hank: write a song every two weeks (2007 challenge from John) · John and Sarah (the Yeti) are expecting a baby (2009)
About: Helen Hunt (actor), Helen Hunt (song), Sarah Urist Green
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-04-25 | first use | Hank performs a love song he wrote for Helen Hunt, the only person on his 'guilt-free three'. (playful) | Helen Hunt 00:00:38 |
| 2007-04-26 | callback | John asks Madam Seymour's crystal ball whether it will ever happen between Hank and Helen Hunt; the answer is 'highly doubtful'. (playful) → refers to Helen Hunt | Brotherhood 2.0: April 26: Hollywood Meetings 00:02:38 |
| 2007-04-30 | callback | John and the Yeti can't stop singing Hank's Helen Hunt song. (playful) | Brotherhood 2.0: April 30: Hellos from Los Angeles 00:01:40 |
| 2007-05-01 | callback | Hank doubts his new song is as catchy as the Helen Hunt song but hopes it bumps it out of viewers' heads. (playful, hedged) | May 1st: Neil Gaiman in Helena 00:02:58 |
| 2007-05-03 | callback | Hank jokes that people care more about book banning than about his obsession with Helen Hunt. (playful) | May 3rd: Yetis, TMBG, Weeds and MoJo 00:01:53 |
| 2007-05-03 | callback | Hank jokes that people care more about book banning than about his obsession with Helen Hunt. (playful) | May 3rd Extended Edition 00:01:53 |
| 2008-01-21 | callback | First project: make sure Helen Hunt has seen Hank's months-old song about her and provide proof; if nerdfighters succeed, they can punish both brothers. | A Short History of the PUPPY SIZED ELEPHANT 00:03:14 |
| 2008-05-30 | callback | John restates the standing challenge: proof that Helen Hunt has seen or heard Hank's Helen Hunt song lets Nerdfighters challenge the brothers, subject to their wives' veto. | The Dread Pirate Fireball Roberts! (And Housekeeping) 00:02:47 |
| 2009-08-18 (said on 2009-08-19, implied) | callback | In the song 'Helen Hunt', Hank comically declares a crush on Helen Hunt dating from puberty, punning on her film and TV titles and on sharing the name Hank with her husband. (joke) | So Jokes: Video EP 00:03:19 |
| 2010-04-28 | callback | Hank puts Helen Hunt in his hug-bucket wish list, 'of course'. (playful) | Who's in Your Hug Bucket? 00:01:54 |
| 2011-04-29 | callback | Helen Hunt has not yet heard Hank's Helen Hunt song, John says, pointing out that Helen Hunt has a Twitter. | Peanut Butter Face Question Tuesday 00:02:01 |
| 2011-05-06 | callback | Hank jokes that the restraining order Helen Hunt is sending him is decorated with flowers and smiley faces. (joke) | Happy Birthday To Me! 00:00:17 |
| 2011-07-27 | callback | John recalls Nerdfighters getting Helen Hunt to hear the Helen Hunt song and 'threaten' Hank with a restraining order. (playful) | 150,000 Autographs 00:01:21 |
| 2012-09-14 | callback | Hank lists his song about Helen Hunt and notes that Helen Hunt tweeted to him about it. (playful) | 1000 VIDEOS!!! 00:01:36 |
| 2013-01-15 | callback | Hank performs 'Helen Hunt' live at Carnegie Hall, calling it the first song he ever put on YouTube. (playful) → refers to Helen Hunt | An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall 01:02:32 |
| 2014-07-18 (happened 2011) | callback | In 2011 the standing deal to punish Hank if Helen Hunt saw his 'Helen Hunt' video came true: she tweeted him, and he had to hump his entire town. | EVERY VLOGBROTHERS PUNISHMENT! 00:02:33 |
| 2015-04-21 (happened 2007) | callback | John recalls Hank's 2007 love song for Helen Hunt and wondering, while watching that video, when Hank got a guitar. (playful) → refers to Helen Hunt | A Stunning Turn of Events 00:00:24 |
| 2023-11-03 | callback | Hank says that in high school he was obsessed with Gordon Gano and Helen Hunt. | We Need to talk about Sarapocial Relationships 00:00:00 |
| 2026-02-13 | looked back on | Asked to play his song 'Helen Hunt', Hank declines: it is too embarrassing and too weird to do to Helen Hunt, who is now a real person to him. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 2! 05:17:34 |
| 2026-05-29 | callback | Hank calls it the story of how his high-school crush, Helen Hunt, with an IMDb credit in nearly every one of the last 45 years, destroyed him at 46. (playful) | Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute 00:04:21 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).
What is said about it
17 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2007-04-25 · Helen Hunt — Hank calls Judy Blume a weird pick for John's list and admits Helen Hunt is weird too: 'We're weird.' (playful) — 00:00:04
- 2007-04-25 · Helen Hunt — Hank says Helen Hunt is the only person on his 'guilt-free three'; Katherine has long known and doesn't like it, but you can't help who is on it. (playful) — 00:00:04
- 2007-04-25 · Helen Hunt — Hank: In the song, Hank says he first saw Helen Hunt when he hit puberty, in an after-school special where she smoked one laced joint, which made him never want to do PCP. (playful) — 00:00:38
- 2007-04-25 · Helen Hunt — Hank: A lyric claims Helen Hunt was best comedy actress 'four years in a row'. (playful) — 00:01:56 · also in: So Jokes: Video EP
- 2007-04-25 · Helen Hunt — Hank says 'take that' to people who see no reason to love Helen Hunt, repeats that she made him never want to do PCP, and tells Helen he is not that scary. (playful) — 00:03:05
- 2007-04-26 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 26: Hollywood Meetings — John opens with a standing ovation for Hank's Helen Hunt song. (playful) — 00:00:15
- 2007-05-01 · May 1st: Neil Gaiman in Helena — Hank doubts his song is as catchy as the Helen Hunt song but hopes it bumps that song out of some viewers' heads. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:58
- 2007-05-03 · May 3rd: Yetis, TMBG, Weeds and MoJo — Hank thinks John's book-banning video has drawn more comments than any other Brotherhood 2.0 video; people care more about book banning than his Helen Hunt obsession, which he calls a good thing. (hedged) — 00:01:53 · also in: May 3rd Extended Edition
- 2010-04-28 · Who's in Your Hug Bucket? — Hank lists people he loves but has never met and wants to hug because he is impressed with their work, from They Might Be Giants and Wil Wheaton to Ursula Le Guin, plus many YouTubers. — 00:01:38
- 2012-09-14 · 1000 VIDEOS!!! — Hank lists his songs about quarks, ponies, Harry Potter and Helen Hunt, notes Helen Hunt tweeted him about hers, and recalls inventing 2D glasses and turning Pride and Prejudice into a video blog. (playful) — 00:01:36
- 2013-01-15 · An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall — Hank opens with 'Helen Hunt', the first song he ever put on YouTube, a song about a girl who isn't his wife. — 01:02:32
- 2015-04-21 · A Stunning Turn of Events — John recalls that when Hank released his love song for Helen Hunt in 2007 he didn't know Hank could play guitar; his main feeling was 'when did Hank get a guitar?' (playful) — 00:00:24
- 2026-05-29 · Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute — Hank says he asked Helen Hunt why she had never done a one-woman show or stand-up comedy. — 00:00:00
- 2026-05-29 · Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute — Hank reports Helen Hunt's answer: what she loves about the theater is not the stage but the collaboration, working with other people to create something together. — 00:00:29
- 2026-05-29 · Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute — Hank says he had to face that what Helen Hunt loves most about the theater is what scares him most about it. — 00:00:52
- 2026-05-29 · Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute — Hank contrasts them: he wants to be on stage entirely in control, she wants to be on stage entirely in collaboration. — 00:01:22
- 2026-05-29 · Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute — Hank asks himself why standing on a stage alone makes him feel safe but sharing it with others makes him scared; Helen Hunt basically asked him that. — 00:02:32