Side-Boob is Not my Ultimate Concern
2010-03-17 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube
Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay · tags: song or performance, recurring series
Answering John's ultimate-concern question, Hank lists five things he would die for but cannot rank them, and says the more interesting question is where the limits of what we care about lie; he wishes his mom a happy birthday and posts a Truth or Fail.
What is said
The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).
00:00:00 — Side-boob video abandoned for John's ultimate-concern question; method: list five things he'd die for
- ★★ To find his ultimate concern, Hank lists the first five things he would give his life for, planning to narrow them down. — 00:00:00
00:00:29 — Five things Hank would die for: wife, freedom, the Library of Alexandria, alien contact, free clean energy
- ★★★ Hank would die for his wife, freedom for people he cares about, restoring the lost Library of Alexandria, peaceful alien contact, and free non-polluting energy for everyone. — 00:00:29 · Katherine Green
- ★★ Hank thinks he would die for the freedom of the people he cares about before he would die for their lives. (hedged) — 00:00:29
00:01:14 — Floor tangent: Felix Baumgartner's planned supersonic skydive from a balloon 23 miles up
- ★★ Hank says Felix Baumgartner will soon try to break the sound barrier skydiving from a helium balloon 23 miles up, where thin air won't slow him. — 00:01:14
- ★★ Hank would not give his life to be the first to break the sound barrier skydiving; he calls Baumgartner a bit of an idiot and hopes he doesn't die. (playful) — 00:01:14
00:01:41 — The tournament fails; Hank doesn't know his ultimate concern; circles of concern (rocks, diamonds, the Grand Canyon)
- ★★★ Hank tried to rank his five in an imagined tournament but couldn't; he doesn't know his ultimate concern and isn't sure it interests him. — 00:02:11
- ★★★ Hank finds it more interesting to ask where he draws lines between what he'd die for, fight for, care about at all, and not care about. (hedged) — 00:02:11
00:02:40 — You can't care about everything; family is central; happy birthday, Mom, with a party-blower song
- ★★★ Hank says you can't care about everything: you can't care about a neighbor's baby as much as he cares about his nephew Henry. — 00:02:40 · Henry Green
- ★★ Family is always central to Hank's concerns, so he wishes his mom a happy birthday and plays her a song on party blowers. — 00:02:40 · Sydney Green
00:03:16 — Mama Green's birthday vs St. Patrick's Day; a new Truth or Fail episode (clover and shamrock facts)
- ★★ Hank appends a new episode of Truth or Fail that he has just made. — 00:03:16
- ★ Truth or Fail candidate facts: one four-leaf clover per 100 three-leaf clovers; by legend St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to pagan Irish. (playful, unsure) — 00:03:16
- a number in question (doubtful): "one ... for every 100" — check against the recording
Humor (significant)
-
Hank says he had planned the top 10 celebrity side-boob shots of 2009 before John's question. — 00:00:00
“You think YouTube is for discussing ultimate concern. Everyone else thinks it's for side boob pictures.”
-
Hank's first thing he'd die for is his wife. — 00:00:29
“which is much more selfish than you think. I mean, she's the one that gets stuck here without a best friend.”
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Hank's plan was a tournament between his five things, forced by a hypothetical villain. — 00:01:41
“Like a terrorist would show up and he'd be like, the contents of the library at Alexandria, or your wife.”
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Hank claims the world wears green and dyes beer and rivers green for his mom's birthday, which falls on St. Patrick's Day. — 00:03:16
“If you think they're celebrating this St. Patrick's guy, you got another thing coming.”
Threads in this video
- first use · Hank's side-boob bit: the top-10 celebrity side-boob video he would rather have made than discuss his ultimate concern (2010) — Hank says he had meant to devote the video to the top 10 celebrity side-boob shots of 2009 before John's ultimate-concern question; the title bit. (00:00:00)
- result reported · John asks Hank and Nerdfighters whether they have an ultimate concern, what it is, and whether they should (2010) — Hank answers John's question: after listing five things he'd die for, he says he doesn't know what his ultimate concern is. (00:02:11) → refers to Cute OVERLOAD: The Ultimate Concern Edition
- first on record · Should people care about strangers as much as about their family and those close to them? — Hank says you can't care about everything, and can't care about a neighbor's baby as much as about his nephew Henry. (00:02:40)
Where the stories that moved here went next
- John asks Hank and Nerdfighters whether they have an ultimate concern, what it is, and whether they should (2010) — reported back; last: result reported, 2010-03-19
Mentioned
Central: ultimate concern
Also: People: Felix Baumgartner · Henry Green · Katherine Green · Saint Patrick · Sydney Green
Projects: Truth or Fail
Organizations: Library of Alexandria · YouTube
Places: Grand Canyon
Events: Saint Patrick's Day
Memes: Sideboob
Also centred on ultimate concern: Cute OVERLOAD: The Ultimate Concern Edition · Foreign John Green Books and the Ultimate Concern
Replies to
- answers · Cute OVERLOAD: The Ultimate Concern Edition — “So you want to know what my primary concern is, the one thing above all that I care about more than anything?”
Later videos replying to this one
- 2010-03-19 · Foreign John Green Books and the Ultimate Concern (John) — continues — “I did think it was interesting that you said that you would die and fight to recreate the Library of Alexandria” (00:00:29)