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Is Lady Gaga a Man?

2010-12-31 · list · Hank · 3:17 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: community lore, civic or action cta, self promotion

Hank reads Google autocomplete suggestions for 'is', 'is my', 'is John Green', 'is Hank Green' and 'is Google' as a comic window into the collective psyche, noting especially the obsession with whether people are gay; he closes with a collab plug and the P4A raffle results.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Googling last night; how Google autocomplete guesses queries; its real value is a peek into the soul of mankind

  • ★★ Hank says Google now tries to guess what you want to know before you finish typing, apparently because people are too lazy to move their fingers more than necessary. (playful) — 00:00:04 · Google
  • ★★ Hank supposes autocomplete works by finding what other people searched for that starts with the same letters, which he calls convenient-ish. (hedged) — 00:00:15
  • ★★★ Hank thinks autocomplete's real value is less its convenience than its ability to let us peer into the soul of mankind. (hedged) — 00:00:23

00:00:32 — 'is' autocompletes (Facebook down, Lady Gaga a man, celebrities gay) and 'is my' autocompletes (husband, Mac, license, haunted house)

  • ★★ Hank reports that after 'is Facebook down', the second most common Google question starting with 'is' is 'is Lady Gaga a man?', and answers for everyone: no. (playful) — 00:00:39 · Google, Facebook
  • ★★ Hank notes a recurring autocomplete trend of asking whether people are gay: Daniel Tosh, Justin Bieber and Nate Berkus, whom Hank does not even know. (playful) — 00:00:51
  • ★★ Hank lists 'is my' autocompletes (husband or boyfriend gay, Mac 64-bit, license suspended, house haunted), calling the Mac one a legitimate question and the haunted house amazing. (playful) — 00:01:00

00:01:26 — 'is my dog' autocompletes; 'is John Green' answered; nothing for 'is Hank Green', so viewers are asked to Google 'is Hank Green awesome'; the obsession with sexual orientation

  • ★ After 'is my dog' autocompletes ending in 'is my dog gay?', Hank jokes the dog is probably omnisexual and remarks on our hang-ups. (playful) — 00:01:26
  • ★★ Hank types 'is John Green' (married, gay…), asks why everybody wants to know if everybody's gay, and answers the list, saying John is married and not dead. (playful) — 00:01:46 · John Green
  • ★★ Finding nothing autocompletes for 'is Hank Green' (no one cares), Hank asks viewers to Google 'is Hank Green awesome' so that, maybe, it will autocomplete. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:13 · Hank Green, Nerdfighteria, Google
  • ★★★ Hank finds the exploration fascinating, particularly our obsession with other people's sexual orientation, and looks forward to delving deeper into the nation's psyche with autocomplete. — 00:02:21

00:02:32 — 'is Google' autocompletes: more people ask whether Google is gay than whether it is gaining a monopoly; Google is not gay; goodbye to John

  • ★★ Hank reports 'is g…' autocompletes (Google making us stupid, God real, gonorrhea curable) and that fewer people ask whether Google is gaining a monopoly than whether it is gay. (playful) — 00:02:32 · Google

00:02:59 — News: a collab video with HorribleFiction; P4A raffle winners contacted; happy new year

  • ★★ Hank says he just did a collab video with HorribleFiction, linked in the video. — 00:02:59
  • ★★ Hank says the Project for Awesome raffle winners have been announced and contacted; those not contacted 'win at giving money to charity'. — 00:03:02 · Project for Awesome

In the description and comments

  • ★ In the description Hank says he found many amazing autocompletes and might do this again, or John might. (hedged) — video description · John Green
  • ★★ Answering 'Is My Life is Liz real', Hank says obviously not, yet being 'dramatized' doesn't make it unreal, since high school is about as dramatized as it gets. (playful) — video description
  • ★ Among his description answers, Hank says Brett Favre is married, though maybe not for long, and that no, your house is not haunted. (playful) — video description

Humor (dominant)

  • Among the 'is my' autocompletes is 'is my license suspended?'. — 00:01:03

    “which is a question you really should know the answer to”

  • Answering the autocomplete 'is my dog gay?', Hank revises his answer twice. — 00:01:35

    “actually your dog is probably omni-sexual.”

  • After seeing what the world asks about John, Hank types his own name and swears at the empty result. — 00:02:09

    “No one cares about what Hank Green is.”

  • More people ask whether Google is gay than whether it monopolises information, so Hank addresses the question. — 00:02:46

    “Much less a feeling of romantic longing.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: sexual orientation

Also: Daniel Tosh · Facebook · Google · Google Autocomplete · Justin Bieber · Lady Gaga · Nate Berkus · Project for Awesome

Only in the description or credits: Brett Favre · HorribleFiction · My Life Is Liz

Also centred on sexual orientation: Advice on First Kisses, Stalkers, College Majors, and More · Is My Boyfriend Gay? Is He Cheating? · Coming Out and Sperm Spikes · Human Sexuality is Complicated… · On Sexual Orientation, with Hannah, Ze, Tyler, and Meg

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