Skip to content

Keanu.

2019-05-17 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

Hank dissects Keanu Reeves's answer to Stephen Colbert's 'What do you think happens when we die?': by answering the question as asked ('the ones who love us will miss us') Keanu broke late-show protocol and suggested that what happens to everybody else may matter more than what happens to us.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The Keanu Reeves clip on Colbert and John's 'thing' for Keanu

  • ★★ Keanu Reeves (quoted): Asked by Stephen Colbert what he thinks happens when we die, Keanu Reeves answers that the ones who love us will miss us. — 00:00:00 · also in: The Ones Who Love Us
  • ★ Hank notes John has a thing for Keanu Reeves and will someday make his own Keanu video; this video is only about the one Colbert interview. (playful) — 00:00:00 · John Green

00:00:30 — Context of the interview and why we want to hear Keanu's answer to a big question

  • ★ Before the question, Colbert and Keanu were talking about the new Bill and Ted movie, which Hank says is really happening. — 00:00:30
  • ★★★ Colbert asked one of humanity's biggest questions as a joke on a late show, but the joke is also that it is somehow not weird to ask Keanu, whose answer Hank genuinely wants. — 00:01:00
  • ★ Hank says he doesn't care to hear most people's take on what happens when we die; it's kind of boring. — 00:01:00

00:01:38 — 'What happens when we die' versus 'what happens to us': Keanu answers the question as asked

  • ★★★ Colbert asks not the traditional 'what happens to us when we die' but 'what happens when we die'; we all hear 'to us' because that is what we actually worry about. — 00:01:38
  • ★★★ Keanu answers the question as asked: what happens when we die is that the ones who love us will miss us. — 00:02:04

00:02:25 — The audience's broken late-show protocol, Hank's own tears, and why the answer was amazing

  • ★★★ Hank's favourite part is the audience: a late-show answer was expected and the protocol broke, so a few giggle, a few say 'aww', most sit in silence, then they clap. — 00:02:25
  • ★★ Hank sat in silence like the audience when he watched the clip on Sunday morning, and then cried alone in his bed. — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Hank says Keanu did an amazing thing: he cleverly violated late-show protocol and answered Colbert's exact wording while also answering the big question. — 00:02:54
  • ★★★ Hank suggests that what happens to us when we die may matter less than what happens to everybody else, and turning such thoughts outward could help many parts of our lives. (hedged) — 00:02:54

00:03:36 — Turning our thinking about death outward; sign-off

  • ★ Hank tells John that he now sees what John sees in Keanu. — 00:03:36 · John Green

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Keanu Reeves

Also: Bill & Ted · death anxiety · social norm · Stephen Colbert

Also centred on Keanu Reeves: Keanu Reeves: A Love Letter · The Ones Who Love Us

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2019-05-21 · Keanu Reeves: A Love Letter (John) — continues — “Hank, as you pointed out in your video, what makes Keanu so brilliant at interviewing is that he really listens.” (00:01:56)