NERDFIGHTERIA

Dear Hank And John: A Comedy Podcast About Death.

The Vlogbrothers rose to fame by, well, erm, vlogging. Also known widely for their other jobs: Hank - a musician and business entrepreneur - and John - a YA novelist - have created a beautiful community on YouTube; their quirky anecdotes, relatable personalities and camaraderie have lead them from 'who the eff is Hank?' comments to a rapidly increasing cult following with dedicated fans all around the globe.

And just because the world could have done with a little bit more awesome, on the 7th of June 2015, they launched their newest collaboration: a podcast. More specifically, a comedy podcast. About death. Yup, this is your average stand-up comedy skit: reflecting upon teenage angst, contemplating the likelihood of all the agonizing ways to die and learning how to live with the despair of regular existential crises. Just casual, light-hearted humour.

The podcast - available from Patreon, Podbay, YouTube and itunes - usually begins with a general conversation between the two brothers, discussing their health and notable things that have occurred in the past week, before John goes on to read a short poem. One poem that I particularly remember enjoying him reading out is:

Never Again The Same by James Tate:

Speaking of sunsets, 
last night's was shocking. 
I mean, sunsets aren't supposed to frighten you, are they? 
Well, this one was terrifying. 
People were screaming in the streets. 
Sure, it was beautiful, but far too beautiful. 
It wasn't natural. 
One climax followed another and then another 
until your knees went weak 
and you couldn't breathe. 
The colors were definitely not of this world, 
peaches dripping opium, 
pandemonium of tangerines, 
inferno of irises, 
Plutonian emeralds, 
all swirling and churning, swabbing, 
like it was playing with us, 
like we were nothing, 
as if our whole lives were a preparation for this, 
this for which nothing could have prepared us 
and for which we could not have been less prepared. 
The mockery of it all stung us bitterly. 
And when it was finally over 
we whimpered and cried and howled. 
And then the streetlights came on as always 
and we looked into one another's eyes? 
ancient caves with still pools 
and those little transparent fish 
who have never seen even one ray of light. 
And the calm that returned to us 
was not even our own.

After the sharing of the 'short-poem-that-sometimes-ends-up-being-quite-long', the brothers answer questions emailed in by listeners {at hankandjohn@gmail.com} by providing notoriously dubious and comedic advice. The last portion of the show is dedicated to the news surrounding their favourite topic, which is Mars for Hank and AFC Wimbledon for John. The brothers then spend the last few minutes discussing what they have learnt from the podcast.

The schedule of their daily lives has sometimes led one of them to miss several episodes {notably for John during the summer of 2015 due to the Paper Towns publicity tour, and for Hank in late 2016 for his paternity leave}; various friends of the brothers have filled in for each missing host on those occasions. Thus, my favourite quote from the podcast so far has come from neither Hank nor John, but Emma Blackery, who I am aware also does YouTube and music stuffs.

'You can't rename it 'cause you've shoved it in acid!'
{Episode #6: Would You Eat A Sandwich?}

She is, of course, talking about gherkins.

But, most definitely, the comedy podcast about death WOULD NOT be the comedy podcast about death if it were not for the amazing sponsors of the show. These sponsors are given shoutouts all throughout the podcast and generally relate to the threads of discussion that week as well as, of course, being entirely fictitious. Previous sponsors of Dear Hank And John have included: Dear John And Hank, Hank Green's snapchat, Adebayo Akinfenwa, four-sided bananas, OH MY GOD IT'S BURNING, and of course, death.

"Dear Hank And John is brought to you by Project Awesomesauce. Yeah, that's right! Project Awesomesauce! Decreasing worldsuck one post at a time!"

Let us end in true podcast style - what have we learnt from today's post? Well, some of you will now be aware of the existence of this podcast, whilst others of you will just be reeling in wonder at the existence of such amazing people. Or maybe you are perhaps realizing that death is actually rather hilarious. I, myself, have learned that it is a grave mistake to remove this podcast from your life and thus, I must quickly jump back on the hearse of comedic nerding.

And so, 'as we say in our hometown', Let The Awesomeness Commence!

- thefineideayoucrave