Skip to content

Gus Is A Bug

2009-11-15 · challenge / punishment · John · 2:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Announcements · tags: punishment or challenge, civic or action cta, community lore, on location

John says most books, even great ones like his childhood favourite Gus Is a Bug, go out of print and are forgotten; he challenges Nerdfighters to find a copy or its author (and punish him if they do) or to illustrate its text, which he reads aloud.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Plane/ground opening; flying home from friends' wedding in New Orleans; his favourite childhood book, Gus Is a Bug

  • ★★ John is flying home from his friends' wedding in New Orleans, after sleeping 86 minutes the night before. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John's favourite book as a little kid was Gus Is a Bug, about a caterpillar named Gus; in retrospect it was teaching that the letter U can sound 'uh'. — 00:00:00

00:00:41 — Better than The Very Hungry Caterpillar; most books, even great ones, go out of print and are forgotten

  • ★★ John recalls thinking Gus Is a Bug the greatest accomplishment in literature, judging Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar good but no Gus Is a Bug. (playful) — 00:00:41
  • ★★★ John says people think books bring authorial immortality, but most books, even great ones, eventually go out of print and are entirely forgotten. — 00:00:41

00:01:10 — No copy can be found; challenge to find a copy or the author (with punishment as reward); project to illustrate the text and upload to the Ning

  • ★★★ Despite extensive searching John cannot find a single copy; a teacher reprinted the text online, so he knows it but not the author or the pictures. — 00:01:10
  • ★★★ John challenges Nerdfighters to find him a copy or the author of Gus Is a Bug; if they do, they may punish him however they see fit. — 00:01:10 · Nerdfighteria, Punishment
  • ★★★ Even without a copy, John proposes Nerdfighters remake the book: draw pictures for the text he reads and upload them to the Ning so he can reconstitute his childhood experience. (hedged) — 00:01:40 · Nerdfighteria, Nerdfighter Ning

00:02:09 — John reads Gus Is a Bug aloud; the airport thinks he is crazy; Question Tuesday on Tuesday; sign-off

  • ★★ John reads the full text of Gus Is a Bug aloud as the text to illustrate: Gus has fuzz, runs, naps, tugs, and ends with no fuzz. (playful) — 00:02:09
  • ★★ John asks Nerdfighters to leave questions in the comments and says he will do a Question Tuesday on Tuesday. — 00:02:34 · Nerdfighteria, Question Tuesday

Humor (significant)

  • John opens by repeating the plane/ground routine from Hank's previous video. — 00:00:00

    “See what I did there?”

  • Child John reads Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar after loving Gus Is a Bug. — 00:00:41

    “this is good, but it's no Gus is a Bug.”

  • John reads the climax of Gus Is a Bug, the caterpillar emerging as a butterfly: 'It is Gus! Gus has no fuzz!' — 00:02:34

    “God, I just love that revelatory moment at the end. No fuzz!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Gus Is a Bug

Also: Nerdfighter Ning · New Orleans · Punishment · Question Tuesday · The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Only in the description or credits: Eric Carle

Also centred on Gus Is a Bug: Question Tuesday: The Free Money Edition · GUS HAS NO FUZZ! · Eating the Unicorn

Replies to

← Previous: On a Plane - On the Ground · Next → Question Tuesday: The Free Money Edition