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Brotherhood 2.0: February 16th

2007-02-16 · challenge / punishment · Hank · 4:18 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: punishment or challenge, community lore, civic or action cta

Meeting John's challenge, Hank answers his own annual survey at high speed (work, hopes, best books and song, a perfect day, human extinction, what's wrong with the world), claims the survey part took 3:27, and invites viewers to complete the survey themselves.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank speed-answers his own survey: Katherine, work (Brotherhood 2.0, EcoGeek, web design, freelance writing), best books, perfect day, extinction, kids, best song, cliche, living anywhere, business, time travel, what's wrong with the world

  • ★★ Hank's assignment for the day is to complete his own survey, really fast. — 00:00:11
  • ★ Hank says he has known Katherine for about nine years; from her he wants nothing more than she gives, from himself a bit more self-restraint and a Nintendo Wii. (playful) — 00:00:11 · Katherine Green
  • ★★★ Hank lists his work: Brotherhood 2.0 with his brother, running EcoGeek.org (a blog on environmental technologies), his old web design and development business, and trying to be a freelance writer; he is in this month's (February 2007) Mental Floss. — 00:00:11 · Brotherhood 2.0, EcoGeek
  • ★★ Hank expects to do web development for life and hopes to write as long; he is doing exactly what he wants, a first; he hopes for fame but expects 'contented obscurity'. (hedged) — 00:00:46
  • ★★ Hank says he has lived his life going with the flow, but now, for the first time, he feels he has to paddle. (hedged) — 00:00:46
  • ★★ Hank's best books of the year: The Memory of Whiteness (serious fiction), Going Postal (funny fiction) and Last Child in the Woods (non-fiction). — 00:00:46
  • ★ Hank's perfect day: waking to find he is famous for something he is proud of, a beach with Katherine, hiking, surfing, dinner at a Montana restaurant and a block party with everyone he knows. (playful) — 00:00:46 · Katherine Green, Montana
  • ★★★ Hank calls himself an optimist about human extinction: he thinks humans will eventually tire of procreation and find new ways of existing without mass slaughter or resource depletion. (hedged) — 00:01:29 · optimism
  • ★★ Hank likes cute kids but says they drool a lot and he really does not want one himself. (playful) — 00:01:29
  • ★★ For his own question, Hank names Weird Al's 'White and Nerdy' as far and away the best song he heard this year (2007). — 00:01:29
  • ★ Quick answers: Hank is an 'absent-minded kid in a candy store' online, loves science fiction, would live anywhere his friends were, and his first concert was the B-52s. (playful) — 00:02:15 · Mars, Montana, United States

  • ★★★ Asked what's wrong with the world, Hank first says overpopulation, then, not wanting everyone to die, blames brains hardwired for local concerns in a world with global consequences. (hedged) — 00:03:04

    “brains hardwired for a local concern in a world with global consequences”

00:03:44 — The survey section took 3:27, so the challenge is complete; sign-off; invitation to viewers to complete the survey themselves

  • ★★★ Hank says the survey section took only 3 minutes 27 seconds, so the challenge is complete even though the video runs longer than 3:30. — 00:03:44
  • ★★★ Hank has posted a blank version of the survey in the comments and invites the viewers who made up the challenge to complete it themselves, in any form, or not at all. — 00:03:44

Humor (significant)

  • Hank says he has gone with the flow all his life, but now feels he has to paddle. — 00:00:46

    “And I'm beating bad people over the head with it.”

  • Hank's 'perfect day' begins with waking to find he has become famous for something he is proud of. — 00:00:46

    “Go have a nice poop.”

  • Asked what business would be instantly successful, Hank picks an environmental-technology magazine. — 00:03:04

    “because if my business was instantly successful, then that would be really great!”

  • Asked what's wrong with the world, Hank answers with a play on John's novel title. — 00:03:04

    “An underabundance of Catherines.”

  • Hank explains why he posted the blank survey text in the comments, after delivering his answers in a sped-up voice. — 00:03:44

    “so you can decipher it if you can't quite understand what that chipmunk is saying.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Katherine Green (“An underabundance of Catherines”)

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 · EcoGeek

Works: An Abundance of Katherines (“An underabundance of Catherines”) · Going Postal · Last Child in the Woods · The Memory of Whiteness · Under the Sea · White & Nerdy

Organizations: Mental Floss

Groups: The B-52's

Concepts: human overpopulation · optimism

Places: Mars · Montana · United States

Products: Wii

Only in the description or credits: Weird Al Yankovic

Later videos replying to this one