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Fatherhood

2010-01-18 · letter vlog · John · 2:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life · mode: Personal update

With his first child due any day, John admits he sometimes feels unqualified for fatherhood next to their own very good father, but concludes that parents become qualified while doing it; he asks Hank for a video answering kids' questions.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Any day now: fatherhood is all John thinks about; excited but not entirely qualified (shaving, laziness)

  • ★★★ John says it is Monday, January 18, which means the baby is due any day now, and fatherhood is all he is thinking about. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John is very excited to be a father but sometimes thinks he is not entirely qualified: he forgets to shave and is lazy in the sense that he doesn't move much. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:08

00:00:22 — Their father as an awesome father and hard example; Dad can answer why the sky is blue, John can't

  • ★★★ John says their father is a really awesome father: always proud and supportive, he made many sacrifices and can do dad things like woodworking; a hard example to live up to, but John is lucky to have it. — 00:00:22 · Mike Green
  • ★★ Their dad can always answer kids' questions like why the sky is blue; John cannot, even though Dad has explained it to him 'like a thousand times'. (playful) — 00:00:40 · Mike Green

00:00:51 — What John will tell his kid: blue space pterodactyls poop the sky blue; the kid will be a terrible science student

  • ★ John jokes he will either tell his kid to call Grandpa or claim that giant blue pterodactyl-like birds in space poop the sky blue, ruining the kid as a science student. (joke) — 00:00:51

00:01:24 — You become qualified while doing it, like writing a novel except the novel may need therapy; the anxiety sound

  • ★★★ John thinks the nature of impending fatherhood is doing something you are unqualified to do and becoming qualified while doing it. (hedged) — 00:01:24

    “you are doing something you're unqualified to do and then you become qualified while doing it”

  • ★★ He compares it to writing and publishing a novel, except this 'novel' is a person who, if you mess up, will need a lot of expensive therapy. (playful) — 00:01:32

00:01:48 — Not the first organism to face parenthood: Willy, unqualified and neutered, can't do the square root of four

  • ★★ When anxious, John reminds himself he is not the first organism to face parenthood and many were less qualified, such as Willy, who is adorable but 'an idiot' and not qualified to be a dad. (playful) — 00:01:48 · Willy

00:02:28 — The baby will have an awesome mom, Uncle Hank and Aunt Katherine; sign-off; ask for a video answering kids' questions

  • ★★ John is comforted that even with a 'doofus' for a father, the baby will have an awesome mom and an awesome Uncle Hank and Aunt Katherine. — 00:02:28 · Sarah Urist Green, Hank Green, Katherine Green
  • ★★ John asks Hank to make him a video answering the questions kids ask (why is water wet, why do platypi lay eggs, why is the sky blue) so he won't look like an idiot once the baby is curious. — 00:02:39

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description invites viewers who want to give John's baby a 'baby-warming present' to do so via a link. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • John imagines explaining the blue sky to his kid as poop from giant blue birds orbiting the world. — 00:01:07

    “Except when they're sick, when they poop gray and that's why clouds are gray.”

  • Reassuring himself that less qualified organisms become parents, John notes that Willy could have seven kids by now. — 00:02:03

    “I mean if we hadn't cut his balls off.”

  • John quizzes Willy on the square root of four to prove the dog is not qualified to be a dad. — 00:02:21

    “The answer is not licks; the answer is 2.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Mike Green

Also: Katherine Green · Sarah Urist Green · Willy

Later videos replying to this one