Editor’s Note: A change to the dates mentioned in the story has been corrected to accurately reflect the event timeline
History came alive on the Culture and Society building’s big screen at Florida Atlantic University on Feb. 10 and 11 during the event “Drunk History, Saturday Night Live, and the American Revolution.” Students came together to watch clips from the two parody shows and relate them to actual history in the Culture and Society Building and the FAU Library.
The two-day event was organized by FAU’s History Department in tandem with the Department of Multimedia Studies as part of the ongoing America250 festival, which celebrates the United States’ 250th anniversary.
The screening was led by Matthew Elfenbein, a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Communication & Media Studies. He showed students popular skits from Saturday Night Live (SNL), including the “Washington’s Dream” series, and clips from Drunk History, a show on Comedy Central that has intoxicated narrators retell moments from history, such as “Washington’s Army Shapes Up.”
“This started off as a little supplemental event, and it’s really grown,” said Elfenbein. According to Elfenbein, they had to move venues at the last minute to accommodate the number of attendees. Between both days, approximately 100 people showed up.
Elfenbein believes that comedy is crucial to get students interested in history. “In a postmodern society, we use parody and remixing of history with contemporary ideas in order to understand it,” said Elfenbein.
Toni Keene, a graduate student studying environmental education, said she had not attended any of the other America250 events until this one. “It just seemed totally up my alley,” said Keene. “I write sketch comedy, and I do stand-up comedy.”
Keene said she felt the event was the perfect way to mix comedy and history. “I think it’s a great interdisciplinary approach for especially younger generations to want to be involved in the 250th anniversary,” said Keene.
Similarly, Sophomore neuroscience major David Ferreira hadn’t been to an America250 event, but was drawn in by the title and description. “It seemed like it would be fun, and it was,” said Ferreira. He said the clips truly sparked an interest in learning more about history.
The second part of the event, a lecture and Q&A, was led by Richard Bell, a professor at the University of Maryland and the author of The American Revolution and the Fate of the World.
While he appreciated the comedy in all the clips presented, he also warned that some of the stories lacked accuracy. “The reenactments you saw, they’re deliberately over the top. The results are always funny, but I think they also reveal something important about how popular culture absorbs and distorts real history.”
“I hope these sketches we’ve talked about never get mistaken for fact. But I hope they provide friendly access points to the real history behind them. I hope they provoke curiosity about what actually happened.”
The history department also encourages students to come to the fifth floor of the S.E. Wimberly Library on Feb. 13, for “George Washington’s Ball.”
Isaiah Sewell is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected]
