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50 Ways to Pretend to Be Smarter

2013-06-18 · list · Grace Helbig · 4:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: guest or collab

Guest host Grace Helbig (DailyGrace), filling John's Tuesday during his paternity leave, says she is not as smart as the Vlogbrothers and delivers a comic list of ways to trick people into thinking you are smarter or more sophisticated than you are.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Grace opens with John's greeting, swears, apologizes, and introduces herself as DailyGrace

00:00:36 — Filling in for John on paternity leave; the Vlogbrothers inspire her; stressful; she is not as smart as them

  • ★★ Grace Helbig (DailyGrace, daily videos five days a week) fills in for John Green while he is away with his new baby. (playful) — 00:00:36 · Grace Helbig, John Green, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ Grace Helbig: Grace says the Vlogbrothers inspire her (very smart, articulate, nurturing, progressive, community-driven) and that filling in for one of them is stressful. — 00:00:36 · Vlogbrothers

00:01:19 — The list: ways to seem smarter or more sophisticated (art words, Basquiat, On the Road, Moleskines, cheese, Whole Foods, NPR, Wes Anderson, Rosetta Stone, Prius ... sarcasm)

  • ★★★ Grace Helbig: Concluding she is not as smart as the Vlogbrothers, Grace offers to teach how to trick people into thinking you're more intelligent, cultured or socially sophisticated than you are. (playful) — 00:01:19
  • ★★ Grace Helbig: Grace's list, first part: call art 'derivative', mention the film Basquiat, carry On the Road, say you watch Bill Maher and love soccer, carry a Moleskine, French-press coffee, a leather messenger bag, smudged glasses. (satire) — 00:01:19
  • ★★ Grace Helbig: Grace's cheese and food markers: know a cheese besides mozzarella or cheddar, own a cheese board or knife, shop at Whole Foods and quiz its cheese counter, Gruyere mac and cheese, truffle oil, scones, a wine decanter; 'a lot of this is about cheese'. (satire) — 00:02:35
  • ★★ Grace Helbig: Grace's media markers: NPR as a car preset, a specific favorite Simpsons episode, finding the new Arrested Development season more nostalgic than groundbreaking, reblogging the New Yorker, Wes Anderson, Ira Glass, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ken Jennings on Twitter, Alanis Morissette's misuse of 'ironic'. (satire) — 00:03:15 · Twitter
  • ★★ Grace Helbig: Grace's possessions and habits: a typewriter, a telescope, one architecture book, unused Rosetta Stone, a friend with a Prius, whittling, leather furniture, pipes, museum plans, talk of Ethiopian food, a bike on the wall; finally, understanding sarcasm. (satire) — 00:04:19

00:04:49 — Sign-off to Hank and a joke about John's wife's labor

Humor (dominant)

  • Grace opens with 'Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday,' swears, and apologizes that this is not her channel — 00:00:01

    “Oh, what a terrible first impression.”

  • You also love watching soccer, Grace advises — 00:01:48

    “FIFA isn't... Paris Hilton's dog's name.”

  • Specific cheese knives would blow cavemen's tiny minds; they cut cheese with rocks — 00:02:35

    “You know what they didn't have? Cheese.”

  • A sophisticated person knows about retirement accounts — 00:02:35

    “You don't think the words Roth IRA are just me naming a member of Congress with a speech impediment.”

  • Signing off to Hank, Grace says she worked hard on the video while John's wife just gave birth — 00:04:49

    “I labored over this, but not like John's wife. Hey-oh!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Grace Helbig

Also: People: Alanis Morissette · Bill Maher · Ira Glass · Ken Jennings · Neil deGrasse Tyson · Paris Hilton · Sarah Urist Green · Wes Anderson

Works: Arrested Development · Basquiat · Ironic · On the Road · The Simpsons · Waiting for Godot (“Godot”)

Organizations: FIFA · Food Network · NPR · Ralphs · The New Yorker · Twitter · Whole Foods Market

Concepts: pseudo-intellectualism

Products: Moleskine · Rosetta Stone (software) · Toyota Prius

Later videos replying to this one