Reading Hank's Decade-Old Tweets

2021-12-07 · collab / interview · John, Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: guest or collab, community lore

Still together in person, John reads Hank's 2011 tweets aloud (John deleted his own): a 20-t-shirt challenge, the keep-it-or-shave-it goatee tally, the TFIOS cover, a Skrillex plea and an abominable-snowman pun, and the brothers reflect that 2011's communication revolution has turned from a roller-coaster climb into a drop.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Setup: John deleted his 2011 tweets, so they read Hank's; the Portland tweet

• ★★ John and Hank planned to look at their 2011 tweets, but John deleted all his 2011 tweets long ago, so they read Hank's ten-year-old tweets instead. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green, Twitter
• ★ John notes that he and Hank are still together in person. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green
• ★ John reads Hank's 2011 tweet thanking Portland for an amazing night and saying he may never wear shoes again. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green

00:00:28 — Tweets about potatoes, being stuck in 20 t-shirts, and the keep-it-or-shave-it goatee tally

• ★★ Hank remembers the tweet about being stuck inside about 20 t-shirts: it was for a Vlogbrothers video, an attempt at something like a world record that was not even close, so just a challenge, and he could not get out of them alone. (playful) — 00:00:28 · Vlogbrothers
• ★★ John reads Hank's 2011 tweet tallying the keep-it-or-shave-it vote, $993 to keep it and $879 to shave it, with Keep It making a comeback. (playful) — 00:00:28 · Hank Green
• ★★ Hank says the mistake was his tweet saying that Shave It was winning. (playful) — 00:01:16
• ★★ John says the lasting aftereffect of keeping it is that the first episodes of SciShow and Crash Course were both filmed with Hank's goatee. (playful) — 00:01:16 · SciShow, Crash Course

00:01:53 — Tweets about the TFIOS cover, Skrillex, Katherine and a hit dance song

• ★★ Hank's tweet about the TFIOS cover, with John's name as big as the title, dates from October 2011, just after he first saw it; the book came out in January 2012. — 00:01:53 · The Fault in Our Stars
• ★★ John recalls a lot of negative response to the TFIOS cover, which Hank tried to spin positively; it turned out to be a good cover. — 00:01:53 · The Fault in Our Stars
• ★ John reads Hank's tweet asking whether anyone nearby could get him in touch with Skrillex; Hank no longer knows why he wanted to. (playful) — 00:02:22
• ★ Hank: Of his 2011 tweet praising a hit dance song, Hank doesn't know whether he was being a little ironic because it was already big or was catching the wave. (unsure) — 00:02:22

00:03:10 — A tweet on revolutionized communication, the roller-coaster comparison, and the abominable-snowman pun

• ★★ On Hank's 2011 tweet that communication is being revolutionized, John says it was exciting like going up a roller coaster; now it is like going down further than you went up. — 00:03:10 · Twitter · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated

00:03:48 — John retweets an old tweet and signs off

In the description and comments

• ★★ In a comment John says popular fan-made covers left people feeling betrayed by the slick real TFIOS cover; it was a huge mess that cost him sleep, but the cover became popular and influential. — creator comment · The Fault in Our Stars
• ★ The description says John will stop covering Hank's face with covers of his books 'when never', using a 2011 joke construction; the full 22-minute session is mostly laughing. (playful) — video description · The Fault in Our Stars

Humor (dominant)

• Hank's 2011 tweet asks who got potatoes all over his phone — 00:00:28

  “Have to assume it was me.”

• Hank's tweet says he is stuck inside about 20 t-shirts and cannot get out alone — 00:00:28

  “The initial panic has subsided. I now accept my fate.”

• Hank's tweet says he and Katherine just broke into someone's house — 00:02:22

  “Then we took their dogs for a walk.”

• Hank's tweet says his research shows there is no abominable snowman — 00:03:10

  “I think he's totally bominable.”

Threads in this video

• update · John and Hank reunite in person in late 2021 and record several videos together (2021) — John notes that he and Hank are still together in person. (00:00:00)
• looked back · Keep It or Shave It: Hank's facial-hair vote with dollars for the Foundation to Decrease World Suck (2011) — Reading Hank's 2011 tally tweet, the brothers recall the keep-it-or-shave-it vote: keeping it was a huge mistake, and the first SciShow and Crash Course episodes were filmed with the goatee. (00:00:28)
• restate · Is the internet, including social media, good for people? — On Hank's 2011 tweet that communication is being revolutionized, John says it was exciting like going up a roller coaster; now it is like going down further than you went up. (00:03:10)
• looked back · SciShow: launch of Hank's science channel (2011) — John says the lasting aftereffect of keeping it is that the first episodes of SciShow and Crash Course were both filmed with Hank's goatee. (00:01:16)

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John and Hank reunite in person in late 2021 and record several videos together (2021) — followed over 4 videos (2021); last: update, 2021-12-10

Mentioned

Crash Course · Katherine Green · Portland, Oregon · SciShow · Skrillex · The Fault in Our Stars · Twitter · Yeti

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