On Cuties and Cooties

2012-02-28 · letter vlog · John · 3:02 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Personal life, Everyday life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, community lore

From New Orleans and an aquarium, John tells how he thought classmates said he had 'cuties', argues that sacrificing what matters for popularity is wrong, and says Moby-Dick shows hard is not the opposite of fun.

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 from New Orleans; Hank's cute video and 'cute overload'; cooties defined via Wikipedia

• ★★ John says he is in New Orleans, three days into a vacation. — 00:00:00
• ★ John jokes that Hank's cute Friday video nearly gave him cute overload, but he had a 'cuties shot' in the last ten years. (joke) — 00:00:00
• ★★ John defines cooties, quoting Wikipedia, as a fictitious childhood disease said to infect people perceived as different or socially stigmatized. — 00:00:00 · Wikipedia

00:00:29 — John's forearm birthmarks and his childhood belief that classmates said he had 'cuties'

• ★★ Answering a question viewers ask in every video, John says the marks on his forearm are birthmarks, not signs of heroin use or hickeys. (playful) — 00:00:29
• ★★★ John says classmates took his birthmarks as a failed cooties inoculation, and because of a well-meaning teacher he believed they said he had 'cuties'. (playful) — 00:00:29

00:01:27 — Pursuing popularity like Ahab; sacrificing what matters for it is wrong; Melville's preacher on a good name

• ★★ John says that, like Ahab chasing the whale, he kept pursuing popularity through school even when it was clear it would destroy him. — 00:01:27
• ★★★ John says there is nothing wrong with being popular, but there is something wrong with sacrificing everything that matters to you to attain popularity. — 00:01:27
• ★ John thinks this holds for elementary school, YouTube or anything else. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · YouTube
• ★★ John cites Melville's preacher in Moby-Dick: woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — At the aquarium: Moby-Dick is hard but fun; hard is not the opposite of fun in books and learning; sign-off

• ★★ John says he is reading Moby-Dick and finds it hard (unknown words, tangents, confusing sentences, his slow reading): about a hundred pages in three days. — 00:01:56
• ★★ John says Moby-Dick is not easy but really fun, like visiting the aquarium: you go to sea without puking. (playful) — 00:01:56
• ★★★ John says he hates the idea that, in books and learning, hard is seen as the opposite of fun. — 00:01:56
• ★★ John finds it strange that people give up quickly on a book or math problem yet grapple endlessly with a single level of Angry Birds. (playful) — 00:02:26
• ★★ John asks why as a student he worked far too hard to be liked but not to read great novels or grasp the universe's edgelessness, and has no answer. (unsure) — 00:02:26
• ★★ John concludes the search is a pleasure, and a difficult one, as most great pleasures are. — 00:02:55

In the description and comments

• ★ The description says Ze Frank inspired the brothers to start videoblogging and is bringing his show back via Kickstarter. — video description

Humor (significant)

• John describes 'cute overload' as a syndrome that can lead to acquiring puppies or kittens. — 00:00:00

  “or even, in extreme cases, the creation of human beings.”

• Tired of viewers asking about the marks on his forearm, John insists they are birthmarks. — 00:00:29

  “I am not a heroin addict. I do not have some weird kind of fetish for hickeys on the forearm.”

• Believing he had 'cuties', young John asks girls at the monkey bars whether they've had their cuties shot and invites them to the sandbox. — 00:00:58

  “And then they would scream,”

• People give up quickly on a book or a math problem. — 00:02:26

  “we are so willing to grapple, for centuries if necessary, with a single level of Angry Birds.”

Threads in this video

• told · John believes his elementary-school classmates say he has 'cuties', not cooties (childhood) — John tells how classmates took his birthmarks for a failed cooties inoculation and how he believed they meant 'cuties', asking girls about their cuties shot. (00:00:58)
• callback · Hank's 'Dude, no edge!': his obsession with the universe having no edge (2012) — John cites comprehending the edgelessness of the universe as hard learning he avoided as a student. (00:02:26)

Mentioned

Central: cooties · Moby-Dick

Also: Angry Birds · Captain Ahab · Father Mapple · Herman Melville · New Orleans · Wikipedia · YouTube

Only in the description or credits: The Show with Ze Frank · Ze Frank

Replies to

• continues · CUTE-OCALYPSE! — “Your video on Friday contained so much cute that I was worried I might get cute overload”

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