EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!What happens when you take historical figures, popular media personalities, and a handful of fictional characters, and have them pair off and compete against each other...in rap contests?You get, well, Epic Rap Battles of History. While the "epic" part may be disputed, otherwise it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin - a pair of comedians (Nice Peter and EpicLloyd) and guest YouTube performers portraying these people rapping off against each other in online videos.The matchups so far have been the following *
Battles marked with an asterisk (*) feature people other than Nice Peter and Epic Llyod
Napoleon Bonaparte: "I'm going to shove your moon boots straight up your poop chute!"
Columbus: "I'll stick a flag in your ass and claim you for Spain!"
Master Chief: "Cortana says you're Greek, so why don't you stick these lyrics up your ass?"
Actor Allusion: The Cat in the Hat wears sunglasses identical to Nice Peter's signature look.
May or may not have been intentional, But the wright bros who launched their first plane in North Carolina are played by Rhett & Link who were both born in said state.
Anachronism Stew; The reason why Beethoven references Face Book, Columbus references Hulu, Leonidas know of computers and video games, and Adolf Hitler knows Rick Moranis, among plenty of other things.
Ate His Gun: Mario tried to do so behind the scenes.
Auto Tune: Used for Stephen Hawking's rapping, since it's very difficult to get anything resembling rhythm out of the actual voice synthesizer program.
Napoleon Bonaparte gets one at the beginning of his second line. *
"T'as une tête a faire sauter les plaques d'egouts" = "You've got a face that could blow off a manhole cover"
Also, Christopher Columbus gets "Arrivederci! I'ma leave, before this battle begins."
Boastful Rap: All of the character raps have hints of this. In addition to dissing and countering opponents, the raps also elaborate on the characters' awesomeness. Ubiquitous in every battle is "I [insert awesome thing], you [insert stupid thing]!"
Butt Monkey: Adolf Hitler. Gets frozen in carbonite, thawed out to battle again, then dropped in the rancor pit.
Call Back: The battle against the creators themselves featured cameos from nearly all the characters they've played as before.
The rematch with Vader and Hitler begins with Hitler frozen in carbonite, just as he was at the end of their original battle.
Creator Cameo: If EpicLloyd isn't playing one of the rappers, he likes to appear in the background as a character who doesn't speak but is referenced by one of them. Examples include:
Deliberately Monochrome: Hitler's verses until Vader uses the Force to bring him into his own screen. May double as Anachronism Stew when you notice that Vader claims that he came before Hitler, and all of his screentime is shot in color.
Don't Try This at Home: In the behind-the-scenes video for Cleopatra vs. Marilyn Monroe, Lloyd shows off a Vader vs. Hitler shirt and tells viewers not to wear it at school because it might get them expelled.
Early Installment Weirdness: The first rap battle (Lennon vs. O'Reilly) lacks the subtitles that later versions have, not to mention being originally censored (an uncensored version was later uploaded). The announcer also had a different voice for the first few battles.
Epic Fail: Hitler claims that Vader's entire life is one big this. Vader doesn't have any comeback...other than laughing as Hitler steps over the Rancor pit before dropping him in.
Evasive Fight Thread Episode: It is nearly impossible to come to a consensus over who "wins" each rap battle. Everyone's rap style and lyrics are determined by their popular image, so each side will also sound wildly different and some matchups will feel more equal then others. In addition, the raps are accompanied by dramatic elements and special effects that are either indicating the current rapper's superiority, or are just for fun, and this further confuses the issue. The episodes themselves leave the winner up to the viewers, but the YouTube commentators often don't bother.
Finally averted when ERB allowed viewers to vote on Facebook and on their official site, leading to an official winner, starting with Hitler having officially beaten Vader in their rematch.
Mr. Rogers: I'll say this once Laurence, I hope it's understood. Get right back in your van and get the fuck outta my neighborhood.
Foreshadowing: Ben Franklin makes several death threats to Billy Mays, promising to "craft a lyrical coffin", telling him to "join or die", and referencing "Death of a Salesman". At first, this just seems like the usual hip-hop trash talk, but then...
Follow the Leader: A handful of people have done copycat videos based off the concept, usually low-budget single person productions.
For the Evulz: The reason Hitler gives for ruining the Star Wars prequels.
Darth only thawed Hitler out for their rematch, and to drop him into the Rancor Pit.
Freeze Frame Bonus: There's often so much going on the screen that some of the humor can be missed. For instance, Kim Jong-Il's missile launcher fires his own head!
In Kirk Vs Columbus, the word Klingon is written inKlingon.
When Luigi's profanity is censored by the sound of collected coins, the subtitles also use the image of coins from the Mario Bros games as a form of censorship.
Global Ignorance: Hulk Hogan apparently thought Beijing was in Korea, not China. Kim Jong-Il does not let that one slide.
Kim Jong Il: Beijing is in China, you blond asshole!
The Wright Brothers have a grainy sepia tone and their audio is processed to sound like it was recorded on a phonograph.
Aside from the fact that young Elvis is shot in monochrome, both old Elvis and young Michael are shown as if recorded from a VHS around their time. Old Michael even has a special filter on him that makes him appear as in the '90s video clips.
In the behind the scenes videos, there's a running theme of Lloyd jokingly asking other people if they want to buy some heroin.
There also seems to be one in the second season's behind the scenes videos of people not recognizing who one of the rappers is supposed to be, such as one man not realizing Lloyd was dressed as Mario.
Shakespeare: What light through yonder poser breaks?'
Shakespeare: I hath been iambic on that ass, ye bastard.
Shakespeare: Ye hoebag!
Spell My Name with an S: Hitler's first name is spelt 'Adolph' on his title card at the beginning, but is spelt in the more conventional way, 'Adolf', in the subtitles where he introduces himself. Both spellings are valid. In the rematch, however, Hitler's title card actually uses the spelling 'Adolf'.
Spin-Off: 9, The Official Fanzine type that shows the behind the scenes and extra info.
Time Skip: In the Elvis Presley VS Michael Jackson fight, both characters go through this. Michael spins into his older, whiter self, and Elvis gets fat from eating too much.
Master Chief maintains his calm throughout the battle, but you can tell he's pissed off.
Mister Rogers. He doesn't raise his soft, polite voice even once, but he does go into Creepy Monotone, calls Mr T "Laurence" like a teacher to a naughty child, and swears.
Transformation Sequence: Young Michael Jackson spins transforming into older Michael Jackson.
Toilet Humor: Elvis Presley's death on the can is inevitably brought up when he fights Michael Jackson.
Vader to Hitler: "So many dudes been with your mom, who even knows if I'm your father?"
Hawking to Einstein: "There are ten million million million million million million million million million particles in the universe that we can observe/ Your mama took the ugly ones and put them into one nerd".
, and the second season on its own channel here
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