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The Marvelous Mystery of The Dan

2010-08-14 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Internet & YouTube · comedy performance

Hank presents visiting YouTuber Dan Brown in a nature-documentary parody, then explains Dan 3.0, in which Dan lets his community decide his year, arguing it reflects how many people don't know what to do with their lives; he closes with left-handers' day anecdotes and how a hand injury taught him right from left.

What is said

00:00:00 — Nature-documentary parody: 'the Dan Brown' encountered outside its natural habitat, its sedentary life and bizarre displays

  • ★★ In a nature-documentary parody, Hank presents footage of visiting YouTuber Dan Brown as a rare creature filmed 'outside its natural habitat', performing bizarre 'displays'. (parody) — 00:00:00

00:01:30 — Who Dan Brown is; Dan 3.0, in which his community decides his year; Hank's suggested Missoula song trip; why the project is about not knowing what to do with your life

  • ★★ Hank explains Dan Brown is not the Da Vinci Code author but a video blogger with a style and values similar to the brothers', a kindred spirit. — 00:01:30
  • ★★★ Hank says Dan has just started a project, Dan 3.0, giving his life over to his viewers, who decide what he does for the next year, from small tasks to big trips. (hedged) — 00:01:30
  • ★★★ Hank suggested Dan fly to Missoula to record a song with him; it rose to the top of Dan's decision engine, and a week later Hank picked him up at the Missoula airport. — 00:02:00 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★ Hank finds Dan 3.0 fascinating for about 20 reasons, some of them why he would never do it and some why he would really like to. (hedged) — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ Hank says people treat Dan 3.0 as a cute stunt, but Dan doesn't know what to do with his life, like many of us; others seem to have it figured out but don't. (hedged) — 00:02:29
  • ★★ Hank adds that once you do know what you're doing with your life, it's really boring, speaking from experience. (playful) — 00:02:29
  • ★★★ Hank says Dan believes his community will decide better than he would alone, and that Dan is doing what many wish they could: asking for help figuring out what to do. (hedged) — 00:02:29

00:02:58 — Happy left-handed day: Hank's middle-school teacher beaten at school for being left-handed; his learning disability and the hand injury whose pain taught him right from left; sign-off

  • ★★ Marking left-handed day, Hank tells of a favourite middle-school teacher who grew up in Czechoslovakia, was beaten at Catholic school for being left-handed and wrote right-handed all her life. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ Due to a learning disability Hank couldn't tell right from left until about nine, when cutting his hand on terracotta severed a tendon; its constant ache now tells him which is right. — 00:03:28

Humor (significant)

  • In the nature-documentary parody, Hank says scientists believe Dan's displays exist to attract a mate. — 00:01:00 > «though there is strong evidence that the displays have in fact had the opposite effect.»
  • The parody narrator offers the second theory of Dan's displays. — 00:01:00 > «scratching some subconscious itch that can only be reached by mastering complex yet meaningless activities»
  • Hank explains Dan Brown's kinship with the Green brothers. — 00:01:30 > «he's got a color for a last name too, but it's not green, so he's not our brother»
  • Hank's severed tendon left a permanent ache in his right hand. — 00:03:28 > «I always know that the one that hurts is the right.»

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