Skip to content

Reunions! Birthdays! Podcasts! Mountains! Happy 35th Birthday, Hank

2015-05-05 · letter vlog · John, Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Personal life, Nerdfighteria) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, on location, calendar ritual, self promotion, community lore, punishment or challenge

On Hank's 35th birthday, filmed together in the mountains, John offers Hank any present; they settle on a podcast starring both brothers whose subject viewers should suggest, and Hank's Friday video becomes a fourteen-event 'quadragocon' competition.

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 on Tuesday May 5, Hank's 35th birthday; the brothers together outdoors, Hank snapchatting and rocking the shot

  • ★★ John greets Hank on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, his 35th birthday; they are together in a ridiculously beautiful place. — 00:00:00 · Hank Green

00:00:16 — A Tuesday birthday spares John an extra video; Hank 'forgets' John's birthday (August 27th? 23rd?)

00:00:32 — Birthday present: not a mountain but a podcast; high-concept podcasts; viewers to choose the subject; 'The Sydney and Jesse Podcast'; segments on AFC Wimbledon and Mars; humans most interesting

  • ★★ both: John has not got Hank a formal present and offers him anything he wants; Hank asks for a whole mountain, which John says he lacks the resources to buy. (playful) — 00:00:32
  • ★★★ Hank says he has wanted to do a podcast with John. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ John says a podcast about stuff they like would bore people; he likes high-concept podcasts such as Night Vale and the DeGeorges' podcast told from a cephalopod's perspective. — 00:01:01

  • ★★★ As Hank's birthday present, John will get him a podcast the brothers make, starring them, with viewers deciding what it is about. — 00:01:20

    “So as Hank's birthday present, I am going to get him a podcast, uh, that we make.”

  • ★★ Hank proposes that each episode cover people who share a name, and two names to confuse people: 'The Sydney and Jesse Podcast with John and Hank Green'. (playful, speculative) — 00:01:30

  • ★★ both: They plan segments on their own interests: John would do 'This Week (week of 4 May 2015) in AFC Wimbledon' on fourth-tier football and Hank would do Mars, which he has cared about forever. (playful) — 00:01:56 · AFC Wimbledon, Mars
  • ★ both: Hank says Mars is more interesting so AFC Wimbledon must come first; John disagrees: Mars is uninhabitable while AFC Wimbledon is made of humans, the most interesting thing. (playful) — 00:02:11 · Mars, AFC Wimbledon

00:02:39 — Are there enough Sydneys and Jesses (Mom, Sydney Australia); comment Sydneys and Jesses; Blue Steel on three

  • ★ Hank: Asked to name two Sydneys, Hank names their mom, Sydney Green, and Sydney, Australia. — 00:02:43 · Sydney Green

00:03:01 — Asks: tell us the podcast subject, Sydneys and Jesses, the best Blue Steel, Mars or AFC Wimbledon; Earth without Mars

  • ★★★ John asks viewers to tell them what the podcast should be about, whether Sydneys and Jesses, which Sydneys and Jesses to discuss, who has the best Blue Steel, and whether AFC Wimbledon or Mars matters more. — 00:03:01 · Blue Steel, AFC Wimbledon, Mars

00:03:22 — Hank's birthday video will be a 'Vlogbrothers Olympics': twenty events, dodecacathlon, quadragocon of fourteen events, first event Blue Steel

  • ★★★ both: Hank wants his video this week (week of 4 May 2015), also for his birthday, to be a Vlogbrothers Olympics; John names it a 'quadragocon', which Hank declares has fourteen events, the first being who wins Blue Steel. (playful) — 00:03:22 · Vlogbrothers, Blue Steel

00:03:54 — Happy birthday; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says the brothers talk from high in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Hank pretends John's birthday is August 27th, then 23rd. — 00:00:21

    “I don't even wanna be your friend anymore, let alone your sibling.”

  • Hank sums John up: 'John Green: doesn't wanna do things he doesn't wanna do.' — 00:00:48

    “I have a longstanding opposition to doing things that I don't wanna do.”

  • Asked whether Earth would be different without Mars, John concedes the sky would differ at night. — 00:03:16

    “but if there were no AFC Wimbledon, the core of human history would change.”

  • Bargaining over event counts (twenty, dodecacathlon, septathlon), John offers a 'quadragocon' as four events. — 00:03:39

    “Quadragocon is fourteen.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Joe DeGeorge · Paul DeGeorge · Sydney Green

Projects: Quadragocon

Works: Welcome to Night Vale

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · Snapchat

Places: Mars · Sydney

Events: Olympic Games (“Vlogbrothers Olympics”)

Memes: Blue Steel

Only in the description or credits: Great Smoky Mountains · North Carolina

Later videos replying to this one