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Phineas Gage: A Song

2010-11-03 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · comedy performance

For Song Wednesday Hank sings the comic story of Phineas Gage, who survived an iron tamping rod through his frontal lobe but became 'a new man', showing that what makes a person who he is lies in the head, not the heart.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting: Wednesday, November 3rd, Song Wednesday; a song about Phineas Gage

  • ★★ The description says Phineas Gage survived the iron rod through his brain for 12 years before dying of severe seizures. — 00:00:00

00:00:10 — Song: Phineas Gage's 1848 railroad accident, survival, changed personality and death from seizures

  • ★★ Hank sings that Phineas Gage was 25 in 1848, working on the railroad, when he forgot the tamping sand and the tamping rod destroyed his left frontal lobe. (playful) — 00:00:10
  • ★★ Hank sings that the doctor doubted the rod had passed through Gage's head, since he'd surely be dead, until a coughing fit brought brain matter out. (playful) — 00:00:51
  • ★★ Hank sings that the doctor told the family to prepare for death; Gage spent months in bed, yet within months walked downstairs as if losing a quarter of his brain hadn't harmed him. (playful) — 00:01:32
  • ★★★ Hank sings that Gage is remembered because friends and family said he was no longer Phineas but a new man, showing brain injury need not kill and that the head, not the heart, makes a person who he is. — 00:02:13 > «what makes a person who he is is not the heart but the head»
  • ★★ Hank sings that Gage was 37 when he went back to his home and family as his death neared, and that, as is common after severe head trauma, seizures killed him. (playful) — 00:02:54

00:03:26 — Thanks to Katherine and Lemon; Hank's answer on John's sing-a-ma-jig request; sign-off

  • ★ Hank thanks Katherine and Lemon for helping film the video, joking that Lemon didn't help at all, and apologizes for the unclean lens. (playful) — 00:03:26 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Hank apologizes for not addressing whether John can be his sing-a-ma-jig player: he isn't sure he can write for it and thinks he took John to be kidding; now he'll research whether he can. (playful) (hedged) — 00:03:32 · John Green

00:03:51 — Outtake: filming with the dog tied to him, a tumbleweed over his MacBook, 'I love Montana!'

  • ★ In an outtake, Hank is filming with the dog tied to him, a tumbleweed blows over his MacBook, and he exclaims that he loves Montana. (playful) — 00:03:51 · Montana

Humor (dominant)

  • Gage shoves the tamping rod onto the blasting powder without the sand. — 00:00:34 > «his entire left frontal lobe had been turned into clam chowder»
  • The doctor cannot believe a rod went through Gage's head, since he'd surely be dead. — 00:01:10 > «But then Phineas had a coughing fit and a teacupful of brains fell out of his head»
  • The doctor tells the family to prepare for Gage's death. — 00:01:37 > «the one you take before your head gets stabbed is usually your last breath»
  • Outtake: Hank filming outdoors with the dog tied to him. — 00:03:56 > «A tumbleweed just went over my Macbook.»

Threads in this video

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