History WebVideo / EpicRapBattlesOFHistory

** Bill Gates calls himself one too because he owns Xbox.
** {{Justified}} with Zeus and Thor, who really ''are'' gods.

** {{Justified}} via TimeyWimeyBall in "Doc Brown vs. Doctor Who", which begins and ends with The Doctor saying "Actually, if you don't mind, it's just The Doctor".

** [[spoiler:Lenin]] in Rasputin vs Stalin [[spoiler:Justified, because he often did this in speeches in real life.]]

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: Walt Disney]] strongly implies that owning the rights to the works of Jim Henson and Stan Lee means they're doomed to become cogs in his enormous machine.
-->''You belong to [[spoiler: Disney]]! Which means you stay busy!''\\
''Cranking out magic and assembly-line whimsy!''
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:

** In Ragnar Lodbrok vs. Richard the Lionheart, Richard tells Ragnar that his story "ended worse than ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and says that if he wanted to fight [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague loser Vikings, he'd go to Minnesota]].

** Robin took Sherlock's lady friend Irene Adler back to his pad "to [[WrittenSoundEffect BAM!-POW!-KERSPLAT! her".]]

** "Did somebody say [[spoiler:Angel]]?", [[spoiler:Criss Angel's attempt at getting into the Houdini/Copperfield battle, but subverted once the former shooes him away]].

** Vlad the Impaler mocks Count Dracula for inspiring LighterAndSofter recent portrayals of vampires like [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Count Chocula]]. Dracula responds by opening his verses with a reference to [[Series/SesameStreet Count von Count]]. He later drives the point home further by accusing Vlad of having "less taste than an Creator/AnneRice cake" and telling him he lost so bad, he "should [[Literature/{{Twilight}} join Team Jacob]]".

* BadassBaritone: Beethoven, Darth Vader, Christopher Columbus, Master Chief, Barack Obama, Santa Claus, Grigori Rasputin, [[spoiler: Vladimir Putin]], Superman, [[spoiler: Neil deGrasse Tyson]], Donatello di Niccolo, Jamie Hyneman, [=RoboCop=] and Friedrich Nietzsche.

** Justin Bieber (sensitive) and Beethoven (manly, emphasized by his BadassBaritone)

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Leonidas mocks Master Chief's fans as puny, fat computer nerds who masturbate to their games to give themselves [[UnusualEuphemism "first-person shooters"]].

[[ADateWithRosiePalms Obsessed with masturbation]], but you're off the beat\\

--->'''Robocop''': And I didn't think I had any feelings left inside me / but my heart was surely broken after ''Terminator 3''!
--->'''The Terminator''': I have detailed files on the conclusion to your trilogy / that movie failed Detroit worse than the automotive industry!

** Julius Caesar, stoic ruler of the world's largest empire, versus Shaka Zulu, hotblooded leader of a horde of (in Caesar's opinion) undisciplined barbarians [[note]] The Zulu were high disciplined, they wouldn't have defeated the British multiple times otherwise [[/note]].

** After Billy Mays dies mid-battle against Ben Franklin, the [[Creator/VinceOffer Shamwow guy]] dramatically emerges to finish the battle.

** Dr. Seuss gets pissed off when Shakespeare claims that he probably wrote ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' too.
** Mitt Romney says that UsefulNotes/BarackObama married the female version of Patrick Ewing.

---> '''Dumbledore:''' Your spells are a joke, and not funny ones either / Mines of Moria? Ha! More like ''Series/MindOfMencia''!
** In "Blackbeard vs Al Capone", Capone brags that he's ruining pirates faster than Creator/JohnnyDepp [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean did]].

** Houdini claims Copperfield is "the saddest thing to happen to magic since [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering the Gathering]]."

--->'''Tolkien''': Now we all know that the world is full of chance and anarchy / So, yes, it's true to life for characters to die randomly / But newsflash -- the genre's called FANTASY / It's MEANT to be unrealistic, ''YOU MYOPIC MANATEE''!

** [[spoiler: Creator/RobinWilliams']] line "I love [[Creator/WillSmith the Prince]], but [[spoiler: you'll never have a friend like me]]" is a shot at the remake of [[spoiler:''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' starring Smith as the Genie, which Williams played in the original movie]].

** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in Napoleon vs Napoleon, where 6'0" Peter plays a teenager while 5'6" Lloyd plays an adult. Most likely intentional, as the adult was the original [[TheNapoleon Napoleon.]]
** Played straight however in Batman vs Sherlock, where Peter plays Batman while [[spoiler: Lloyd plays Robin.]]

-->'''Trump:''' This whole system's rigged, and we all know the riggers! For the last eight years, this country's been run by --[[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln (CAW!)]]

--->'''Shakespeare''': What light through yonder poser breaks?'

---> "What's up, bitches? My name is Sir Isaac Newton. I am a philosopher, a mathematician and I invented so much sweet shit you wouldn't believe.

** Adam complains multiple times about how Eve never shuts up or stops nagging him over ''Every. Last. Little. Detail.''

** In "Spielberg vs. Hitchcock", Spielberg refers to the fact that Michael Bay never won any Oscars, Hitchcock criticizes the acting in ''Transformers'', [[spoiler: Tarantino refers to Bay's movies as "sellout bullshit", and Kubrick calls the ''Ninja Turtles'' movie Bay produced a "waste of potential". Then Bay shows up to inform the others that to him, box office success is more important than critical success.]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** Subverted in the [=Columbus/Kirk=] battle, where Christopher Columbus seemingly walked out after his opening line.
** Dr. Seuss did a subtle straight version. He got the hell out of Dodge before the Cat in the Hat let Thing 1 and Thing 2 free.
** "Later, weirdo, Elvis is leaving the building."
** "Now excuse me, while I turn heaven a profit." ([[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence dissolves into air]])
** [[spoiler: Lincoln]] during ''Obama Vs. Romney'', who gets air-dropped by a giant bald eagle and lifted back out by said eagle at the end of his verse.
---> "Of the people! By the people! For the people! ''EAGLE!''"
** Clint Eastwood would offer to stick around for a Round 2, but finds it ridiculous because nobody in Bruce Lee's family ever lived to see a sequel.
** Donald Trump fills in for the role of Jacob Marley and alarms Ebeneezer Scrooge of the verbal beatdown the three emcees of the ethereal plane are going to give him. Once his verse is done, he leaves.
--->'''Trump:''' So when the clock strikes, prepare to enter a world of Christmas pain, 'cause I'm out! I've got my own [[SymbolSwearing F***ing]] problems, call me 2 Chainz.
** After finishing his last verse by telling Goku to "Dragon Ball deez" nuts, Superman takes off. Goku gives chase.
** After their final verse against the Renaissance artists, the TMNT head off to eat pizza.
** The bickering amongst the Western philosophers by the end of their battle against the East gets Nietzsche fed enough to storm off at the ending title card.
** It's not referenced in the lyrics, but [[spoiler:Wendy]] skips off into the background and vanishes after destroying Ronald and the King, who can only stare in astonishment.
** At the end of George Carlin vs. Richard Pryor, [[spoiler:Robin Williams]] raps “gotta set myself free!” and flies off into the sky (referencing [[spoiler:his role as Genie and his real-life suicide]]).
** Also {{implied}} by Sigmund Freud, as he says he could continue “but our time is up, Teresa!”

** Richard Pryor brings up his childhood in a brothel to say he's “seen some shit” (but none of it was as bad as Carlin's haircut)

** Occurs in both [=NicePeter vs. EpicLLOYD=] battles, naturally.

* ArtifactTitle: The battles actually tend to feature celebrities and fictional characters as often as they feature historical figures, having had fictional characters since its second battle[[note]]Darth Vader vs Adolf Hitler[[/note]] and celebrities since its first one[[note]]John Lennon vs Bill O’Reilly[[/note]] . The Season 4.5 News video tries to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] this by saying that "all things are history".

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Given the medium of the series, it almost goes without saying that the participants would be "aware" of it. Nonetheless, they only make direct references to it a couple of times.
** In Steve Jobs VS Bill Gates, Steve says he bets "this beat" was made on one of his Apple products, referring to the rap beat playing in the background. [[spoiler: Nope. Fruity Loops. PC.]] And then there's the intro to the battle:
---> '''Narrator:''' ''BILL GATES! VERSUS—''
---> '''Steve Jobs:''' (pops up) Let me just step right in. / I've got things to invent! (shoves away the "Epic Rap Battles of History" title card)
** Marilyn Monroe quips that Cleopatra's nose matches Kassem G's, one of Nice Peter's associates. Also when she whispers "tossing Caesar's salad."
** After the beat abruptly stops in the rematch between Hitler and Vader, Hitler's visibly confused and asks "where is the DJ?"
** Both Nice Peter vs. Epic Lloyd battles inherently fall under this.
** The [[Series/DoctorWho Tenth Doctor]] corrects the narrator about his name:
---> '''Narrator:''' "DOC BROWN! VS! DOCTOR WHO!!"
---> '''Tenth Doctor''': "Oh, actually, if you don't mind, it's just The Doctor."
** In the Season 4 finale, [[spoiler:Walt Disney notes that "I own this whole series!", a reference to ERB being produced by Disney-owned Maker Studios]].
** As should be expected of the character, Deadpool addresses the viewer right from the get-go.
** In "Theodore Roosevelt vs. Winston Churchill", Churchill compares Roosevelt to the actor portraying him, [=EpicLLOYD=].
** Ditto with "Ronald [=McDonald=] vs Burger King".
---> '''Ronald:''' Let's be real; I'm Nice Peter and you're [=EpicLLOYD=]!
** Steve Irwin briefly addresses the audience by going into wildlife commentary mode, while walking right into Jacques Cousteau's side of the video, so technically he broke both the fourth ''and first'' walls.

** The Joker may have no problem killing kids (Jason Todd, for example, which he mentions in the battle), but even he is disgusted by ''sexualizing'' them; he slams the infamous preteen group sex scene in ''Literature/{{It}}'' and says “Even I wouldn’t stoop to that kind of impropriety!”

* FatAndSkinny: Lloyd and Peter, respectively. Lloyd isn’t actually fat, it’s just that Peter is so tall and skinny the far shorter and more proportionally built Lloyd looks it in comparison.

** Most viewers sided with Darth Vader as the winner because who in their right mind would say that Hitler won?

** Ivan the Terrible says if Alexander the Great approaches him he’ll get “a huge sack like Novgorod!”.

** Wendy doesn’t have much room to mock Burger King for being “always second fiddle”.

** Sigmund Freud starts his verse saying the amount of jokes he could make about Teresa’s looks are abundant, but he doesn’t end up making any other jokes about Teresa’s appearance after that.

** Pennywise mocks Joker about Heath Ledger’s death. To make it worse, he taunts Joker about the rumor that Ledger died due to after-effects from his portrayal of him.

** Winston Churchill notes that Theodore Roosevelt looks like [=EpicLLOYD=].
** Ronald [=McDonald’s=] line that he’s Nice Peter and the Burger King is [=EpicLLOYD=] works as a diss but also ''literally refers to the actors playing them''.

* MrFanservice: Leonidas and John Rambo. [[WalkingShirtlessScene Neither wears anything to cover their well built torso]].

** Hitler vs Vader and something horrible happening to the former. [[spoiler:For the first three seasons at least. Hitler also had something bad happen to his ghost in the S4 teaser but Vader wasn’t present.]]

** Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage’s parts in Kim Jong-Il vs Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage

** Wolverine’s half of “Freddy Krueger vs Wolverine”

** It’s not referenced in the lyrics, but [[spoiler:Wendy]] skips off into the background and vanishes after destroying Ronald and the King, who can only stare in astonishment.

** Richard Pryor brings up his childhood in a brothel to say he’s “seen some shit” (but none of it was as bad as Carlin’s haircut)

** Scru Face Jean confirmed [[https://youtu.be/InsQQJWrsuk in his video]] that Mansa Musa calling out Jeff Bezos’ real name ("he ain't a Bezos; his real name is Jorgensen!") is a reference to a similar scene in ''Film/EightMile''.

** It’s not an accusation levelled against either combatant, but the Joker references how “[[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Bob Kane stole from Bill Finger!]]”

** Captain Kirk’s rapping style, which parodies William Shatner’s delivery to the point Christopher Columbus says rapping against him isn’t even fun.

** In the Season 4 finale, [[spoiler:Walt Disney notes that "I own this whole series!", a reference to the fact that ERB is produced by Disney-owned Maker Studios]].

---> '''Steve Jobs:''' (pops up) Let me just step right in./I've got things to invent! (shoves away the "Epic Rap Battles of History" title card)

''[[TitleScream EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!]]

[[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Your Life! VERSUS! TV Tropes! BEGIN!]]''

You get ''[[http://erbofhistory.com Epic Rap Battles of History]]''. The Website/YouTube web series is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- comedians Peter Shukoff (Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist ([=EpicLloyd=]), alongside guest Website/YouTube performers such as [[Music/{{Watsky}} George Watsky]] and Music/ZachSherwin (and even a few celebrities), portray these people BattleRapping against each other in comic online videos. The videos are written by Peter and Lloyd themselves, the results of considerable amounts of research into each subject that make them absolute goldmines for [[StealthPun/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory Stealth Puns]], [[GeniusBonus/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory Genius Bonuses]], and [[ShownTheirWork/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory other impressive showcases]] if you know to look.

--->'''Stalin:''' "You got off easy when they pickled that moose cock! I'd leave your neck in a noose in a trench and shot! Your whole family! Shot! All your wizard friends! Shot! Anyone who sold you pierogi! Shot!"

** In "Spielberg vs. Hitchcock", Spielberg refers to the fact that Michael Bay never won any Oscars, Hitchcock criticizes the acting in ''Transformers'', [[spoiler: Tarantino refers to Bay's movies as "sellout bullshit", and Kubrick calls ''Ninja Turtles'' a "waste of potential". Then Bay shows up to inform the others that to him, box office success is more important than critical success.]]

** [=NicePeter=]'s jaw drops when Epic Lloyd stripped out of his leotard.

** Music/WeirdAlYankovic did to math equations what George Watsky did to Shakespeare. Both of Isaac Newton's verses are rather lengthy, but speed by pretty fast. However, in his 2nd verse, he prattles off a very complex math equation at super speed.

** Skrillex reeks of [[Music/DeadMau5 "dead mouse."]]

--->'''Robocop''': And I didn't think I had any feelings left inside me / but my heart was surely broken after Terminator 3!

** According to one of Deadpool's voices, Boba Fett is like ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' - full of bad choices.

--->'''Tolkien''': Now we all know that the world is full of chance and anarchy / So yes it's true to life for characters to die randomly / But newsflash -- the genre's called FANTASY / It's MEANT to be unrealistic, ''YOU MYOPIC MANATEE''!

** [[spoiler: Creator/RobinWilliams']] line "I love [[Creator/WillSmith the Prince]], but [[spoiler: you'll never have a friend like me"]] is a shot at the recent remake of [[spoiler: ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' starring Smith in the role played by Williams in the original movie]].
** Creator/JacquesCousteau tells [[Series/CrocodileHunter Steve Irwin]] "I have Oscars, you're in ''Film/DrDolittle'' 2".
** Dracula claims that Vlad the Impaler, has "less taste than an Creator/AnneRice cake" and is "losing so bad, [he] should [[Literature/{{Twilight}} join Team Jacob]]".

Jared Leto came out trying to look like he was Tekashi 6ix9ine!''

* BoastfulRap: Obviously there's a lot of bragging going on.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** Invoked in "Hulk Hogan vs. Kim Jong-Il" with Hogan claiming he'll leg-drop Kim back to Beijing.
---> [[LampshadeHanging Beijing is in China, you blonde asshole!]]
** Also during the Hulk Hogan battle, Kim Jong-Il fires a military M136 [=AT4=] at Hogan... while holding it backwards.

[[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Your Life!

VERSUS!

TV Tropes! BEGIN!]]''

''[[TitleScream EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!]] [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Your Life! VERSUS! TV Tropes! BEGIN!]]''

** The first ''four''-man battle of season 4 (Romeo & Juliet vs Bonnie and Clyde) [[spoiler:ends in KillEmAll.]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:"Bonnie and Clyde vs. Romeo and Juliet" ends with R&J dead by their own hands and B&C gunned down.]]

* SuddenDownerEnding: [[spoiler: Romeo and Juliet vs. Bonnie and Clyde. [[KillEmAll Everyone dies.]]]] Even the narrator didn't know what to think of it.

* EEqualsMCHammer: In Shakespeare vs. Doctor Seuss, during the Cat in the Hat's line about "you leave a classroom looking like [[KillEmAll the end of]] ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''", the blackboard in the background has the equation "1 + 2 = SO MUCH BLOOD".

* MythologyGag: Though the Turtles appear in their traditionally colored masks, when Mikey spits his first line, the three other Turtles appear from behind him all wearing their original red masks. [[note]]Though the comics were in black and white, early covers show them all wearing red masks, as seen on Wiki/TheOtherWiki[[/note]]

** In a bizarre serial killer twist on this trope, Hannibal Lecter and Count Dracula both refuse to dine on their respective opponents as a way of insulting the other men’s personal hygiene.

** In Ragnar Lodbrok vs. Richard the Lionheart, Richard tells Ragnar that if he wanted to fight [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague loser Vikings, he'd go to Minnesota]].