Line #28 Main/TheAbridgedHistory


1	->''We have left out the dull parts. Take, for example, the Role of the Plow in the Settlement of Nebraska. "The hell with the Role of the Plow in the Settlement of Nebraska"--that is our motto. This philosophy left us with plenty of extra room, which enabled us to provide you, the reader, with large, restful expanses of white space, as well as numerous riveting 'behind-the-scenes' historical anecdotes that you will not find in a normal history book because we made them up.''
2	-->-- ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'', introduction
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4	Uncle trope to TheAbridgedSeries, which parodies history in a similar fashion. The aim of this trope is to entertain rather than educate, making plenty of {{Historical In Joke}}s and generally playing by the RuleOfFunny rather than sticking to boring facts. Genuine historical facts (the stranger the better) will be mixed in with debunked legends, anachronistic absurdities, and HistoricalCharacterConfusion.
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6	In books, expect each chapter to end in a textbook-like set of ridiculous exercises. [[FootnoteFever Silly footnotes]] are also common.
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8	Contrast TheAbridgedSeries, which is the shortening and parodying of fictional works. Compare and contrast HistoricalFiction, which is {{fiction}} set in a distinctive historical period.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
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12	[[AC:Comic Books]]
13	* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'': {{Downplayed}} with this series by Larry Gonick. Although it does go quite a bit into actual history and facts and dates, the panels and commentary are drawn in a way that is meant to be both humorous and educational.
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15	[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
16	* ''Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI'': Its entertaining, history-based nature makes it an example.
17	* ''Film/YearOne'': If we were to take all of the historical facts behind ''Literature/TheBible'' at face value, we'd get this film -- a comedic AnachronismStew of BibleTimes and AncientRome.
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19	[[AC:Literature]]
20	* ''Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat'':
21	** ''A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates'': Published in 1930 with a cheeky long title, making this trope OlderThanTelevision. The text covers only the memorable parts of English history and gives special attention to all the Good Things that happened to make England C. of E. and a Top Nation.
22	** This two modern history sequels by different authors also qualify ''Literature/NineteenEightyFourAndAllThat'' and ''NineteenSixtySixAndAllThat''.
23	* ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'': It's a {{Satire\|ParodyPastiche}} of high-school textbooks about the history of American democracy and politics.
24	* ''Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys'' by David W. Barber is a semi-serious take on this applied to the history of ClassicalMusic; the history (largely biographies of major and/or interesting composers) is mostly accurate, but well-interspersed with jokes and silly footnotes.
25	* Creator/DaveBarry:
26	** He attempts to summarize his wife’s high school history textbook as follows:
27	--->“History: 5,000,000,000 BC — 1962: After the Earth cooled, it formed an extremely Fertile Crescent containing primitive people such as the Hittites, who believed in just the stupidest things you ever heard of. Then came Greece and Rome, followed by Asia. All of this came to a halt following the Middle Ages which were caused by the Jutes and featured the following terms underlined by my wife: the steward, the bailiff, and the reeve. Next, the Turks got way the hell over into France, after which there were towns. And the Magna Carta. Then France and England fought many wars that involved dates such as 1739 and were settled by the Treaty of Utrecht, which also was used to harness water power. By then the seeds had been sown for several World Wars and the Louisiana Purchase, but fortunately, we now have a fairly peaceful atom. Now go fetch Grandpa some more bourbon.”
28	** ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere''
29	** His "Year in Review" annual feature.
30	* ''Literature/ItAllStartedWithColumbus'' by Richard Armour is a deliberate American homage to ''1066 and All That'' and written for "those who, having perused a volume of history in school, swore they would never read another."
31	* ''The Decline And Fall Of Practically Everybody'' by Will Cuppy is a hilariously snarky example.
32	* ''Literature/HorribleHistories'': As it is more {{edutainment}} than pure parody, the history is usually pretty accurate ([[DatedHistory for when the relevant book was written]]), but still mixed in with pretty merciless jokes.
33	* ''[[Literature/ScotlandAVeryPeculiarHistory Scotland: A Very Peculiar History]] - Volume 1: With No Added Haggis'' and ''Volume 2: With No Added Bagpipes''.
34	* ''Literature/{{A Short History of Nearly Everything}}'' is a semi-serious take on this.
35	* ''[[https://archive.org/details/willsuccessspoil010147mbp Will Success Spoil Jeff Davis? The Last Book About the Civil War]]'', a parody of Civil War Studies published in 1963 during the centennial of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.
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37	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
38	* ''Series/DrunkHistory'': An education series where comedians get drunk and narrate historical events to the best of their abilities which is acted out, with the actors lip-synching all the dialogue.
39	* ''Series/HistoryOfTheWorldPartII'': a sequel series to Part I
40	* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': A comedy sketch series, where each episode is an anthology of sketches about different historical eras.
41	* ''Series/PhilomenaCunk'':
42	** ''Cunk On Britain'' is a parody of sweeping history documentaries on Britain complete with the same methods done by presenters and even the same stock music, presented by Series/PhilomenaCunk.
43	** Similarly ''Cunk On Earth'' parodies documentaries on world history.
44	* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'': In [[Recap/SavedByTheBellS1E3TheGift "The Gift"]], History Teacher Mr. Testaverde recaps all the material for the history exam speaking as quickly as possible, making it very difficult to understand him.
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46	[[AC: Theatre]]
47	* Creator/ReducedShakespeareCompany:
48	** ''[[Theatre/TheCompleteHistoryOfAmericaAbridged The Complete History of America (Abridged)]]''
49	** ''[[Theatre/TheCompleteMillenniumMusicalAbridged The Complete Millennium Musical (Abridged)]]''.
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51	[[AC: Websites]]
52	* Website/OneDivZero: [[http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html "A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages"]].
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54	[[AC:Web Animation]]
55	* ''WebAnimation/{{OverSimplified}}'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin What did you expect]]?
56	* ''WebAnimation/UnbiasedHistory'': It's basically an abridged interpretation of AncientRome and in spite of the name, it actually is blatantly biased towards particular factions for laughs, sometimes even reinterpreting entire events in their favor.
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58	[[AC:Web Videos]]
59	* [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzdbnf-pIJh-Qp6fdSb5ezw collectivecadenza]]: "An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres" (watch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZb7KeJUQ8&feature=youtu.be here]]) summarizes Western musical trends in a humorous way.
60	* ''WebVideo/BumblesMcFumbles'': On the history of Creator/{{Disney}}.
61	* ''WebVideo/IstoriePeSleau'': About Romanian history.
62	* WebVideo/BillWurtz:
63	** ''WebVideo/HistoryOfTheEntireWorldIGuess'': An abridged interpretation of history from the Big Bang to TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.
64	** ''WebVideo/HistoryOfJapan'': It focuses on Japan specifically.
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66	[[AC:Western Animation]]
67	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'': It's centered on comedic sketches loosely based on historical events and topics.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/SchoolHouseRock'': "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" offers an abridged history of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution itself and glorifies Washington and his army.

Context Main / TheAbridgedHistory