Skip to content

Mad Science with Dr. Horrible (Hank)

2009-10-28 · other · Hank · 3:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Science & nature) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta

Dressed as Dr. Horrible for Halloween, Hank pretends a researcher wants Nerdfighters' eye-tracking videos, then reveals the 'experiment' is a cat jump-scare, playfully calling it community power used for something awesome.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Halloween: Hank dressed as mad scientist Dr. Horrible, loses his glasses

  • ★ Hank is dressed as the mad scientist Dr. Horrible for Halloween. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:26 — Pretext: Dr. Suzanne Martin's eye-and-ear study wants Nerdfighters as subjects

  • ★★ Hank says (as a prank pretext) that Dr. Suzanne Martin contacted him about using Nerdfighters in an experiment on how hearing interacts with seeing, tracked by eye-motion software. (joke) — 00:00:26 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:24 — Instructions: camera on your eyes, a foot from the monitor

  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to film their eyes while watching the rest of the video a foot from the screen and post it as a video response (at least 200, ideally a thousand). (playful) — 00:01:24 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:54 — Post a video response; follow the red dot; cat jump-scare and reveal

00:03:17 — Not officially science, but a database of scared viewers; song plan; community power; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank reveals the experiment was a Halloween trick: not officially science, but hopefully a large database of people getting scared by a cat. (playful, hedged) — 00:03:17
  • ★★ Hank says he looks forward to downloading the response videos and writing a song about how he scared viewers. (playful) — 00:03:17
  • ★★ Hank says that while they are not really doing science, they are using the power of community to do something awesome. (playful) — 00:03:17 · Nerdfighteria

Humor (dominant)

  • Dressed as Dr. Horrible, Hank decides the character does not wear glasses and takes his off. — 00:00:00

    “Except now I can't see anything.”

  • Viewers told to follow a red dot for an eye-tracking study are hit with a jump-scare cat; Hank then apologises that he tricked them. — 00:01:54

    “Happy Halloween.”

  • Hank, in character as a mad scientist, excuses tricking his research subjects. — 00:03:17

    “You think that the ethics is gonna get in the way of the science?”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Dr. Horrible · Halloween (holiday) · KeepVid · Suzanne Martin · YouTube

← Previous: We Win When Everyone Wins · Next → EMBARASSMENT: The Live Show