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The Marriage Ref SUCKS

2010-03-01 · letter vlog · John · 3:07 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore, timely hook, civic or action cta, self promotion

John updates Nerdfighters on Ningmaster Tom's recovery, mocks NBC's The Marriage Ref, and answers NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker's dismissal of YouTube by saying Nerdfighteria is in the business of taking care of each other and is more real than reality TV.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hoarse greeting; Ningmaster Tom is conscious; letters to his email and a collab video for Tom

  • ★ John apologizes for his hoarse voice, saying the tiny chickens have migrated down into his throat. (playful) — 00:00:00 · tiny chickens
  • ★★★ John reports Ningmaster Tom is conscious and has spoken to his family but has a long way to go in recovery; the community will be with him throughout. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Ningmaster
  • ★★ John points Nerdfighters to a letter on the Ning in which Tom's family thanks them for their letters, and asks them to keep writing to NingMasterTom at gmail.com. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighter Ning, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John invites viewers who want to take part in a collab video for Tom to click an on-screen link. — 00:00:00

00:00:33 — Olympic closing ceremonies interrupted by The Marriage Ref; John summarizes and attacks the show

  • ★★ John says that while he watched the Olympic closing ceremonies the day before, Bob Costas cut away from the giant inflatable beavers to introduce The Marriage Ref. (playful) — 00:00:33
  • ★★ John summarizes The Marriage Ref for Hank: an unlikable couple who want to be on reality TV presents a disagreement, and three Hollywood celebrities joke and pick the winner. (playful) — 00:00:33
  • ★★★ John calls The Marriage Ref astonishingly unfunny and insulting to Americans: condescending, aggressively anti-intellectual, and wrongly assuming Americans want celebrities' advice. — 00:01:14

00:01:43 — Jeff Zucker's dismissal of YouTube; what Nerdfighteria is in the business of; a community more real than reality TV; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker likes to say YouTube is for squirrels on trampolines and that advertisers don't want ads next to cats on skateboards. — 00:01:43 · YouTube
  • ★★ John retorts that Zucker's network spends millions of dollars on a show about dog taxidermy, so he is in no position to throw stones. (playful) — 00:01:43

  • ★★★ John says unlike NBC, Nerdfighteria is not in the advertiser business but in pond sand filters, Haitian relief and the pizza shirt, and above all in taking care of each other. — 00:02:14 · Nerdfighteria, Pizza John

    “our biggest business of all is taking care of each other”

  • ★ John says the funny pizza shirt is available until Wednesday (3 March 2010), with a link in the doobly-doo. — 00:02:14 · Pizza John

  • ★★★ John says he loves Nerdfighteria because it lets people who have felt on the outside looking in be inside something awesome and important. — 00:02:14 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says he has never loved Nerdfighteria more than in the last few days, seeing hundreds of emails come to Tom and his family wishing them well. — 00:02:14 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John tells Jeff Zucker that Nerdfighteria may be only a YouTube-based community but is more real than all his reality shows combined. — 00:02:44 · Nerdfighteria, YouTube

Humor (significant)

  • John apologizes to Hank for his husky voice but pointedly not to female viewers. — 00:00:00

    “To them I say... You're welcome.”

  • The Olympic closing ceremonies cut to the new show The Marriage Ref, produced around Jerry Seinfeld. — 00:00:33

    “It's the closing ceremonies of Jerry Seinfeld's career.”

  • John says the show wrongly supposes Americans want advice from celebrities. — 00:01:14

    “Celebrities, we don't want your advice. We want your breakups and your nipple slips.”

  • Calling back to the giant inflatable beavers, John tells Zucker he would see there are no cats or skateboards. — 00:02:44

    “if you didn't have your head so far up the ass of a gigantic inflatable beaver”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Jeff Zucker · Ningmaster Tom · The Marriage Ref

Also: People: Bob Costas · Jerry Seinfeld

Projects: Nerdfighter Ning

Organizations: NBC · NBCUniversal · YouTube

Terms: in your pants · Pizza John · tiny chickens

Places: Haiti

Events: Olympic Games

Also centred on Jeff Zucker: VidCon Schedule Spectacular!

Also centred on Ningmaster Tom: Ningmaster Tom · Mmmm....PARTS

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