Rhetoric of the Drunken History Youtube Series

Drunken History is a web-based comedy mini series, which features many popular comedians telling stories from America’s history while heavily intoxicated. Other prominent comedians are used as actors who play the parts of the characters from history and go along with the funny dialogue that gets put in their mouths by the drunken narrator. I discovered this series over the summer, when my roommate at the time showed me an episode, which he had been shone in class. My old roommate was not a fan of history in high school, but the whole shenanigans of the premise of the show intrigued him. I thought at the time that this was a very interesting concept, because they are actually bringing a very valid idea to the table. Why not present history to young adults in a way that entertains them? The history lessons follow the general storyline of the actual event, and if the viewers actually learn something from watching the episodes, then why not?

It’s interesting to me that generally, people wouldn’t care about the history of Benjamin Franklin, and I would be surprised if the majority of the American population knew that Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity, but if they saw the Drunken History episode on Benjamin Franklin, they might learn something. Granted, Franklin didn’t hate his son and want him to get struck by lightning, but you have to take the episodes with a grain of salt and understand that the episodes are meant to entertain, not necessarily be completely factual. I would hope that people could watch the episodes and be able to separate fact from fiction, but that is the trouble with the series – being able to judge your audiences’ intelligence. If people watched the series and believed every word, we would be in a lot more trouble than we are now. So what does this series and its popularity say about society as a whole? It seems to me that younger generations are taking more away from Youtube videos than they are school textbooks. If the global community is going to continue to allow these sorts of videos to dictate what younger generations learn from history, it would be in everyone's best interest to take a moment and decide if this is the right decision. Can we afford to let our youth learn about our history through comedic four minute video clips? I would hope there are enough people out that realize the gravity that these videos can have on society as a whole. If you haven’t seen the series, I would suggest checking it out on YouTube, because it really is very entertaining. I've provided a link below, just in case you can't wait to figure out what all the fuss is about.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZR1Rjj_p0>