Culture Magazine
How do you get 1.5 people to sit through a six minutes film on the testy relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass during the Civil War and how it shaped the elimination of slavery? Or get another 1.3 million to watch another six minute film on Nicola Tesla and his early experiments in electricity? Or get another 1.3 million to watch a five minute video about Benjamin Franklin?
Here’s an idea: How about getting the film’s narrator to first swallow down an entire bottle of brandy, or a bottle and a half of wine, and then stagger through the story in semi-coherent rants, occasionally collapsing on a sofa or babbling to themselves, while celebrity actors like Will Farrell and John C. Reilly play the key title roles? This, basically, is the concept behind Drunk History, a wildly popular production of the Funny or Die web site.
Here’s a sample above. Try it out, or visit their web site for more.
It’s always good to find new, interesting ways to tell history, ways that get people to listen and make them passionate about it.
Here’s to a clever idea. I need a drink.
Author's Latest Articles
-
Growing up in the Last Century: WASHINGTON IN THE 1970s; FIRST TASTE OF CAPITOL HILL
-
Growing up in the Last Century: DAD'S POLITICAL CAREER
-
Growing Up in the Last Century-- MY FIRST TASTE OF POLITICS: GETTING KICKED OUT OF THE POLLS BY THE ALBANY MACHINE, June 1972
-
Growing Up in the Last Century: TEAR-GASSED in WASHINGTON, D.C., May 1970