2021
“Every year I clear out a little of my brain and that’s where P4A lives”
-Taylor Behnke, 2021
The 2021 Project for Awesome began, as always, with Hank and John. This P4A began with a miracle: the P4A balloons from 2019 were still doing well and decorating John’s background.
The joy from this connection to previous P4A’s, despite not holding a 2020 P4A, inspired Nerdfighteria to begin the biggest P4A ever.
Upon reaching $400,000 raised (including matching funds) Hank debuted what would soon be the biggest controversy of this Project for Awesome: his bean furby.
In less than 20 minutes the P4A had raised over half a million dollars. Despite worries about changing the time of year and holding this event in a pandemic, Nerdfighters were showing that the P4A was more important.
At this point, Hank began featuring memes. For the rest of the livestream, the memes created during the P4A were featured on a screen behind Hank and often placed over his own face so all could see the absurd creations. This even led to a meme review video. There is a collection of some of the memes and a link to the video at the end of this document.
After the first hour, Hank left John as the host and John said “I love you” to Hank even though it was not Esther Day. At two hours and 22 minutes, the P4A reached one million dollars.
During Hank’s next shift, he led discussions of possible names for the bean furby. The chat narrowed it down to “Beanie Sandfurbs” or “Beanadict Cumfurbatch” but the Beanie memes quickly pushed the name to Beanie Sandfurbs. And thus, a mascot was formed.
At the three hour mark, this P4A was already over $200,000 above the previous P4A’s individual donation amount and over $500,000 above the total amount!
Six hours in, John returned and asked Orin if he would donate, to which Orin adorably replied, “No, I’m just a boy.” This was followed by an excellent cousins reunion where Orin, Henry, and Alice all said hi to each other. John then created art with Sarah while celebrating reaching $500,000 in individual donations in less than 8 hours.
During the Super Carlin Brothers’ hour, the chat played a Kahoot where the SCB team mistakenly made every answer red (but P4A is red and the 2021 shirts were red so it was all on theme). After SCB, Taylor and Evelyn took over. There were googly eyes. There were bubbles. There were dogs (Darcy).
Later, Taylor and Miriam informed chat of the saga of their mistakenly-acquired gatorade cans, which of course were named and decorated: P4Atorade and Detergent’nt
As Hank took over and once again displayed Beanie Sanfurbs, he then asked “why is everyone talking about beans? Oh, just because of the terrible monster.” Hank was then joined by Flula and as Hank offered trivia questions Flula decided that the venn diagram of their knowledges is “two frisbees very far apart.” Flula wanted to eat Beanie Sanders and Katherine was absolutely fine with that.
Hank then threatened to eat Flula’s best friend, DJ Sparkles, in retaliation.
After Flula, Hank was joined by Alie Ward who also thought Beanie Sandfurbs looked delicious. A variety of hosts continued through the night encouraging donations through paintings, trivia, Beanie Sandfurbs cake creation, makeup, and magazine quizzes. Rosianna welcomed John back to hosting with a “Which Cuticorn Are You?” quiz. John is a Pandacorn! He has a laid back vibe!
In celebration of passing last P4A’s total, John’s children get to complete their tradition of sharpie face.
John then attempted to create a new mascot: Box Man. Box Man became more popular later in the P4A when Henry took on this role.
Taylor hosted again for the next two hours and updated chat on P4Atorade and Detergent’nt: they weren’t doing well. However, it was determined that googly eyes are self care and aloe is the BOAT (botanical of all time). As Taylor, Miriam, and Hallese prepared for the total to reach $1.5 million, there was some stress because that is a large number.
But with joy we got there and celebrated with bats! Bat face is self care.
After Taylor’s second hosting stint, Answer in Progress took over with the compelling goal of “choccy milk makes the pain go away.” Taha offered to add more choccy milk powder to his glass for various donation milestones while Sabrina drew adorable frog friends and Melissa supervised.
We learned that a half pint of choccy milk powder is challenging to stir. And a pint of choccy milk is challenging to chug.
But it certainly makes the pain go away.
Through the afternoon, Hank, Orin, and Katherine saw animals with Jessi from Animal Wonders. Then, Hank and Travis discussed salads and cookies while giving conflicting vibes. There was a discussion of a brother fight. Travis wanted to fight John.
There was then Harry Potter trivia and a visit from Healthcare Triage, who proclaimed their official butt stance: butt is butt, not legs.
When John returned we hit our next milestone, beating a previous record. John celebrated with the traditional champagne popper. He then handed the stream over to Craig for philosophical discussions (what is the back of a backpack?) and songs.
Craig declares that butt is butt, not legs and continues to explain that Europe and Asia are the same continent and chin is head. And then it was Destin time.
Destin took the Dino Space Program up a notch this year, transporting dinos to the Moon, Mars, and a Mystery Planet. As always, Destin’s hosting time was full of chaos, absurdity, and awesome people.
When we reached $1 million raised in individual donations on Tiltify, Destin broke out a new costume.
And somehow, John Green went to Mars before Hank.
Destin continued to do an excellent job encouraging donations. In his two hours of hosting over $100,000 were donated. And then, everyone in chat went to Mars together!
The chaos of Destin time smoothly transitioned into the second night chaos of late night Hank who immediately tried to write people’s names on his face, only to realize he needed Katherine’s help. He quickly named himself the worst Post Malone.
While Katherine wrote on Hank’s face and chat voted on what drawing would be added to the middle of his forehead, the volunteers behind the scenes crafted the “hank give us the aux” playlist.
Hank was then joined by Raven and Zach who celebrated the P4A reaching $2 million donated.
There was dancing and rejoicing. And then Hank ate? Drank? Chugged? Beans blended with jalapenos in celebration.
This was not choccy milk. It did not make the pain go away.
Hank then passed hosting to Nicole and she was visited by Butfartman!
Nicole usually hosts with a variety of Montana friends so this year she hosted with her buddy, Cardboard Matt. As donations came in, Matt was decorated with stickers and googly eyes.
Hosting was then handed to Pat Rothfuss who entertained and encouraged donations with stories, songs, and the discovery that Pat is a Disney Princess because wild animals have allowed him to pick them up.
Through the early hours, books were recommended, art was created, and Rosianna highly encouraged voting on videos. Rosianna turned hosting over to John for the last three hours of the Project for Awesome.
As John admitted to encouraging a false sense of urgency as the end of the P4A neared, Dave Green (the forgotten Green brother) donated and said “anything for family.”
The true Box Man, the hero we all deserve, briefly joined as John hosted as well.
Hank arrived just in time! With less than an hour to spare, the 2021 P4A officially became the highest-raising P4A of all! (This was then reclaimed by P4A 2022.)
As we approached the end of the P4A, the miracle balloons from 2019 began to fall.
Tiltify polls had helped encourage donations throughout the livestream. Hank and John created one more poll and Nerdfighteria continued to be awesome by keeping this nail-biting poll as even as possible:
We then hit this beautiful run of 2’s.
In the final moments of this Project for Awesome, John cried as Orin played the “All Star” Singamajig.
Nicknames given to Hank through the 2021 P4A:
Daddy Internet - Anna Akana
Billy Hank - Flula
The Worst Post Malone - Hank