In 2007, Derek Waters listened intently as a very drunk Jake Johnson struggled to explain the details of Otis Redding's tragic death, and in that moment, an idea was born. Waters realized that drunk people trying to explain history was a hilarious idea for a show, and he used his connections with actor Michael Cera to get "Drunk History" produced. It started as a web series on "Funny or Die," and it was so popular that it made the transition to Comedy Central in 2013. Over the years, plenty of A-listers have gotten wasted to teach viewers about the past, so let's take a look at some things nobody told you about "Drunk History."
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00:00You can actually learn something from Drunk History, whether it's something interesting
00:03about a forgotten war hero or how you shouldn't mix tequila with wine.
00:07This is the untold truth of the long-running, hard-drinking comedy series.
00:12Drunk History was co-created by Jeremy Conner and Derek Waters, who was also the de facto
00:16host of the show, frequently seen drinking a tequila shot with a narrator or donning
00:21a fancy wig for a reenactment.
00:23According to The New York Times, the whole thing stemmed from a conversation Waters had
00:26in 2007 with actor Jake Johnson.
00:29Waters and Johnson were, duh, drunk, and Johnson was passionately trying to explain
00:34to Waters how Otis Redding passed away.
00:36"...it's probably got two minutes of content, the story, took me about 45 minutes to tell
00:40it.
00:41The next, and I thought, man, I just blew this kid's mind."
00:45How hilarious and awesome it would be, thought Waters, to tape drunk people telling a rambling
00:50story about a historical event and then get actors to reenact the drunk person's story.
00:55Waters had the idea for months, but didn't do anything about it because he didn't think
00:58it would work.
00:59Plus, he didn't have any clout.
01:01Fortunately, one of his best friends happened to be Juno and Arrested Development star Michael
01:06Serra, who kept encouraging him to figure out a way to do it.
01:09He also promised to be in the show if Waters ever managed to make it.
01:13Clout granted.
01:14In its first incarnation, Drunk History was a completely different animal.
01:18Waters' first pitch was for a reality show.
01:20According to IndieWire, the concept was that Waters would rent a bus and drive around the
01:25country, popping into bars and parties in major cities where drunk locals would tell
01:28him unfiltered tales of local history.
01:31While the show's concept changed into something a bit more manageable, this original concept
01:35was retained in the early seasons of the show as a framing device.
01:39Waters says he was also offered the chance to do Drunk History as a bunch of sketches
01:43that would be edited together into a feature film.
01:45While a company throwing money at you to make your movie seems pretty awesome, Waters actually
01:50turned it down, because he knew the concept of a drunk person describing a historical
01:54event acted out by people in period garb is something that would only work in small doses.
02:00Further down the line in the production series, the History Channel showed interest in putting
02:03Drunk History on the air, but wondered if the word drunk had to be in the title, or
02:07if the narrators had to be drunk.
02:10So it'd just be… history?
02:12That kind of kills everything special about the show.
02:21Storytelling
02:23While a brain on booze isn't the most reliable conduit for information, the cast and staff
02:28of Drunk History ensured that the show's narration segments, and by extension, the reenactments,
02:33came out accurate, albeit in a swervy, tipsy sort of way.
02:37In order to come up with good material, the producers had a group of History doctoral
02:40students from UCLA compile hundreds of potential Drunk History stories before each season began
02:45taping.
02:46The cast was then paired down, and each story was matched up to the comedians who signed
02:50up to narrate, based on their historical interests.
02:53Waters told The Wrap in 2018,
02:54"...most of the people who do it have some sort of idea of the story prior, or the world
02:59that it's going to be discussing."
03:01To guarantee that the guest stars appeared to be experts on their topic, they were encouraged
03:05to cram like it was a high school history test.
03:07Waters explained,
03:08"...we send them a research packet so that they have one or two weeks of studying it
03:12over and over again."
03:13The packets usually consisted of a three-page summary of the historical figure or event,
03:18links to documentaries, and book recommendations for a deeper dive.
03:21When taping actually happened, Waters just let the narrators ramble on, stopping them
03:26only if they got a date, name, or some other fact wrong.
03:29"...what year are we in?"
03:30"...I don't know."
03:31"...Yes, you do."
03:32With such a hot property on his hands, Derek Waters was naturally beset by requests from
03:37agents of big-time Hollywood big shots who wanted their chance to cut loose on Drunk
03:42History, and he was happy to have them on, provided they were easy to work with.
03:46Fortunately, there were certain fail-safes that weeded out a lot of potential human buzz
03:50kills.
03:51The fact that the reenactments took all day or more was a major turnoff for busy actors,
03:55as was the fact that the show operated on such a shoestring production budget that it
03:59could only afford to pay $600 for a day of on-screen work.
04:03Nevertheless, some stars were still down, like Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer, who guest-starred
04:08as Harriet Tubman.
04:09Waters would later single her out as being a delight to work with.
04:12In addition to being solicited by celebrities and their agents, on occasion, Drunk History
04:16producers would approach stars with offers and roles in mind.
04:20One major actor who declined the chance to star in a historical reenactment?
04:23Adam Sandler, who didn't want to play Davy Crockett in a segment about the Battle of
04:27the Alamo.
04:28Waters took on the role himself, telling Entertainment Weekly,
04:31"...I really wanted to be Davy Crockett, and I'm glad Adam Sandler said no."
04:35"...You are a gentleman, but with just the right amount of a bastard."
04:44Drunk History was both extremely accurate and deeply entertaining, which would probably
04:48make it an effective educational aid in history classes, were it not for all the unbridled
04:53drinking and bleeped profanity.
04:55Still, its value came from an earnest and honest place.
04:58Waters explained,
04:59"...I wanted to be a teacher.
05:00I just never thought I'd be a teacher like this."
05:02Apparently, this uncommon teaching path has actually made a positive impact.
05:09Waters explained that his show seems to be a valuable teaching tool at the college level,
05:13saying,
05:14"...People have told me that their professors show a clip.
05:16The thing that gets me is some people say, I had a test and I didn't know this until
05:20I saw Drunk History.
05:21I passed.
05:22I knew this question that was on my test because of Drunk History."
05:25For the actors to get their lip-syncing of the drunk narrator's tales just so, the sets
05:30of the historical reenactment segments were outfitted with gigantic speakers that bellowed
05:34out the drunk narrations, a few lines at a time, on a loop.
05:38But when the actors nailed it, it was all worth it.
05:40"...This is about to be, like I'm not even about to bulls**t you, this is about to be
05:43some bulls**t.
05:44Like, this is about to be like a real stealth operation.
05:47You motherf**kers have never seen no s**t like this before."
05:50The real technical problems came when shooting the drunk portions.
05:53Oddly enough, drunk people combined with expensive filmmaking equipment added up to potential
05:58disaster.
05:59Who knew?
06:00Director Jeremy Conner told Complex that problems with audio were almost a given, and that the
06:04drunker the comedians got, the less they seemed to care about keeping the expensive microphones
06:09safe.
06:10Another problem?
06:11The narrators sometimes got so hammered that they wound up laying face down on the ground
06:15or on a couch, and they would try to tell their stories that way.
06:18Unfortunately, microphones can't pick up audio when it's drunkenly mumbled into a couch cushion
06:22or throw rug, meaning the production crew always had to be ready to help get things
06:26back on track.
06:28Derek Waters liked his narrators good and hammered for real.
06:31The show was called Drunk History, not Sort of Tipsy History, after all.
06:35This explains why, according to him, every single one of the narrators puked at some
06:40point during their taping.
06:42Waters even worked up a little drinking routine.
06:44He encouraged the comedians to have a drink before the crew arrived, to get them warmed
06:47up and loose.
06:49But not too many.
06:50Waters has said he's had to reschedule when he's shown up at a narrator's house to find
06:53that they were already five or six sheets to the wind.
06:56Then, to loosen them up further, and to get them comfortable with losing all their inhibitions
07:00on national TV, Waters would share a drink with the narrator.
07:03The drinking continued throughout the shoot, so the narrators got pretty plowed.
07:07"...some celebrateds?
07:10What's the word I'm looking for?
07:11Some, um…"
07:12"...Mark?"
07:13"...Wait, wait, wait, hold on."
07:15What specific alcohols worked best?
07:17Over the span of the show, Waters told Cheddar News he learned that beer makes people talk
07:21too much about themselves, wine makes them sleepy, and bourbon, quote, "...makes you
07:25do what I like on the show, which is make you think you're the smartest person."
07:29According to Business Insider, a taping of the average narration segment for Drunk History
07:33could last around six hours.
07:35Multiple takes were required, from which the best was selected later on.
07:39On Drunk History, this was usually the one where the narrator is the drunkest, but not
07:43necessarily the one where the comedian is trying to be funny.
07:47Waters said it's because people naturally try to be funny when they're drunk, but even
07:50professionals forget how to craft a joke when the world's spinning all around them.
07:55"...Mark."
07:56"...Mark."
07:57"...Uh huh."
08:03The production crew also took measures to make sure everybody was safe while filming.
08:07"...Yeah, we have a medic and security on set.
08:12It's a poison.
08:13You shouldn't drink alcohol."
08:15Drunk History filmed actual drunk people being drunk, but some got far more drunk than the
08:20rest.
08:21Co-creator Jeremy Conner told Complex in 2005 that two narrators stood out.
08:26Comedian Duncan Trussell somehow managed to tell the story of Thomas Edison's destruction
08:30of rival Nikola Tesla on the floor of his bathroom.
08:33The other was Natasha Leggero, who drank a bottle of white wine and followed it with
08:38some tequila shots and then tried to film from a bathtub filled with moisturizer.
08:43However entertaining that might have been to see, the thread of history was surely lost.
08:47The comic ended up calling production the next day after she'd sobered up, unable to
08:51remember if they'd finished taping her episode or not.
08:54Turned out they hadn't, so they had to reschedule.
08:57Drunk History aired its sixth season finale on Comedy Central in August 2019, and a few
09:01weeks later, the network ordered a seventh season as part of a major production and development
09:06deal with Derek Waters.
09:07"...Cheers to being perfect."
09:08"...Yes."
09:09About a year later, in August 2020, per Variety, the cable outlet decided it didn't want more
09:14Drunk History after all and canceled the renewal, effectively ending the show.
09:19Ratings-wise, the show remained a decent performer up until the end of its life on Comedy Central,
09:23and at the time of its cancellation, it had just been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards,
09:28including Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.
09:31What truly killed the show was that it was a victim of an evolving approach to programming
09:35on the part of the network.
09:36After coronavirus-related shutdowns led to temporary production delays on live-action
09:41shows, Comedy Central canceled or moved nearly all of its non-animated scripted shows, scrapping
09:46Drunk History in the process.
09:48When Comedy Central suddenly canceled Drunk History in the summer of 2020, production
09:52on the show's seventh season had been halted for months due to international shutdowns.
09:57Unfortunately, that put an end to co-creator and host Derek Waters' plans to pay tribute
10:02to the person from his Baltimore childhood who made him a history buff, and whose teaching
10:06style had a strong influence on Drunk History.
10:09Waters told Gold Derby,
10:10Why I love history is my high school teacher, Mr. Stang.
10:13He would be able to somehow relate the historical figure that we were learning about or the
10:16moment in history and then turn it into why the Orioles suck right now."
10:20Waters had an episode in the works where drunk narrators discussed their favorite and most
10:24personally impactful teachers, and it would have ended with Waters and Mr. Stang, quote,
10:29"...getting drunk and teaching the story of the Whiskey Rebellion with Alexander Hamilton."
10:33Unfortunately, it never came to pass.
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