One night in 2007, comedian Derek Waters had a brilliant idea: Get people to get rip snorting drunk and have them retell a historical event in their inebriated state. Film them doing so. Then get professional actors to act out the historical event as told by the drunkard. Thus was born Drunk History. Simple. Brilliant. Hilarious.
The humor comes from several places. First, you’re having the layperson give their layperson vision of historical events in a conversational matter. Which is to say, they don’t know/mess up the details, speak very colloquially, and often swear. Add to that the fact that they are drunk, and they also do fun things like slur, answer their cell phones, and/or vomit during the retelling.
The best part is that their narrative plays along in the background, the actors lip syncing their words as dialogue. Which means you have things like Jack Black dressed as a crazy Benjamin Franklin saying, ‘Dude, I’m going to fuck you whether you like it or not.’
There are five official Drunk History episodes, which you can catch on YouTube and Funny or Die – one of Alexander Hamilton (starring Michael Cera), two on Benjamin Franklin (starring Jack Black), one on slave Oney Judge (starring Danny McBride) and one of William Henry Harrison (starring Paul Scheider).
The weirdest part? I actually may have learned something. I mean, I didn’t know who Oney Judge was before, although I will forever imagine her as someone with bad hiccups.
Alexander Hamilton (with Michael Cera)
Oney Judge (with Danny McBride)
