NERD ALERT: Presidential Last Words

2009-10-04 · list · John · 3:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Curiosity & trivia

Answering Hank's Star Wars severed-hands video, John proves his nerdiness by reciting the known last words of every dead US president, with comic asides on Jefferson, Garfield's Swain and Calvin Coolidge.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Reply to Hank's 13 severed hands of Star Wars video: John fears he is not a nerd, then remembers he knows the presidents' last words

★★ John says Hank's video on the 13 severed hands of Star Wars blew his mind with its brilliance and made him doubt he is a nerd. (playful) — 00:00:00
★★ John says he remembered he has memorized all the known last words of American presidents, which reassures him he is a nerd. (playful) — 00:00:20

00:00:27 — Last words of every dead US president, Washington to Lyndon Johnson, with asides (Jefferson, Swain, Coolidge)

★★★ John recites the recorded last words of each dead US president in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, noting where they are unknown. — 00:00:27
★★ John says John Adams's last words claimed Thomas Jefferson still survived, which was untrue: Jefferson had died earlier that same day, July 4, 1826. — 00:00:32 · first in: 2008-12-15, Famous Last Words
★★ John mocks Jefferson for resigning his daughter to his country, imagining her asking whether he believes humans can own other humans, a jab at his slaveholding. (playful) — 00:00:45
★ John says James K. Polk's last words ('I love you Sarah. I love you for all eternity.') would be good last words for him too. — 00:01:31
★ John says Swain, named in Garfield's last words, was Garfield's chief of staff. — 00:02:22
★ John says Calvin Coolidge was famous for never saying anything, telling the anecdote of his two-word reply to a woman who bet she could get more out of him. — 00:02:57
★★ John says the last words of Franklin Pierce, Chester A. Arthur, William Howard Taft and Harry Truman are unknown, and Nixon's and Reagan's were not recorded. — 00:03:25

00:03:27 — All other presidents alive; "I did it, Hank!"; sign-off

★★ John says all other presidents are currently alive. — 00:03:27

Humor (significant)

Jefferson's last words resign his daughter to his country; John imagines her asking if he believes humans can own other humans. — 00:00:59

“Oh. Right, you do.”
Andrew Johnson's last words: 'I need no doctor. I can overcome my own trouble.' — 00:02:08

“Or not.”
Garfield's last words call out to Swain; John proposes 'Swain' as a substitute for 'dang'. — 00:02:22

“Like, aw swainit, I stubbed my toe.”
A woman tells the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge that her friend bet she couldn't get more than two words out of him. — 00:02:57

“You lose.”

Mentioned

Central: last words

Also: People: Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Jackson · Andrew Johnson · Benjamin Harrison · Calvin Coolidge · Chester A. Arthur · David G. Swaim · Dwight D. Eisenhower · Franklin Delano Roosevelt · Franklin Pierce · George Washington · Grover Cleveland · Harry S. Truman · Herbert Hoover · James A. Garfield · James Buchanan · James K. Polk · James Madison · James Monroe · John Adams · John F. Kennedy · John Quincy Adams · John Tyler · Lyndon B. Johnson · Martin Van Buren · Millard Fillmore · Richard Nixon · Ronald Reagan · Rutherford B. Hayes · Theodore Roosevelt · Thomas Jefferson · Ulysses S. Grant · Warren G. Harding · William Henry Harrison · William Howard Taft · William McKinley · Woodrow Wilson · Zachary Taylor

Works: Star Wars

Concepts: nerd

Places: Dallas

Also centred on last words: GEEKING OUT Over Dying Declarations · Death, Love, and John's Religion: The Big Questions Take Over Question Tuesday

Replies to

continues · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — “So your video about the thirteen severed hands of Star Wars”

← Previous: Truth or Fail: DRUGS! · Next → Victoria Beckham In Your Pants