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It's Question Tuesday! Cheesy Jokes, Paper Towns Movie, and Dinosaur Butt Brains

2014-09-16 · Q&A · John · 3:52 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: History & curiosities, Books & writing, Projects, Science & nature) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: recurring series, self promotion, community lore, timely hook

In a rapid-fire Question Tuesday, John answers viewers on his books and their films (the TFiOS DVD out today, Paper Towns film news), why humans love metaphors, his owed punishment and much trivia.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Question Tuesday greeting

00:00:05 — Cheesiest joke: Cheesus of Nazareth and the exploded French cheese factory

00:00:16 — John's books and their films: new books, naming Isaac, TFiOS DVD and cut cameo, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns movies, too much 'deadpan'

  • ★★ Asked whether he has new books coming, John says he is trying. — 00:00:16
  • ★★ John says he did not name TFiOS's Isaac as a pun on 'eyes sick' but after the man in the Hebrew Bible who also went blind. — 00:00:21 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ John says he had a cameo in the TFiOS film but it was cut, joking that his screen presence was too powerful. (playful) — 00:00:41 · The Fault in Our Stars (film)
  • ★ John says he does not know much about the Looking for Alaska film. (unsure) — 00:00:54 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★★ John says the Paper Towns film looks really likely to happen: they have hired a director, Jake Schreier, who made Robot & Frank. (hedged) — 00:00:54 · Paper Towns (film)
  • ★★ John calls the Paper Towns screenplay by the writers of the TFiOS film amazing. — 00:01:02 · Paper Towns (film)
  • ★★ John says his friend Nat Wolff will play Q in the Paper Towns film. — 00:01:02 · Paper Towns (film)
  • ★★ John says the Paper Towns film is supposedly coming out on July 31, so it might actually happen. (hedged) — 00:01:02 · Paper Towns (film)
  • ★★ Asked what he would change in his books, John says 'deadpan' appears about twelve times in Looking for Alaska, probably eleven times too many. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:11 · Looking for Alaska (novel)

00:01:17 — AP Chemistry, favourite Beatle/colour, whether oranges or orange came first, bananas

  • ★ To pass AP Chemistry, John suggests Crash Course might help. (hedged) — 00:01:19 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John says the fruit was named orange at least two hundred years before the colour was. — 00:01:28

00:01:36 — Nerdfighter meetups: local groups and gatherings

  • ★★ Asked about meetups, John points to location-specific nerdfighter groups around the world (link in the description), says there are many gatherings he has enjoyed, and urges viewers to check them out. — 00:01:37 · Nerdfighteria, doobly-doo

00:01:45 — Why humans love metaphors; 'slay' is already a metaphor

  • ★★ John argues most humans love metaphors because so much human thinking is symbolic, e.g. imagining a meningitis headache as a vice gripping the head. (hedged) — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ John says original, compelling metaphors help people imagine what others feel, making experiences mutually more real, which is roughly what language is for. — 00:01:54
  • ★★ John says colloquial 'slay' is already metaphoric: a Taylor Swift song didn't kill you, but the experience was so awesome you are metaphorically dead. (hedged) — 00:02:08 · slay

00:02:26 — Pizza or Ansel Elgort; John 'reviews' Hank's album

  • ★★ Asked to review Hank's album, John playfully calls it Hank's best album to date, with the Perfect Strangers' punk energy, and gives it five out of five stars. (playful) — 00:02:34 · Incongruent
  • ★ John says it is Henry's second-favourite album, behind only the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars album. (playful) — 00:02:41 · Henry Green, Incongruent

00:02:46 — Rapid-fire answers: owed punishment, baby names, One Direction, books on head, Henry, toddler food, socks, signed posters, font, Wheezy Waiter, Harry Potter

  • ★★ Asked about a punishment, John says he owes one and asks Hank what it is. — 00:02:47 · Punishment
  • ★★ Asked how they chose baby names, John says they just stole their grandparents' names. — 00:02:51
  • ★★ John says signed posters are really signed: he signed them with his hand and a pen. — 00:03:28

00:03:39 — Favourite dinosaur: Stegosaurus and its supposed butt brain

  • ★★ John's favourite dinosaur is Stegosaurus because, when he was a kid, paleontologists thought it had two brains, a head brain and a butt brain. — 00:03:40

00:03:47 — An off-camera 'I have a question' and the sign-off

In the description and comments

Humor (significant)

  • After 'Cheesus of Nazareth', John offers a better cheese joke: what happened after the French cheese factory exploded? — 00:00:13

    “There was debris everywhere.”

  • John says his TFiOS cameo was cut because his screen presence was too powerful: viewers couldn't follow Hazel's love affair with Augustus. — 00:00:48

    “because they would be distracted by the camera's love affair with me.”

  • Asked how many boys are in One Direction, John fumbles the names, counts four, then corrects himself. — 00:03:04

    “There are no boys in One Direction, they are all adults!”

  • Asked how to get a three-year-old to eat anything besides PBJ, pizza and macaroni. — 00:03:19

    “You can get your three-year-old to eat three different foods? Are you a wizard?!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: metaphor · Paper Towns (film) · Stegosaurus · The Fault in Our Stars (film)

Also: People: Ansel Elgort · Craig Benzine · Harry Styles · Henry Green · Liam Payne · Nat Wolff · Niall Horan · Taylor Swift · Zayn Malik

Projects: Crash Course

Works: Harry Potter (book series) · Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 · Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire · Incongruent · Looking for Alaska (film) · Looking for Alaska (novel) · Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars · The Fault in Our Stars

Groups: Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers · One Direction

Rituals: Punishment · Question Tuesday

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: meningitis

Characters: Augustus Waters · Hazel Grace Lancaster · Isaac (character, “The Fault in Our Stars”) · Quentin Jacobsen

Myths: Isaac (biblical patriarch) · Jesus (“Cheesus of Nazareth”)

Memes: slay

Only in the description or credits: Jake Schreier · Michael H. Weber · Robot & Frank · Scott Neustadter

Also centred on metaphor: How I (barely) Passed 11th Grade English

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