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Frightened Leech Science with Tessa Violet

2018-09-07 (said on 2018-09-03 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 4 days later) · collab / interview · Hank, Tessa Violet · 3:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Books & writing, Science & nature) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: guest or collab, self promotion

Hank and guest Tessa Violet play his new game of teaching each other entries from Wikipedia's Unusual Articles list: Hank presents Dahala Khagrabari, the only third-order enclave, and Tessa the 1842 leech-powered tempest prognosticator; Tessa then praises Hank's book and they plug her single Crush.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hank's 2:30 clock joke; Hank introduces Tessa Violet and the Wikipedia Unusual Articles game

  • ★★ Hank introduces his guest Tessa Violet, a musician, singer, songwriter and friend of his. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says he is obsessed with the Wikipedia page Unusual Articles and proposes that he and Tessa each pick one and teach the other. — 00:00:00 · Wikipedia
  • ★ Hank says he found out about the list from Wendover Productions, which does a series on the page. — 00:00:00

00:00:27 — Hank's pick: Dahala Khagrabari, the only third-order enclave between India and Bangladesh

  • ★★★ Hank says Dahala Khagrabari was the only third-order enclave: a piece of India within a piece of Bangladesh within a piece of India within a piece of Bangladesh. — 00:00:53
  • ★★ Hank says that when the border between India and Bangladesh was made, there were many places with Indian people living inside. — 00:00:53

00:01:22 — Tessa's pick: the 1842 tempest prognosticator that used leeches to predict storms

  • ★★ Hank says the enclave was 7,000 square meters, a little less than two acres. — 00:01:22
  • ★★★ Hank says the enclaves made it hard to provide services to residents, so the countries swapped them until there were none, in 2015. (hedged) — 00:01:22
  • ★★★ Tessa Violet: Tessa says that in 1842 the inventor Dr. Meriwether built the tempest prognosticator to tell whether a storm was coming, using 12 leeches. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Tessa Violet: Tessa says leeches crawl upward and out of the water when they sense a storm coming. (hedged) — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Tessa Violet: Tessa says the climbing leeches knocked into a tube, knocking out a whale bone that rang a bell, and the device was pretty accurate. — 00:01:51

00:02:50 — Tessa praises Hank's book; plug for Tessa's single Crush; sign-off and outtake about a trivia show

  • ★ Tessa Violet: Tessa says she found the article by searching the page for the word 'frightening'. — 00:02:50
  • ★★★ Tessa Violet: Asked by Hank, Tessa, who has a copy of his book, says it is so good. — 00:02:50 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
  • ★★ Tessa Violet: Tessa says reading is a chore for her and she rarely finishes books, yet she started Hank's on Sunday, is three quarters through by Monday (10 September 2018) and read it walking down the street. — 00:02:50 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
  • ★★ Hank thanks viewers for saving Tessa's new single Crush on Spotify or watching it on YouTube or elsewhere. — 00:02:50 · YouTube
  • ★★ Tessa Violet: Tessa tells viewers to go listen to the single, which she likes a lot, and to tell their friends to like it. — 00:02:50
  • ★★ Tessa Violet: In an outtake, Tessa recalls Hank asking her to host a trivia show and telling her mom that Hank Green had emailed her. (playful) — 00:03:30 · Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • Hank's wall clock always reads 2:30, and he and Tessa reveal what it is for. — 00:00:00

    “It's time to go to the dentist.”

  • Tessa opens her article with a dramatic historical scene-setting that comes out backwards. — 00:01:22

    “The year is the 19th century. The century is 1842.”

  • Without satellites or barometers, 1842 forecasters simply trusted that the leeches knew. — 00:02:20

    “The leeches have satellites. They're a little civilization.”

  • After a pun that the leech device 'didn't suck', the pair add another leech pun. — 00:02:20

    “Sorry, to leech their own.”

Mentioned

Central: Dahala Khagrabari · Leech · Tempest prognosticator · Tessa Violet · Wikipedia:Unusual articles

Also: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing · Bangladesh · Crush · Enclave and exclave · India · Spotify · Wikipedia · YouTube

Only in the description or credits: George Merryweather · Wendover Productions

Also centred on Tessa Violet: Fear in Art

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