Everyone’s been talking about the internet lately, mostly because of the WGA and their lack of getting fair pay in the new media. And it really is a new media. There are web shows popping up all over the place, network television websites (Like USA, ABC, VH1, etc) have “webisodes”; now anyone can make “podcasts”, “vlogs” or comedy shorts. The cool thing is if you sort through all the crappy videos on Youtube or surf the web with the intention of being entertained you can actually find genuinely impressive videos and concepts.
For example almost anybody who has ever been on the internet has seen or heard of “The Show with Ze Frank”. Ze Frank is this thirty something guy who decided that for one year, on Mondays through Fridays, he would make a short video narrative about what was going on in the news and in his life. From my description you wouldn’t think this was something impressive except that he literally started a revolution in the way “youtubers” make videos. In his narrative he presented his news in amusing, liberal and often times too true ways. His views were so widely shared that he created a sub culture of viewers who are dubbed “Sports Racers” and “Fabulosos” (although the “Fabulosos” were a sub group of “Sports Racers”, they played chess with him via the show).
His phenomenon became a phenomenon because we could empathize with him. He was not just a face and a smattering of jokes, he was human. He got sick, still posted videos, he had to go through the frustrations of Delta Airlines like everyone else and he was fed up with the Bush Administration just as we were. He was us, only in an ipod. By becoming Sports Racers and participating in his projects, like “If the earth were a sandwich” in which viewers attempted to place a piece of bread on the ground on one part of the world and also have another slice placed on the ground on the exact opposite side of them, we came to experience each other as Sports Racers and therein became one with each other. All thanks to Ze Frank. (Also he gave us a common enemy, “Hard Chargers” people like Carl Rove, President Bush or general douche bags were the anti Sports Racer)
Ze Frank also inspired another revolution, that of “Brotherhood 2.0”. John and Hank Green are two brothers who took Ze’s concept and ran with it but in a different way. They kept the year long process, the time limit, punishments, challenges and projects but this time there were two people posting videos and instead of Sports Racers, you got “Nerd Fighters”.
Nerd Fighters, as defined by John Green (he’s also a full time author, he’s written such works as Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and will be releasing Paper Towns later this October) are nerds who fight. What do they fight? Deceptions. We’re not talking giant transforming robots here, but people like Hard Chargers with a special knack for picking on nerds.
John and Hank (Hank runs ecogeek.org a website dedicated to finding greener technology) even broke down and glorified the typical stereotype of nerds and made them better and “awesomer”. We became more than just geeks with books, thick rimmed glasses obsessed with D&D; we became Harry Potter Nerd Fighters, English Literature Nerd Fighters, Music Nerd Fighters, Comic Book Nerd Fighters, and Marching Band Nerd Fighters and so on. Once again someone with a video camera and a good idea started a viral revolution that spread into our daily lives. All over the nation and in some other areas of the world there are teenagers and adults signing off their conversations with a casual “DFTBA!” (Don’t Forget to Be Awesome) or greeting fellow nerds with a “Nerd fighters! Hoo Ha!” followed by a super jokes Star Trek greeting.
John and Hank’s year long run with “Brotherhood 2.0” ended as of December 31st 2007 but they created a website for all Nerd Fighters to congregate on (“It’s like Nerdfighteria’s capital!” John exclaimed in reference to the future nerd utopia) and they still post occasional videos to let us know they care. That they will always be Nerd Fighters through and through.
Ze and the Green brother’s revolution lives on, especially because of awesome merchandising and the need for everyone to know they too are interning in the LOA (League of Awesome, check out Zefrank.com to learn more) and because, thanks to them, the viewers finally have a connection to complete strangers who will automatically embrace them just for saying how jokes the stuff on their head is.
