''Drunk History'' is an American

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series produced by

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

, based on the

Funny or Die Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a re ...

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

created by

Derek Waters Derek Matthew Waters (born July 30, 1979) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and director. He is best known for his work on the television series '' Drunk History'' (2013–2019), which earned him eight Primetime Emmy Award ...

and Jeremy Konner in 2007. They and

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...

and Adam McKay are the show's executive producers. In each episode, an inebriated narrator, joined by host Waters, struggles to recount an event from history, while actors enact the narrator's anecdotes and also

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

the dialogue. In addition to Waters and celebrity guest stars, the show's characters are played by regulars such as Bennie Arthur,

Tim Baltz Tim Baltz is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He appeared as a "citizen journalist" on the Comedy Central series '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper''. He currently stars on ''The Righteous Gemstones''. Early life Born in Joliet, Ill ...

, Mort Burke,

Sarah Burns Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pio ...

Maria Blasucci Maria Blasucci is an American actress and comedy writer. She is best known for roles in television shows including ''Family Tree'' on HBO and ''Ghost Ghirls'' on Yahoo Screen. Her basketball team is the subject of ''The Pistol Shrimps'', a docum ...

Craig Cackowski __NOTOC__ Craig may refer to: Geology *Craig (landform), a rocky hill or mountain often having large casims or sharp intentations. People (and fictional characters) * Craig (surname) * Craig (given name) Places Scotland *Craig, Angus, aka Barony ...

, Michael Cassady, Michael Coleman,

Tymberlee Hill Tymberlee Hill is an American actress and comedian, best known for her roles on comedy programs such as '' Marry Me'', ''Drunk History'', ''The Hotwives'', '' Search Party'' and '' Perfect Harmony''. Career Hill grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia ...

, Adam Nee, Jeremy J. Tutson, Greg Tuculescu, J.T. Palmer and

Aasha Davis Aasha Davis (born August 17, 1973) is an American actress best known for her roles as Waverly Grady on ''Friday Night Lights (TV series), Friday Night Lights'' and Chelsea Lewis on ''South of Nowhere.'' Career Davis is best known for playing t ...

. The series premiered on Comedy Central on July 9, 2013. On August 26, 2019, the series was renewed for a seventh season. On August 19, 2020, that decision was reversed when Comedy Central cancelled the series, with the sixth season serving as its last. Early production had already begun before production halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. A number of international versions have also been produced.

Production

The idea for the series originated from a

drunken Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

conversation that

had with his friend actor

Jake Johnson Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger (born May 28, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, film producer and screenwriter best known for his role as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'' (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' C ...

in which Johnson recounted the story of R&B singer

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

, who died in a plane crash. Waters thought it would be funny to film and recreate a story of an intoxicated person stumbling through a historical story, and have actors reenact the story. Waters told his friend, actor

Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera (; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children's television show ''The Berenstain Bears'' and portraying a young Chuck B ...

, about the idea, and Cera encouraged him to make it and volunteered to appear in the video. The first video premiered on the website

on August 6, 2007. It starred Johnson, Waters, Cera, and actress Ashley Johnson. The series continued to air online on Funny or Die and briefly aired on HBO. It premiered on Comedy Central on July 9, 2013. The storytellers in the series read up on the stories while sober, then rehearse it in front of a producer before getting drunk. Waters says he drinks with the storytellers in order to "let them know we're doing this together" and so as not to make it feel exploitative.

Accuracy

According to Derek Waters, all the dates and story elements are true, though the historical figures' dialogue is obviously not accurate. He told NPR that he "make sure to go back and say: Make sure you say this date or this person's name. I don't want to mess up anyone's names. But obviously the dialogue is the stuff that is not accurate." Independent newspapers have verified that the information in the series is historically accurate.

Episodes

International versions

Since January 12, 2015, a British version of ''Drunk History'' has been broadcast on

's UK channel. A Latin American version, ''Drunk History: El lado borroso de la historia'', is presented by

Eugenio Derbez Eugenio González Derbez (; born September 2, 1961) is a Mexican actor and comedian. He has appeared in many films and television series including '' The Book of Life, The Angry Birds Movie 2 and The Secret Life of Pets.'' In the 2010s, he ap ...

. The Hungarian version, ''Tömény történelem'', premiered on October 24, 2016? on

Comedy Central Hungary Comedy Central Hungary is the Hungarian version of Comedy Central. The channel broadcasts comedy oriented shows. Programming Shows in this channel include: Current Former running programs * Gary Unmarried (2012-2014, as ''Elvált Gary'') *T ...

. A Brazilian version hosted by

Danilo Gentili Danilo Gentili Jr. (born 27 September 1979) is a Brazilian comedian, television host, writer, cartoonist, and businessman and political commentator. He gained national recognition on the TV show ''Custe o Que Custar'' (CQC), aired on the Band ne ...

, '' Drunk History Brasil: o Lado Embriagado da História'', aired on

SBT sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala (programming language), Scala and Java (programming language), Java projects, similar to Apache Software Foundation, Apache's Apache Maven, Maven and Gradle. Its main features are: *Native support fo ...

as a segment of ''

The Noite com Danilo Gentili ''The Noite com Danilo Gentili'' (English: ''Overnight with Danilo Gentili'') is a Brazilian television program hosted by the stand-up comedian Danilo Gentili, which is currently produced and broadcast by SBT. Gentili previously hosted '' Agora ...

'' in 2017. Comedy Central Brasil broadcast the show separated from ''The Noite''. Argentina's

Telefe Telefe (acronym for Televisión Federal) is a television station located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The station is owned and operated by Paramount Global through Televisión Federal S.A. Telefe is also one of Argentina's six national televisio ...

(owned by

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

) will broadcast the Argentine version of the show, ''Pasado de Copas: Drunk History'', hosted by

Marcos Mundstock Marcos Mundstock (May 25, 1942 – April 22, 2020) was an Argentine musician, writer, comedian, actor, broadcaster and copywriter. He had dual nationality of Argentina and Spain, having obtained the latter in 2012. Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, ...

, a member of

Les Luthiers Les Luthiers is an Argentine comedy-musical group, very popular also in several other Spanish-speaking countries including Paraguay, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia, Cuba, Costa Rica and Venezuela. They ...

. Polish version, ''Drunk History: Pół litra historii'', premiered on October 12, 2017 on Comedy Central Poland. An Australian version entitled ''

Drunk History Australia ''Drunk History Australia'' is an Australian educational comedy television series based on the American series of the same name, which is in turn based on the web series ''Funny or Die''. Description In each episode, an inebriated celebrity ...

'' was commissioned for Network Ten’s Pilot Week in 2018, in which a 30-minute pilot episode aired along with several other new show pilots. The episode featured stories about

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...

and

Phar Lap Phar Lap (4 October 1926 – 5 April 1932) was a champion New Zealand–bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest racehorse ever. Achieving incredible success during his distinguished career, his initial u ...

and was presented by Stephen Curry &

Rhys Darby Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for ...

. A season was commissioned in October 2019 by Network Ten and was released prematurely on 27 March 2020 on their streaming service, 10 Play, prior to its official premiere on 14 September 2020.

Reception

The first season of ''Drunk History'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it holds an approval rating of 61% and an average score of 6.4/10, based on 18 ratings. The site's critics consensus reads: "''Drunk History''s boozy lectures wear out their welcome fast and the bevy of comedic talent is wasted on cheesy pantomimes, but audiences who enjoy a fresh spin on historical retellings may want to take a swig." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the season has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Comedy Central programming 2010s American sketch comedy television series 2013 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Adult education television series Comedy Central original programming English-language television shows Television series featuring reenactments Television series based on Internet-based works Storytelling television shows Television series by Funny or Die Television series by Gary Sanchez Productions Fiction with unreliable narrators American educational television series Television productions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic