Screens: Comedy Central
The idea behind the web series Drunk History -- get funny people super-wasted, have them tell the story of an historical event while shitfaced, and stage re-enactments of the event, including having actors lip-sync the drunk's sketchily recalled dialogue -- is so fiendishly clever that of course it had to be turned into a Comedy Central series, the third episode of which aired last night. While I have enjoyed elements of every episode, the latest featured my favourite segment to date (an excerpt is below), and I think I've figured out exactly what made it so great. Future drunk historians: take note.
1. Jenny Slate.
Gorgeous genius Jenny Slate gets the first segment, which is a lovely way to start the episode: she's always sweet and goofy, and guess what, both those qualities are magnified when she's fourteen sheets to the wind.
2. Tell a story everyone doesn't already know well.
Slate tells the story of John Pemberton and the invention of Coca-Cola, which I only kind of knew because I'm not from Atlanta (where all the episode's stories were set). Whereas a lot of these segments rely entirely for their entertainment value on the ways the teller fucks up the story -- and don't get me wrong, that element is totally fun (and, duh, the whole point of the show, I get it) -- it adds another dimension when there are surprises in the story itself.
3. The quality of the re-enactors is crucial.
I remember reading a magazine article about Smash (stay with me) in which Megan Hilty described the particular way she would have to lip-sync to the backing track in order to make her motions seem natural; when you're just lip-syncing and no air is coming out, it looks different and the viewer can tell (and if you don't believe me, re-watch Grace Of My Heart, as I did last week, because Illeana Douglas is pretty terrible at it). Some of the re-enactors overact so much it's like they're lip-syncing for their lives on Drag Race, but as Pemberton, Bill Hader really makes you believe that Jenny Slate's voice is coming out of his face. Relatedly....
4. Get a lady drunk!
Because of how history...is, most of the stories being told revolve around the doings of men; and, so far, most of the drunks have been dudes too. But what Slate's segment brought home to me was how much funnier it is for the gentlemen to lip-sync along with a woman's voice. Hader particularly made his own fun out of the (many) instances when Slate made herself giggle. If women didn't actually get the chance to participate in, say, the Continental Congress, Drunk History could at least let one from our time provide the voice of John Adams for the lulz.