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  • Here's an idea-- "Adventure Time" is

  • popular because of nostalgia.

  • (THEME MUSIC)

  • "Adventure Time"-- come on and grab your friends--

  • is a kids' television show on the Cartoon Network.

  • It stars Jake the Dog and Finn the Human

  • and was created by bearded human Pendleton Ward,

  • pictured here wearing some awesome glasses.

  • It's set in the magical land of Ooo

  • and its many kingdoms which are home to Candy People, animals,

  • and a whole cast of generally weird but also

  • adorable characters.

  • My personal favorite is the Shnow Golem.

  • As one might suspect, the general thrust of "Adventure Time"

  • is adventures.

  • Finn and Jake are best buds who go

  • on all manner of moral, ethical, and totally

  • and totally mathematical escapades.

  • Finn, you're terrible at math.

  • Aww.

  • They rescue princesses, fight giant monsters,

  • protect the innocent, and have a strong dislike of evil dudes.

  • And they are very popular, amongst not only kids, but also

  • a huge contingent of honest-to-Glob growed-up

  • adults.

  • Now if you're a kid, "Adventure Time"

  • probably looks a lot like the inside of your head--

  • exciting sights, magical objects, and impossibly

  • terrifying things.

  • But if you're an adult, "Adventure Time"

  • is like remembering your childhood.

  • Fighting to be taken seriously,

  • constant encounters with new and unfamiliar challenges,

  • grappling with a deer that has hands.

  • Creepy.

  • For many adults, the core appeal of "Adventure Time"

  • is its nostalgia.

  • Not like Instagram filters or cassette tapes post-irony nostalgia,

  • but more like classical nostalgia,

  • a pain of an ache for a time past that you can't recreate.

  • While we usually think of

  • its roots as in culture or the arts,

  • nostalgia was actually born in 1688 as a medical diagnosis

  • for Swiss soldiers wishing to return home.

  • It's this wily emotion that's a mix of good and bad.

  • At the same time that you're fondly remembering something,

  • you're also confronted with the fact

  • that it's gone, or unattainable.

  • From its origins, nostalgia weaseled its way

  • into everything from art to politics to industrial design. You name it,

  • someone thinks that the thing that came before it was better.

  • Along the way, it transformed from medical nostalgia

  • into poetic or romantic nostalgia,

  • from a disease that could be cured with leeches

  • to a feeling that could be evoked--

  • by a young kid in an animal hat.

  • In "Nostalgia of the Future," Svetlana Boym writes,

  • "The object of romantic nostalgia

  • must be beyond the present space of our experience,

  • somewhere in the twilight of the past or on an island of Utopia,

  • where time has happily stopped, as on an antique clock."

  • I can definitely remember a twilight of the past

  • with imaginary friends,

  • treehouses, magical weapons, and if given the chance,

  • I'd happily stop there.

  • "Adventure Time" is perfectly, romantically nostalgic for childhood.

  • But so are a lot of other shows, like "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends,"

  • "The Amazing Adventures of Gumball,"

  • and even "Rugrats," sort of.

  • What is it about "Adventure Time"

  • that makes it so well-liked, especially by not-kids?

  • Here's where it gets a little complicated.

  • It's because at the same time we the audience are experiencing nostalgia,

  • so too are the characters in "Adventure Time."

  • It's nostalgia within nostalgia.

  • It's a "nostalgia-ception."

  • Take a look at some of the clues.

  • There was a mysterious devastating mushroom war.

  • A lot of the characters, especially

  • Marceline and the Ice King, have this unexplained evolving

  • "wish it were still the good old days" past.

  • The landscape is littered with human remains and technology.

  • And in certain episodes, you can even

  • see a partially destroyed planet Earth in the sky.

  • I mean, Finn is the last human, for Glob's sake.

  • That is, unless Susan Strong isn't a fish,

  • and you count the Ice King as-- uh, uh, never mind.

  • "Adventure Time" is a fun, adventurous kids' show

  • with a history, a potentially very dark history.

  • Pen Ward has even said his favorite emotion is feeling

  • simultaneously happy and sad.

  • So that's a reaction he tries to elicit in "Adventure Time."

  • This is called ambivalence, and it's

  • what's at the root of nostalgia.

  • It means you're holding onto two usually conflicting emotions at the same time.

  • And "Adventure Time" does it on two levels.

  • So that's four total emotions, for the folks keeping track at home.

  • You see it in the settings and the relationships,

  • but also in the cute but disturbing creatures,

  • the comedic but dire situations,

  • the childlike but nonetheless high-stakes situations.

  • It's in the show, but it's also experienced by the audience.

  • All these things contribute to capital-D Drama.

  • Not like lowercase-D drama, which is what LSP gets herself involved in.

  • Yo, guess what?

  • Slime Princess is in the park, and she's, like,

  • talking to a new Nice King.

  • Uh, and he's like, totally single.

  • Which by itself definitely doesn't make a good show,

  • but combined with the creator's amazing imagination

  • and character design, makes maybe the best animated show ever.

  • I'm biased.

  • I really like "Adventure Time."

  • But seriously, I know more

  • adults than kids who watch "Adventure Time," including my mom.

  • So that has to mean something.

  • Yes, adults watch cartoons, but that's not

  • the interesting part.

  • The interesting part is that most of the cartoons adults watch

  • are made for adults.

  • "The Simpsons," "Bob's Burgers," "Family Guy," "South Park,"

  • even most anime-- adult situations, adult humor,

  • and maybe with the exception of anime, very little emotional depth.

  • But man, when Finn hugs the Flame Princess wrapped up in a tin-foil burrito?

  • It's too much.

  • It's just-- it's just too much.

  • "My Little Pony" is maybe the only other close comparison,

  • but its popularity is because of a whole other thing--

  • that we talk about in a video that you should watch.

  • "Adventure Time" is maybe the closest television comes to classic fairy tales,

  • exhibiting a combo of terror and humor,

  • excitement and fear,

  • that are the very hallmarks of childhood.

  • Or maybe I just have a playground crush on Marceline.

  • What do you guys think?

  • Does "Adventure Time" make you kind of sad,

  • and is that why you like it?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • And if you're feeling ambivalent about subscribing,

  • you could just subscribe.

  • Or not.

  • Whatever.

  • Yes, I grew a silly mustache.

  • Let's see what you guys had to say about YouTube and education.

  • We were really lucky to hear from Brady of Periodic Videos

  • fame about last week's episode.

  • He sent us this clip.

  • Hey there, Mike.

  • I saw your video.

  • It's so hard to measure or not whether YouTube

  • is making people smarter.

  • We all drown in viewing statistics,

  • but what do they tell us?

  • I'd like to show you some photos.

  • This is Eddie from Arkansas, and his Christmas present

  • was a signed photo from the scientists on the Periodic Videos channel.

  • And this is Eduardo from Italy.

  • His 10th birthday wish was to come to the University of Nottingham in England

  • and meet his YouTube heroes.

  • And we seem to have countless stories like this,

  • new things coming up all the time.

  • Now, this shows that these people are listening,

  • they're really engaged.

  • And if they're listening this closely,

  • they must at least be on their way to learning.

  • Thanks so much, Brady, for sending us that awesome clip.

  • Mc7738 is a high-school biology teacher

  • who says that YouTube is indispensable in the classroom,

  • especially considering how dry a lot of the textbooks are.

  • If my high school experience is any indication,

  • that sounds-- that sounds about right.

  • Euclids Paradox makes a really good point,

  • that YouTube allows you to introduce yourself