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How Vlogbrothers Will End

2024-01-30 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore

Continuing Hank's discussion of YouTuber retirement, John uses TV shows and professional athletes as lenses to argue that everything ends and a long run is a success, congratulates Tom Scott for completing his project, and says the ideal end for Vlogbrothers is completing the project, though the 'game' hasn't yet told him he's done.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — 1,200 Tuesdays and everything ends: the TV-show lens (most shows last one or two seasons)

  • ★ John has said 'Good morning Hank, it's Tuesday' about 1,200 times in 17 years; Hank has said his greeting more often because he takes fewer vacations. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ John says he won't always be saying 'Good morning Hank, it's Tuesday', because everything ends, or at least everything observed seems to. — 00:00:12 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John says most TV shows last only one or two seasons. — 00:00:22
  • ★★ John says Grey's Anatomy has run 19 years, about a year and a half longer than Vlogbrothers, and Law and Order SVU 25 years, but these are exceptions. — 00:00:29 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John says even very successful shows often don't last long: Friends ran 10 seasons, The Office 9, The West Wing 8. — 00:00:33
  • ★★★ John says everything ends, and argues that everything should end. — 00:00:40
  • ★★★ John thinks this year's (2024) attention to YouTuber retirements is basically good news: in a very new medium, people need to work out how to say goodbye, or goodbye for a while. — 00:00:45 · YouTube

00:00:58 — Creators have always moved on; a long run is a success; congratulating Tom Scott on finishing

  • ★★ John says most successful creators of their moment move on from YouTube: of the featured creators at the first VidCon in 2010, almost none make their living on YouTube today. — 00:01:05 · VidCon, YouTube
  • ★★ John says creators move on to other opportunities, or their audiences shrink until making videos is no longer fulfilling. — 00:01:20
  • ★★★ John says having a show that runs seven or eight seasons is not a failure or tragedy but a tremendous success. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ John commented 'congrats, Tom' on Tom Scott's last video, and many people replied asking why he would congratulate him on stopping. — 00:01:38
  • ★★★ John congratulated Tom Scott because it was a carefully considered, right decision, and because he finished his run of 10 years of weekly videos and completed the project. — 00:01:47

00:01:55 — The athlete lens: few play long, the brothers are not Tom Brady (MrBeast is) but still love it

  • ★★ John says most pro athletes play one to four seasons before retiring, a few get 10, and very few, like Tom Brady, play 23. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ In the athlete metaphor, John says he and Hank are among the lucky few who hang around for many years, but they are not Tom Brady. (playful) — 00:02:12 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says MrBeast is the Tom Brady of YouTube and wishes him luck, since it seems a very stressful job. (playful) — 00:02:24 · YouTube
  • ★★ John says the brothers are like second-string offensive linemen kept on as personality hires because they are good in the locker room. (playful) — 00:02:30
  • ★★ John says it is amazing they have stayed in the league since 2007, and most amazing that they still love it. — 00:02:38 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ John thinks a lot about how Vlogbrothers will end; maybe in death, and he would be okay with that if it became an archive of what two people thought and experienced. (hedged) — 00:02:43 · Vlogbrothers

00:02:54 — How Vlogbrothers will end: completing the project, a retired athlete's advice, the game hasn't said done; sign-off

  • ★★★ John is not convinced death is Vlogbrothers' ideal ending; the ideal is that, like Tom Scott, they complete the project, though he doesn't know what completion looks like. — 00:02:54 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John used to think completing the project meant finishing Brotherhood 2.0 on December 31, 2007, or finishing the Maternal Center of Excellence, but he didn't feel finished then and doesn't now. — 00:03:05 · Brotherhood 2.0, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John worries about this and asked a friend, a recently retired professional athlete, how he knew it was time; the friend said the game tells you when you're done. — 00:03:23
  • ★★★ In Vlogbrothers' 18th season John would be lying to call this the first half of the project, but he loves and respects the YouTube game. — 00:03:38 · Vlogbrothers, YouTube
  • ★★★ John says the game hasn't told him he's done yet and still seems to have a use for the brothers. — 00:03:51

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: retirement · Tom Scott

Also: People: MrBeast · Tom Brady

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 · VidCon

Works: Friends · Grey's Anatomy · Law & Order: Special Victims Unit · The Office (American TV series) · The West Wing

Organizations: Maternal Center of Excellence · YouTube

Concepts: television

Also centred on retirement: On YouTuber Retirement · Is It Time to Retire?

Also centred on Tom Scott: On YouTuber Retirement

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