Amazing! Why does anyone decide to do this? There is the guy you see on late night TV who is the world's fastest double talker, but that spot is already taken. So why would someone else decide to become proficient at it? Getting attention at parties? Can't dance? Can't carry a tune so...? To get on YouTube?

Why?

Impressive in an awkward way, but I don't see a practical use for it.

I suppose one might add it to their resume but I doubt the mention would be well received by a prospective employer. It's like being able to belch to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Boy", an accomplishment of sorts but one of questionable value.

I guess this is cool, kind of like how many hotdogs you can swallow in 12 minutes. But why do we do things like this? Maybe its the self esteem thing our society has brainwashed us with. Little Johnny will feel bad if he can't beat the other kids at something, and he's good at eating, so let's have a contest and when he wins his self esteem will improve and that's what counts, right?

I think its stupid.

Nice article--thanks for the mention. Some good comments too.

Another classic comment I got, from the night in February when Yahoo! decided to post this video on their front page (!) was:

Our Soldiers are dying in iraq and this stupid dumba** makes it on front page news??????!!!!!!!!!!
–wtizcool

I mentioned that on Lelia Thomas' blog,, who probably ought to also be given credit for the "humanity is lacking in neither talent nor jealousy" line, regarding cockneybandit's quote above.

To answer a couple of questions raised, why not? I learned the 50 states through a song at school when I was in 3rd grade, and I used to time myself to see how quickly I could go through the list while doing mundane chores at home. When I'd learn another list of items, I'd add them to the list--but I really hadn't done anything with this since the early '90s--maybe did it for a friend or two over the years, but I didn't think much of it. Then Youtube and other video-sharing sites came along, and as an experiment, I thought I'd put it up there and see what happened. When it started getting a few hits, I thought I'd make it a little better--added a new list (Best Picture Winners), added graphics, gave it an outdoor setting. It wasn't much effort. Seven months later, it's had over 420,000 views that I know of. It makes for an interesting experiment into the potential of this so-called "Web 2.0."

I have other abilities, but I don't know that the ability to score high on standardized tests necessarily translates well into a Youtube video. I did recently add it to my resume--but didn't emphasize the ability so much as creating a video with X number of views. I don't know the practical use of it--other than being able to quickly run through a list of states or presidents or whatever in your head to quickly eliminate/find an answer to a trivia question or something.

Anyway, thanks for the interest. Have a great day!

Ryan Reeder

Thanks Ryan for answering some of the burning questions. It certainly sounds like you have other talents as well. Doing well on standardized tests seems like a valuable one.

I checked Lelia's site and you're right, she posted the quote from YouTube and deserves credit for doing so.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer so thoroughly the questions raised. It's appreciated.

-Doug

Pretty amazing all right. I thought it was a bar trick to win free drinks, but the guy has some other skills too. Sounds like he's a pretty bright guy. Hope he makes some money off it.