Skip to content

Pokemon, Reviewed by a Dad Who Knows Nothing about Pokemon

2017-04-25 · explainer · John · 3:08 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Personal life) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: on location

From an airport, John, whose seven-year-old son loves Pokémon, comically explains the Pokémon world as someone who has never seen it, concluding it is basically a low-stakes sport and that caging Pikachu mirrors our relationship with many animals.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Henry's Saturday-morning Pokémon habit and John's ignorance of Pokémon

  • ★★ John's seven-year-old son wakes at five every Saturday and watches two hours of Pokémon before John can take the iPad away. — 00:00:03 · Henry Green
  • ★ Henry has all the Pokémon encyclopedias and many cards; John doesn't know where he gets them and thinks he trades for them on the playground. (hedged) — 00:00:10 · Henry Green
  • ★★ John says it's great because he wants his kid to have passions and be excited about stuff, but he knows nothing about Pokémon beyond what his son told him and a brief foray into Pokémon Go. — 00:00:18 · Henry Green

00:00:34 — John's account of Pokémon: a biodiversity influx, Poké Balls, training, the Professor, gladiator-style battles and fainting

  • ★★ John notes that the last 500 years have seen a huge decrease in biodiversity on Earth. (playful) — 00:00:34
  • ★★ John casts Pokémon as a near-future influx of cute, talented species of unknown origin: not an alien Noah's Ark, since many resemble Earth life, maybe a radiation event. (joke, speculative) — 00:00:39
  • ★★ John explains you catch Pokémon by throwing Poké Balls, keep them in your backpack and train them for battle; why capture them is like asking why people fish. (playful) — 00:01:05
  • ★★ John believes surplus Pokémon (17 Pidgeys) can be transferred to 'the Professor', which seems a bad idea; his son told him Pokémon don't like going there. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:24 · Henry Green
  • ★★ John says trainers strengthen Pokémon to battle others' Pokémon, basically a Roman gladiator thing for children, fought until they 'faint' rather than to the death. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:46
  • ★ Henry explained to him that 'fainting' is what Pokémon call dying. — 00:02:01 · Henry Green

00:02:14 — Pokémon as basically a sport, like soccer: the stakes are low

  • ★★★ John says Pokémon is basically just a sport: winning battles doesn't save the world or make it fairer, but neither does soccer, and he likes soccer. (hedged) — 00:02:14
  • ★★ Citing Tottenham Hotspur fans' saying that the game is about glory, John says that in the scheme of things the stakes are very low. — 00:02:25

00:02:31 — Unanswered questions: evolution, fishing, and what Pikachu is; sign-off from the airport

  • ★ John lists questions he can't answer: how Pokémon evolve, and, if this is identical to fishing, why not just fish. (playful, unsure) — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ Most Pokémon are based on legends (Charizard, a dragon) or animals (Rhyhorn, a rhinoceros), but Pikachu seems just our collective idea of adorable, which we throw balls at and cage. (hedged) — 00:02:39
  • ★★★ John says caging the adorable is weird, but less weird considering that is our relationship with many non-human animals. (hedged) — 00:02:54

Humor (dominant)

  • After noting 500 years of biodiversity loss, John announces good news about the future — 00:00:39

    “In the near future, we get a big influx of species”

  • John asked his son what the Professor does with transferred Pokémon — 00:01:41

    “Dad, Pokémons do not like going to the professor.”

  • Pokémon battles end in 'fainting', not death, though that's not tricking anyone — 00:02:01

    “Dad, 'fainting' is what Pokémons call dying.”

  • John compares catching Pokémon to fishing — 00:02:36

    “If this is identical to fishing, why not just fish?”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Pikachu · Pokémon

Also: People: Henry Green

Works: Pokémon Go

Organizations: Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Concepts: animal ethics · association football · Biodiversity · cuteness · fishing · gladiator

Characters: Charizard · Horsea · Pidgey · Poké Ball · Rhyhorn

Products: iPad

Myths: dragon · Noah's Ark

Also centred on Pokémon: Green Brothers Reunited!

← Previous: The Adpocalypse: What it Means · Next → Can You Trust Mainstream Media?