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Reading Mean Comments

2019-12-21 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 15:46 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Other · mode: Playful and ironic · tags: His medical past

Ali reads out 117 roasts that viewers sent him on Instagram, most about his forehead and hairline, names as the winner the line that his hairline retreats like the French, and promises £100 to the winner's chosen charity.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A teaser roast, then the idea from Dr. Mike, the £100 charity prize and the categories

  • ★★ Ali says he only learned that roast videos were a genre when Dr. Mike, whom he calls the senpai of the medical YouTuber community, made one a few weeks earlier: people roasted Dr. Mike and he gave a thousand dollars to charity for the best roast. — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Ali says he will give £100 to the charity of choice of whoever sent the best roast, less than Dr. Mike gave because he is far less successful. — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Ali's editor Christian went through the 117 roasts sent to Ali on Instagram and sorted them into categories such as forehead, hair and hairline. — 00:00:45 · Christian, Instagram

00:01:38 — Forehead

  • ★★ Ali says he has a second YouTube channel, devoted to medical content. — 00:02:34

00:03:30 — Hair

00:04:33 — Hairline

00:08:37 — Looks

00:10:35 — Name

  • ★★ On the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) surgery team he worked on, the nurses called Ali "the tall, posh one" to tell him apart. — 00:10:35

00:11:01 — Personality and random roasts

00:12:28 — Singing

00:12:49 — Success

00:13:15 — Women and dating

  • ★ Answering a roast about his dating life, Ali says he had a date the night before. — 00:13:15

00:14:16 — The winner, his verdict on the roasts and sign-off

  • ★★ Ali names Zaman Sami's line "your accent says British, but the retreating hairline screams French" the best roast and messages him so that £100 can go to his chosen charity. — 00:14:16
  • ★★ Ali is a little disappointed by the standard of the roasts: some are funny, but nearly everyone goes for the same things. — 00:14:46

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked whether he had read and screenshotted all the comments before filming his reactions, Ali says his editor put them together. — creator comment

Humor (dominant)

  • A viewer compares his forehead with his small second channel. — 00:02:34

    “Your forehead is growing faster than your second channel.”

  • A viewer ranks his podcast against his balding. — 00:06:39

    “Don't know what's worse, that fact that you're balding at an exponential rate or the podcast.”

  • The roast Ali picks as the winner. — 00:07:06

    “Your accent is British, but the retreating hairline screams French.”

  • A pun on "recedes" and the NHS founding date. — 00:07:06

    “You still charge your patients for your hairline because your hairline receipts in 1947.”

  • A viewer turns his Notion videos against his hairline. — 00:07:50

    “The only thing Notion can't organize is that hairline.”

  • A viewer mocks his greeting "Hey friends". — 00:11:27

    “The only reason Ali says hey friends at the start of every episode is because we're his only friends.”

  • A viewer roasts him in the words of his study techniques. — 00:12:23

    “It will take a few spaced repetitions to actively roast a geek like you.”

  • After 117 roasts Ali signs off. — 00:14:46

    “I'm gonna go to the bathroom and cry now.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Christian · Dr. Mike · Taimur Abdaal

Projects: Not Overthinking

Organizations: Instagram · NHS

Concepts: active recall · spaced repetition

Places: Cambridge

Characters: Harry Potter (character, “Harry Potter”)

Products: Notion

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