History Series / TheSupersizersEat

''Much'' better than it sounds. Giles provides the knowledgeable tidbits and Sue provides the snarky running commentary. Not to mention that they engage in the cutest (and most sarcastic) {{UST}} in the history of documentary filmmaking. And the food is all authentic and heavily researched, which means they tend to alternate between looking wonderful and looking worthy of ''Series/FearFactor''.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Sue and Giles usually play aristocrats, and unfortuately, many of their activities involve being mean to peasants. A notable example is in the Regency episode, where Giles spends a day waiting in the field with a gun to shoot poachers (the land enclosure act meant the aristocrats owned all the wild game on their lands).

** The state dinners hosted by Louis XVI. The the primary purpose of the food was for showing off (in fact Versailles used to sell tickets where the yokels can go and watch the King and Queen eat) and thus are so overprepared that they are practically inedible. After every state dinner, King Louis and Marie Antoinette would immediately retreat to their chambers, and have an actual dinner.
** The peach melba served from between the wings of a swan carved from ice.

* BadBoss: In The Fifties Episode, Giles plays a manager at a car manufacturer. He bans Tea Breaks to improve efficiency (recreating a measure managers actually took in The Fifties in the name of the bottom line), and when his employees strike [[PointyHairedBoss he just declares sucess and the issue is never mentioned again]].

** During TheRoaringTwenties episode, a drunken Giles makes a mock peach melba, which Sue finds pretty gross.

* ForeignQueasine: Not foreign in the geographical sense as in the chronological, but it still applies. Pickled testicles and rotten fish juice are very foreign food for Brits from the 21st century. One of the chefs holds her nose while she's preparing a dish.

* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Played for laughs during the Victorian episode. Sue has a ThousandYardStare while eating lamb's head.

* RealMenLoveJesus: In the Elizabethan Episode, Giles and Sue pray before meals. In the Medieval Episode, they go on a pilgrimage to Cantenbury and Giles goes on a Crusade. The Roman Episode involves a pagan example, as Sue tends a sacred flame of Vesta and sacrifices a chicken to Bacchus.

** Subverted in the Roman Episode, in which Sue and Giles ate doormice not to recreate famine but because rats were considered a delicacy in Ancient Rome.

* ScienceMarchesOn: In the sake of historical accuracy, Giles and Sue are only allowed to use historically-accurate remedies to make themselves feel better (even if said remedies are proven today to not work). Beef-Tea to cure indigestion, Alcohol to cure insomnia, blood-letting to cure caffeine withdraw, Pomegranates and Gallbladder for Bubonic plague, etc. Likewise they avoid vegitables and milk in some eras because people in those times [[WhatWeNowKnowToBeTrue erroneously considered such foods to be unhealhy]]. Exaggerated in the Medieval Episode, when they spend a third of the episode trying to correct their humors.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: The Roman Episode ends with Sue and Giles being smothered to death by rose petals as punishment for their decadence. They don't even visit the doctor at the end to learn that their BMI increased 1%.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* BathKick: During the Restoration episode, Sue takes a bath in wormwood and offers a comedic one of these.

* CaffeineBulletTime: In the Eighties episode, Giles has a stock market trader's breakfast of six double espresso shots. He doesn't think it's had much of an effect on him, but then he notices that one of his arms is involuntarily twitching.

* ScienceMarchesOn: In the sake of historical accuracy, Giles and Sue are only allowed to use historically-accurate remedies to make themselves feel better (even if said remedies are proven today to not work). Beef-Tea to cure indigestion, Alcohol to cure insomnia, blood-letting to cure caffeine withdraw, Pomegranates and Gallbladder for Bubonic plague, etc. Likewise they avoid vegitables and milk in some eras because people in those times [[WhatWeNowKnowToBeTrue erroneously considered such foods to be unhealhy]]. Taken UpToEleven in the Medieval Episode, when they spend a third of the episode trying to correct their humors.

* SpotOfTea: In the World War II episode, Sue and Giles have American soldiers visiting. They mention some real life advice Americans were given, for example that they shouldn't be complaining about coffee, because likewise, the British wouldn't be satisfied with tea made by Americans.

* IAteWhat: Both Sue and Giles are up for the challenge of the stranger dishes. Then Sue, trying to supplement her wartime rations, bites into a crabapple and takes the head off a maggot.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: An in-universe version. Paps are an Elizabethan-era dessert, purportedly made to look like the Pope's hat. In reality, they're supposed to look like the lady of the household's breasts.

-->'''Sue:''' I will.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Sue and Giles usually play aristocrats, and as a result many of their activities involve being mean to peasants. A notable example is in the Regency episode, where Giles spends a day waiting in the field with a gun to shoot poachers (the land enclosure act meant the aristocrats owned all the wild game on their lands).

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: In The Roman Episode and The Regency Episode, Giles and Sue hand out bread to commoners. In the Roman Episode it is to get Giles reelected as Roman Senator, and in The Regency Episode it is to prevent the peasants from killing them in retaliation for kicking them off the (recently privatized) common lands.

* MoodWhiplash: During the Wartime episode, Sue and Giles are trading sarcastic barbs... Then the [[HellIsThatNoise air raid sirens]] start. An unusually somber transition occurs, as Giles outlines some of the bombings during the war. F

!!Episodes:
# Edwardian Supersize Me
!!!Series One
[numlist:1]
# The Supersizers Go... Wartime
# The Supersizers Go... Restoration
# The Supersizers Go... Victorian
# The Supersizers Go... Seventies
# The Supersizers Go... Elizabethan
# The Supersizers Go... Regency
[/numlist]
!!! Series Two
[numlist:1]
# The Supersizers Eat... The Eighties
# The Supersizers Eat... Medieval
# The Supersizers Eat... The French Revolution
# The Supersizers Eat... The Roaring Twenties
# The Supersizers Eat... The Fifties
# The Supersizers Eat... Ancient Rome
[/numlist]

* KavorkaMan: In the Restoration Episode, Giles woos a girl by quoting Restoration Era pickup lines. And yes, he was wearing full costume while doing this.

* PatrioticFervor: In The Regency Episode, Giles shares a meal with The Sublime Society of Beefsteaks, a club of British Men who preserve British Culture (specifically the British practice of eating steaks instead of minced meat).

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: The Roman Episode ends with Sue and Giles being smothered to death by rose petals as punishment for their decadence. They don't even visit the doctor at the end to learn that their BMI increased 1%.]]

* MoodWhiplash: During the Wartime episode, Sue and Giles are trading sarcastic barbs... Then the [[HellIsThatNoise air raid sirens]] start. An unusually somber transition occurs, as Giles outlines some of the bombings during the war.

* ShoutOut: Creator/JaneAusten is mentioned extensively in the Regency episode. Usually, Sue and Giles play a married couple, but here, they are brother and sister. Sue plays Giles' sister without fortune of her own who must rely only on her natural charms and accomplishments to secure a husband before she is left on the shelf.

* AnachronismStew : Deliberately, and often hilariously. While Giles and Sue try to stay "period," their guests are modern, as are their means of transportation.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The state dinners hosted by Louis XVI. The the primary purpose of the food was for showing off (in fact Versailles used to sell tickets where the yokels can go and watch the King and Queen eat) and thus are so overprepared that they are practically inedible. After every state dinner, King Louis and Marie Antoinette would immediately retreat to their chambers, and have an actual dinner.

* BathKick : During the Restoration episode, Sue takes a bath in wormwood and offers a comedic one of these.
* BeautifulAllAlong: In The Eighties Episode, Sue dyes her hair blond and Giles takes notice.
--> Giles: "I'm delighted to see you're a blond in this period. Finally you're my type."

* BeautyInversion : The normally nerdy-cute Sue tries on the "beauty" standards of Elizabethan times. This includes death-white face makeup (at the time, made of lead), pink rouge, and [[BritishTeeth blackened front teeth]], in honour of the sugar-loving Queen Elizabeth. She gives the camera a ghastly grin when she's all made up. Still pretty cute.

** Ironically, during a couple of episodes, Giles and Sue ''lose weight'' (the Elizabethan episode, for example), due to the amount of protein they're eating being an appetite suppressant. The lack of processed foods contributes to this phenomenon, though the doctor points out the diet is unhealthy to maintain for very long.

* BritishBrevity : Each season is only six episodes, for a total of thirteen episodes including the first special.

* ChristmasEpisode : The Victorian episode explores a traditional Victorian Christmas, including a tree, crackers, and goose and pudding.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Giles and Sue both play these in The Eighties Episode ... [[spoiler: until the stock market crashes on Black Monday ...]]

* TheDandy : Giles gleefully takes on the role of a "Regency dandy," a large part of the reason he chose that era for the show.

** In the Wartime Episode, Sue is told that she could have been thrown in jail for not eating everything on her plate. Justified in that Britain was at war and on rationing. The same episode mentions that after Britain turned off the electricity, one woman was ''fined'' for having a visible light on her iron.

* DyeingForYourArt: [[invoked]] Part of the costuming involved period-specific hairstyles. As mentioned below, for the Twenties episode, Sue gets a TwentiesBobHaircut.

* FakeFood: In the Wartime Episode, they eat "mock" food such as Mock Duck (made of sausage meat and carrots).

* ForeignQueasine: Not so much foreign in the geographical sense as the chronological, but it still applies. Pickled testicles and rotten fish juice anyone?
** One of the chefs holds her nose while she's preparing a dish.
--> Sue: I've heard of nose to tail eating, but all I've eaten is noses and tails!

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar : An in-universe version. Paps are an Elizabethan-era dessert, purportedly made to look like the Pope's hat. In reality, they're supposed to look like the lady of the household's breasts.

* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Sue, after drinking the historically accurate (read: 10+ pints) amount of alcohol per day. Possibly just Sue in general, if some of her [[Radio/TheNewsQuiz News Quiz]] anecdotes (including lapsing into a brief, Special Brew-induced coma during a theatrical showing of ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'') are anything to go by.

* IAteWhat : Both Sue and Giles are up for the challenge of the stranger dishes. Then Sue, trying to supplement her wartime rations, bites into a crabapple and takes the head off a maggot.

* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Played for laughs during the victorian episode.
-->Sue: [[ThousandYardStare *eating lamb's head*]]
-->Giles: "That's the face I remember from our lovemaking!"
* MoodWhiplash: During the Wartime episode, Sue and Giles are trading sarcastic barbs... Then the [[HellIsThatNoise air raid sirens]] start. An unusually somber transition occurs, as Giles outlines some of the bombings during the war.
* MoralGuardians: In The Victorian Episode, Sue joins the Temperance Movement and protests against the sale of alcohol.

* NonNudeBathing : During the French Revolution episode, Sue offers a look at Marie Antoinette's love of baths. For modesty's sake, she (Marie Antoinette, not just Sue) wore a gown in the bath, and would chat with guests and crochet while in the tub.

* RedScare : Mentioned during the Wartime episode. At the time, "communal" cafeteria-style restaurants sprang up. Winston Churchill changed the name to British Kitchens, to avoid "communal feeding centre" sounding too much like "communism."

* StayInTheKitchen: Unfortunately for Sue, this was the attitude of society in most of the eras they look at.
-->Giles to Sue (visiting Cambridge): "Try not to learn anything".
* TickleTorture: In the Restoration episode, Sue places a live snail on the tip of her big toe to demonstrate an old-fashioned method of removing corns. As the snail slowly makes its way down her sole, Sue has difficulty finishing her sentences and begins to stumble and repeat her words while stifling laughter. Sue admits to having ticklish feet and, once the snail reaches her arch dead center, she is unable to contain her laughter.
* TooDumbToLive: In the World War II episode, Giles refuses to take shelter during an air raid. While they don't get hit, if they had then such a move would have been borderline-suicidal.
-->Giles: "No Hun is going to force me from my dinner!"
* UrineTrouble : During the Restoration episode, Giles pees in a bucket, with his back to the dinner guests.
** Also discussed in the Restoration episode, when the doctor notes the diet can cause kidney stones.