# "Drunk History" taught me about Superman and the KKK **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388 "2013-07-24T16:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/21 "2013-07-25T16:01:07Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > And occasionally barks and sneezes. This is perhaps the funniest part of it all, as the actors in the dramatization (drunkatization?) react to the whatever–e.g., when the KKK meeting was interrupted by drunken sneezes, or the history of Coca-Cola was broken into by a barking dog. (Actually, that one was especially hiliarious because of the narrator’s giggles–which resulted in the inventor of Coca-Cola occasionally breaking down into teen-girl gigglefits…) Also, is it just me or has the move from youtube to TV resulted in a sharp drop in the caliber of the actors? When it was on the web, it had Michael Cera, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell (who, because he didn’t talk, was actually funny for a change). Now that it’s on TV, it’s got… um. Some people? I suppose it’s inevitable, given unions and money and agents and stuff, but it’s still a bit of a shame. Outweighed, however, by having regular installments of drunken history, rather than just whenever Derek Waters gets around to making one. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/22 "2013-07-25T16:04:26Z")
And the actors are playing it so straight. That’s what sells it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/23 "2013-07-25T16:20:39Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Also, is it just me or has the move from youtube to TV resulted in a sharp drop in the caliber of the actors? When it was on the web, it had Michael Cera, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell (who, because he didn’t talk, was actually funny for a change). Now that it’s on TV, it’s got… um. Some people? I honestly don’t know the answer to your question, but I’d say the actors they get now are better than ‘some people’ - Rob Riggle, Bill Hader, Simon Helberg, Ike Barinholtz, Will Sasso…maybe not movie stars, but people most people recognize and that it’s fun to see in costume (and I’m not good at faces - it takes me a minute between ‘I recognize him!’ and figuring out who it is). To the people complaining it’s not online - [aren’t these videos at comedy central’s website](http://m.comedycentral.com/videos/video.rbml?id=3qh137&nbck=999-001-001)ones that were not originally web episodes? In other words, I think you can watch it at [comedycentral.com](http://comedycentral.com). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/24 "2013-07-25T19:24:25Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I honestly don’t know the answer to your question, but I’d say the actors they get now are better than ‘some people’ - Rob Riggle, Bill Hader, Simon Helberg, Ike Barinholtz, Will Sasso…maybe not movie stars, but people most people recognize and that it’s fun to see in costume (and I’m not good at faces - it takes me a minute between ‘I recognize him!’ and figuring out who it is). Yeah, not getting that. Almost every actor I’ve seen in the TV episodes has been pretty famous. Also Jack Black, Fred Willard, Steven Merchant, Freddy Rodriguez, Adam Scott, Bob Odenkirk… One exception off the top of my head of an unknown actor was young Lincoln, whom I recognized as the fake French guy from that commercial where the girl meets him online and thinks he’s legit. “Uh…bonjour.” BTW my favorite scene of all the episodes so far was Will Sasso poolside talking about how crazy Al Capone was. “Wow, so he, like, had sex with whores and got a dirty dick and didn’t do anything about it?” “Pretty much.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/25 "2013-07-25T20:01:36Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Yeah, not getting that. Almost every actor I’ve seen in the TV episodes has been pretty famous. Also Jack Black, Fred Willard, Steven Merchant, Freddy Rodriguez, Adam Scott, Bob Odenkirk… Well, that first episode (I’m pretty sure) was made of two ‘youtube episodes’ - Jack Black, Dave Grohl, Adam Scott, Fred Willard, etc, would count as **LawMonkey** ’s “big guys” from before it got on TV. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/26 "2013-07-25T20:42:58Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I honestly don’t know the answer to your question, but I’d say the actors they get now are better than ‘some people’ - Rob Riggle, Bill Hader, Simon Helberg, Ike Barinholtz, Will Sasso…maybe not movie stars, but people most people recognize and that it’s fun to see in costume (and I’m not good at faces - it takes me a minute between ‘I recognize him!’ and figuring out who it is). > [@Morbo](#): > > Yeah, not getting that. Almost every actor I’ve seen in the TV episodes has been pretty famous. Also Jack Black, Fred Willard, Steven Merchant, Freddy Rodriguez, Adam Scott, Bob Odenkirk… Perhaps I’m just falling victim to my own pop culture ignorance–leaving aside Jack Black, whom I already mentioned, the only two names I recognize are Steven Merchant and Bob Odenkirk. Of those two, the only one who I can actually both conjure up a mental image of and know why I recognize his name is Odenkirk, from Breaking Bad. I have literally no idea why the name Steven Merchant is ringing a bell. No worries, in any event–the show’s just as good as it ever was. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/27 "2013-07-25T21:11:29Z")
I liked when the guy narrating the story of Watergate threw up and they had Bob Woodward puke on Deep Throat’s shoes. Also, some of the history is fairly obscure and stick pretty close to the facts, although the Elvis as lawman one played pretty loose with the history. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/28 "2013-07-26T12:58:03Z")
I wonder if they have the narrator bone up on the story and is able to tell it coherently while sober. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/29 "2013-07-26T13:55:26Z")
Yeah, I wondered that too. At the minimum, I assume they are reading the wikipedia page on each one, they seem pretty well informed on some of the smaller details. The fact that they are trying to tell fairly complex stories and get small details right is what makes for a lot of the humor. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/30 "2013-07-26T20:23:56Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Also, some of the history is fairly obscure and stick pretty close to the facts, although the Elvis as lawman one played pretty loose with the history. I’ve heard [the Hamburger James story](http://www.thedigression.com/2011/08/elvis-week-true-story-of-hamburger.html) before. I guess Elvis wasn’t out on the tarmac running after the plane, but otherwise, I thought it was pretty accurate. He met Nixon, he was a federal agent, and he stopped the plane to get his stuff back. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388/31 "2013-07-27T00:34:09Z")
Maybe they even know a thing or two. When watching British panel shows I get jealous of how quite a few of their comedians are not ignorant louts and it’s nice to see more of the same out of Yanks. Drunk, yeah, but with some knowledge they can almost remember. And wasn’t the premise originally that the storyteller tell his own favorite history story? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-history-taught-me-about-superman-and-the-kkk/664388.md?page=1)