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The History of Pizza John!

2014-11-12 · story · Hank · 3:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, community lore, self promotion

For viewers left behind by Pizzamas, Hank tells how Pizza John grew from John eating on BlogTV and a screencap of his half-shaved Movember face into a nerdfighter badge, and says the project shows serious and silly things are not contradictory: two brothers talking and a community sharing values like equality and understanding the world complexly, which he plans to keep doing forever.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Pizzamas means lots of videos; Five Nights at Freddy's 2 on Games with Hank; official lyricist and emoji combination

  • ★★ Hank has been playing the newly released Five Nights at Freddy's 2, sequel to a game he likes, and uploading the videos on Games with Hank; fair warning, they are a little scary. — 00:00:05 · Games With Hank
  • ★★ Hank loves Pizzamas: there is now an official lyricist in the comments and an official emoji combination, and more weird Pizza John things are created all the time. — 00:00:17 · Pizzamas, Pizza John

00:00:24 — Comments show people were left behind; Pizza John history begins: John eating during BlogTV shows, the Facebook group of pictures of John eating

  • ★★ Reading the comments on his last video, Hank realised many people had been left behind by Pizzamas, so he gives a brief history of Pizza John. — 00:00:24 · Pizzamas, Pizza John
  • ★★★ Hank recounts that in 2010 the brothers did shows on BlogTV, a now-defunct live-streaming platform; busy John often ate during them, and Nerdfighters mocked him with a Facebook group of pictures of John eating. — 00:00:38 · Facebook, Nerdfighteria, John Green

00:00:58 — The project's central idea: serious and silly things are not contradictory

  • ★★★ Hank says one of the central things of the whole project for him is that you can do serious things and silly things, and they are not contradictory. — 00:00:58 · Vlogbrothers

    “you can do serious things, and also do silly things, and those things are not contradictory”

  • ★★ Hank says what they largely want to avoid is not seeming like people. — 00:01:07

00:01:10 — Bee and Puppycat clip and recommendation

  • ★★ Hank tells viewers who haven't seen Bee and Puppycat to see it right now; it is so good. The clip shows an intergalactic temp-bot played by Hannah Hart. — 00:01:21

00:01:25 — The world is complicated, but if you don't have a good time...

  • ★★ Hank: the world is complicated and understanding it is important, but having a good time matters too (delivered as a deliberate tautology). (playful) — 00:01:25

00:01:32 — Pizza John's origin: the Movember shaving video, the screencap, Valerie2776's white-on-red tracing, the shirt, a nerdfighter badge; why it happened is unknowable

  • ★★★ Hank says Pizza John began when John, in a video about Pakistan, slowly shaved his Movember beard, ending with a few seconds of mustache, crazy eyes and big hair; Hank dates it to 2011. — 00:01:32 · John Green, Pizza John
  • ★★★ A nerdfighter screencapped that moment; Valerie2776, now the brothers' community manager, adjusted the contrast, traced it in Illustrator and made it white on red: that was Pizza John. — 00:01:44 · Pizza John, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Valerie2776 posted it on her blog; John saw it and said he wanted it as a shirt, so they made one and some, not many, people bought it. — 00:01:57 · John Green, Pizza John
  • ★★★ Hank says the Pizza John face is weird, recognizable and bold, fits the nerd aesthetic and takes a little bravery to wear in public, so it became a kind of nerdfighter badge. — 00:02:07 · Pizza John, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank does not know why Pizza John happened: such things happen and we want to explain them but can't, and if we could they would be less special. (unsure) — 00:02:26 · Pizza John

00:02:38 — History of Pizzamas: designs, then products, now both plus extra videos

  • ★★★ Hank recounts Pizzamas: a few years ago limited-edition Pizza John designs, named Pizzamas, with no extra videos; last year (2013) different products; now both new designs and products plus extra Vlogbrothers videos. — 00:02:38 · Pizzamas, Pizza John, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank says they just want more, to experience it more deeply, and to remember that it has been a long time and things have changed a lot, but not the important things. — 00:03:01

00:03:04 — What Vlogbrothers is: two brothers talking and a community with shared values; Hank will do this forever; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says Vlogbrothers is a video project between two brothers talking to each other, though their lives are weirder now, and a community sharing values: equality and knowing the world deserves to be understood complexly. — 00:03:10 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria

    “This is a video project between two brothers talking to each other”

  • ★★★ Asked how long he will keep doing this or what his five-year plan is, Hank says he will be doing it forever, picturing a toothless 81-year-old Hank mumbling about Pizzamas 2061. (playful) — 00:03:24 · Vlogbrothers, Pizzamas

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Pizza John · Pizzamas

Also: Adobe Illustrator · Bee and Puppycat · BlogTV · Facebook · Five Nights at Freddy's 2 · Games With Hank · Movember · Pakistan

Only in the description or credits: Hannah Hart · Valerie2776

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 7 videos, 2014-11-07 – 2014-11-18.