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Reviewing Musicals from their Wikipedia Pages

2017-06-23 · review / recommendation · Hank · 3:52 · watch on YouTube

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

Too busy in Los Angeles to plan a video, Hank takes a Twitter suggestion from Morgan and comically reviews obscure Broadway musicals from their Wikipedia pages (American Dance Machine, Banjo Eyes, the 1966 Superman musical, The Cocoanuts, Marriage a la Carte, Teddy & Alice), then congratulates John on Turtles All the Way Down.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — No time for next week's video, a Twitter suggestion, laundry and Dave the fish

  • ★★ Hank realises from his calendar that he cannot possibly make a video next week (week of 26 June 2017) because he will be all over Los Angeles, so he asked Twitter what to do. — 00:00:02 · Los Angeles, Twitter
  • ★ Hank notes that Dave the fish is, perhaps surprisingly, still there, just not in great shape. (playful) — 00:00:23

00:00:29 — Reviewing Broadway musicals from their Wikipedia pages: American Dance Machine, Banjo Eyes, the Superman musical, The Cocoanuts, Marriage a la Carte, Teddy & Alice

  • ★★ The chosen suggestion, from Morgan, is to review Broadway shows based only on their Wikipedia descriptions; Hank calls it a great idea and says this person should choose all his topics. — 00:00:32 · Wikipedia
  • ★★ Hank assumes American Dance Machine is a musical about one dancing robot made in America, and counts its ten choreographers. (joke) — 00:00:49
  • ★★ Reading the Banjo Eyes page, Hank notes the title refers not to Cantor's character but to a talking racehorse played in costume by the vaudeville team Morton and Mayo. (playful) — 00:01:11
  • ★★ Hank is delighted to discover a Superman musical from 1966, It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, and asks why nobody told him. — 00:01:38
  • ★★ Finding the musical's 1975 TV special in full on YouTube, Hank judges it less good than every YouTube video, yet beautiful. (playful) — 00:01:57 · YouTube
  • ★★ After puzzling over the spelling of The Cocoanuts, Hank reads that its more famous film adaptation came out in 1929 and finds only the preview. — 00:02:17
  • ★★ Marriage a la Carte 'sounds like a bad idea'; its Library of Congress song recording cannot be found, and Hank gives it 10 out of 10 Dinklepops for a song, Captain Dinklepop, he cannot hear. (joke) — 00:03:13
  • ★★ Teddy & Alice (1987) fictionalises Teddy Roosevelt and his daughter Alice; Frank Rich of the New York Times compared it to a high-school halftime show, and Hank gives it zero teddy bears. (playful) — 00:03:31 · The New York Times

00:03:38 — Thanks to Morgan, coconut spelling, congratulations on Turtles All the Way Down and a VidCon sign-off

  • ★★ Hank congratulates John on Turtles All the Way Down, saying he is really proud of him and very excited for it. — 00:03:44 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★ Hank signs off noting that he and John are probably hanging out right now, since it is VidCon. (hedged) — 00:03:48 · VidCon

In the description and comments

  • ★ In the description Hank says the title undersells how enjoyable this was, and that not every video needs clicks: some are just for the viewer. (playful) — video description

Humor (dominant)

  • Hank promises to clean up the laundry visible in the shot. — 00:00:19

    “And when I say clean up, I mean move from here to a little bit off frame”

  • Counting ten choreographers for a musical he assumes is about one dancing robot. — 00:01:07

    “I mean, at this point, are they choreographers or are they robot programmers?”

  • Hank coins 'black file' for an erased recording, then searches the term to check. — 00:03:02

    “It's a nail salon.”

  • Unable to hear a song called 'Captain Dinklepop', Hank rates the musical by it. — 00:03:13

    “Marriage al a Carte gets 10 out of 10 Dinklepops!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Broadway theatre · Wikipedia

Also: People: Alice Roosevelt Longworth · Eddie Cantor · Frank Rich · Theodore Roosevelt

Projects: VidCon

Works: American Dance Machine · Banjo Eyes · It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman · Marriage a la Carte · Teddy & Alice · The Cocoanuts · Turtles All the Way Down

Organizations: Library of Congress · The New York Times · Twitter · YouTube

Places: Los Angeles

animal: Dave the Fish

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