Vlogbrothers

This a channel maintained by the two Green brothers [John and Hank] where they talk about life, the universe and everything in between, with each other.

The Vlogbrothers actually started off with the Brotherhood 2.0 project when the Green brothers decided to cease all text communication and converse instead through videos, which were then made available to the public on YouTube.

The channel now has 2.1 million followers on YouTube. The brothers post two videos per week — John on Tuesdays and Hank on Fridays.

If one Tuesday you have John talking about reasons why 2014 will be the best year ever, on Friday Hank will probably be teaching how to make cinnamon toast. The next Tuesday John might be back to share his anxiety about getting old and Hank on Friday will hold forth on “how to apologise without being a fartbag”. They occasionally trade insults and are great at explaining complicated issues like the economic meltdown, understanding Ukraine or Syria in five minutes.

Vlogbrothers is the place to go to if you want to see John do the happy dance because The Fault in Our Stars movie got a 93 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, see him live blogging from the TFIOS movie premiere in New York, along with brother Hank, or (in his latest video) see him argue the case for why he likes wearing make-up. “It is like wearing your favourite shirt, only you can wear it everyday!” says John.

The nerdfighters

The Green brothers are so awesome that they have a large group of fans with a really cool moniker — the Vlogbrother fans are called Nerdfighters, individually, and Nerdfighteria together. As defined by John, a Nerdfighter is someone who, instead of being made of bones and skin and tissues, is made entirely of awesome (how awesome is that!). And as the brothers clarify, they are not people who fight nerds, because, hello, they are pro-nerds?! (?! is defined by the brothers as an interrobang.)

To become a Nerdfighter one has to

a) follow and watch the Vlogbrothers videos;

b) read the books written by John;

c) listen to the music made by Hank;

d) get in on the Nerdfighter terminology and the, er, gang sign, which is basically the Vulcan salute from Star Trek done with both hands, with arms crossed and palms facing inwards! A lot of biggies have been seen adopting the Nerdfighter gang sign, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Neil Tyson Degrasse and Matt Smith. Remember their catch phrase “DFTBA” (it is not an acronym, points out John, because it is not pronouncable, it is actually an initialism!) or “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome”, which was even quoted by US President Barack Obama in a video chat with John;

e) join the fight against world suck, that is, everything that sucks in the world.

Some Nerdfighter phrases

Stuff on heads: If you put stuff on your head you feel better about life.

Nerdfighter gathering: When Nerdfighters meet up. Sometimes the brothers are there, sometime they are not.

French the Llama: It is like an exclamation, example: French the Llama, the bear is huge!

Puff level: Is the level of puff in John’s hair that is directly proportional to his stress levels.

Notsome: The opposite of awesome (also fail-puppy and failboat).

The Yeti: Is John’s wife, termed so because of her elusiveness.

also because

He injured his shoulder playing FIFA, or rather while “cheering enthusiastically” when his team won.

He has an adorable puff of hair that gets puffier and puffier.

He colours his face with sharpie and paints it with peanut butter while answering questions... just because.

He doesn’t blink, we mean, of course he does, just not on camera because “he is concentrating” and as a homage to his hero, the original videoblogger Ze Frank.

He stuffs his face with marshmallow.

He worries that he is getting too old to be a Nerdfighter.

He can laugh at jokes/memes about him.

He sometimes makes videos without his pants on because, well, you can’t really see below his chest. But he forgot an ill-placed mirror!

Did you know?

He had a cameo in TFIOS, that was later cut.

He is a huge soccer fan, supports Liverpool and is a sponsor for AFC Wimbledon. He reportedly sold the TFIOS movie rights to Wyck Godfrey because of their shared love for football.

He has a sports twitter account, @sportswithjohn, which is now filled with World Cup updates.

A few shots:

• Great game. Great effort. Devastating loss. But hopefully those tuning in for the first time have seen what a beautiful game it can be. (After the USA vs Belgium match)

• Yes, the referee let the game get out of control. Yes, the foul was terrible. But the 19th century-style stretchering off has to end. (During the Brazil vs Colombia match)

• Chelsea should really pick up the entire Costa Rican national team. (After the Netherlands vs Costa Rica match)

There is a “reduce world suck” page where he is raising money to fight sarcoma. You can donate one dollar to the football team you are supporting and he donates three.

There is a “is that john green” (yes, it has no capital letters and no interrogation marks) game on Tumblr where basically you post a John Green joke, get it reblogged so that it gets noticed by John Green, who may choose to comment on it or reblog it. But, because his tumblr name is “fishingboatgproceeds”, when it happens users often do a double-take saying “is that john green”.

He has spawned many memes including the popular “Pizza John” meme and the TFIOS-inspired “It’s a metaphor” meme.

What do you like best about John Green? Tell t2@abp.in