Surprisingly wonderful: Drunk History

I first saw Drunk History about a year ago on Youtube, when my boyfriend insisted that I watch this hilarious video.  I have to say, I wasn't impressed.  For one thing, I don't get that much enjoyment out of watching people stumble around absolutely blackout - all I felt was second-hand embarrassment.  You know when you've had a big night, and you see a photo of yourself the following morning, all flushed, probably sweaty, and frizzy?  You're inevitably yelling about some story that you think everyone just HAS to hear.  I'm shrinking in shame just thinking about it.  I didn't love the original Drunk History videos because they seemed to put too much emphasis on the drunkenness of their storytellers, and not enough on the history itself.  The stories people were telling were being completely lost in their garbles and stumbles.  

So when I saw a billboard for Drunk History, the new show on Comedy Central, I didn't have high hopes, even when the advertisement itself was pretty fantastic:

Nixon knows how to party.  Image via

My boyfriend insisted again, though. ("I just don't understand how you don't like it!  You love history, and you love drinking!" Always lovely to know what others think of you.)  To my surprise, I enjoyed the new show.  I found myself not arguing when he wanted to watch it, and then even suggesting it myself.  

There are still plenty of cringe-worthy moments, but the quality of the storytelling has changed.  Our theory is that they now record the story twice, first when they're only in the process of getting drunk, and then again once they're really wasted.  Whatever the change is, the result is that they now get the story across in a coherent enough way hat you can actually learn something from it!  And that's what I love about this show.

History so often gets a reputation for being boring - memorising dates; dead white men; stories about the distant past without the context that makes them interesting, and timeless.  We need more fun and sillly ways to teach history, because History should be fun, and is very often silly.  Drunk History is doing just that - telling the stories we all probably should know about our country in a way that makes them engaging and accessible to everyone - even the very inebriated.  

You can watch it here.