The story goes like this: Hank Green once included John Green in an email, during a year-long challenge in which communication via text in any form was forbidden between the two brothers upon a prior mutual agreement. Per this agreement, any violation of this or several other predetermined rules would result in a punishment. These punishments could either be embarrassing or painful, supposedly sometimes both. But occasionally, there were ways one could be freed from said punishment. All it took was a community and their dollars.
Welcome (or welcome back!) to Vlogbrothers Rewatch -- an ongoing series of articles in which I document my journey through the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel and its many uploads. Using this playlist, I am rewatching everything in chronological order from the very beginning. It's April 2007. John is afraid of geese (possibly still true). Options for punishments are plentiful, but funds in the Foundation to Decrease World Suck account are not. So much has changed.
I must admit that watching this back and hearing John list off the possible punishments, I don't remember which one Hank ended up choosing. But I do know that Nerdfighteria didn't raise the proposed $200 collective dollars to free him from having to make a choice, which says a lot about people's apparent wishes online compared to their follow-through when it comes to acting on those wishes. Free Hank, everyone said. They could have, but they didn't.
This is, of course, because the internet likes to see people embarrassed or in pain. That much has not changed and likely never will. These two brothers alone have found a way to turn the possibility of ever-preserved punishment into a fundraising opportunity, and quite effectively at that. I'm looking forward to continuing along my journey to be reminded what this punishment ended up becoming.