Television series

Drunk History

Name: Drunk History
Genre: Comedy, History
Released: 2013
Cast: Derek Waters

Comedy
Light-hearted
Strange
Dip in and out

Drunk History pairs sloppy inebriation with American historical storytelling. Comedians get progressively drunk while recounting pivotal moments; sober actors mime out the chaos. It's chaotic, frequently hilarious, and requires patience for rambling asides. Perfect for people who love history's weird edges and don't mind their education sandwiched between hiccups.

TVMaze rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like comedy built on a sketch-within-a-sketch joke, where the performance of a true story falls apart in charmingly wrong ways, and the real history keeps leaking through the wreckage.

Skip it if you want a tidy, straight-faced history lesson or a show that rewards long attention, since each half-hour is a self-contained, loose sketch with the same format repeated throughout.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about thirty minutes and asks very little setup: you watch a reenactment, then the stumbling retelling cut against it, and you can drop in or out whenever you like.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Drunk History

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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But The first season is genuinely rough. Patience required before the show becomes the thing everyone loves.

Community2009

Genre pastiches and meta-humour layered with genuine warmth for its cast. Like Drunk History, it thrives when it's playing with familiar formats and trusting its ensemble to carry you through chaos.

But Sometimes the cleverness becomes the whole point. Later seasons lose the emotional anchor that made the wild stuff matter.

I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman2017

Sketch and monologue show exploring American identity through comedy and candid interviews. Both celebrate weird corners of American life and find humanity in unexpected places.

But Silverman's persona polarizes hard. If her brand of aggressive sarcasm grates, nothing here will win you over.

I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman poster

Portlandia2011

Character-driven sketch show with love and affection for its targets. Finds absurdity in subculture and everyday life the way Drunk History finds it in history, and both have genuine warmth underneath the mockery.

But Depends on niche Portland humour. If you don't find the characters worth spending time with, the repetition gets thin.

Historical Roasts2019

Stand-up comedians riff on historical figures. Direct spiritual cousin to Drunk History's format, celebrating what happens when smart people improvise around real events and real people.

But Uneven performances and lack of production values. Some comedians are sharper than others, and the bare-bones setup occasionally feels thin.