The Political Situation at the County Fair
2009-08-19 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube
Topic: US politics & society · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: timely hook, on location
Answering John's giant-boar health-care video, Hank strains to match it with comic county-fair analogies for US politics (cap and trade, the Democratic Party as a big-headed llama, Cash for Clunkers as a demolition derby), then argues seriously that US health care's core problem is tying doctors' income to the treatments they recommend.
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 back from the fair sees John's boar/health-care video and feels he must match its analogy
- ★★ Hank got home from the fair on Sunday with fair footage, then saw John's video comparing the world's largest boar to US health care and felt he had to match it. (playful) — 00:00:00
00:00:29 — Fair-politics analogies: motocross/cap and trade, chicken/politics, llama/Democratic Party, corn dog/Iraq, demolition derby/Cash for Clunkers
- ★★ Hank jokingly likens the Democratic Party to a llama with a huge head and an atrophied body that acts only every four years and must get involved. (playful) — 00:00:53 · Republican Party
- ★ Hank jokes that demolition derbies are the original Cash for Clunkers and would remove far more cars with a $4,500 prize to each winner. (joke) — 00:02:02
00:02:31 — Serious response: health care and the fair both make money off us; decouple doctors' income from patient care
- ★★★ Hank says the biggest parallel between health care and the fair is that both try to make money off us; at the fair he can ask the price and decline. — 00:02:31
- ★★★ Hank suggests tying money to a doctor's duty makes it hard to separate profit from best advice, since patients trust doctors and don't price-shop procedures. (hedged) — 00:03:00
- ★★★ Hank calls this the real problem of US health care: doctors' responsibility to patients must be decoupled from the money they make from them. (hedged) — 00:03:00
- ★★ Hank stresses the issue is extraordinarily complicated and that he is not saying doctors are only out to make money. — 00:03:00
00:03:30 — New Yorker article on US health-care costs recommended; closing pundit joke
- ★★ Hank recommends a long New Yorker article linked in the sidebar on why US health spending is so large, hopes all Nerdfighters read it and wants to discuss it with John. (hedged) — 00:03:30 · Nerdfighteria
Humor (significant)
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After the llama, Hank starts an Iraq analogy with a corn dog and has nothing to follow it. — 00:01:37
“The situation in Iraq is totally like this corn dog because... Corn dog.”
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The Democratic Party is a llama with a big head and atrophied body that only acts every four years. — 00:01:37
“the frickin' Republican llama is going crazy with its huge body and its tiny head”
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Hank proposes demolition derbies with $4,500 prizes instead of Cash for Clunkers, taking two dozen cars off the road each. — 00:02:02
“And I guarantee you, none of those cars are ever going to drive again. Problem solved!”
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After the serious part, Hank adds one more fair analogy. — 00:03:30
“Political pundits are like fare rides, because just looking at them makes me want to puke.”
Threads in this video
- first on record · Should doctors' pay depend on the treatments they recommend? — Hank argues the real problem of US health care is tying doctors' income to patients, and that the two must be decoupled. (00:03:00) → refers to Health Care Overhaul Summarized Via MASSIVE PIG
- asked · Hank asks Nerdfighters to read a New Yorker article on US health-care costs (2009) — Hank asks Nerdfighters to read the New Yorker article on US health-care costs linked in the sidebar. (00:03:30)
Mentioned
Central: health care prices in the United States
Also: Car Allowance Rebate System · Democratic Party · emissions trading · Iraq War · Republican Party · The Cost Conundrum · The New Yorker · Walkin' Tall
Also centred on health care prices in the United States: Health Care Reform Thought Bubble · The 1200% Increase in my Prescription Drug Costs · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) · Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? · Is Obamacare Working? The Affordable Care Act Five Years Later · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals
Replies to
- imitates · Health Care Overhaul Summarized Via MASSIVE PIG — “I click on your video when I get home from the fair, and I see your video”
Later videos replying to this one
- 2009-08-26 · DEMOLITION DERBY! (Hank) — continues — “in my last video that wasn't your birthday, I talked about the county fair, and I mentioned the Demolition Derby” (00:00:00)