When i first heard of "The fault in our stars by John Green" i just thought it was your google-ganger or somethin because there was no way that THIS John Green could write THAT story. Turns out i was wrong. John Green the romance writer and lifehack tester :)
Have you checked out any of John's other channels? He and his brother Hank's main channel is called Vlogbrothers, and they also teach various subjects (currently literature and psychology) on Crash Course.
Lol when I saw the mental floss john green I though "there's no way this guy is the same john green who wrote the fault In our stars" and then I was mind blown. I never knew he was even a youtuber...
I love how John Green says that, "Oh, when I'm not hosting Mental Floss (and about two other programs on RUclips), I write books in my spare time." It's like, "Oh, I wrote a couple of best-selling books. No biggie!" I love this man!
I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't include Hugh Dancy. His hobby is carpeteering, for crying out loud - it doesn't get weirder, and awesomer, than that! For those who are unfamiliar with that hobby: carpeteering is when you photograph the carpets in airports and then upload them onto a website where they're catalogued and reviewed.
Well, of course I knew that Bill Clinton played the saxophone! I mean "Dot is cute and Yakko yaks! Wakko packs away the snacks, while Bill Clinton plays the sax, WE'RE ANIMANIACS!"
thequeenundisputed It's not a unique hobby. Unusual, perhaps, and maybe more unusual than it used to be, given that Fighting Knives: America's Most Incisive Cutlery Magazine is no longer being published.
fellas, maybe it should be "47 hobbies of successful, but relatively unsual people.) u know. cuz its not weird to collect daggers, but its weird if angelina jolie collects daggers.get the idea there?
I had heard of "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green and how it's one of the most revered books of today, but when I started watching these videos I had NO IDEA that this guy I watch on RUclips is the same brilliant mind behind that book. Totally shocking, but cool because now I've learned how awesome John Green is.
So. Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and David Beckham went to join a fencing tournament. Unfortunately, Cruise forgot to bring the swords, so their plans were... foiled.
For a list of 48 famous people and their hobbies I feel you've made a glaring omission. Not a single mention of Sir Winston Churchill and his hobby, bricklaying. Now that is unique.
When I heard the last fact I thought "Duh, everybody knows that Bill Clinton plays the sax!" Then I remembered this all happened over 20 years ago. Thanks for making me feel old, John!
"Animaniacs! Dot is cute and Yakko yaks! Wakko packs away the snacks while Bill Clinton plays the sax! We're Animaniacs!" the only reason I knew Bill Clinton plays the saxaphone
Wait what you are John Green ...Your book The fault in our stars...has been made into a movie in our country India too....It had been a huge success..♥️♥️♥️🔥🔥🔥🔥
In regard to Thomas Edison not liking sound movies, my grandmother (1899-1993) once told me that when sound movies first came out, she found the voices distracting and she didn't like it.
John, you forgot the fact that Mount Rushmore is incomplete because the U.S. government ran out of money to fund the project and the sculptor died (someone correct me if I'm wrong) shortly after! The presidents were actually supposed to have a full torso not just heads!
I think you need to consider the phrase "descriptive linguistics". Dictionaries are not authorities which decide the meanings of words. Dictionaries attempt to document how words are used, not how words "should" be used, and the ones that fail to make that distinction are dangerous for any serious sort of work. The OED is particularly good at this, and doesn't hedge around the issue like Wiktionary can with its weasel words like "disputed". "definition 1.1 Particularly remarkable, special, or unusual:" Like it or not, this is how the word "unique" is often used now. These "you should never use word x to mean y" arguments are tiresome, and they ignore the fact that language changes. Remember "awesome"? It used to mean "terrible in aspect to a degree that inspires awe". A tidal wave destroying a city, an earthquake, the carnage in the wake of a vengeful army, an angry god, those were "awesome". Now finding a fifty cent coupon to Dairy Queen is "awesome". Language changes. Get used to it, and expect it. Otherwise you'll sound like a fussy crank when you go on and on about how "decimate" *actually* means "to kill 10% of", when modern usage has moved so far from that that only pedantic wielders of outdated dictionaries bother to try to enforce the distinction. Unnecessarily correcting common usage of words which used to have a different meaning is a unique and awesome hobby. So is sarcasm.
delusionnnnn The problem with this explanation is that many of these so-called hobbies fail to even meet that loose definition. Segway polo? Unique. Golf? Not even close.
Sim City and Sims creator Will Wright is an avid uncollector. He buys peoples collections of things from ebay and then over the course of weeks, months or even years (depending on the size of the collection) he redistributes individual pieces buy giving them as gifts. He says he is real easing the pieces into the wild to maybe spark interest in collecting to new people.
Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, is a fencer, pilot, and author when he's not on tour. Hugh Jackman recently tweeted about geocaching. Several minor celebs are also geocachers, including Hank Green. Robin Williams is among the celebs known to have played World of Warcraft.
my aunt ran into chuck Norris in an airport many many years ago and he was cross-stitching... i forget what he told her as to the reason but probably for hand-eye coordination or hand strength... but that at least at the time was one of chuck norris' hobbies!!! big softy lol
When you said you wrote books it occurred to me that you are John Green... I work in a school library, students love your books, there is a waiting list for "The Fault in our Stars" I just put "Looking for Alaska" back on the shelf today. Crazy.
I worked at the musical instrument museum that houses a saxophone that was presented to and played by Bill Clinton while in office. The sax has the American flag design on it. It was one of my favorite instruments that I got to study while I worked at the museum.
I was a little surprised Curt Schilling wasn't mentioned: he was an avid player of Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), and became a one third owner of the wargame publisher Multiman Publishing in the mid 90s.
Uh John, you for got to say "...on a SACRED mountain that was originally signed in a treaty agreement as land that belonged to the Lakota but when shiny metal was found, scratch agreement, we're claiming it as U.S. territory so we can mine it."
The hobbies are unique because you wouldn't expect these successful people to do them. It's unique for a basketball player to also enjoy baton-twirling.
Bill Clinton and the saxophone was the only one I knew, but I really honestly am not surprised the Wright brothers were also bicyclists as well as having a bicycle shop.
Actually, another thing you should add about Ernest Hemingway is that he was a boxing FANATIC. He had a ring in his home and is attributed to saying, "My writing is nothing; my boxing is everything."
Oh yea, I heard about that. Just for irony, it'd be awesome if his go-to character was something like an female elf cleric. The party's female elf cleric has a gravely voice, is bald and can bench press every D&D book ever published at once.
Great video- I would also add Dwight D. Eisenhower to your list of golf enthusiasts. Apparently, Ike love the game so much that he had a course build at Camp David, a putting green installed at the White House, and was a member of the preeminent course, Augusta National (which he visited 29 times while in office, often staying for a week at time). Apparently, Eisenhower was such an avid golfer that he played nearly 800 rounds just during the period he was in office.
I have to say that in the UK (and especially for the slightly wealthier people though you don't have to be these days) seeing operas and theatre productions is extremely commonplace. Seeing a show is almost the done thing when you visit London. Margaret Thatcher would have basically been doing what everyone else did.
"I write books in my spare time." THIS GUY WROTE THE FAULT IN OUR STARS AND ANOTHER BEST SELLER
"mom, I wanna be like Angelina Jolie."
"Oh, yeah? You wanna be an actress?"
"No, I want a dagger collection."
When i first heard of "The fault in our stars by John Green" i just thought it was your google-ganger or somethin because there was no way that THIS John Green could write THAT story. Turns out i was wrong. John Green the romance writer and lifehack tester :)
Have you checked out any of John's other channels? He and his brother Hank's main channel is called Vlogbrothers, and they also teach various subjects (currently literature and psychology) on Crash Course.
Yeah i think i watched a couple of videos but i haven't checked them out any further.
Joakim Nørby Houmøller Just wait till you see sharpie/peanut butter face.
Lol when I saw the mental floss john green I though "there's no way this guy is the same john green who wrote the fault In our stars" and then I was mind blown. I never knew he was even a youtuber...
Oliu
I love how John Green says that, "Oh, when I'm not hosting Mental Floss (and about two other programs on RUclips), I write books in my spare time." It's like, "Oh, I wrote a couple of best-selling books. No biggie!" I love this man!
solid Stefon quote.
and. well. I thought you were going to say Angelina Jolie collects children. #imtheworst
Smoothiefreak I was thinking the exact same thing
Sorin Tavala Smoothiefreak children from different ethnicities to be exact!
Clever one. And in a place of the internets I'd never thought it'd surface.
Итьтьтттттььтттттььььь. ():?
I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't include Hugh Dancy. His hobby is carpeteering, for crying out loud - it doesn't get weirder, and awesomer, than that! For those who are unfamiliar with that hobby: carpeteering is when you photograph the carpets in airports and then upload them onto a website where they're catalogued and reviewed.
Well, of course I knew that Bill Clinton played the saxophone!
I mean "Dot is cute and Yakko yaks! Wakko packs away the snacks, while Bill Clinton plays the sax, WE'RE ANIMANIACS!"
I knew that Bill Clinton played the saxophone. Not because of Anamanics but because I saw him play it watching the evening news during his campaign.
Wouldn't this more accurately be described as "Hobbies of 48 Successful People"? None of these are unique, and most aren't even particularly unusual.
Some are unique. I've never heard of a person collecting daggers, for example.
thequeenundisputed
It's not a unique hobby. Unusual, perhaps, and maybe more unusual than it used to be, given that Fighting Knives: America's Most Incisive Cutlery Magazine is no longer being published.
And then to use golf, one of the least unique hobbies (especially for successful people), not only once but 9 times.
hahaha good pint!
fellas, maybe it should be "47 hobbies of successful, but relatively unsual people.)
u know. cuz its not weird to collect daggers, but its weird if angelina jolie collects daggers.get the idea there?
another favourite hobbie of Sigmund Freud- Cocaine
I had heard of "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green and how it's one of the most revered books of today, but when I started watching these videos I had NO IDEA that this guy I watch on RUclips is the same brilliant mind behind that book. Totally shocking, but cool because now I've learned how awesome John Green is.
So. Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and David Beckham went to join a fencing tournament.
Unfortunately, Cruise forgot to bring the swords, so their plans were... foiled.
Wasn't his fault, to be fair, the mission lacked a certain amount of possibility.
And it really sucked, because they already epee'd the entry fee.
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Buh Dum Tsh
But they were saber fencing...
For a list of 48 famous people and their hobbies I feel you've made a glaring omission. Not a single mention of Sir Winston Churchill and his hobby, bricklaying. Now that is unique.
yess, a hobby is a good thing ;)
wow this comment is from a verified youtuber from 6 years ago and nobody even saw it
@@trshowinfo8714 lol ikr
When I heard the last fact I thought "Duh, everybody knows that Bill Clinton plays the sax!" Then I remembered this all happened over 20 years ago. Thanks for making me feel old, John!
Mental Floss and I have vastly different definitions of the word "unique".
Learning to play the ukulele to impress a girl seems like a foolproof plan to me. I'm surprised it didn't work.
Hannah Overton Ill keep that in mind...
+Hannah Overton It would probably work on me tbh.
Oh God I am here after 6 years of this video...I didn't knew about your channel..♥️♥️♥️
I like all the toys and stuff in the background. Especially the rocketship.
I've never heard the phrase "Bicycling" before, I'm from the UK and we just call it "Cycling".
Linkus Smith I guess it's just a regional thing.
Differentiating between unicycling, bicycling, and tricycling is super important.
I've always referred to it as "bicycling"!
I'm from the us and I call it cycling
allietallie and from now on, so will I
When he said "not those kind" when talking about the mushrooms... he was looking into my soul and reading my mind!!
I guess I was expecting a different kind of list. Like how Hugh Jackman geocaches. That's unique.
The best thing about Angelina Jolie is now her dagger collecting! That is just plain awesome!
In his spare time when not acting, Robert Downey Jr likes to help out stray cats.
i love the fact that John just picked up writing in his spare time
A lot of these hobbies aren't especially unique. Bicycling is a very popular hobby.
80% of Americans have a very different hobby. Being a couch potato. Of course, this is an exaggeration. It's really only 79%.
***** Did you know, 69% of statistics are made up on the spot?
SuperSMT "Don't trust everything you read off the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
"Don't trust Abraham Lincoln! He's a no good dirty liar!" - Attila the Hun
John Smith Attila the Hun is a great babysitter!
"And This club has EVERYTHING"
If you get it, OMG IS IT FUNNY.
"This place has everything: Lights, psychos, Furbies, screaming babies in Mozart wigs, sunburned drifters with soap sud beards."
Madison Merwine sounds like burning man.....
Yes, I cracked up when I heard that!
Great SNL reference... this week's jokes were on the ball
I can totally see Tim Duncan playing D&D. He seems like such a nerd. That's one of the reasons that I like him.
John knew exactly what we were thinking when he mentioned Freud's hobby.
By the way that SNL reference made me almost die of laughter keep it up omg
Bruce Lee dances 😂...He won the Hong Kong Cha Cha Tournament
0:58 "and this club has everything." Well, except for a band.
I am convinced that you have every piece of history on those shelves
"Animaniacs! Dot is cute and Yakko yaks! Wakko packs away the snacks while Bill Clinton plays the sax! We're Animaniacs!" the only reason I knew Bill Clinton plays the saxaphone
Aalthough this episode contained Cage-hate, I still think this might be my favorite mental_floss episode!
Why of all the possible things we could have received, France gave us a giant statute?
Love mental floss!
"I've even written half of the quotes attributed to me on tumblr."
Comedy gold.
Wait what you are John Green ...Your book The fault in our stars...has been made into a movie in our country India too....It had been a huge success..♥️♥️♥️🔥🔥🔥🔥
In regard to Thomas Edison not liking sound movies, my grandmother (1899-1993) once told me that when sound movies first came out, she found the voices distracting and she didn't like it.
The Steffon reference was incredible
You have a Marie Curie bobblehead? I'm speechless..... you sir are the king of us geeks...
John, you forgot the fact that Mount Rushmore is incomplete because the U.S. government ran out of money to fund the project and the sculptor died (someone correct me if I'm wrong) shortly after! The presidents were actually supposed to have a full torso not just heads!
I haven't watched this show in a while and now I'm BINGEING!!!
YAY!!!
Unique. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
John not know the meaning of a simple word? Inconceivable!
I think you need to consider the phrase "descriptive linguistics". Dictionaries are not authorities which decide the meanings of words. Dictionaries attempt to document how words are used, not how words "should" be used, and the ones that fail to make that distinction are dangerous for any serious sort of work.
The OED is particularly good at this, and doesn't hedge around the issue like Wiktionary can with its weasel words like "disputed".
"definition 1.1 Particularly remarkable, special, or unusual:"
Like it or not, this is how the word "unique" is often used now. These "you should never use word x to mean y" arguments are tiresome, and they ignore the fact that language changes. Remember "awesome"? It used to mean "terrible in aspect to a degree that inspires awe". A tidal wave destroying a city, an earthquake, the carnage in the wake of a vengeful army, an angry god, those were "awesome". Now finding a fifty cent coupon to Dairy Queen is "awesome". Language changes. Get used to it, and expect it. Otherwise you'll sound like a fussy crank when you go on and on about how "decimate" *actually* means "to kill 10% of", when modern usage has moved so far from that that only pedantic wielders of outdated dictionaries bother to try to enforce the distinction.
Unnecessarily correcting common usage of words which used to have a different meaning is a unique and awesome hobby. So is sarcasm.
delusionnnnn The problem with this explanation is that many of these so-called hobbies fail to even meet that loose definition. Segway polo? Unique. Golf? Not even close.
I'd agree with you about golf. Golf is a pretty common hobby. But segway polo? Hell, even segway ownership is pretty unusual.
Unique: A name given by African American mothers to their daughters. Unique. U-N-I-Q-U-E
Bruce Dickinson flying airplanes. Now there's a unique hobby :D
Sim City and Sims creator Will Wright is an avid uncollector. He buys peoples collections of things from ebay and then over the course of weeks, months or even years (depending on the size of the collection) he redistributes individual pieces buy giving them as gifts. He says he is real easing the pieces into the wild to maybe spark interest in collecting to new people.
Susan Sarandon was actually in an indie film called Ping Pong Summer, which my sister worked on as a casting assistant!
When was the first feature of guitar being used for Rock n Roll?
I love how John never lets a chance pass to get a shot in at Ayn Rand.
This should be called "famous people who have pretty common hobbies"
Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, is a fencer, pilot, and author when he's not on tour.
Hugh Jackman recently tweeted about geocaching. Several minor celebs are also geocachers, including Hank Green.
Robin Williams is among the celebs known to have played World of Warcraft.
1:35 - 1:38 I thought he said Thomas Edison was a real big fan of Takis! ( Spicy corn chips) xD
What exactly is the Staff Pork Chop Party Fund and when will you have the party??
Let THAT be next week's mindblowing question!
realmenchangediapers give me thumbs up so they see it!!
That Medusa figure/statuette in the salon is awesome. I want something like that. Medusa's my favorite mythological figure/creature.
my aunt ran into chuck Norris in an airport many many years ago and he was cross-stitching... i forget what he told her as to the reason but probably for hand-eye coordination or hand strength... but that at least at the time was one of chuck norris' hobbies!!! big softy lol
Stefon! Good to know John watches SNL:)
When you said you wrote books it occurred to me that you are John Green... I work in a school library, students love your books, there is a waiting list for "The Fault in our Stars" I just put "Looking for Alaska" back on the shelf today. Crazy.
Apparently Robin Williams played the tabletop fantasy/sci-fi wargame Warhammer 40k. He played Orks, btw.
Cool. I really want to see Jolie's dagger collection.
(and no, that's not a dirty joke... but that doesn't mean we can't all think it XD )
Anyone who grew up watching Animaniacs already knew that "Bill Clinton plays the sax."
" Did you know that when I'm not hosting Mental Floss on RUclips, I have a hobby? I write books!" - cracked. me. up.
I worked at the musical instrument museum that houses a saxophone that was presented to and played by Bill Clinton while in office. The sax has the American flag design on it. It was one of my favorite instruments that I got to study while I worked at the museum.
Nice little hobby you have for your self there, John.
I was a little surprised Curt Schilling wasn't mentioned: he was an avid player of Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), and became a one third owner of the wargame publisher Multiman Publishing in the mid 90s.
Wozniak is also a world class Tetris player.
John green: "you know I write books? Because I totally do, yeah you can ask my mom"
really wanted to see Steve Martin's Banjo on that list ! ;)
Oh John Green, anyone who watched the animaniacs as a child knows Bill Cilton plays the sax.
If stamp collecting, golfing, and bicycling count as unique hobbies, there should've been at least one ham radio operator in this list.
My friends parents own an art gallery and a few months ago they actually had some of Bob Dylan's paintings on display!
Mark Twain was also the first person to submit a book to a publisher typed by a typewriter.
Uh John, you for got to say "...on a SACRED mountain that was originally signed in a treaty agreement as land that belonged to the Lakota but when shiny metal was found, scratch agreement, we're claiming it as U.S. territory so we can mine it."
Oh, SNL reference :) "this club's got everything!"
one of the best ones I've seen in a while.
I like how the list of successful people with /unique/ hobbies not only has /golfing/, but it has /9 golfing entries/.
Loved the Stefan reference
The hobbies are unique because you wouldn't expect these successful people to do them. It's unique for a basketball player to also enjoy baton-twirling.
Bill Clinton and the saxophone was the only one I knew, but I really honestly am not surprised the Wright brothers were also bicyclists as well as having a bicycle shop.
Actually, another thing you should add about Ernest Hemingway is that he was a boxing FANATIC. He had a ring in his home and is attributed to saying, "My writing is nothing; my boxing is everything."
I love the Boy of Silence figure he's got sitting on the mantel behind him.
Am I the only one who thought of Skyrim when John talked about giving the daggers to children?
says unique hobbies, begins to list 7 people with the same hobby
Guitar player Steve Vai is an avid beekeeper and sells his honey, all proceeds go to charity.
Cool episode. Vin Diesel is also an assiduous D&D player
Oh yea, I heard about that. Just for irony, it'd be awesome if his go-to character was something like an female elf cleric. The party's female elf cleric has a gravely voice, is bald and can bench press every D&D book ever published at once.
not only that, he even wrote the introduction for the 30th Anniversary D&D book
Pile of carbon His character is something like a warrior hunter called Melkor
Bob Barker: karate master… there are several thousand robot chicken spoof that could be made from this.
SNL reference, gotta love mentalfloss
Yes, John. Writing books is "just something you do in your spare time", that's all. :)
love your wall. It's like an I SPY. Very cool video too. :D
Bill Clinton plays the sax...
WE'RE A-NI-MAAA-NIACS!
I once met Margaret thatcher at the British museum. She had 3 bodyguards who spent the time looking at me suspiciously.
fun fact: samuel l jacksons contracts for movies include that he can take a few days (or a week or something) off to go play golf
Great video- I would also add Dwight D. Eisenhower to your list of golf enthusiasts. Apparently, Ike love the game so much that he had a course build at Camp David, a putting green installed at the White House, and was a member of the preeminent course, Augusta National (which he visited 29 times while in office, often staying for a week at time). Apparently, Eisenhower was such an avid golfer that he played nearly 800 rounds just during the period he was in office.
Here's a mind blowing question.
Does it save or use energy to shut your eyes.
And would it eventually change?
So why do we (people in general) sneeze when we walk outside to a sunny day from inside where it's dark?
omg, segway polo sound's amazing
Ansel Elgort: paints miniature paintings on small rocks
I have to say that in the UK (and especially for the slightly wealthier people though you don't have to be these days) seeing operas and theatre productions is extremely commonplace. Seeing a show is almost the done thing when you visit London. Margaret Thatcher would have basically been doing what everyone else did.
A very important question for the next episode (!): Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
this club has everything...at least that's what I heard from Stefon!!
So much win!
When you talked about you and writing books I thought, "Here comes another audible ad."