Jake Paul’s whole schtick is that he vlogs daily. When he bullied Spanish twin YouTubers Emilio and Ivan Martinez, he vlogged. When he lit his swimming pool on fire and really pissed off his neighbors, he vlogged. When he went to Houston to help with Hurricane Harvey relief — and was mobbed by so many fans law enforcement had to be called in for crowd control — he told fans he might not be able to vlog given the dangerous conditions in Texas. Nevertheless, he persisted and managed to vlog. “It’s everyday bro,” is Paul’s mantra for a reason. With the exception of a recent two-week hiatus — Paul informed fans with a video entitled “Dear YouTube, It’s Actually Not Everyday Bro” — spent in Parkland, Florida, talking with school-shooting survivors, he really does vlog every, single day.
So who is going to tell him “it’s everyday, bro,” uh, well, doesn’t mean “I vlog daily.” To have it mean that Paul’s slogan would have to be “it’s every day, bro.” Using the adjective “everyday,” rather than the two-word phrase “every day,” is actually a self-own. Instead of saying he vlogs every 24 hours, he’s basically calling his vlogs common. Routine. Quotidian. Mundane. You pick the adjective so long as it’s synonymous with unexceptional.
It’s in the header on his YouTube page proclaiming “New Videos Everyday.” It flashes across the screen in hot-pink lettering in the “This Is Jake Paul” video pinned to his channel. It’s even the title of his incredibly popular — ask any of the hundreds of tweens who lined up outside his pop-up shop in New York City this winter chanting the lyrics — song, “It’s Everyday Bro.” Jake Paul. The everyday bro.
Paul is certainly not the first person, or brand, to have confused the two. Back in 2003, when Paul was 6, a former English teacher named David Armstrong argued back and forth over a multi-email conversation with Coca-Cola over Dasani’s then-slogan, “Treat yourself well. Everyday.” The exchange was published in Harper’s and included a company rep trying, and failing, to refute Armstrong’s arguments. “Your slogan should read: ‘Treat yourself well. Every day.’ In this case ‘every’ is an adjective modifying the noun ‘day.’ This is a popular construction which is also used in such phrases as ‘every week,’ ‘every time,’ ‘Every breath I take,’ etc.”
Coca-Cola shot back saying they had tested both versions but that they found the adjective version more “impactful.” To which Armstrong countered that “impactful” is not a real word and not in the dictionary. Cue Coca-Cola claiming “words with suffixes are typically not in the dictionary.” “I believe that if you research this further you will find that many words with suffixes are in fact in the dictionary and that words that are not are not,” Armstrong, the clear winner here, replied. The conversation works just as well if you pretend Coca-Cola is Jake Paul.
In his recent video announcing his vlogging hiatus before heading to Florida, Paul ruminated on the true meaning of his grammatically faulty mantra. “The meaning isn’t necessarily vlogging every day, but it’s again smiling every single day, getting better every single day, coming together as a community,” Paul said.
Same, Jake. Same.
