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YouTube Survey: Balls and First Kisses

2011-09-30 · Q&A · John · 2:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: community lore, recurring series

After a montage mocking Hank's 'balls', a plug for Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star and news that Nerdfighters have lent over $55,000 through Kiva, John answers Alex Day's YouTube survey (first kiss, clothes, childhood job, school friends, naming Henry) and asks Hank to answer it next.

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; plan to do Alex Day's YouTube survey; montage of Hank saying 'balls' from his last video

  • ★★ John opens with a montage of Hank saying 'balls', noting Hank said balls a lot in his last video. (playful) — 00:00:03 · Hank Green

00:00:11 — Team 6 for life; Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star is out; Nerdfighters have lent over $55,000 through Kiva

  • ★ John cheers 'Team 6 for life!' (not explained in the video). (playful) — 00:00:11
  • ★★ John says secret sister Maureen Johnson, 'aka Actual John Green', had her best book ever, The Name of the Star, come out yesterday, and everybody is going to love it. — 00:00:13 · Maureen Johnson, secret sibling
  • ★★★ John reports Nerdfighters have loaned more than $55,000 to entrepreneurs in the developing world through Kiva, and says Nerdfighters are made of awesome. — 00:00:24 · Nerdfighteria, made of awesome

00:00:36 — Survey answers: first kiss at summer camp (hair on fire), the suit and Team 6 t-shirt, wanting to be an earthworm scientist, troublemaker at a nerdy boarding school, wanting to name Henry Gatsby

  • ★★ John answers Alex Day's YouTube survey, joking that Alex does it every year, though this is the first year and it will be every year. (playful) — 00:00:36
  • ★★ John's first (French) kiss was with his camp girlfriend Tiffany at a candlelight ceremony on the last night of summer camp; it was more like facial licking, and a candle set his hair on fire. His second kiss came three years later. (playful) — 00:00:42
  • ★★ John says summer camp was like the internet before the internet: there you were cooler and better looking than in real life. — 00:00:44
  • ★★ John's most expensive casual clothing is the suit he bought so as not to look bad next to his wife at the Venice Biennale, or, if a suit isn't casual, his Team 6 for life t-shirt. (playful) — 00:01:29 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ As a little kid John wanted to be an earthworm scientist, a professional studier of earthworms. (playful) — 00:01:43
  • ★★ John was a nerd, but for his last three years of high school at a really nerdy boarding school he was more of a troublemaker, a non-nerdy past he calls embarrassing. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John wanted to name his son Henry 'Gatsby', but Sarah refused because Gatsby is a tragic character; John countered with the novel's line about what preyed on Gatsby and wanted that quote over the crib. — 00:02:13 · Henry Green, Sarah Urist Green

00:02:32 — Who should answer next: viewers here or at Alex Day's video, and Hank; spinny-chair song and apology; sign-off

  • ★★ John says everybody can leave survey responses on this video or at Alex Day's video. — 00:02:34
  • ★★★ John says he really wants his brother Hank to answer the survey next. — 00:02:36 · Hank Green
  • ★ After singing about his spinny chair, John apologizes, saying he promised Nerdfighteria he wouldn't sing anymore. (playful) — 00:02:43 · Nerdfighteria

Humor (significant)

  • John opens with a rapid montage of Hank saying 'balls' and explains why. — 00:00:03

    “You said "balls" a lot in your last video”

  • At the candlelight ceremony John wraps his arms around Tiffany and starts licking her face. — 00:01:13

    “I start to smell the fact that my hair is on fire”

  • John explains why as a kid he wanted to be a professional studier of earthworms. — 00:01:49

    “I guess because it mixed my two talents of animal husbandry and science”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Alex Day · YouTube Survey

Also: People: Henry Green · Maureen Johnson · Sarah Urist Green · Tiffany (private person, mentioned from 2007)

Works: The Great Gatsby · The Name of the Star

Organizations: Indian Springs School · Kiva

Terms: French the llama · made of awesome · secret sibling

Events: Venice Biennale

Characters: Jay Gatsby

Also centred on YouTube Survey: The LHC and Alex's Survey

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