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Cancer Sniffing Dog

2011-02-07 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Sports, Nerdfighteria, Everyday life) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, self promotion, community lore

Hank cheers the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers as a community-owned non-profit the NFL now forbids copying, rants about Coca-Cola ads, marvels at a Japanese Labrador that smells colon cancer, and announces a shared VYou Q&A space.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Greeting: not even trying with the date; day after Super Bowl Sunday

00:00:09 — Why Hank loves the Green Bay Packers: community-owned non-profit; the NFL forbids another team like them

  • ★ Hank says the day after Super Bowl Sunday that this is maybe the first time ever he cared about a Super Bowl, taunting Steelers fans. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:09
  • ★ Hank's first reason to like the Green Bay Packers: many Wisconsinites live in Missoula and he doesn't like seeing his friends cry. (playful) — 00:00:09 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★★ Hank says the Packers are owned by tens of thousands of people who get nothing in return for their stock, because the team is a non-profit organization. — 00:00:22
  • ★★★ Hank asks why all football teams aren't community-owned non-profits like the Packers: it clearly works, since they won the Super Bowl and have the most dedicated fans. — 00:00:38
  • ★★ Hank contrasts the other teams: owned by a rich person or a small group of rich people, and not non-profits that give their profits back to the community. — 00:00:53
  • ★★★ From a little internet research, Hank reports that the NFL has specifically forbidden another team like the Packers from entering the league. — 00:01:06
  • ★★ Hank suggests the ban exists because rich owners could not make money from teams owned by the community, and calls it stupid. (playful) — 00:01:14

00:01:22 — Brain crack idea: an annotated video of every item on his bookshelf

  • ★★ Hank's 'horrible brain crack' idea: film the books and knick-knacks behind him and link each to a review or its story; about 200 hours of work, so it stays unmade. (playful) — 00:01:22 · brain crack

00:01:47 — Super Bowl commercials: rant against Coca-Cola ads

  • ★ Hank says the Super Bowl is not really about football but about eating food, hanging out with friends and watching commercials. (playful) — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Hank is tired of Coca-Cola commercials: Coke is bubbly sugar water that cannot solve the world's problems, and people like it because it is candy in a bottle. (playful) — 00:01:50

00:02:22 — A black Labrador in Japan that smells colon cancer on the breath

  • ★★★ Hank reports that a black Labrador in Japan can smell colon cancer on people's breath and in their stool, as accurately as a colonoscopy. — 00:02:25
  • ★★ Hank wants a future where a doctor's-office Labrador sniffs patients and barks or doesn't, though he admits that would be a horrible way to learn you have cancer. (playful) — 00:02:44

00:03:00 — Plug: Katherine guest-stars in Hank Plays Lego Harry Potter

  • ★★ Hank says Katherine guest-starred with him in an episode of Hank Plays Lego Harry Potter, which he calls hilarious and adorable, and tells viewers to watch it. — 00:03:00 · Katherine Green

00:03:09 — Plug: a linked VYou Q&A space with John, WheezyWaiter, Alex Day and Elmify

  • ★★★ Hank announces that he, John, WheezyWaiter, Alex Day and Elmify are creating a linked VYou space, which he calls like Question Tuesdays except forever and always. — 00:03:09 · John Green, Craig Benzine, Question Tuesday
  • ★★ Hank invites viewers to ask questions on VYou, which the five will answer in video, and says signing up instead of asking anonymously makes him much more likely to answer. — 00:03:22

00:03:42 — More in the end screen; sign-off

Humor (significant)

  • Hank notes that Super Bowl winners are called 'world champions'. — 00:00:48

    “because the rest of the world is fighting so hard.”

  • Coca-Cola ads promise that sugar water can solve the world's problems. — 00:02:04

    “It cannot defuse a dragon that is attacking adorable monkey people.”

  • Hank asks why we really like Coca-Cola. — 00:02:20

    “Because it's candy in a bottle.”

  • Hank marvels that the cancer dog smells your breath rather than your butt. — 00:02:58

    “Though it is a dog, so it's probably gonna sniff your butt anyway.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: cancer-sniffing black Labrador in Japan · Green Bay Packers · VYou

Also: People: Alex Day · Craig Benzine · Elmify · Katherine Green

Works: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4

Organizations: National Football League · Pittsburgh Steelers

Rituals: Question Tuesday

Terms: brain crack

Concepts: colorectal cancer

Places: Japan · Missoula, Montana · Wisconsin

Events: Super Bowl

Products: Coca-Cola

Only in the description or credits: The Agents of Awesome

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2011-02-11 · 200 People in Your Pants (Hank) — continues — “in lieu of making a giant annotated video with links to everything on this bookshelf” (00:00:28)