Punish Hank? Save Hank? YOU DECIDE.

2008-10-22 · letter vlog · John, Hank · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Books & writing) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: punishment or challenge, community lore, on location, guest or collab, self promotion

From Miami on the Paper Towns tour, John shows the items from the novel's first BP stop that Vero Beach High School nerdfighters gave him, then phones Hank about his 4:16 video and asks Nerdfighters to vote on whether Hank should be punished.

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; Vero Beach High School shirt; Hank's new house vs John's touring; still no camcorder; Biltmore Hotel in Miami gives booze

★★ Students at Vero Beach High School gave John a shirt with all the things he loves on it. — 00:00:00
★★ While Hank sits in his fancy new house in Missoula, John has been travelling the country collecting t-shirts and failing to get a camcorder. (playful) — 00:00:14 · Missoula, Montana
★ John is at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami, which he says gives guests booze at check-in; he toasts Hank. (playful) — 00:00:23

00:00:36 — Punishment tease (Hank's 4:16 video); happy dance with the shopping bag; iSight freezes, camcorder tomorrow

★★★ John notes Hank's previous video was 4 minutes 16 seconds long and expects a 'weird semantic argument' against being punished. (playful) — 00:00:36 · Punishment, Four-minute rule
★★ After the MacBook's iSight camera freezes during his happy dance, John says it is why he is buying a camcorder tomorrow. (playful) — 00:01:06 · Happy dance (practice)

00:01:13 — The bag: every item Lacey, Ben, Q and Radar buy at the BP in Paper Towns, from Vero Beach nerdfighters; the imagined made real

★★★ Vero Beach High School nerdfighters gave John every item Lacey, Ben, Q and Radar pick up at their first BP stop in Paper Towns, including Nerds; he says it is no spoiler. — 00:01:24 · Paper Towns, Nerdfighteria
★★★ John marvels that something that existed only in his imagination now exists on his hotel bed, calling it the whole thematic structure of Paper Towns. (playful) — 00:01:33 · Paper Towns
★★ John says he loves Nerdfighters because they are just so awesome. — 00:01:50 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:57 — 4:16 video with no montage breaks the rules; phone call: Hank's black-space defence; Nerdfighters to vote

★★ John says Hank's 4:16 video contained no montage, which is clearly against the rules. — 00:02:00 · Four-minute rule
★★★ Hank: On the phone Hank argues his video was 3 minutes 50 seconds; the rest was black space because the song ran longer than the video track. (playful) — 00:02:32 · Four-minute rule

“My video yesterday was three minutes and fifty seconds long”
★★★ John lets the Nerdfighters decide: he asks them to vote on whether Hank should be punished. — 00:03:09 · Nerdfighteria, Punishment

00:03:15 — Penguin publicist calls Hank John's 'Sarah Palin'; sign-off: vote, and tour stops Miami, Orlando, Naperville

★★ A Penguin publicist told John that Hank is his 'Sarah Palin' who fires up the base, while John is the serious old one. (playful) — 00:03:15 · Penguin Books, Hank Green
★★ John hopes to see nerdfighters tonight in Miami, tomorrow in Orlando or on Friday in Naperville, Illinois. — 00:03:43

Humor (significant)

John asks Hank what the Biltmore Hotel gives you when you check in. — 00:00:25

“Booze.”
John toasts Hank as his friend, then corrects himself: they are brothers. — 00:00:36

“But will we be brothers after I punish you?”
John restates Hank's defence that the video's picture ended before four minutes. — 00:02:53

“the video as a video, as a visual phenomenon, was shorter than four minutes.”
Explaining the publicist's Palin comparison, John casts himself as the serious old running mate. — 00:03:30

“I’m the one who’s like “my friends, I think that we should read books.””

Threads in this video

milestone · Paper Towns Tour (2008) — John reports from Miami on the Paper Towns tour: Vero Beach High School students gave him a shirt and the Paper Towns BP items; Miami tonight, Orlando and Naperville next. (00:00:00)
update · John loses his camcorder in Boston on the Paper Towns tour (2008) — John still has not acquired a new camcorder; after the iSight freezes he says he is buying one tomorrow. (00:00:19)
first on record · Can imagination and work make ideas real? — John says something that existed only in his imagination now exists on his hotel bed thanks to Nerdfighters — the thematic structure of Paper Towns. (00:01:33)
asked · John asks Nerdfighters to vote on whether Hank should be punished for his 4:16 video (2008) — John asks Nerdfighters to vote on whether Hank should be punished for his 4:16 video without a montage. (00:03:09) → refers to Lonesome Cloud
proposed · Hank: dress as Carrie Bradshaw, punishment for his 4:16 video (2008) — John notes Hank's previous video was 4 minutes 16 seconds long and expects a 'weird semantic argument' against being punished. (00:00:36)

Where the stories that moved here went next

John asks Nerdfighters to vote on whether Hank should be punished for his 4:16 video (2008) — reported back; last: result reported, 2008-10-24
Hank: dress as Carrie Bradshaw, punishment for his 4:16 video (2008) — performed
Paper Towns Tour (2008) — last documented in 2008 (looked back on in 2019)
John loses his camcorder in Boston on the Paper Towns tour (2008) — followed over 3 videos (2008); last: update, 2008-10-28

Mentioned

Central: Four-minute rule · Paper Towns · Vero Beach High School

Also: People: Sarah Palin

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 · Paper Towns Tour

Organizations: Penguin Books

Rituals: Happy dance (practice) · Punishment

Places: Biltmore Hotel · Miami · Missoula, Montana · Naperville, Illinois · Orlando, Florida

Characters: Ben Starling · Lacey Pemberton · Quentin Jacobsen · Radar

Products: iSight · MacBook · Nerds

Replies to

punishes · Lonesome Cloud — “your video yesterday was four minutes and sixteen seconds long”

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