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On Cuties and Cooties

2012-02-28 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · reflection essay

From New Orleans and an aquarium, John tells how he thought classmates said he had 'cuties', argues that sacrificing what matters for popularity is wrong, and says Moby-Dick shows hard is not the opposite of fun.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting from New Orleans; Hank's cute video and 'cute overload'; cooties defined via Wikipedia

  • ★★ John says he is in New Orleans, three days into a vacation. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John jokes that Hank's cute Friday video nearly gave him cute overload, but he had a 'cuties shot' in the last ten years. (joke) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John defines cooties, quoting Wikipedia, as a fictitious childhood disease said to infect people perceived as different or socially stigmatized. — 00:00:00 · Wikipedia
  • ★ The description says Ze Frank inspired the brothers to start videoblogging and is bringing his show back via Kickstarter. — 00:00:00 · Ze Frank

00:00:29 — John's forearm birthmarks and his childhood belief that classmates said he had 'cuties'

  • ★★ Answering a question viewers ask in every video, John says the marks on his forearm are birthmarks, not signs of heroin use or hickeys. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John says classmates took his birthmarks as a failed cooties inoculation, and because of a well-meaning teacher he believed they said he had 'cuties'. (playful) — 00:00:29

00:01:27 — Pursuing popularity like Ahab; sacrificing what matters for it is wrong; Melville's preacher on a good name

  • ★★ John says that, like Ahab chasing the whale, he kept pursuing popularity through school even when it was clear it would destroy him. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John says there is nothing wrong with being popular, but there is something wrong with sacrificing everything that matters to you to attain popularity. — 00:01:27
  • ★ John thinks this holds for elementary school, YouTube or anything else. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · YouTube
  • ★★ John cites Melville's preacher in Moby-Dick: woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — At the aquarium: Moby-Dick is hard but fun; hard is not the opposite of fun in books and learning; sign-off

  • ★★ John says he is reading Moby-Dick and finds it hard (unknown words, tangents, confusing sentences, his slow reading): about a hundred pages in three days. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says Moby-Dick is not easy but really fun, like visiting the aquarium: you go to sea without puking. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ John says he hates the idea that, in books and learning, hard is seen as the opposite of fun. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John finds it strange that people give up quickly on a book or math problem yet grapple endlessly with a single level of Angry Birds. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John asks why as a student he worked far too hard to be liked but not to read great novels or grasp the universe's edgelessness, and has no answer. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John concludes the search is a pleasure, and a difficult one, as most great pleasures are. — 00:02:55

Humor (significant)

  • John describes 'cute overload' as a syndrome that can lead to acquiring puppies or kittens. — 00:00:00 > «or even, in extreme cases, the creation of human beings.»
  • Tired of viewers asking about the marks on his forearm, John insists they are birthmarks. — 00:00:29 > «I am not a heroin addict. I do not have some weird kind of fetish for hickeys on the forearm.»
  • Believing he had 'cuties', young John asks girls at the monkey bars whether they've had their cuties shot and invites them to the sandbox. — 00:00:58 > «And then they would scream,»
  • People give up quickly on a book or a math problem. — 00:02:26 > «we are so willing to grapple, for centuries if necessary, with a single level of Angry Birds.»

Threads in this video

Replies to

  • CUTE-OCALYPSE! — «Your video on Friday contained so much cute that I was worried I might get cute overload»

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