I love it when I get a category even though the category that I was thinking of is different from the category that the creators of the puzzle were thinking.
I love that too, I will never forget when I got the category of weave, cross, hook and bob in one go because I thought they were all terms for textile crafts, while instead they were boxing terms.
When I first saw it, I thought hug, kiss, and xo went together, with xo being written shorthand for “kiss hug,” but their was no fourth matching. Once you said sauce, I instantly recognized XO sauce though. 😊
I love Hank's excited bewilderment at learning a new fact. I too did not know about XO sauce until this day, so thanks for allowing me to be bewildered with you Hank, this really was a great little clip of a fun game being played by a cool guy. Cheers mate!
"i'm too white for that" had me CACKLING (also, same 🤣🤣) I, too, was successful with this connections but felt a bit like luck. I did get the "bear" category but wasnt confident in it. Had zero clue re sauces being a category so you at least had the THOUGHT that sauces could be a category 😂
XO sauce is based on Xtra Old cognac - a chinese sayce made of the most expensive and premium ingredients including dried scallops, ham, booze and more.
I was sure you were pulling my leg. A Chinese sauce based on cognac?!? Turns out you are (mostly) factually correct. My hat is off to you; trolling with the truth is a skill. :D
I had no idea about XO sauce so I also had to look it up when I played this yesterday. I am ADDICTED to this game! I'm so glad other people are discovering it. I wish they had an "endless play" version but alas, like its brother Wordle, we only get it once a day. Wordle and Connections are my guilty little morning pleasure while I bus commute to work each morning. Keeps my old brain sharp!
(this is not a criticism in any way but i noticed you said "my guilty little pleasure on my morning commute" and since it is my life's mission to erase the very concept of "guilty pleasure" from the world itself, I would like to quietly suggest "my little morning commute joy" as a more sincere alternative, if that also feels accurate 👀)
I think this is my fav connections video I’ve seen! Straight to the point, full insight into the thought process, and some commentary at the end. (It does help that I always enjoy Hank playing games)
I love seeing other people's connections and realizing how similar out thought processes are sometimes. 😂 My favorite was a couple of days ago one of the categories was aisles at a grocery store and every person I knew who worked at a grocery store got it right away and everyone who didn't had the same struggle as me.
Banner year for that part of the Venn diagram where Nerdfighters meet "Only Connect" fans. John got mentioned on the show itself, and now Hank is playing the Connecting Wall. I've bought XO-flavored instant noodles at the Asian market before. It's tasty.
Thank you for putting these out, I like playing this game & seeing you reason it out makes me feel better for when I don't get the answers cause sometimes those prompts make no sense lol
This is how I get through all of these, Hank. One confident answer right off the bat, or close to it, then screaming internally as I waffle between 5 options that seem to fit and not knowing which one is the outlier, getting REALLY lucky sometimes by just blind guessing, sometimes while having NO idea how they relate to each other at all, and then the final one is a freebie that I DEFINITELY do not know how they relate to each other 🤣
Don't you love Connections? It's my new favorite. Requires language and cultural knowledge. I like observing how your brain worked through the previous day's puzzle. This is fun 😊
I believe it is the New York Times game, called Connections. Introduced last June, almost 15 years after Only Connect invented the game with the Connecting Wall. I am not sure if the NYT have commented on their plagiarism.
@@pattheplanterThey kind of have. The host of only connect (Victoria Cohen Mitchell) tweeted about the similarity, which led to this comment to various news outlets: “Grouped words is a common theme of games. The content of Connections is unique, handcrafted and has a distinctive style synonymous with New York Times Games.” Though I distinctly remember them having a 'facial hair types' group a week or so after Only Connect had the same things as a picture question.
Growing up Chinese-American, I had thought that XO sauce was another steak sauce, like A1 or worschestershire, that just got borrowed into Chinese cuisine. I didn't realize until today that it was something foreign to so many Americans
always catching myself assuming everyone knows what I know - was stunned when hank didn’t know xo sauce but I guess I was around more chinese food than others growing up?
hahah i had the exact same thought process for this one!!! except i picked up on the "bear" thing before i was left with the sauces x) but i'm with you i didn't know what xo sauce was either!
XO sauce is delicious, I only recently had it a few years ago at a Chinese restaurant and it was so good I still think about it. The dish I had was Clams in XO Sauce
I regularly eat XO sauce but I'm a Chinese Canadian from Vancouver so I'm not representative. BTW, kiss is definitely used in non-mouth contexts too. In motorsports, kissing curbs refers to lightly grazing them.
The sauces were obvious to me but that’s because I love cooking and I’ve even made my own XO sauce before. Lots of people haven’t tried it before, nor do they read menus or cookbooks, so it’s not surprising that it’s not well known.
Oooh boy, there were lots of red herrings in this one! I did it as a screen shot so I couldn't confirm and eliminate along the way, but I was confident in numbers and light touch (kiss did seem a little out of place, but it made sense to me). I looked hard for a 4th milk and sauce (though I did want to say XO was a sauce). I put Claw and Witness together but as _____ Mark. I also saw Plum, Oyster and Fruit... XO, Hug, Kiss... I looked for cow related words because I had milk on the mind and saw Graze. There were several other almost sets along the way.
XO sauce yeah!! I’m chinese-american and while my parents don’t normally buy that i see it in a lot of restaurant dishes and chinese grocery stores. i think it was cool that you had an intuition that XO was a sauce 😁😂
When I saw XO, I instantly knew it was a sauce. It's an asian sauce with chili pepper oil, dried scallops, garlic, etc, etc. Very delicious with dumplings or noodles.
The most common grouping I find in Connections is "I have no idea but THOSE FOUR ARE LEFT"
“Could you milk a plum? You could milk a witness.” I absolutely love that reference.
I knew XO sauce was a thing but never had it nor seen it irl, and I'm fairly certain I've seen it used at some point in MasterChef Australia
Oops, sorry, I see I accidentally replied to you instead of making my own comment on the video😅
What is it a reference to?
. @@Snowshowslow
@@Snowshowslowit might be a reference to the 1985 movie witness where Harrison Ford has to milk a cow?? idk
Hank you're welcome to upload your connections playthrough whenever you feel like it! That was delightful.
I'd literally watch this for hours if I could...
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Seriously!!!
Ohhhhh yessssss +++++
right? hahaha i wanna see his thought processes and compare notes
Hank doesn't need an intro or an explanation. He's too smart for those.
Those are for vlogbrothers. If you're here, you get what you get, and if you don't understand it, you probably will in a few minutes
His audience is too smart for intros we 🧠 get it 🧠 cuh
I love that he doesn't waste our time in intros. We know what connections is. Or do we?
Didn’t need one, it was awesome
"Can you infer situations from context clues? Let's FIND OUT" /j
I love it when I get a category even though the category that I was thinking of is different from the category that the creators of the puzzle were thinking.
I love that too, I will never forget when I got the category of weave, cross, hook and bob in one go because I thought they were all terms for textile crafts, while instead they were boxing terms.
@@rachelle10I did exactly the same thing lol
@@rachelle10 same here. I thought it had something to with knitting except for bob. I guessed maybe somehow a bob pin was involved and it worked out.
@tugloo1 I thought exactly the same!
Hank's channel is now a gaming channel.
Hank just forgot he has @GamesWithHank or connections is a game or both.
John steals hankschannel in 3 . . . 2 . . .
No wait, John is taking a break from the internet.
"Do you know about this?" I was unfortunately screaming it at the video the whole time, yes.
+
sameeee 🥲
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When I first saw it, I thought hug, kiss, and xo went together, with xo being written shorthand for “kiss hug,” but their was no fourth matching. Once you said sauce, I instantly recognized XO sauce though. 😊
I also thought xo went with hug and kiss, and I'd never heard of XO sauce
i know of xo sauce but was exactly like you, i associated that with hug and kiss first! it was later on that i associated it with the sauce haha
I was certain this was a valentine's day puzzle too!
I play Connections daily and it's so fun to see someone else's thought process as they play it. Thank you for sharing, Hank!
"You could milk a witness" -2024
"I have nipples Greg, could you milk me?"
The devs always do some trolling with the 3-of-a-kinds
Yep. If it seem too obvious, there’s a very good chance that it’s not it
There is only one editor, Wyna Liu, and she is credited on the start screen.
I was so confident that Hug, Kiss, and XO went together 😔
I love Hank's excited bewilderment at learning a new fact. I too did not know about XO sauce until this day, so thanks for allowing me to be bewildered with you Hank, this really was a great little clip of a fun game being played by a cool guy. Cheers mate!
"i'm too white for that" had me CACKLING (also, same 🤣🤣)
I, too, was successful with this connections but felt a bit like luck. I did get the "bear" category but wasnt confident in it. Had zero clue re sauces being a category so you at least had the THOUGHT that sauces could be a category 😂
As a person who lived in HongKong🇭🇰, you will never know how frustrating it was when you could spot the sauces instantly.
YESSSS OMG I WAS SCREAMING SAUCES THE WHOLE TIME
Yes! I was yelling at the screen 😂
XO sauce is based on Xtra Old cognac - a chinese sayce made of the most expensive and premium ingredients including dried scallops, ham, booze and more.
I was sure you were pulling my leg. A Chinese sauce based on cognac?!? Turns out you are (mostly) factually correct. My hat is off to you; trolling with the truth is a skill. :D
I had no idea about XO sauce so I also had to look it up when I played this yesterday. I am ADDICTED to this game! I'm so glad other people are discovering it. I wish they had an "endless play" version but alas, like its brother Wordle, we only get it once a day. Wordle and Connections are my guilty little morning pleasure while I bus commute to work each morning. Keeps my old brain sharp!
(this is not a criticism in any way but i noticed you said "my guilty little pleasure on my morning commute" and since it is my life's mission to erase the very concept of "guilty pleasure" from the world itself, I would like to quietly suggest "my little morning commute joy" as a more sincere alternative, if that also feels accurate 👀)
@@alissa6380 that sounds like a good idea to me!
I love seeing someone else get as much joy and frustration out of Connections as I do
When you figure them out, you feel smart
When you can’t figure them out, you feel pain
XO Sauce is amazing. One of my favourite cantonese dishes is XO Beef with Noodles. Awesome sauce. ;-)
stay tuned for the Awesome Sauce Club
@@Jim73 Great idea, greater name!!
I think this is my fav connections video I’ve seen! Straight to the point, full insight into the thought process, and some commentary at the end. (It does help that I always enjoy Hank playing games)
2:44 Hank just disappearing from the screen when he registers ‘bear claw’ is my favourite part of this video
I love hearing your thought process! I play this everyday and it’s so interesting to see how they make connections with words!
I do these on the subway during my commute, and I also had no idea what XO sauce was haha. I was convinced it was supposed to go with kiss and hug.
I need more of Hank playing Connections. please and thank you. also, I had no idea that XO was a sauce and I lived in mainland China for 5 years. 😅
It's more of a Cantonese thing, so other parts of China might not have it
@@bopete3204 good point!
I love these videos >v< didn't know about this game beforehand and it's quite fun! Thanks for posting these, they're very entertaining lol
I never knew about this game until I saw your short yesterday, Hank. Now I'm going through the whole archive. Super fun game, thank you Hank!!
Watching this immediately after watching Hanks "Last Meal" interview - OF COURSE Hank is excited about learning of a new kind of sauce! 😂
YES! XO SAUCE! Local restaurant puts “XO Bacon Jam” on a fried chicken sandwich and it’s SO GOOD.
the XO sauce seemed to evade people more than i anticipated!! XO oyster and soy were the first group i saw !
I love seeing other people's connections and realizing how similar out thought processes are sometimes. 😂
My favorite was a couple of days ago one of the categories was aisles at a grocery store and every person I knew who worked at a grocery store got it right away and everyone who didn't had the same struggle as me.
Banner year for that part of the Venn diagram where Nerdfighters meet "Only Connect" fans. John got mentioned on the show itself, and now Hank is playing the Connecting Wall.
I've bought XO-flavored instant noodles at the Asian market before. It's tasty.
This is one of my favorite things I’ve stumbled upon that I would have never thought I’d enjoy so much
These are actually really fun to watch, keep em coming 😊
I fail so bad and so frequently on connections, but I still keep coming back. I like seeing your process to figure it out.. please keep doing these.
Please upload more of this, I loved every second!
Videos like this always make me smile :)
Thank you for putting these out, I like playing this game & seeing you reason it out makes me feel better for when I don't get the answers cause sometimes those prompts make no sense lol
I played this game a couple of times, but my brain is not wired for Connections. It's really interesting to see Hank walk through his process lol
same
This is how I get through all of these, Hank. One confident answer right off the bat, or close to it, then screaming internally as I waffle between 5 options that seem to fit and not knowing which one is the outlier, getting REALLY lucky sometimes by just blind guessing, sometimes while having NO idea how they relate to each other at all, and then the final one is a freebie that I DEFINITELY do not know how they relate to each other 🤣
Don't you love Connections? It's my new favorite. Requires language and cultural knowledge. I like observing how your brain worked through the previous day's puzzle. This is fun 😊
Watching this makes me feel so validated with my struggle with the connections every morning
That was delightful. I love discovering others' thought processes. Top Chef is the only reason I know what XO sauce is.
I need more of this. It was super quick and easy to follow.
This is like the wall round of Only Connect.
I believe it is the New York Times game, called Connections. Introduced last June, almost 15 years after Only Connect invented the game with the Connecting Wall. I am not sure if the NYT have commented on their plagiarism.
I mean it's not even a little different.
@@pattheplanterThey kind of have.
The host of only connect (Victoria Cohen Mitchell) tweeted about the similarity, which led to this comment to various news outlets:
“Grouped words is a common theme of games. The content of Connections is unique, handcrafted and has a distinctive style synonymous with New York Times Games.”
Though I distinctly remember them having a 'facial hair types' group a week or so after Only Connect had the same things as a picture question.
@@pattheplanterfunny cause if they just said new game inspired by only connect nobody would have an issue but laziness prevails
I like Hank, but is it more fun when Victoria is there.
I love to watch you reasoning through these! I don’t feel like such an idiot. And, no, I have not heard of XO sauce😂
Growing up Chinese-American, I had thought that XO sauce was another steak sauce, like A1 or worschestershire, that just got borrowed into Chinese cuisine. I didn't realize until today that it was something foreign to so many Americans
i looooove watching hank do connections and hearing his thought process! also XO sauce has been a staple in my household growing up
i love these videos, it’s basically exactly how my mornings go lol
This is basically exactly how my mom and I solved last night. Same misleads and everything.
Loved you in Last Meals on the Mythical Kitchen channel today. Excellent video and conversation.
Love the Connections videos! I also had not heard of XO sauce before playing it.
I had no idea this game existed, thank you I love it!
I love that we play connections the same way bestie. Word game supremacy!!
As someone who lived in China, I was screaming about XO sauce to you!!! It is most definitely a (very delicious) thing!
This feels like a P4A teaser and I for one CANT WAIT
As a British person I assumed XO sauce must be a Chinese American thing, but I guess not! Never seen it here!
Hank's enthusiasm is so infectious!!
The Let's play I'd actually watch every day
Ok, maybe not EVERY day, but I'd tune in whenever I got extremely frustrated by the days version...
xo i knew from nyt cooking mystery menu which is an absolutely delightful show
always catching myself assuming everyone knows what I know - was stunned when hank didn’t know xo sauce but I guess I was around more chinese food than others growing up?
Please play more with us! Your thought process almost exactly mirrored my own!
😂 im so glad this was posted the day after, i gve the heck up after i figured out one category
I didn’t know about XO sauce, but I loved the “Bear” connection words. (If it’s “weird,” so be it. But that kind of connection is my favorite)
hahah i had the exact same thought process for this one!!! except i picked up on the "bear" thing before i was left with the sauces x) but i'm with you i didn't know what xo sauce was either!
XO sauce is delicious, I only recently had it a few years ago at a Chinese restaurant and it was so good I still think about it. The dish I had was Clams in XO Sauce
This puzzle was definitely my introduction to the existence of XO sauce.
I did not know about XO sauce! Thanks Hank I learned a thing!
Never heard of XO sauce before doing the Connections either, and the fact that you didn't either makes me feel better!
I regularly eat XO sauce but I'm a Chinese Canadian from Vancouver so I'm not representative.
BTW, kiss is definitely used in non-mouth contexts too. In motorsports, kissing curbs refers to lightly grazing them.
As a canto person i was just yelling XO JEURNG!!!!!
I am so happy you're doing these.
The sauces were obvious to me but that’s because I love cooking and I’ve even made my own XO sauce before. Lots of people haven’t tried it before, nor do they read menus or cookbooks, so it’s not surprising that it’s not well known.
all of foodtube screaming “XO SAUCE HANK ITS XO SAUCE”
I not only knew XO sauce, I was screaming internally because I thought that seemed like a pretty obvious answer
I adore XO sauce (and you pronounce it exactly like the letters, yes), and you should definitely try some if you get the chance!
I had a hard time with this one and didn't get as lucky as you! The milk misdirect and the XO sauce were stumping me.
every time you said XO wasn’t a sauce I screamed (internally)
“I’m a goer. I’d go” - Hank Green 2024
Oooh boy, there were lots of red herrings in this one! I did it as a screen shot so I couldn't confirm and eliminate along the way, but I was confident in numbers and light touch (kiss did seem a little out of place, but it made sense to me). I looked hard for a 4th milk and sauce (though I did want to say XO was a sauce). I put Claw and Witness together but as _____ Mark. I also saw Plum, Oyster and Fruit... XO, Hug, Kiss... I looked for cow related words because I had milk on the mind and saw Graze. There were several other almost sets along the way.
Glad you were as lost as me on this and also so impressed by your deduction sir
XO sauce yeah!! I’m chinese-american and while my parents don’t normally buy that i see it in a lot of restaurant dishes and chinese grocery stores. i think it was cool that you had an intuition that XO was a sauce 😁😂
I would love to watch Hank get absolutely bamboozled by an entire episode of Only Connect
The XO got me as well.
I started playing this and other games on the NYT game app and it's quickly become a favorite!
"A STRATEGIC AND IGNORANT VICTORY" title of Hank Green's next book
I hope your shelves bring you joy but man do they bring me that feeling right before vertigo strikes.
Had never heard of XO sauce before. Learned something new!
I was indeed screaming "XO SAUCE" the whole time he was clicking sauces 😂
A true perfect Connections is when you get them in reverse difficulty order.
Not me screaming XO sauce at the screen like this whole video...
I do connections with my friends every day. I’d watch this every day. I’d never heard of XO sauce
XO sauce is banging! Yeah, I know about it!
XO sauce is delicious and a lot, you are correct. definitely worth a go
Oh god i'd watch HOURS of you playing connections!
I love hank green's energy playing this game this is incredible.
“ahhahaHAHA. assholes” is how i feel literally every time I play connections; thanks Hank for summing it up
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who opened it and immediately clicked on the three milks
Their motto should definitely be "Connections! That went better than I thought it was going to!" for all those times it just magically works out lol
Hey I was just looking through my subscriptions after downloading the Shinigami Eyes extension and saw that Hank was marked green, so that's nice
When I saw XO, I instantly knew it was a sauce. It's an asian sauce with chili pepper oil, dried scallops, garlic, etc, etc. Very delicious with dumplings or noodles.
This was almost exactly my playthrough of that day’s connections game.