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The World Sucks: Help it Suck Less

2009-06-21 · John, Hank · watch on YouTube · Global development · advocacy activism

In a phone-call collab, Hank (with John heckling for viral gags) announces YouTube's Video Volunteers program, which lets YouTubers make videos for nonprofits; the brothers name their partner charities and urge viewers to join.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hank has called John to help YouTube announce the Video Volunteers program; John wants something funny first

  • ★★★ Hank says he called John to help YouTube announce its new Video Volunteers program, which he says will prove how awesome YouTube can be. — 00:00:03 · YouTube
  • ★ John mockingly insists the charity pitch needs viral-video gimmicks - a hamster on a piano eating popcorn, a baby biting a finger, a drugged kid after the dentist. (joke) — 00:00:03

00:00:33 — Who the brothers are: Nerdfighters, charity stunts, the Happy Meal; YouTube as a community; P4A; John's viral-video gag proposals

  • ★★ John says their back-and-forth videos spawned a community of Nerdfighters who fight for awesome and raise a lot of money for charity, sometimes via the brothers' horrible stunts, like his blenderized Happy Meal. — 00:00:33 · Nerdfighteria, Happy Meal, Punishment > «Nerdfighters who fight for awesome and also raise a lot of money for charity»
  • ★★ Hank says YouTube is a real community of people coming together to make the world better, citing this year's Project for Awesome, when thousands of YouTubers made videos for favourite charities. — 00:01:02 · YouTube, Project for Awesome

00:01:31 — The Video Volunteers program: partner with nonprofits; volunteering for video editors; youtube.com/videovolunteers; the brothers' partner charities

  • ★★★ Hank announces that through YouTube's Video Volunteers program everyone in the YouTube community can partner with a nonprofit and help bring attention to its cause. — 00:01:31 · YouTube
  • ★★ John says real-life volunteering is important, but now there are volunteer opportunities for 'obsessive agoraphobes who love to edit video' like the brothers. (playful) — 00:01:31
  • ★★★ Viewers are told to go to youtube.com/videovolunteers, where charities need creative people to make videos explaining their work and why it matters. — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ One brother partners with EngenderHealth and the other with the Book Wish Foundation; they will make videos for these charities, upload and share them. — 00:02:00

00:02:29 — Click my face; goodbyes; appeal to decrease worldwide suck; DFTBA

  • ★★ The brothers tell YouTube this is a chance to use video-making skills to decrease worldwide suck, and hope viewers will take it. (hedged) — 00:02:29 · world suck, YouTube > «decrease the overall worldwide levels of suck»

Humor (significant)

  • Hank hopes many people watch; John says nothing funny or gross has happened yet. — 00:00:03 > «Hank, you need to get a hamster, you need to put it on a piano, and you need to feed it some popcorn.»
  • John summarises their charity stunts, like drinking a blenderized Happy Meal. — 00:00:33 > «In fact, Hank, that's what YouTube is about. It's about drinking meat.»
  • Hank calls YouTube a real community of people coming together. — 00:01:02 > «Yeah, coming together to watch old episodes of ALF.»
  • John says real-world volunteering matters, but now there are opportunities for a new kind of volunteer. — 00:01:31 > «obsessive agoraphobes who love to edit video. Like us.»

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