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GAY is NOT an INSULT

2009-06-29 (said on 2009-06-28 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 1 day later) · letter vlog · John · 3:12 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Internet & YouTube, Nerdfighteria) · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: community lore

Reading the week's hateful YouTube comments with poets' names in place of curse words, John corrects their grammar and argues that 'gay' cannot work as an insult because being gay is not bad; insulters embarrass 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 — Anger; more than 500 videos in the two-and-a-half-year conversation

  • ★★ John notes that in their two-and-a-half-year conversation the brothers have uploaded more than 500 videos, watched many times thanks to Nerdfighters. — 00:00:10 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria

00:00:22 — Not every viewer is awesome: reading hateful comments with American poets' names for curse words; grammar lessons on you're and 'stupid' as a noun

  • ★★ John says not everyone watching is awesome and reads comments posted on Vlogbrothers videos in the last week, replacing each curse word with a famous American poet's name. (playful) — 00:00:22 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John tells commenters that the contraction of 'you are' is spelled with an apostrophe and asks them to check before submitting a comment. (playful) — 00:01:05 · YouTube
  • ★ John says calling someone stupid implies knowing the difference between stupid and smart, a case not helped by using 'stupid' as a noun. (playful) — 00:01:29

00:01:48 — What gay means, how insults work, and why gay will never work as an insult

  • ★★★ John explains that being gay means being attracted to people of the same gender, so a video cannot be gay. — 00:01:53 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John says insults work by painting people with bad traits, yet YouTube comments treat being a gay virgin nerd as the worst thing; people get insulted for who they are, not what they do. — 00:02:03 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John argues 'gay' will never work as an insult because being gay is not bad; calling him a gay nerd virgin embarrasses the commenter, not him. — 00:02:36

00:02:50 — A 'better' insult: John looks like Tim Allen from Wild Hogs

00:03:04 — Question Tuesday on Tuesday; asks for questions; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says there is no punishment for the late upload because YouTube would not let John upload the night before. — video description · Punishment, YouTube

Humor (significant)

  • John reads a hateful comment, replacing its curse word with a famous American poet's name. — 00:00:36

    “Go Emily Dickinson your mom!”

  • A commenter says John needs fresh air 'into you. Or a girlfriend.' — 00:00:55

    “I need to get a girlfriend into me?”

  • John explains that real insults target bad traits, and offers one for Hank. — 00:02:17

    “I might say that you're a selfish coal-fired power plant.”

  • John holds up a commenter saying he looks like 'that guy from Wild Hogs' as a model insult. — 00:02:50

    “Wow Hank, that's a burn.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: homophobia

Also: People: Anne Sexton · E. E. Cummings · Edna St. Vincent Millay · Emily Dickinson · Katherine Green · Mike Green · Nikki Giovanni · Ralph Waldo Emerson · Robert Frost (“Robert Frosting”) · Sydney Green · Tim Allen · Walt Whitman (“Walt Whitman-ing”)

Works: Wild Hogs

Organizations: YouTube

Rituals: Question Tuesday

Concepts: linguistic prescription

Only in the description or credits: Punishment

Also centred on homophobia: Be The Change - vlogbrothers

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