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ONE TAKE JOHNNY

2025-08-05 · collab / interview · John, Hank · 16:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Personal life, Projects, Philosophy & meaning, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, community lore, punishment or challenge, self promotion

In John's first one-take vlogbrothers video, made with Hank in Montana, the brothers banter: Orin's trampoline catapult hits Hank's chin, they launch the 2025 Quadragocon (John wins the 12-inch finger event), and talk about aphantasia, chess, Hank's MIT commencement, continuity of self and fame.

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 one-take premise: Stan's 'One Take Johnny' nickname

  • ★★ John says he is doing something new in Vlogbrothers' 18 years: Stan, his Crash Course Humanities co-creator, called him One Take Johnny because he could do nothing in one take, but this video with Hank is one take. — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers, Crash Course

00:00:29 — Orin's trampoline catapult hits Hank's chin; a working vacation in Montana; matching Good Store socks

  • ★★ Hank says Orin turned the trampoline net into a catapult and launched a wet tennis ball into Hank's chin from about 10 feet; his chin is sore and slightly swollen. (playful) — 00:00:53 · Orin Green
  • ★ John says the brothers are on vacation together in Montana, though they are working the whole time. (playful) — 00:01:22 · Montana
  • ★ John says he and Hank are, by accident, wearing the exact same Good Store socks. — 00:01:51 · Good Store

00:02:21 — Quadragocon 2025 begins with the 12-inch finger event; aphantasia; one-take gags

  • ★★★ Hank commits the brothers to continuing the quadrennial Vlogbrothers Quadragocon, starting with the first event right away: holding fingers exactly 12 inches apart. — 00:02:21 · Vlogbrothers · also in: Let's Just Be Stupid For a Moment
  • ★★ John wins the first event: his finger gap is nearly a foot while Hank's is a little under 11 inches, putting John 1-0 up in the 2025 Quadragocon. (playful) — 00:03:42
  • ★★ John says he has aphantasia and cannot see anything in his mind; though Hank has lived there a long time, John could never find Hank's house even given 10 million years. — 00:03:42
  • ★ Hank lists their week: a Good Store photo shoot, talks with DFTBA, making Vlogbrothers and Quadragocon events. — 00:04:41 · Good Store, DFTBA Records, Vlogbrothers

00:05:10 — What the Quadragocon is; chess as an event; Magnus Carlsen; John's prediction

  • ★★ John refuses to add a Quadragocon link to the description: part of the one-take rule is uploading in one take. (playful) — 00:05:10
  • ★★ Hank explains the Quadragocon: every 'four years' the brothers hold a 14-event competition; a pandemic disrupted it, the last was four years ago, and the first ten years ago. — 00:05:10 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ John says chess is a Quadragocon event and neither brother knows how to play chess. (playful) — 00:05:40
  • ★★ John says he has been watching chess videos and googling chess for dummies since Hank announced chess as a Quadragocon event. (playful) — 00:06:09
  • ★★ John, who lacks visual imagination, calls it one of the magics of being human that Magnus Carlsen can play eight blindfold chess games at once. — 00:06:38
  • ★★ John predicts neither brother will win their chess game because neither can checkmate the other. (playful) — 00:06:38

00:07:37 — Picturing an apple; Hank's art minor; John's majors

  • ★★ John says he doesn't believe people who can picture things: his wife says you just close your eyes and picture anything, like a movie in your mind. (playful) — 00:07:37 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ Hank: Asked to close his eyes, Hank says he pictured a shiny red apple with dimensionality and shading. — 00:08:06
  • ★★ Hank, who nearly failed to get his art minor, says his art classes helped him design the socks he made during chemo, but the credential itself did not. — 00:08:29 · Hank's Cancer Socks, chemotherapy
  • ★★ John says neither of his majors was necessary but all his classwork was: with final papers in sociology or anthropology he would be just as informed. — 00:09:14

00:09:39 — Hank's MIT commencement; teleprompters; crediting the Crash Course team and teachers; a young pilot

  • ★★ Hank says giving the MIT commencement among precocious students was weird but lovely; most embarrassing, he could not name exciting MIT research for the student newspaper. — 00:10:18
  • ★★ Hank calls himself a research professional: people ask him questions, he researches the answers and speaks into a camera with a teleprompter. (playful) — 00:10:18
  • ★★ When thanked for getting people through high school, John wants to say his Crash Course team, Stan, Meredith and Zulaiha, did it; he only read the teleprompter. (playful) — 00:10:57 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John says he credits viewers' actual teachers, telling them not to underplay their role, though he is happy if he helped. — 00:10:57 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John says his airline pilot that day was a Crash Course enthusiast, meaning very young: their doctors and pilots are now younger than them. (playful) — 00:10:57 · Crash Course

00:11:36 — Younger doctors, living to a thousand, continuity of self; Asimov's letters on fame

  • ★★ Hank says his oncologist was younger than him; Hank thinks the doctor regarded him as young. — 00:11:36
  • ★★★ Hank: Answering John's tease that he wants to live to a thousand, Hank says at that age you would see there is no one continuous you, only a series of selves. — 00:12:05
  • ★★ John says there is some continuity of self: he is stuck with his childhood memories, mostly in the form of trauma. (playful) — 00:12:44
  • ★★ John says he feels more like the same person he has always been than Hank does. — 00:13:13
  • ★★ Hank: Rereading old writing he won't name, Hank concludes he used to be a different person, and not a better one. (playful) — 00:13:36
  • ★★ Hank says Isaac Asimov's collected letters include one calling signing a book for someone the most gratifying thing, and one 30 or 40 years later dreading signing another. — 00:14:05
  • ★★ Hank says Isaac Asimov didn't like being famous, while Hank doesn't mind being famous but is not very good at it. — 00:14:05 · celebrity

00:14:42 — Hank's mayor-like friendliness to strangers and being recognized

  • ★★ John teases that Hank is nice to strangers the way a town's mayor is, so strangers recognize him because he makes them. (playful) — 00:14:42 · celebrity
  • ★★ Hank says everyone mocked him at lunch for being nice to people; he was gregarious to passers-by but doesn't think they knew who he was. (playful) — 00:14:42

00:15:36 — Dear Hank and John plug, Quadragocon outlook (Orin curls) and sign-off

  • ★★ John says viewers who like this will love Dear Hank and John, which is basically this conversation plus listener questions. — 00:15:36 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★ Hank says John started the Quadragocon strong and he thinks John will win the chess too, so Hank hopes to do well in the Orin curls, lifting his son. (hedged) — 00:15:36 · Orin Green

Humor (significant)

  • Asked for a Quadragocon link in the description, John says the one-take rule covers the upload too — 00:05:10

    “Part of the one-take video is that I upload it in one take.”

  • John's finger gap comes within a sixteenth of an inch of a foot — 00:03:15

    “I'm a genius, everyone. I know the distance that is a foot.”

  • The brothers call their Montana working trip a vacation — 00:01:22

    “It's not that much of a vacation, especially if you ask the IRS.”

  • Unable to edit, John apologizes for audio that already peaked — 00:04:12

    “I apologize in retrospect that your audio peaked”

  • Hank wants old Quadragocon footage; John objects that a cut is not allowed — 00:05:40

    “I'm just going to put it on top of your face.”

  • Thanked by fans for Crash Course, John credits the team behind the teleprompter — 00:10:57

    “Stan and Meredith and Zuleyha got you through high school. I was Ron Burgundy.”

  • Hank stops before naming old writing someone could look up — 00:13:36

    “I used to be a different person and not a better one.”

  • John on Hank greeting strangers like a town mayor — 00:14:42

    “Where you go up to strangers and you're like, hey, can I kiss your baby?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: personal identity · Quadragocon

Also: People: Isaac Asimov · Magnus Carlsen · Orin Green · Sarah Urist Green · Stan Muller

Projects: Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records · Good Store

Works: Chess · Hank's Cancer Socks · Hank's MIT commencement address · Yours, Isaac Asimov

Organizations: Internal Revenue Service · Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Concepts: Aphantasia · celebrity · chemotherapy · higher education · life extension

Places: Montana

Events: COVID-19 pandemic

Characters: Ron Burgundy

Only in the description or credits: Meredith · Zulaiha

Also centred on personal identity: We're all Scared · The Space Time Continuum: Thoughts from Dublin · Becoming Someone Else · Who Am I?! - Some thoughts on Personal Identity · Can You Ever Really Change? · Are We The Same Person?

Also centred on Quadragocon: QUADRAGOCON 2015 - WHO WILL WIN! · QUADRAGOCON 2021!! LET THE GAMES CONTINUE!!!! · Let's Just Be Stupid For a Moment

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