YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2O9BkGxWBVY
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View count:693,334
Likes:17,984
Comments:1,777
Duration:03:33
Uploaded:2010-09-17
Last sync:2024-11-16 23:45

Citation

Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate.
MLA Full: "Positive Prank Calls!!" YouTube, uploaded by vlogbrothers, 17 September 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O9BkGxWBVY.
MLA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2010)
APA Full: vlogbrothers. (2010, September 17). Positive Prank Calls!! [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2O9BkGxWBVY
APA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2010)
Chicago Full: vlogbrothers, "Positive Prank Calls!!", September 17, 2010, YouTube, 03:33,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2O9BkGxWBVY.
In which Hank calls random strangers in his town and tells them encouranging and true facts about our world.

I couldn't fit all of them in, and I had to cut a few of them down (and maybe re-film a couple because they took so embarrassingly long for me to say) but I've included the script I used which has all of the positive facts I used in my positive prank calls.

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In the last 100 years, the human lifespan has increased by over 35 years. 100 years ago the average lifespan was only 45 years. Now it's almost 80. And that number is increasing every year. If it keeps increasing at that same rate, the average lifespan of a child born in 2008 will be 98 years old.

Teen pregnancy, smoke and drug use have all decreased significantly since the 1990s

Rates of cancer have decreased steadily in the U.S. for 20 years and it's not just because people aren't smoking as much, though that's certainly part of it. It's also because new screening techniques that can detect pre-cancerous lesions in the colon and also because of the HPV vaccine which prevents the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Small Pox once killed millions of people per year, now it has been completely eradicated. It literally does not exist anymore.

Since 1990, global poverty rates have decreased by more than 30%. And they're on-track to have decreased 40% by 2015.

Divorce rates are much lower than people assume, and have consistently dropped since the 1970's in America. Only 20% of people who got married in the 1980s got divorced.

Violent crime rates dropped 5% between 2007 and 2008. And violent crime rates have been dropping consistently every year since 1993

The Red Cross collects 15 million blood donations per year. No one is compensated for those donations, except with cookies and juice. People just like helping other people.

In 1970 there were only 400 breeding pairs of Bald Eagles left in America, but the Endangered Species Act effecively saved the species. There are now more than 10,000 breeding pairs. During the same time Whooping Cranes returned from a much more serious 50 birds total in the entire world. There are now over 500.

What's red and smells like blue paint.

Red paint.

YOU LAUGHED! When you're laughingyou burn 20% more calories than you do at a resting state. So make sure you laugh as often as possible.


HERE ARE A LOT OF LINKS TO NERDFIGHTASTIC THINGS:

Shirts and Stuff: http://dftba.com/artist/30/Vlogbrothers
Hank's Music: http://dftba.com/artist/15/Hank-Green
John's Books: http://amzn.to/j3LYqo

======================

Hank's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hankgreen
Hank's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hankimon
Hank's tumblr: http://edwardspoonhands.tumblr.com

John's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/realjohngreen
John's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johngreenfans
John's tumblr: http://fishingboatproceeds.tumblr.com

======================

Other Channels
Crash Course: http://www.youtube.com/crashcourse
SciShow: http://www.youtube.com/scishow
Gaming: http://www.youtube.com/hankgames
VidCon: http://www.youtube.com/vidcon
Hank's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/hankschannel
Truth or Fail: http://www.youtube.com/truthorfail

======================

Nerdfighteria
http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/
http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/nftumblrs
http://reddit.com/r/nerdfighters
http://nerdfighteria.info/

A Bunny
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Good morning John, it's Friday, September 17th.

I don't look very good, I've gotta change the white balance. That's better, there's a little more color in my skin. The great thing about being a person who only exists in videos is that you don't have to go outside to get color, you can just change the white balance.

Now I'm extra orange! And now, I can go out clubbing on the Jersey shore! Excellent!

John, I have decided to follow your and Amy Krouse Rosenthal's lead and do some positive pranking today. I was thinking to myself: What is the most common form of prank? The answer is, of course, the prank call! "Hey, is your refrigerator running?

Well you better go catch it!" But I am taking that idea and turning it positive by prank calling people with encouraging and true facts about our world. But unfortunately Montana is one of the twelve states in which you cannot record a phone call unless all parties have agreed to the recording. So you're just going to get me, just gonna get my side of the conversation.

Okay, it's ringing. Uh, and answering machine. I-I guess I could use an answering machine. "Hi, this is Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, and I just wanted to let you know that teen smoking, teen pregnancy, and teen drug use have all declined significantly since the late 1990s." It's ringing. "Hi, this is Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, and I just wanted to let you know that cancer rates are decreasing significantly year over year.

No, it's not just because of lung cancer, that's a really good point, though. Lung cancer is decreasing, and that is part of it, but it's also because of increased screening for precancerous lesions and also the HPV vaccine. Uh, yeah, it's good news.

I just wanted to let you know because it's good news. Yeah, okay, bye. That went really well!

I am surprised by how well that went. Okay, I'm going to start telling people facts and hanging up immediately, because I feel like that's more prank-like than talking to them. "Hi, this is Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, and I just wanted to let you know that global poverty rates have dropped thirty percent since 1990, and they're on track to drop another ten percent before 2015." She was talking, and I just hung up on her. Ha!

Ha, pranked! "Hi, this is Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers and I just wanted to let you know that divorce rates are actually much lower than people generally assume; eighty percent of people who got married in the 1980s are still married." Hahahaha! It's fun, it's exhilarating! "Hi, I jut wanted to let you know that in the 1970s there were only four hundred breeding pairs of bald eagles left, but since the passage of the endangered species act, that has gone up to over ten thousand breeding pairs of bald eagles." "Hi, this is Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers and I just wanted to let you know that violent crime rates have dropped every year since 1970, and they have dropped five percent between, uh, 2008 and 2009 alone." So I have successfully positively pranked called ten people, and that, I think, is a good day's work. I'm gonna put a transcript of my script that I used for my positive pranks down in the doobly-doo so that you can make your own positive prank calls because they are perfectly legal to do, though occasionally people seem somewhat annoyed at me.

Thank you to people who follow me on Twitter for suggesting most of these. I didn't find these on my own, I asked people to find me encouraging statistics about the world, and people were very kind and sent some of these in. I genuinely hope that people who I positively pranked today will think about the encouraging fact that I've told to them about the word, and they will feel better about the state of our planet, and our society because it's very easy to get discouraged.

But I only think that's because we get told the bad news, and we never get told the good news, and so I just wanted to tell some people some good news today. John, I will see you on Monday.