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The Balloon Boy Hoax

2009-10-18 · letter vlog · John · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Personal life) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

Continuing Hank's theme of how incentives shape behaviour, John recounts the Balloon Boy hoax, argues the father faked his son's possible death to become a TV star, and asks why people want fame despite its costs.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Sunday 'Newsday' from a future bathroom; continuing Hank's incentives theme; John cried when told the balloon boy was safe

  • ★ John films from a room that will hopefully someday be his bathroom but is still another uninhabitable room in his house. (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says Hank's last couple videos discussed why we think and behave as we do and how corporations sometimes incentivize us to act like jerks, and he continues that conversation. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says the Yeti came home to find him crying with relief that the Colorado boy was not in the balloon but safe in his attic. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green

00:00:36 — Why he followed the story (something to root for); the balloon flight, the rescue and no boy inside

  • ★★ John says he followed the balloon story because he could root for something, without the complexities of tribalism in Afghanistan or healthcare policy. — 00:00:36
  • ★★ John recounts the story as first told: a six-year-old supposedly climbed into the family's flying-saucer balloon, which flew for hours before being pulled down with no child inside. (playful) — 00:01:05

00:01:34 — The family: Wife Swap twice, 'weird science', the father's reptilian conspiracy beliefs; believing them is stupid

  • ★★ John says the family had been on Wife Swap twice and the father believes Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting reptilian and that a secret cabal of reptilians runs the world. — 00:01:34
  • ★★ John says outright that believing a secret cabal of reptilian shapeshifters runs the world is stupid, expecting angry commenters. — 00:02:04

00:02:04 — Boy found in the attic; it was a hoax, charges coming; how John knew: the father's 'wouldn't that make great television'; Wife Swap, TLC pitch

  • ★★★ John says the boy was found hiding in a box in the attic; the sheriff's department first said it could not be a hoax, but it was, and charges against the father are expected within days. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ John notes the boy told his father 'you said we did this for a show', and the next day was made to go on the Today Show, where he vomited. — 00:02:04
  • ★★★ John says he knew it was a hoax when the father said he wasn't selling anything and 'this is what we do all the time'; John adds how many people watched and that it made great television. — 00:02:33
  • ★★ John says the father had been on Wife Swap twice and pitched a show to TLC, which passed. — 00:02:33

00:03:02 — He faked his son's possible death for fame; question of the day: why do people want to be famous?; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says the father so wanted to be a famous TV star that he faked his son's possible death, thinking, like all narcissists, that he was a genius. — 00:03:02 · celebrity
  • ★★★ John's question of the day: since fame leads to divorce, personality disorders, head-shaving and general ass-hattery, why do people want fame and sell out values and loved ones for strangers' attention? — 00:03:02 · celebrity, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says he isn't casting aspersions: he thinks everyone struggles with wanting attention, including him, but he doesn't get it. (hedged) — 00:03:31
  • ★★ John asks what incentive fame could offer if we behave as incentivized; it isn't money, since lawyers make better money than stars of TLC shows. — 00:03:31 · celebrity

Humor (significant)

  • John recaps: the six-year-old climbs into the balloon, the balloon takes off, and then he is in... — 00:01:05

    “what balloonists refer to as mortal danger.”

  • The family isn't into science as such but 'weird science', and not the kind of weird science where you make hot girls, — 00:01:34

    “but the kind of weird science where you think that Hillary Clinton is a reptilian.”

  • Who can blame the boy for vomiting after being forced onto the Today Show? — 00:02:33

    “I mean, I vomit sometimes just watching the Today Show.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Balloon boy hoax · celebrity · Richard Heene

Also: People: Hillary Clinton · Sarah Urist Green

Works: Today (American TV program) · Weird Science (“weird science where you make hot girls”) · Wife Swap

Organizations: TLC (TV channel)

Concepts: conspiracy theory

Places: Afghanistan · Colorado

Also centred on Balloon boy hoax: Balloon Boy: A Short Song

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 5 videos, 2009-10-11 – 2009-10-25.