Of all the hilarious things that have come from Funny or Die, Drunk History ranks among the top. Starting as a series of shorts on the website and then expanding into a full TV series on Comedy Central, the show has featured some very talented actors and comedians reenacting history in a way that seems like it might eventually get someone hurt. Now the series will be returning for its second season on June 24th, and there’s still a very good chance it will result in a case of severe alcohol poisoning.
The show has a pretty simple premise: one comedian gets rip-roaring drunk and rambles on about an important historical event, and some other people act it out. This combines one of America’s favorite pasttimes (drinking) with one of its least favorite pasttimes (learning) for an end result that is far funnier than it has any right to be. Past episodes have featured Jack Black, Michael Cera, Winona Ryder and even Ryan Gosling covering events like the Watergate scandal, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the invention of Coca-Cola and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.
The announcement of the season 2 premiere came via Twitter from series co-creator Derek Waters:
Drunk History season 2 will be starting June 24th on @ComedyCentral Can’t wait for you guys to see the 30 new stories! – Derek
— Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) March 17, 2014
If the show keeps its format from last season of three historical retellings per episode, then those 30 new stories come out to a total of 10 new episodes. It will be interesting to see who turns up in those episodes, both as drunk historians and as (probably) sober historical reenactors. It will also likely still get uncomfortable at times seeing just how drunk some of the comics can get, like the time last season when Kyle Kinane looked like he was probably going to wake up the next day with no recollection of ever having recorded the show.
Maybe if the comics don’t remember it then the producers of Drunk History don’t have to pay them. That’s a pretty smart way to save money. Let’s just hope their liability waivers are airtight.