Former Saturday Night Live writer and stand-up comedian Colin Quinn decides to tackle world history and he's doing it in 75 minutes. Directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Colin Quinn Long Story Short is a one-man show that runs in Broadway for a few months before it was finally shown on television as an HBO program. The show can basically be described as History The Abridged Series hence the title Long Story Short. Or Hetalia: Axis Powers as told by an American and with the good dose of Black Comedy.
The story starts at long before the Ancient Greeks. Colin Quinn satirically evaluates various civilizations from the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, Britain, India, Africa, China, and finally America.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: The show runs on this trope.
- Black Comedy: Used heavily.
- Drugs Are Bad: And the reason why the Native American societies fell.
- Eagleland: America is portrayed as Type 2. Though to be fair, every country portrayed are basically assholes, except Canada.
- The Eeyore: Russians, so much that when they tried to be idealistic, the result is the Soviet Union.
- Evil Brit: The portrayal of England.
- Hollywood History: Played for Laughs of course.
- Humans Are Flawed: A central theme. Quinn argues that not only that there are no such thing as a perfect system but also that humanity keeps doing the same thing and makes the same mistakes over and over again throughout history.
- Just a Stupid Accent: Played for Laughs by Quinn whenever he portrays one of the many cultures mentioned in his routine. See Hollywood History.
- Mad Love: England's feelings towards France.
- Master of the Mixed Message: France.
- Mayincatec: The Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incas are grouped together in one segment. The shows also seems to mixed up some aspects of the Aztecs and the Incas.
- She Is All Grown Up: Used as a metaphor regarding how Europe views Africa.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Definitely lies on the cynical side.
