Skip to content

OCT. 26: DISCUSSING NEPAL WHILE EATING TOILET PAPER

2007-10-26 · John · watch on YouTube · World affairs · comedy performance

While eating five sheets of toilet paper, John recounts Nepal's crisis from the 2001 royal massacre and the Maoist civil war to the repeatedly postponed 2007 elections, says the situation is perilous and needs serious international intervention, then completes the challenge and jokes about pica.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting and challenge; Nepal in 2001: constitutional monarchy, Maoist rebels (Friendster joke), the crown prince wants to marry

  • ★★ John announces he will discuss the political situation in Nepal while eating five sheets of toilet paper. (playful) — 00:00:05
  • ★★★ John says that in 2001 Nepal, a constitutional monarchy, faced political crises, the biggest being Maoist rebels trying to take over the country. — 00:00:05
  • ★★★ 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. (playful) — 00:00:37

00:01:10 — The royal massacre; an uncle becomes king amid suspicion; 12,000 killed in the civil war; the king dissolves parliament in 2005

  • ★★ 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'. (hedged) — 00:01:33
  • ★★ John says one of the crown prince's uncles who wasn't shot became king. — 00:01:33
  • ★★★ John says 12,000 people were eventually killed in Nepal's civil war. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ John says that in 2005 the king ended the constitutional monarchy and dissolved parliament, which did not go well. — 00:01:33

00:02:11 — 2006 protests restore parliament; peace deal and Maoists in government; elections postponed then called off; Maoists threaten war; need for international intervention

  • ★★★ John says pro-democracy protests in 2006 led the king to restore parliament; in late 2006 the Maoists and parliament agreed to stop fighting, Maoists took seats, and the king became a figurehead. — 00:02:11
  • ★★★ John says elections promised for June 2007 were moved to November 2007, then about a week ago called off, and the Maoists, now out of government, threaten to restart the civil war. — 00:02:40
  • ★★★ John says things in Nepal are very perilous and that serious international intervention is needed. — 00:02:40

00:03:10 — Security Council statement; fifth sheet swallowed, challenge complete; PS: googling toilet-paper eating, pica; sign-off

  • ★★ John reports that a few days ago the UN Security Council said it strongly opposed Nepal not holding elections. — 00:03:10
  • ★★★ John swallows his fifth sheet of toilet paper, completing the challenge. (playful) — 00:03:10
  • ★ John says the first result for googling how to eat toilet paper is a woman who caught her husband eating it and was told 'moisture reduces volume'. (playful) — 00:03:10
  • ★★ John says pica is a condition in which people eat things that aren't food, and that it is nothing to be ashamed of. — 00:03:45

Humor (significant)

  • John imagines viewers scoffing at Nepal still having Maoist rebels. — 00:00:05 > «Maoist rebels are the contemporary insurgency, what, like, Friendster is to contemporary social networks.»
  • The crown prince responds to his parents' objection with the calm, thoughtful reaction you'd expect from a crown prince. — 00:01:10 > «he gets a machine gun and proceeds to kill pretty much his entire family»
  • John finally swallows the fifth sheet of toilet paper, ten months after failing the challenge. — 00:03:10 > «Yes! I am the toilet paper eating king of the world!»
  • John reassures the husband who eats toilet paper that pica is nothing to be ashamed of. — 00:03:45 > «I mean, this stuff is kind of delicious.»

Threads in this video

BR2_09dde8ccb6