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Volunteering (In Your Pants)

2009-07-26 · John · watch on YouTube · Global development · advocacy activism

John introduces YouTube's Video Volunteers program and, in his first video for it, uses the 'in your pants' book-title game to urge support for the Book Wish Foundation, which brings books, reading lights and a library to Darfur refugees in camps.

What is said

00:00:00 — Not about the puff; YouTube's Video Volunteers program; John's first video for the Book Wish Foundation; invites Nerdfighters to join

  • ★ John opens by saying he will not talk about the damage recently inflicted upon the puff. (playful) — 00:00:00 · the Puff
  • ★★ John says YouTube has launched a program that lets everyone help charities they like by making videos for them. — 00:00:00 · YouTube
  • ★★ John has made his first video volunteer video, for the Book Wish Foundation. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John invites Nerdfighters to join him in making video volunteer videos at youtube.com/videovolunteers. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria

00:00:37 — The 'in your pants' rule, found with Maureen Johnson: book titles plus 'in your pants'

  • ★★ John recounts that he and Maureen Johnson discovered in a coffee shop that adding 'in your pants' to book titles makes them funnier, and runs through examples. (playful) — 00:00:37 · Maureen Johnson, in your pants

00:01:26 — Refugee camps lack books, lights and libraries; the Book Wish Foundation's work with Darfur refugees; check out bookwish.org

  • ★★★ John says some places in the world have no books, and that real access to reading needs lights to read by, libraries and the right books, not just books. (playful) — 00:01:26
  • ★★★ John says the Book Wish Foundation goes into refugee camps holding thousands of people displaced by the Darfur conflict, bringing solar reading lights, glasses and the right books. — 00:01:55
  • ★★★ John says the Book Wish Foundation is currently raising money to build a much-needed library. — 00:01:55
  • ★★ John says the foundation chooses books with people in the camps, based on what they need and want (after joking it picks the best in-your-pants jokes). (playful) — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ John says displaced people have many needs, but Book Wish has learned they ask for books, both for entertainment and as a way to get to university. — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ John asks viewers to check out the Book Wish Foundation at bookwish.org. — 00:02:24

Humor (significant)

  • John adds 'in your pants' to the title The Sun Also Rises. — 00:00:37 > «Which, come to think of it, is in fact what The Sun Also Rises is about.»
  • Imagining a portable Dorothy Parker in his pants, John asks his pants what they said and approves their observation. — 00:01:26 > «Brevity is the soul of lingerie.»
  • John claims Book Wish ensures every book sent is the best possible in-your-pants joke, then is corrected off-camera. — 00:02:24 > «They base it on what people need and want? Oh. Yeah, that's good too.»
  • After a sincere point that books can lead to university, John names the main reason refugees want books. — 00:02:24 > «so that they can more fully appreciate the rich and diverse world of the in-your-pants joke.»

Threads in this video

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