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July 26: The Price of Fame

2007-07-26 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:17 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore

Hank celebrates his song's YouTube front-page feature (over 200,000 views), then describes the price of YouTube fame: a flood of comments whose extremes are way too mean or way too nice, which is stressful, though he sees most commenters are nice and supportive.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Greeting; welcome to new viewers; Hank can't stop doing his happy dance; clip of the happy dance

00:00:51 — Why: 'Accio Deathly Hallows' featured on the YouTube front page, watched over 200,000 times

  • ★★★ Hank's song 'Accio Deathly Hallows' has been featured on the front page of YouTube and watched over 200,000 times. — 00:00:51 · YouTube

00:01:21 — The price of YouTube fame: one comment per 100 views, the bell curve of comments and its mean and too-nice extremes, how mom, wife and self read them, stress and tempering it

  • ★★★ Hank says the price of YouTube fame is comments: for every 100 views a video gets, there will be one comment. (playful) — 00:01:21 · celebrity, YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says a few comments can be taken one by one, but 2,000 of them form a shape: a bell curve of mostly nice comments with two extremes, way too mean and way too nice. — 00:01:21 · celebrity
  • ★★ Hank says that with a sample this big every person sees the comments differently: 'your mom', 'your wife' and 'you yourself' each notice different parts (shown on screen). — 00:01:53
  • ★★★ Hank finds the comments stressful - half seem to call him gay, half want his babies - but has tempered it by seeing that most people are very nice and supportive. (hedged) — 00:02:22 · celebrity
  • ★ Hank concedes the commenters who say he mispronounced 'Accio' are right. — 00:02:22

00:02:51 — 'The people are very jokes': Hank takes up John's 'jokes' for 'cool'; glad John is feeling better; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank takes up John's proposal and agrees it would be good to say 'jokes' instead of 'cool'. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:51 · jokes
  • ★ Hank is glad John is feeling better. — 00:02:51 · John Green

Humor (significant)

  • Hank does his happy dance at the store, in the street and in the shower. — 00:00:03

    “even though it's really dangerous because there's no traction in my tub”

  • Hank names his featured song after commenters argued over how to pronounce 'Accio'. — 00:00:51

    “Axio, Accio, Oscio, Oscio, Oshkosh, Bagachio, Deathly Hallows”

  • Half the commenters seem to call Hank gay and half want to have his babies; he notes the irony. — 00:02:22

    “But in either case, your wife is upset!”

  • Hank tries to use John's 'jokes' for 'cool' and garbles it. — 00:02:51

    “yes, I do think it would be jokes if we use the word jokes instead of jokes whenever we said jokes”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: celebrity

Also: Accio Deathly Hallows (“Axio, Accio, Oscio, Oscio, Oshkosh, Bagachio, Deathly Hallows”) · Brotherhood 2.0 · Happy dance (practice) · jokes · Stuff on Heads · YouTube

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