Funny / Extra Credits

If only Rupert Berthold could have summoned The Kitten Workforce^note instead of declaring war, which obviously isn't like being at war, right?.

Extra Credits

• In the episode 'Project Ten Dollar', Allison decides time is running out and attacks Dan with a pencil eraser, causing the episode to end due to "technical difficulties".
• "Video Games and Learning", a pre-Escapist episode, starts with Daniel asking the audience to stay, in spite of it being about learning. At the end, he referenced the previous episode "Video Games and Sex", with his comments:
  Wow, you guys are still here. (laughs) See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Worth sticking around for? (beat) Well, come on! We can't talk about sex every time!
• From symbolism 101— Halloween is a time to try out new roles! Illustrated by the crew at a buffet table: "These rolls are fantastic!"
  • Also, when mentioning yet another potential future topic — "You know, you could probably make a really dangerous Drinking Game out of the number of times we say that."
• In Non-Combat Gaming, Dan listed what James is doing in a browser-based game, Echo Bazaar (which is now called Fallen London). One of those moments is him seducing an artist, which visualizes him seducing Allison with a rose. How does it visualizes Dan correcting what he said? Allison punching James.
  • Even more hilarious is that James ends up with a black-eye in a visualization of him inviting someone to dinner.
• The episode on Achievements was due to them auctioning an episode topic of for charity. The winner of the auction was apparently a cat who sent two humans to bid on her behalf.
• Daniel playing with puppets in their episode on Anonymous.
• The first question asked in Mailbag 5.
• When explaining the Uncanny Valley, his example of a robot that's human enough to hit the other side of the valley is... Keanu Reeves.
• This pre-Escapist episode. James sets up his own podium next to Daniel for the episode, and just after he clears his throat... Daniel swipes his papers away from him and goes on with it. He starts to read the speech, and throws out a snarky "Thank you". James throws his podium at Daniel.
  Daniel: Ugh, do I really have to say this?
  [James leans into shot]
  Daniel: It just sounds pretentious.
  [James holds up a baseball bat]
  Daniel: ...okay then.
  • And then, at the end of the episode, Daniel invites the audience to swamp James' inbox with emails, stating his email will be in the credit, and taking advantage of James not having a mic to do this.
• In the horror protagonist episode Daniel is wearing... a Teddie costume.
  • It gets funnier as no one could hear what he said, and after Allison told him that, he removed the head, scaring Lee Lee. Afterwards, he threw the head at her. She catches it, the same look glued to her face the entire time.
    • And in the unofficial sequel right here
• "Games You REALLY Might Not Have Tried" which... well contains a mix of funny and disturbing.
  Daniel: Song Of Saya. I apologize, what the f**k did I just play?
• "Quest Design (part 1)" has Lee-Lee being the girl who dropped off the cliff, with her going "Later bitches" and then screaming "You all suck!!!" as she falls.
• According to the episode on Hidden Object Games, James has a habit of kicking Daniel's door down whenever he gets an idea for an episode.
  DANIEL!
• The Comedic Games episode had some pretty funny gifs which were relevant.
• The "So You Want To Be An Indie" episode has Lee-Lee and Scott spray an indie dev with an unrealistic budget plan with water spritzers like a naughty cat.
• From Big Bad 1, a list of mechanics villains that represent pure evil: The Enchantress, Chaos, Lavos, Maleficent, Tom Nook!
  • Also from Big Bad 1, Daniel announces a new artist taking LeeLee's place: Dan #3. Where's your One-Steve Limit now?
  Are you kidding me? This is gonna get confusing...
• From Big Bad 2, "How are you marking red and green with a pencil?"
  • Also the art describing the narrative villain at the beginning
• In "Do games matter less than other media", Mike Rugnetta of PBS Idea Channel fame lets himself in and hijacks the speech while Dan wonders what's going on. Mike leaves, inviting Dan onto Idea Channel because Mike feels too "squiggly" in Extra Credits style.
  What just happened?
• Their episode on Easy Games has yet another amusing visual metaphor for how understanding the rules of a game can allow a player to reduce a difficult problem or high demands into more manageable chunks. This is depicted as first one of their loosely drawn stickmen in his underwear challenging a sabertooth tiger, then as a more normally drawn person with a wooden stick versus a cougar when describing the 'manageable chunks.' They immediately follow this up by noting that this doesn't guarantee that the player will easily overcome the chunks of the problem. This is depicted as the same person fleeing in a panic from the now-angry cougar, which on its own is hilarious in an Exit, Pursued by a Bear fashion, especially with the implication being that his attempts to hit it with the stick were not successful in the slightest.
• "Video Game Ratings Systems" has hypothetical reasons for an M-rated game presented thusly:
  Blood
  No seriously
  It's yuckers
• Dan's description in Spectacle Creep of what might have happened during the board meeting that lead to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's "punch to the gut moment."
  Developer 1: Alright, guys, we're stuck. How do we one-up making the player be a terrorist?
  Developer 2: I got nothing.
  Developer 3: Yeah, me either, that seems pretty big.
  Developer 4: I got it, wait, alright: we have the player be a father, who accidentally videotapes his daughter getting gassed to death while on vacation. And then we gas him to death too.
  Developer 1: That's it! High-five!
  *This is how game-design works.*
• In "How to Market Your Game", Dan addresses people who aren't comfortable about marketing their games, i.e. those who might say "Boo, marketing and PR! Boo!" All while an actual Boo slowly approaches him and then turns shy when Dan looks directly at it.
• In a meta sort of amusing, Awesome Per Second has more detailed art and discusses how games shouldn't be crammed with padding that drags on in favor of memorable moments. The video itself is a little less than 2 minutes.
  • Note that "Awesome Per Second" was posted on April Fools' Day. The joke this year being that EC took their own advice.
• In the episode "Romance In Games", they talk a little bit about the idea of the guilt of being in a relationship but having feelings for someone else. This is represented by Mario and Peach drawn in their style, and Mario is thinking about Rosalina... But Rosalina is represented by a Rosalina and Luma amiibo (Who coincidentally is one of the most sought after amiibo out there).
• Dan makes a bad pun about Speedgaming, the other Dan's are not impressed.
• Artist Scott presents a special video: How Extra Credits Is Made. All of it is a riot. ALL OF IT.
  Scott: Can I come with you guys to MAGFest?
  Dan: ....mmmmm....no. *Cut to Credits*
• Scott presents "Extra Krudits" for PAX 2016, surprising the team again.
• And for PAX 2017, Scott presents his own game (art) development horror story, with Executive Meddling, Mood Dissonance, a "Shaggy Dog" Story, and... beach balls. Highlights include:
  • Scott stating that the game he was working on would have worked perfectly on consoles, and so, naturally, it becomes a mobile game.
  "If you love clicking cows, you'll love selling the devil's lettuce!"
  • And revisiting the gag when discussing the decision to change the art style to something much less fitting.
  "If you liked the aesthetics of Dark Souls, you'll LOVE Totally Spies!"
  • Once again, Scott uses Helium Speech to Paint the Medium when discussing the fact that the villainous witch (who Scott also notes looked more like America's Next Top Model than an actual witch) was voiced by a man who's voice was pitched up.
  • The executives wanted the demo video Scott was making to have a mouse zip past every two seconds. Scott describes the result as "The Usain Bolt of mice."
  • The same executives wanted the demon Scott had made to be on fire. This after having spent ages drawing, animating, and rendering it. And to add insult to injury, the fire they provided him to use was pixelated and didn't match up aesthetically with anything.
  • The demo video was suppose to end with the main characters neck being snapped by the demon. This being the Extra Credits "bean people," the demon's hand just keeps slipping through the gap. Scott just goes with it, not wanting to draw that anyway.
  • Scott ends the video with what he considers the greatest piece of feedback he has ever received, declaring that he could never come up with anything so amazing on his best day. The executives, believing the end too dark and grim, tell Scott to lighten the mood by throwing in a beach ball!"
  Scott: (beat) "And so we did."
  Cue montage of otherwise somber games and Tear Jerker moments in games with the beach ball in the background.
  • Even better? If their episode on the morality of power fantasy's is any indication, the beach ball is sticking around!
• In an episode talking about the romantic choices in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, they talk about how a romantic choice can define a character, showing a picture of Wolverine staring lovingly at a picture. Then they show the picture itself: Garrus Vakarian.
• While discussing the "Achiever" in Bartle's taxonomy, they mention that achievers like seeing high scores, and show a scoreboard of ten high scores. The names are three letters each and seem to be gibberish, but if you put them together, you get, "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down."
  • In the follow-up episode about how to balance an MMO ecosystem where they discuss how the presence of each group in the taxonomy influences the others, they mention that Socializers tend to hate Killers:
  Dan: Socializers don't generally like getting killed. They find it really mean, and unpleasant, and it really gets in the way of the talking.
• In the episode regarding local multiplayer, Dan mentions that one of the positives of local multiplayer is that it is very easy to sell DLC on it. Cue a creepy stalker type guy peeking through a window and asking his friend if she bought the DLC yet.
• In their Game Writing Pitfalls episode, Daniel says that games cannot afford to waste any of their lines; he says that they're gonna be picking on Destiny, "because... *sigh,* wow." It's the delivery and the visual that really sell it. Also worth mentioning is their running gag of the Ghost and the "MOOOOOOOOOON WIZARDSSSSS."
• In "Free-to-Play's MECHANICS are Great", Daniel opens by saying that the title should actually be, "Free to Play Mechanics Actually Work Brilliantly as Mini-games so Long as You Don't Have to Actually Spend Money and the Game's 'Microtransactions' are Paid for With Currency You Earn by Playing the Game", but "that ain't fitting on a thumbnail".
  • When discussing the three current problems with pay-to-win games, one and two are shown by Gabe Newell holding up the box art for Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Three? Gabe running full tilt into the distance.
• The episode on Asymmetrical Multiplayer slowly shows off each of the cast of Overwatch in their signature style in various situations. The crowner being their representing the see-sawing nature of matches by showing an actual see-saw with Ana on one end, and Winston on the other.
• In their episode on Overwatch and Assymetric Character Design, they talk about the differences of designing around co-ordinated teams, as opposed to designing for pickup teams, noting that a co-ordinated team might have a Torbjörn with their turret in the optimal position at the match’s start, a Reinhardt who is already standing by to block incoming sniper fire and a Widowmaker prepared to counter any air-based Pharah attacks. Their description of a potential pickup team is... less flattering:
  "Meanwhile, the other team has three Reapers, two dangerously unqualified Hanzos, and one poor Mercy who somehow has to keep this school field trip alive."
• The last entry on their Games You Might Not Have Tried: Horror - Find New Games For Halloween list is Nightmare Ned. Their description of the game ends with:
  Dan: "So hide under your covers, and imagine that you are 8 years old again, and you are given this game to help you face your fears. And then emerge, hours later, grasping at sanity, hanging onto the waking world by the barest thread, wondering what sorts of minds would unleash such horrors onto the world-it was Disney. Disney made this."
  Old VHS Ad Announcer: "Now, from Disney Interactive!"
• In their video about The Legality of Loot Boxes, the "terms of service" besides the bolded part are really just jokes berating you for pausing the video to read it.
• This gem from their episode Losing Player Trust:
  Dan: "Have you ever happened to see a company cram a bunch of particularly abusive microtransactions into a game you might otherwise love? Take your time. I'm sure you can think of an example."
• At the end of The Price of Randomness, Matt comes up with his own self-named equation: Krol's Cadence Calibration.
  Matt: Matt's voice = vocal exuberance + words per minute - pitch shift x constructive community feedback, finally divided by still... not a Dan — Who wrote this? Zoe, did you write--?
• In explaining the GDPR, James explains that it does not come with a right to purge records of bannable behavior.
  James: I'm looking at you, Zoe.
  Zoe: (on computer, meowing) Get rekt, nerds.
• At the start of God does not play dice, Dan talks about how the cast likes to observe the conversations going on on the forums and in the description, and Allison illustrates this with the cast sitting and watching a conversation with 3d glasses. When one of the people discussing accuses them of being wrong, they comment that it's "so lifelike".
• The beginning of ''The Trolley Problem - Designs With No Right Answer, Matt hears music and question what's going on, only to see Zoey in the director's chair and a sign that says "Music Intro". Matt at first decides not to bother with it...until he transforms into a purple trolley conductor outfit and begins singing "The Trolley Song"...with very morbid lyrics.
  Matt: Clang, clang, clang went the trolley! Five folks stand on the rail! Save five lives and kill just one! From the moment I heard it — (Record Needle Scratch) (normal voice) I felt morally indecisive.
• In Why Time Loops Work Best in Video Games, Matt mentions that writer Arthur acknowledges Undertale as a time loop game...which eventually prompts Zoey to put a panicking Matt into an Undertale battle box and hit him with Sans' infamous opening move.

Extra History

• Extra Credits is in general great at portraying Oh, Crap!
• Daniel summarizing how the first Punic War started.
  All because of some idiots getting bored in Sicily.
• In the Punic Wars, when Fabius takes over as a Roman consul, he orders the army to follow but not engage Hannibal, leading some to whisper that he's done a deal with Hannibal. In response, Hannibal continues burning Roman lands except any lands belonging to Fabius. As Daniel says, you've got to love Hannibal for that.
• Apparently on Czar Nicholas' coronation day, thirteen-hundred people died because there wasn't enough beer and pretzels.
• And in the next episode, while in events destined to be tragic... the delivery of one line can make one chuckle: "Holy s**t, Is that the Archduke?!"
  • Apparently one of the assassins tried to escape by jumping from a bridge into the river below... only to discover that it was all of four inches deep injuring his leg in the process. Desperate to avoid capture, he bit down on some poison, but it had lost its potency to the point where instead of killing him, it reduced him to a vomiting fit so the guards simply walked down to arrest him. If the whole situation hadn't been so tragic and heartbreaking, his attempted escape would've been a candidate for a top 10 hilarious would-be escapes list.
    • The expressions of all parties involved during the description of this Epic Failure are icing on the cake. Čabrinović gagging on his expired cyanide with Blank White Eyes followed by a Vomit Indiscretion Shot...followed then by a nearby frog suffering the Blank White Eyes because Čabrinović threw up on it. Finally, the police appear with humorously unamused expressions and an awkward Visible Silence before their leader flatly orders the arrest of Čabrinović, now vomiting noisily offscreen.
  • The episode features a few rather amusing sight gags. An equipment malfunction is shown by the annoyed assassin pulling the trigger only to discover he has a "Bang!" Flag Gun, with an expression of pinched annoyance. Later, the Archduke's anger about 'visiting museums while bombs go off' is represented by the Archduke and Duchess cowering under an umbrella while Bob-Ombs bounce off and explode around them—an amusing reminder that the EC crew usually deals in video games.
  • An Imagine Spot features Franz Ferdinand laughing it up and clinking beer mugs while wearing a "I <3 Serbia" T-shirt over his fancy uniform.
• In Extra History: World War I - Chapter 4, the Austrian army is depicted as not at all ready for war, unaware of who they're even supposed to attack. This confusion is represented by a list of amusingly disjointed pseudo-commands consisting of works with 'attack' in the name, including Attack on Titan, Attack the Block, and Massive Attack.
  • In the episode depicting the events right after the assassinations, one of sketches has an Austrian diplomat throwing his suitcase into the air, only for it to come back down and bounce harmlessly off his head.
  • From the same video, their depiction of a 'wild, harebrained solution that will surely fix everything' is represented by their beleaguered artist on a deadline crunch...summoning a bunch of kittens to help him in his drawing, shouting "CALL THE KITTEN WORKFORCE!". The best he gets with the idea is one kitten maybe helping by keeping his stylus upright, with the others being a mixture of annoyance and cute.
  • While Daniel is busy narrating the Austrian war minister's response to the request for war with Serbia, he's doing so in a calm, cool, collected voice. Meanwhile the picture has the Austrian war minister suddenly twice as tall as the messenger, visibly screaming at the top of his lungs while the poor messenger can only cower with his hands up in the air.
• Sengoku Jidai (Warring States):
  • The Running Gag that NINJA of all individuals are the most trustworthy in Japan at the time.
  • During the second part, there's a little excursion to admit they aren't accurate about the most important figures' names, because there are so many of them due to the cultural habit of renaming oneself as one got more powerful. This is represented visually by Oda Nobunaga evolving into a robotic version of himself Dual Wielding Laser Blades. Named Nobunagatron.
    • In the same gag, you have "Tokugawa Ieyasu —> Matsudaira Motoyasu —> My Man —> Homie —> That Samurai."
  • On a similar note, Nobunaga gets one during his Magnificent Bastard moment when Ashikaga Yoshiaki gives him moral reason to invade Kyoto. The smile on his face, combined with Extra Credits' impersonation of his promise to Ashikaga.
  And so Nobunaga, with all the reverence and humility due to his station, says that of course he'll help. He wants nothing more than to see justice for Yoshiaki, and the Ashikaga Shogunate restored. Of course he'll help him retake Kyoto (fingers crossed).
  • Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a sandal-bearer being depicted as a cute puppy with Nobunaga's slippers in his mouth.
  • The one small problem with Ashikaga Yoshiaki being installed as Shogun? Ashikaga Yoshiaki actually believing that meant that he was going to get to actually be Shogun.
  • The head of the Asakura clan thinks Nobunaga's invitation to sup with the Shogun is a setup. Or, as they paraphrase Admiral Ackbar: "It's a Dinner!"
  • Part Two ends "What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Tune in in a couple of weeks to see what goes wrong! I don't want to spoil it, but... Warrior Monks!"
    • In the next episode, it's revealed that the Warrior Monks also include Gun Monks.
  • In Part Three: When Nobunaga was betrayed and nearly got assassinated, the visual depictions of his growing rage ends with an image of him Hulking out and a caption reading 'NOBUNAGA SMASH!' above him.
  • Dan talks about Nobunaga teaching the Azai "What it means to betray Oda Nobunaga". Showing Nobunaga standing in front of a chalkboard on which it is written: "MOSTLY BAD THINGS!!".
  • The whole sequence also had Dan point out that Oda was literally angry enough to kill his brother in law; it was not a hyperbole in the slightest.
    • In fact, Oda was so pissed that he actually switched his army around overnight so that he could be the one to kill his brother-in-law (as before, his ally was opposing his brother-in-law's army.)
  • "Nobunaga learned what everybody else who had tried to dislodge the monks of Ishiyama Hongan-Ji had learned" (MOSTLY BAD THINGS)
  • Ashikaga apparently had a profile in 'Samuraibook' where he set up an arrangement with the other clans to help him overthrow Nobunaga.
  • Every time Hattori Hanzo and the ninjas show up. In the 5th episode, the "wicked secret path" he uses to slip Tokugawa back into his home territory is depicted as a playground slide.
  Dan: And off they goes. (Tokugawa and co: "Weee!")
  • Thanks to his ten-year exemption from army service, Tokugawa gets to watch everyone else get killed in Korea while he lounges in a deck chair holding a cocktail.
  • Tokugawa decided to attack the Toyotomi in Osaka under the flimsiest pretense: An inscription on a bell that could be insinuated as an insult to them: "Tokugawa is a duck"
• The South Sea Company chicanery itself isn't as gruesome as the deaths of previous Extra Histories, but is nonetheless home to a few good chuckles—for instance, when everything goes belly up, Robert Walpole stands to manipulate everything to his favor to become what amounts to the modern Prime Minister. Several times, 'convenient accidents' happen and Dan goes on with an obvious wondering tone as to who or why for a second before interrupting himself with a humorously flat, unsurprised "It was Walpole." This gets funnier every time even as it shows you just how much the man was manipulating events behind the scenes.
  Dan: Who knows where [Knight's ledger] went- it was Walpole...
  • The "It was Walpole" meme continues as they manage to successfully tie every subsequent episode to Walpole in some way.
    • Not just in the South Sea Company series either. It's become a Running Gag that whenever anything goes almost miraculously well, Walpole will be drawn into the scene, even if he wouldn't have been alive at the time.
    • The first time Dan says "it was Walpole" is especially funny, because it first shows the silhouette of a man, then when Dan says "it was Walpole", the silhouette changes to a picture of Walpole who is saying "Run, mate!"
    • The Bronze Age Collapse has a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment when out of nowhere "WILD WALPOLE APPEARS" for a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • The increasingly diabolical Barnumism of one Master Blunt also got increasingly hilarious with each over the top depiction of dollar signs, money bags, Burns images and Blunt's hyperventilation over just how much money he stands to gain. Blunt at his Bluntiest, indeed.
  • Dan demonstrates how the House of Lords works, as the only requirement to be in it is to be a Lord. In which he has Lord Vader with a powdered wig asking the members of the parliament to implement the construction of the Death Star.
• According to Extra History, we Westerners call Shaka Shaka Zulu to remember him as the great warrior and ruler of the Zulu Empire. Ironically enough, due to translation kinks, we were (and still are) actually calling Shaka "Intestinal Beetle^note What 'Shaka' means in their language Heaven^note What 'Zulu' means in their language".
  • The Zulu empire being the size of New Jersey, and a cow dressed like someone from there.
  • "South Africa was low on the list of British concerns." The list reads:
  British Concerns
  1. Britain
  2. France
  3. Cheese
  er...
  4. South Africa
• THIS! IS! PERSIA!
• The rampaging Demes return to the hippodrome... and the entire mob collectively ask for one ticket in.
• One of Belisarius' vandal prisoners looked rather famil—it was Walpole.
• The Persian King's (i.e. Khosrau's) masterclass at trolling against Justinian which seems to get funnier with each step.
• How about the fact that the picture used to illustrate the People's Crusade is a sharknado?
  • It gets better: as Part 4 reveals, the People's Crusade failed so hard that it convinced Kilij Arslan, the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm, that the actual Crusade... wait for it... wasn't anything to worry about.
• Part 3 of the First Crusade, short version. It was an absolute mess, about 4 of the five generals that lead the forces of the Crusade had some manner of personal problem or gripe with either the Pope or other such quirk. This is presented as a madlib: "Why let ___________ get in the way of a good crusade?"
  • Also, poor Godfrey de Boullion taking the same route that Peter the Hermit had. He ends up having to let his own relatives be hostages to the Hungarian king just so he would let more Crusaders into his land after Peter's mob had pillaged it twice, and finding Peter had already sacked the supply depot he had planned to restock at, so Godfrey's group ended up having to pillage just to keep marching on (only once and it was a rather tame ransack, but come on).
  • The absurdity of Alexios's negotiating for the return of Byzantine territories. While Hugh was a bit of a pushover (as he was in most other things), Godfrey trolls the living shit out of Alexios, Bohemond has to be glaringly bribed to accept, Raymond goes on a spiel about God and is ultimately asked to make a broath^note "No presents for you, though. Presents are for people who make actual oaths!", and finally... Robert^note  the only leader who started in good standing with the Byzantines and managed to go the whole journey without causing any trouble. He meets Alexios and their dialogue goes: "We cool?" "Yeah, we're cool." Complete with shades and radical finger pointing.
    • Hugh's response to it is even funnier and somewhat understandable if you remember that he sent a letter to Alexios that was like this before making it to Constantinople.
    • To break down the entire mess, Godfrey wasn't just Trolling Alexios, he was said to be absolutely bonkers. First, in spite of Alexios inviting Godfrey to his palace to come swear his oath, Godfrey simply sits outside his palace, in spite of all the crap he had to go through to just to reach Constantinople in the first place, and all for no stated reason on his part either. Then Alexios decides, since Hugh already swore his oath, he should be sent to talk to Godfrey. However, when Hugh arrived, Godfrey called him a "lackey", and refused to deal with anybody less than Emperor Alexios... in spite of the fact that the reason Hugh had been sent out in the first place was because Godfrey refused to visit the Emperor himself, in spite of being invited to personally meet with him. Cue Hugh FacePalming and Daniel going "Um... Okay...". It takes Alexios cutting off Godfrey's army from supplies, and then slapping down the ensuing riot from them, that Godfrey finally takes his oath, and Alexios basically tells him "Get OUT of here!!" before literally kicking Godfrey over the Bosporus.
    • Bohemond and Alexios both engage in Xanatos Speed Chess in the span of a short conversation. Since Alexios knew that Bohemond shouldn't be trusted (since Bohemond almost tried to depose Alexios in a full-on INVASION not too long ago), he prepared to get into a shouting match with Bohemond to convince him to take his oath. However, Bohemond already thought one step ahead, and immediately agreed to the oath... buuuuut since he was so forthcoming, wouldn't it make logical sense if HE would be named the leader of the entire Crusade? After a Flat "What" reaction from Alexios, he quickly regained his bearings by saying something non-committal ^note "Uh... Y-yeah, I-I probably could- Hang on.", then took Bohemond to a room literally overflowing with gold and jewels, and then said:
    Alexios: "Whaaat? Look at all this annoying treasure, just clogging up my otherwise lovely room! Wow, that's a nuisance! If only I had a buddy here who could cart it all off for me after saying one measly little oath."
    Daniel: "And 'measly little oaths' were indeed said."
    Alexios: "That's what I thought."
  • The fact that Bohemond grows fox ears and a tail whenever he's being a Magnificent Bastard. Which is often.
  • Alexios was able to get Raymond to join the crusade by making a "broath" with him (that Alexios was his bro forever, and he would help out however he could, especially against that weasel Bohemond), but the downside for Raymond is he didn't get any presents like the other crusaders, as presents are meant for those who make actual oaths.
  • Finally, Robert agreed to the oath like this:
    Alexios: (with sunglasses and radical finger pointing) We cool?
    Robert: (in the same pose only mirrored) Yeah, we're cool.
    • Cue Alexios literally making it rain with treasure on Robert, who is holding a umbrella, before sending him off a la boxing ring style saying "Go get 'em, tiger!"
• Daniel is... less than impressed with Bohemond's choice of a battlecry^note complete with Comic Book Guy and "Worst Battlecry Ever:
  Bohemond: Today, if God's willing, we'll all be rich!
  Daniel: I'm completely serious, that was the battlecry, just a bit more Latin.^note Hodie omnes divites si Deo placet effecti eritis!
  • When the actual Crusaders arrive, they find the Turkish territories a bit too quiet for their tastes. Throughout the video, from the sultan Kilij Arslan's arrival only to immediately retreat, to Emperor Alexios' bit of compassionate Magnificent Bastardy to reclaim Nicea sans ransacking, you're expecting the Sultan to spring a trap... and then it turns out there was none, because the Pilgrim's Crusade actually did something worthwhile - that by being so utterly incompetent and by dying in such numbers without any assistance, that they convinced Arslan that the European Crusaders in general weren't actually a threat worth mustering his forces to deal with. So... yay, utter idiots?
• Bishop of Adhemar hauls some deserters back to the camp, including Peter the Hermit (which of itself is pretty funny, considering his zeal to start the People's Crusades), but namely, he's also hauling Walpole back to the Siege.
• The various misadventures of Tancred and Baldwin, introduced with a parody of the Adventure Time logo. The most jam-packed funny "Adventure Time with Tancred and Baldwin" story comes from the two attempting to take control of the city of Tarsus. First, Tancred tried to siege the city, but knew his scant force of 100 men could not overwhelm a walled city of Tarsus' size. After sending word to his uncle Bohemond to send reinforcements, Tancred suddenly had an idea - he gathered his men around the city like he was preparing for a siege, then sent a message to Tarsus' governor, claiming his men were just the vanguard of an enormous Crusader horde that would obliterate Tarsus if they didn't surrender. Most of the Turkish garrison fell for the bluff and fled Tarsus in the middle of the night, and the remainder surrendered the next morning. However, here's where things get complicated; since Tancred didn't take the oath the other Crusader leaders did^note Return former territory of Byzantium back to Byzantium, do NOT take it for yourself, Tancred flew his banner over Tarsus, and declared it his city. This lasted all of fifteen minutes until Baldwin arrived, who, being unconcerned with subtlety and the oath HE made, bluntly told Tancred that he held an army of 2000 men to Tancred's 100, and that he was forcing Tancred's army to leave the city so he can take over. But when Baldwin took the city, the reinforcements Tancred requested had just arrived, and were pissed that their attempt to aid Tancred was all for nothing. But Baldwin (not one above adding insult to injury) literally forced Tancred's reinforcements to sleep outside of Tarsus. Then, to add REAL injury to insult to injury, the Turkish garrison that fled in the night returned and butchered Tancred's reinforcements in their sleep. When the town woke up the next day to find several hundred dead Crusaders outside the city walls, Baldwin's only response was a sheepish grin, before locking himself in a building (complete with a Berserk Board Barricade and him Swallowing the Key) until the ensuing riot blew over. When Baldwin marched off again, he found Tancred in another conquered city. But this time, Tancred had built up his army with Armenian volunteers so his supposed ally couldn't just pull the same trick again, and then forced Baldwin's troops to sleep outside this time. However, some of Tancred's soldiers (who weren't going to just forgive Baldwin for letting their allies be slaughtered), openly charged Baldwin's camp to take revenge, with the ensuing brawl in the Crusader camp becoming a Big Ball of Violence.
• The depiction of the Japanese government's reluctance to continue fighting Korea after Hideyoshi dies.
  Gov. Official 1 (all three of them are standing in front of Hideyoshi's grave): "Does anyone here actually want to keep fighting Korea?"
  no one says anything.
  Gov. Official 1: "Okay, show of hands: who wants to stay in Korea?"
  again, no response.
  Gov. Official 1: "Nobody? Alright then."
• There's also the depiction of Hideyoshi canceling all offensive operations against Korea in light of Japan's disastrous defeats against Admiral Yi (demonstrated by a Japanese soldier holding up sign simply labeled FAIL), where Hideyoshi is beating his head into his desk, and screams "STOP!!!".
  • And a deadpan pronouncement after describing yet another Flawless Victory by Yi's fleet over the Japanese.
    Dan: Turtle Ship was OP.
• During the "Lies" segment of the Admiral Yi series, James gives a quote by a British Officer in praise of the Korean commander. This man was a member of the Order of the Bath. Now who could've founded such a-it was Walpole. Yes, they managed to find an actual link to Robert Walpole!
• After cholera comes to London in 1848, John Snow wakes up in the bed and tells it, personified as a purple pill, "I WILL end you!"
• The "You know nothing, John Snow" Running Gag.
  • Complete with a cameo by Ned Stark.
• When John visits a local brewery to see why they haven't been infected by tainted water, a tipsy worker informs them they drink nothing but beer. When John refuses some, the worker says "More for me."
• From the Epilogue to the John Snow series
  Dan: [Edward Chadwick] released a report that basically said, "Guys? There's poop in the street. We gotta do something about the poop in the street."
  Stick-Figure Chadwick: Street poop is NOT okay, guys.
• Suleiman The Magnificent builds a grand mosque on his father's grave:
  Dan: He would honour his father. He would remind the world of the strength of his house.
  Depiction of a scroll: To: World. DO YOU EVEN LIFT? Sincerely, Suleiman.
• The early Christian Schisms series explains that the crux of early Christianity was circumcision (even commenting on how silly it might sound). Complete with a naked man running away going "no no no nope no no."
  • The second episode ends posing the question: will [the council of Nicea] end the Christian schisms once and for all?. Then it invites the viewer to take a wild guess. Complete with a man at a computer saying: "It was Walpole".
  • There's also Emperor Constantine's attempts to stop the infighting, paraphrased in such a way that makes it sound like an exasperated parent trying to keep squabbling children apart. He resorts to a "don't make me come down there!" in response to the arguments in Carthage which escalated to violence. He sends a more eloquent letter in response to the Arian faction's creation in Alexandria which is worded as: "Guys, for serious? Just stop fighting. Let me get back to emperor stuff, pleeeeease."
  • The fourth episode, which while covering a subject which would have dire ramifications for the Christian world (and thus, all of Europe) and continued Christianity's massive Broken Base, presents the various ways in which Emperor Theodosius II attempts to resolve a theological debate (with excommunication on the line) between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople as nothing short of hysterical. It quickly devolves into a Comedy Of Errors where Cyril's camp and Nestorius' camp scheme, backstab, cheat and argue their way over trying to prove which of them were right, with Cyril coming off as a Magnificent Bastard who attempts to get his way by being as audacious as humanly possible. Highlights include Nestorius excommunicating Cyril, only for Cyril to then declare "You can't excommunicate me, I excommunicate YOU!", depicting Cyril in ninja garb attempting to sneak his way into being in charge of the first council (complete with his beard spilling out of his mask), Cyril tricking the Emperor's representative into reading the Emperor's decree to exploit some Loophole Abuse, Cyril getting around a Nestorian attempt to bock Cyril's faction by having an agent of theirs sneak in as a beggar with papers in his cane, and culminating in an amazing Imagine Spot and sarcastic refute to the idea that these councils were going to fix anything. Said Imagine Spot has Emperor Theodosius II riding on a purple unicorn with a serene expression with a rainbow behind him, flying through space with a few cute little cartoon animals...and Walpole.
• In Genghis Khan #4, Temujin is given a note from Ong Khan that reads "Invite to: not a trap".
  • When preparing a trap and finding a decent enough excuse to attack and end Temujin, Jaghatai Khan is wearing a Bismarck T-shirt. ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN.
  • When mentioning Genghis Khan's removal of titles, a man named Bataar is shown having the "Jenkins" title from World of Warcraft removed, and the "Great Mongol Nation" is treated as his guild.
  • In one raid, Genghis Khan's forces attempt to divert a river to flood a Tangut city. They succeed in diverting the river, but it ends up flooding the Mongol camp instead.
  • The list of Genghis Khan's possible death causes: Poison, assassinated by a prostitute, thrown from his horse, Black Magic courtesy of the Tangut king, and an arrow to the knee.
• The First Opium War:
  • Dan daring the audience to case what was wrong with the scheme the Honorable East India Company had for their opium trade. ^note Every step in the plan involved the word "drugs"
  • How Dan describes the sale of opium in Calcutta, as the drug was illegal in China and the Honorable East India Company didn't let that get in the way of commerce.
  Dan: And the Honorable East India Company, being the Honorable East India Company would never do something illegal. Okay, they would.
  Dan: "Anyone who wants to buy opium, we're sellin' it right here! No idea what you wanna do with it, but hey, it's none of our business! Who wants some opium, come on!"
  • How does Dan describe the easy availability of opium once it was managed not solely by the Honorable East India Company? Giving it a label "Rated E for everyone".
  • Rather darkly humorous, but at the end of the third episode, after a reasonably fair treaty that would have ended the war with only a little bloodshed was rejected by both sides (along with the men who'd come up with it being sacked). Notice how in the end, someone is writing on the chalkboard: "No reason allowed." Who could that be writ-It's Walpole.
  Dan: So join us next time as all the voices of reason are removed from the Opium War.
• The Brothers Gracchi storyline has younger brother's hilarious exasperations with the Senate when they decry his plans, only to take them up to eleven.
• The prequel episode has a number of hilarious antics:
  • How Dan shows an assassination attempt? A guy with a knife in his back, with the tag on the knife reading "Enjoy :-)"
  • The elder Gracchi addresses a group of toga clad senators. And some other strange looki-It was Walpole.
• The Paper Money series talks about how bank notes got started in Italy, mentioning that their banking system had already been kickstarted by the Crusades. But hey, (shows Robert of Flanders in sunglasses) "Why let a Crusade get in the way of a good story about fiscal instruments?"
  • When discussing how one of the early Swedish experiments on using bank notes resulted in a run on the Swedish banks, prompting a complete collapse of the Swedish economy, this is represented by a furious, screaming Torbjorn.
  • The name of one early proponent of banks: Nicholas if-jesus-christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned barebone. Yes, that's the man's real name. He preferred to go by Nicholas Barbon, though.
  • John Law attempts to prop up the economy by pardoning criminals in exchange for them marrying a prostitute and moving to Louisiana. While It Makes Sense in Context, the basic idea borders on the absurd.
• Simón Bolívar's truly impressive ability to sabotage his own efforts. The crowning moment of which is when he completely misreads the room and delivers a passionate speech about Venezuela's drive for independence from Spain... to a representative of England, Spain's ally, who is trying to signal that he can help them as a colony of Spain, while also handing said representative papers that plainly tell him not to do what he just did under any circumstances and completely undermine his entire argument. End result? Simón is humiliated, and no help from the English. Nice going.
• Extra History’s take on the Boston Tea Party:
  Dan: A number of colonists didn’t much like the idea of higher taxes, and they felt Boston Harbor would really be much better if it was tea flavored.
• Catherine the Great:
  • Prior to becoming "The Great" - she was planning a coup against her husband. Unfortunately, one jumpy guard accidentally gives up the secret when he's startled one night, asking "if it's true that the conspiracy against the Emperor has been found out?" Unfortunately, the officer he asked was not in on the secret, and his expression upon being asked this is absolutely hysterical.
  • As a result, the revolt's timetable has to be drastically changed, and is represented not through 24-like updates - but rather, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask style.
  • Peter himself proves to be a drastically-inept sovereign, placing the interests of Germany above the welfare of Russia, to the point that he constantly wears a German military uniform instead of a Russian one. His defense against the coup is about what you'd expect - while his wife had laid the groundwork for months, his own troops wound up wielding their wooden parade-ground rifles because nobody had told them about what was going on, and they assumed that it was just Peter being Peter.
  • When talking about Gregori Potemkin, Dan says: "But, and sadly for Catherine, there is always a but". With a stare line showing Catherine checking out Potemkin's.
  • The various comeuppances of Catherine's emotionally neglectful, self-centered Stage Mom. They culminate when she throws a tantrum at her daughter's engagement banquet, refusing to be seated with women she considers beneath her. Empress Elizabeth, done with her shit, smilingly leads her to another room and shuts her in to eat dinner in majestic solitude.
• Ned Kelly:
  • The ending to the first video.
  Dan: Ned races all the way home, leaps off his horse, and vows never to go bushranging again. Join us next time as Ned goes bushranging again.
  • Ned's first arrest. After a seemingly friendly police officer apparently drugs Kelly purely to have an excuse to arrest him on charges of "public drunkenness", a pissed-off Kelly tries to escape purely to humiliate that officer. So far, so serious... and then one officer, trying somehow to subdue Kelly with pain, proceeds to grapple his testicles. This has the exact opposite effect than intended as Kelly goes outright berserk, throwing off five officers at once and sending the original arresting officer flying into a wall - and then the local magistrate steps in to end the fight... on Kelly's behalf, as he is so pissed off by the deceptive tactics of the first officer that he ends up giving Kelly an extremely light sentence out of principle.
  • The fourth video details how he'd taken hostages in the town of Euroa, capitalizing on Stockholm Syndrome to help keep them nice and calm.
    Dan: ... many of the actual hostages found this opportunity to interview a bush-ranger about his crimes fascinating. And Ned was nothing if not a charming and gracious host...age-taker.
• The one-shot video on Mary Anning features a glorious extended section where Dan talks about Mary's greatest quest: the Hunt for Poop. Dan clearly has a lot of fun going on about the majesty of "poop".
• The Articles of Confederation:
  • While largely dry, the third episode contains George Washington's famous Shaming the Mob speech, where he had to take out a pair of reading glasses to read a letter and commented offhandedly to the waiting soldiers "Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown old in the service of my country and now find that I am growing blind." While also heartwarming, the video depicts the assembled soldiers sporting Ocular Gushers and crying "SENPAI!!" in response.
  • At the end of the series, Cody from Alternate History Hub suddenly enters into the video (and causes the animator to duck behind a book fort), claiming that they left their studio open (while tossing Dan a chain and opened padlock) for guests to come in, in order to plug his own video about the Articles that he just happened to have uploaded around the same time as this. In turn, Dan ends up barging into the end of Cody's video to promote the series. When Cody attempts to say something, Dan just cuts him off, all while zooming in with a fiery background and Dan having red eyes.
  Cody: Dan, just because I barge into your video doesn't mean you can-
  Dan: uh Cody, Cody, shh Cody, shhhh-shhhh-shhh-shhh Cody. Tough luck.
• The Battle of Kursk: Multiple:
  • The fight at Ponyri swaying back and forth is shown by both sides constantly crossing out each others' symbols on the Ponyri sign before the sign itself is blown up.
  • Hitler praying for his side to win with the words "Not actually a religious person" shown next to him.
  • Stalin is said to be "willing to play a dangerous game" while looking at a Jenga game.
  • The Russians "sweeping" back the Germans is depicted as them running forward with brooms and the Germans beating them back with their own brooms.
  • One German doing a Spit Take when the Russian tanks intercept them at Kursk.
• Kamehameha the Great: Multiple:
  • How do you show off the great mental and spiritual power of the great king? Have him go Super Saiyan, of course!
  • When explaining the motivation for the creation of the Law of the Splintered Paddle, Dan mentions that Kamehameha wanted to establish a stable system and shows him proudly anointing the logo of Windows XP, rather than one driven by conflict, which is an illustration of Kamehameha angrily throwing a rock at a Windows Vista logo.
• Their second episode covering the D-Day Invasion details Operation Fortitude set by the Allies in order to make Germany think the invasion would be at Pas de Calais, rather than Normandy, by having Hollywood special effects masters design prop ships and inflatable tanks in order to fool the Germans. This worked so well that not only had the UK converted every German spy in their country into a Double Agent by the time of the Normandy invasion, but one of them - Juan Pujol Garcia (codename: "Garbo") - was awarded the Iron Cross in thanks for his loyal service.
• The Great Northern War:
  • We get the unique tactical insights of Augustus II of Lithuania, who from the perspective of Dan apparently decided the best way to defeat Charles XII of Sweden was "make the war too boring". In other words, lose, and keep losing until Charles returned to Sweden in disgust. By the end, Walpole shows up to insult the guy for being a failed Chessmaster.
  • Later, in Episode IV, Charles XII's supply column, after having the misfortune of running into Russian forces, Tsar Peter and his personal guard among them, chooses to retreat after an indecisive battle. Due to some muddy terrain and a destroyed bridge, the Swedish commander gives the order to abandon most of the supplies, including their alcohol rations. Knowing that they were leaving the liquor behind, many of the soldiers decide to help themselves to some of it—with predictable results.
  • In Episode V, after managing to get what was left of his army into the Ottoman Empire, Charles XII tries to push Sultan Ahmed III to go to war with Russia despite the latter having just secured a peace agreement with Russia allowing Charles safe passage back to Sweden. Charles, coming off as rather childish at this point, decides instead to stay in the Ottoman Empire. Ahmed offers to pay Charles to leave. Charles accepts the payment, then stays put, offering only to leave if he's paid even more. Ahmed gets fed up and has Charles and his forces imprisoned until Charles agrees to leave. What sells it is how Dan words their interactions.
  Ahmed: We won you the right to go home, man. Just... go home.
  Charles: All right. I live here now.
  Ahmed: [sigh] Dude, come on...
  Charles: I will cut you.
  Ahmed: Look, I will give you ten thousand pounds if you will just leave.
  Charles: All right. I will leave if you give me eight thousand more.
  Ahmed: Okay, time to call the sheriff. Oh, wait, I'm the sheriff.
• Otto von Bismarck:
  • Bismarck’s habit of firing a pistol at the ceiling to enter a room, or alternatively releasing foxes.
  • The sheer number of affairs, debts and duels a young Otto had.
  • Part 1 sees Otto devising a series of "Good...ish ideas" when he's trying to put down a peasant revolt demanding a Constitution.
    • First, he puts together a peasant levy to try quashing it, calmly threatening to shoot his neighbor when he tries to stop it at the start, and going home in disgust when the actual army tells him to knock it off as they have plenty of trained men, but little in the way of food.
    • Second, he tries to sneak into Berlin with a clever disguise... trimming his beard.
    • After that inevitably fails, he decides to depose Frederick Wilhelm, who is capitulating to the mob, and replace him with a hard-line successor. King Wilhelm (yes, that is his name) is his first choice, but he's fled to England. His second pick, Charles Wilhelm, volunteers his son, Frederick Wilhelm (hereafter referred to as "Fritz"), to assume the throne. Fritz was 6 years old at the time, and nobody had bothered to ask his mother if it was okay. This one is hilariously depicted as Otto lifting the boy up, the boy thinking it's a game, and Mrs. Wilhelm actually supporting the peasants in the matter.
      Dan: It would seem that Bismarck had made an enemy of the mother of this 6-year-old he hoped to put on the throne.
  • After the second Prussian Diet is convened, a Parliament is formed (which Otto does not get elected to, what with his opposition to it), and he instead joins the Prussian camarilla, not to be confused with a vampiric secret society sworn to uphold The Masquerade, though Dan can understand the confusion. Furthermore, look carefully at the members of the vampiric camarilla, and you will notice Walpole among their members.
  • When Bismarck is sent to Russia, it is depicted as an ice-skating Bismarck and the caption: “Bismarck on Ice: A Wilhelm Production.”
  • The King of Prussia has to call back Bismarck from Russia to head government since no one else wants the position, and dwelling on the fact due to a constitutional crisis forcing him to make the choice, he thinks that Bismarck has no chance and if he fails, he has no problem kicking Bismarck out again. How do the animators depict the metaphor of "throwing him under the bus" in Visual Pun form in 1861? They draw a man holding a cardboard drawing of a bus running at Bismarck.
  • The Prussian Tax Collector, here shown as a massive thug with a bag labelled "TAXES or ELSE" over his shoulder. The big club in his other hand? Labelled ELSE of course.
  • Continuing in the vein of the It was Walpole gag, Bismarck has his own catchphrase now.
    Dan: But Bismarck had a plan. Bismarck ALWAYS has a PLAN.
  • Bismarck pushed for Prince Leopold to accept the offer of the Spanish crown... despite Leopold not having Wilhelm anywhere in his name.
  • Bismarck's reaction to the French emergency government that just stated they wouldn't cede an inch of French soil to Germany?
    Bismarck: (With the air of ordering from a restaurant) "Uh-huh. Alsace and Lorraine please."
  • Episode VI has Bismarck finding himself in the unenviable position of having too much winning. This is illustrated by Bismarck struggling to carry several trophies. More specifically, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War Germany had captured Napoleon the Third, the French emperor. But because the emperor represented the French state, Bismarck and the Germans didn't know who to negotiate the peace with.
  • Episode IV describes an assassination attempt on Bismarck, which not only fails to off him despite that all 5 shots hitting, but he simply walks it off. A historian reacts that the whole thing is so cool, and regardless whether it really happened, he totally believes it happened as it would be so in-character.
    Dan: In a moment history doesn't record, but I think we all know happened, Bismarck simply nodded to the soldier, said "Iron Chancellor", put on shades, and walked away.
• Khosrau Anushirawan:
  • The series starts off with this glorious line.
  Young Kavadh spent his childhood like most young boys do - held hostage by his father's greatest enemy.
  • And how did this come to pass? Well, Kavadh's father, Peroz I, went to war with the Hephthalites over a border dispute, losing so badly that he wound up having to pay his own ransom. He attacked them again due to lingering resentment from this earlier defeat, losing so badly that he had to give up Kavadh as a hostage to insure he wouldn't try attacking them again. Sure enough, he attacked once more with roughly 100,000 men at the Battle of Herat... and lost the lives of most of the host, including his own. All of these battles are depicted as a series of Rock–Paper–Scissors in the video.
  • When Kavadh finally returns home, the Decadent Court decides to send him to prison and install his uncle on the throne.
    So the poor kid got sent away yet again. This time to the Fortress of Oblivion. I am not kidding, that was the prison's actual name. Don't say history never gave you anything.
    • Despite the ominous name, the prison turns out to be a Cardboard Prison that Kavadh escapes from whenever he ends up imprisoned in it, much to Dan's dismay.
    Alas, though the Fortress of Oblivion continued to have a very, very cool name, it just was not good at containing Kavadhs. I think it might be time to face the hard truth that the Fortress of Oblivion was just not a very good prison. Yes, I know, I'm disappointed, too.
  • Trying to get the Byzantines to pay for defending them from invading tribes, Kavadh runs into some issues...
    Dan: But the Romans had gotten kinda distracted. They were all like "We're kinda dealing with these other wars in the north right now. And also in the west. And...wait...ah, crap, the Ostrogoths just took Rome. Like, actual Rome. Aw, jeez. Can you guys handle the northern tribes thing while we HEY! You guys give that back! I'm not kidding!"...
  • Two words: Trolling Justinian. Basically, Khosrau goes around conquering cities and gives them the option to pay him not to sack them, an option many cities take. He uses this money to bribe Justinian's own underpaid soldiers into joining him. Later, he arranges a peace treaty the Romans assume takes effect immediately, when it will actually do so only once the Romans pay the Persians the gold that is part of the treaty. Until this happens, Khosrau keeps up his conquering, and while doing so does things like turning conquered cities into his own private resorts and arranging a chariot race with Justinian's favorite team rigged to lose just to make Justinian look like a fool. Then he rebuilds an exact copy of the conquered city of Antioch for the enslaved citizens to live in, right down to the mulberry tree in one citizen's garden, which he gives a name that translates to "Khosrau's Better Antioch"^note Wēh Antīōk Khosrow, meaning "better than Antioch, Khosrow built this".
  Khosrau: Your soldiers choose me, your towns choose me, and your people choose me. GET REKT SON!
  • Rome defaults on their debt, but offers a loan.
  Kavadh: "I'll loan my fist to your face!
  • Then when they insultingly offer for Khosrau to be adopted as a barbarian...
  Khosrau: "He can adopt my fist to his face!"
• The story of the Mali Empire takes a turn for the comical in episode 3, as Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca showcased such Conspicuous Consumption that his spending in Cairo decreased the value of gold for 10 years due to his inadvertently flooding the market with the material.
• "The great mathematician and imperialist, John Dee, who, fun fact, was also a wizard..."
• When discussing the cure for Pellagra, they use "It Was Walp-O's" brand cereal to make the point about how easy it was to fortify meals with niacin.
• When showing that Kublai Khan should not have messed with Java, they show the "Great Khan" in a ship tugging on a tendril in the water... that happens to be attached to a shiny Gyarados.
  • Chinese soldiers sail to Java to depose a ruler who had previously snubbed China. They arrive in the middle of a rebellion, with the old ruler dead and the capital held by another empire. The old ruler's stepson, Raden Vijaya, comes to them with a proposal: help him get his throne back and he'd happily become a vassal of China. Long story short: by the time the Chinese leave, they've overthrown the wrong empire, put the dynasty they were supposed to end back on the throne, and, thanks to Vijaya double-crossing them, they don't even have the vassal state they set out to make.
  • On the other hand, through Exact Words, they were able to declare victory. They had sailed south to overthrow the Empire of Java. It was the wrong Empire of Java, but Check. They had taken royal hostages, as they were instructed to do. Said hostages were of the same empire that had overthrown their intended target, but still, Check. And then they had put up a new state and installed a new ruler who had said he would be a vassal. Okay, he was the heir to the empire that had snubbed the Great Khan and he had double-crossed them once he got things the way he wanted, but you know what? Check it. The Chinese declared victory and sailed home. The Great Khan was not happy.
  • Raden Vijaya's son, Jayanegara became king after a glorious coup pulled by his captain of the guard, Gajah Mada, and took a new regal name. The narrators chose to ignore the regal names. Matt was very grateful to Rob for not having to butcher his tongue trying to pronounce Sri Maharaja Wiralandagopala Sri Sundarapandya Dewa Adhiswara. And trust me, his successor's regal name was even worse.
  • "Gajah Mada is what you get if Machiavelli wrote fanfiction."
  • The "Succession War" song (to the tune of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider") as Hayam Wuruk made the mistake all great leaders seem to do:
    ♪ The pretty decent king split the crown between his heirs ♫
    ♫ Down dropped his head and they started throwing chairs! ♪
    ♪ Succession crises lead to civil war ♫
    ♫ And the pretty decent kingdom was doomed to be no more! ♪
• In the "Quantum Computing" episode, Matt ends up completely losing it at the results of the famous "double slit" experiment, when light was a wave or a particle depending on if there was an observer: "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?! WHAT IS THIS? NO! NO! NO!!! THIS IS MAGIC! THIS IS MAGIC!!!", followed by a "We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties" card.
  • During Episode 3, Einstein and Bohr burn each other on a chalkboard. First there's a little note saying "Bohr = Snore". The next day, it's crossed out and "Lie-N-Stein" is written.
  • When Bohr goes to sleep, his thought balloon reads "X + Y = Z^ZZ".
• "Viking Expansion" episode #2 points out that the descendants of Rollo still sit on the British throne. Cue Queen Elizabeth II charging with a magic spear: "Odin Save the Queen!"
  • In the same episode, the reactions of various French Kings over their nicknames, from a rather mundane one like "The Pious" to an insulting one like "The Fat."
  • And of course, during the mass baptism, some Vikings decided to get Baptized multiple times for the free robes.
• Viking Expansion #5 shows just how much tougher a land Greenland was compared to Iceland, by showing Erik the Red getting punched in the face by a flower.
  • The Vikings were great warriors, shipbuilders, and sailors, but navigation wasn't their strongest suit, which is depicted by a Viking reading a map and blithely walking off a cliff.
• Viking Expansion Lies has Rob tell us to go google Olga of Kiev to get an impression of how scary she was. Matt proceeds to do just that, and is promptly turned into a skeleton by the gaze of Olga's icon.
• "WW2: The Resource War": They depict Hitler's conquest of Czechoslovakia as Hitler literally eating a baby dressed in a Czechoslovakian flag.
• "The History of Non-Euclidian Geometry" illustrates the mystery of how light moves by having a light bulb mockingly dance behind the back of an irritated scientist.
• The comments for their video on the Three Kingdoms Era is filled with references to OverSimplified's video on the same subject, which came out only a few weeks earlier. Both were sponsored by the creators of Total War: Three Kingdoms.
• Even a topic as bleak as the Irish Potato Famine can have hilarity:
  • In the first video, when describing the very exploitative leasing and subletting system rampant in Ireland, Matt quips: "Oh hey NYC, I didn't notice you in this comparison!"
  • In the second video, Matt has to stop to reflect on the fact that the Prime Minister when the famine broke out... was called Peel.^note In fact, this is the same Robert Peel after whom policemen are referred to as bobbies... or less affectionately, peelers.
  • There's an odd bit of Black Comedy in the way that some Irish people committed crimes specifically to get caught and exported to penal colonies that are actually being fed. One sympathetic judge tried to acquit two women for assaulting an officer, but relented when they openly stated in court that they'd just attack the officer again when released. The officer portrayed is genuinely scared of these two women.
• Matt, Zoey and Rob take a break from the series by letting David Crowther take the reins as both writer and narrator of the History of England series. Cue Zoey and Matt goofing around consistently in between episodes. Antics include taking bets on who'll win the 100 Years War, testing out the the range between crossbows and longbows (and nearly hitting poor David in the process, prompting David to angrily respond in kind), and David finally giving them this pearl of wisdom:
  David: Wander into a pub, get yourself a pint of the finest ale, look around for anyone wearing open-toed sandals and a pair of socks. Introduce yourself to them, express your love of English history, and ask about them if they've heard of the Black Prince. You have a very fair chance of getting a 5-hour poem with added slideshow and dance routine.
  • David describing the unfortunate demise of the Duke of Suffolk, Henry VI's chief advisor, after running into trouble with England's elite following his imprisonment of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.
  David: Henry tried to protect his loyal and hardworking servant, and in this, he was not entirely successful. Suffolk's head was in fact found stuck on a pole on the beach and the rest of his body had a hard time enjoying life without it.
• Their third episode on the series for Joan of Arc has Joan finally making her mark on history. Her grand, siege-ending battle plan to drive the English out? Get 'em. Enough that it's basically Joan's default tactic for anything: GET 'EEEEEEMMMM!!!
  • The narrator says Joan claimed to be on a mission from God and shows her dressed as one of The Blues Brothers.
• As a prelude to their series on the Inca Empire, an episode is released on one of the most devastating transformations to have been inflicted on the Americas in history: Pigs. Matt puts it beautifully:
  Matt: *clutches a pig with a look of glee* WE TALKIN' 'BOUT PIGS BABY! *hugs the pig* God, I love this show.
  • About halfway through the video, Matt wonders if there's anyone who can discuss the adaptations pigs possess for surviving in the New World. Cue TierZoo (who was collaborating with the channel for the video) busting down the wall while riding an entelodont (an extinct pig-like animal actually more related to hippos) to plug his own video on this very topic. (Extra History in turn plugged this episode in the same video, complete with an "OBJECTION!" a la Ace Attorney before pointing out that pigs had more of an impact in human culture than TierZoo assumed).
  YouTube comment by TierZoo: "Man if Columbus could conquer entire islands with only 8 pigs just think what 30-50 feral hogs could do."
  "Also... Sorry about the wall."
  • Matt's bewildered reaction to TierZoo bursting through the wall is equally hilarious.
  Matt: What in the Babe 2: Pig In The City?!
  • The notion that pigs were easier to house in the confines of ships than cattle is illustrated with the amusing image of a stack of block-shaped pigs next to a single cow - the stack and the cow are roughly the same size.
• The Inca Empire:
  • The second episode has Matt narrate that the native tribes that were assimilated by the Incans would receive the full benefits of the empire while remaining unchanged in terms of culture. Then he adds:
  "Oh, and as an added bonus? They wouldn't be destroyed. Hooray!"
  • Pachacuti's son Tupac and Matt ain't mad atcha.
  • In episode 4, the civil war between Atahualpa and Huáscar ends up firmly in the former's favor, because his army, despite being outnumbered, had far greater experience than the conscripts the latter had drafted into his forces. As Matt describes it: "If history teaches us one thing, it's the age-old adage... 'Don't bring conscripts to a hardened veteran fight'. Seriously, that's all over historical texts, you can look that up."
  • In the fifth and final episode, the ambush where Atahualpa is captured includes what Matt describes as "monstrous beasts"... while showing the Spaniards riding on the cutest and derpiest of horses (since the Incans hadn't encountered horses before the Spanish arrived).
  • After Francisco Pizarro topples a temple and has its priests executed, word reaches Atahualpa, and as Matt words it: "His reaction was strong and immediate. He... LOVED IT!" (Turns out, this was because the priests of this particular temple had predicted that Huáscar would win the civil war, meaning that he now had one less party in opposition to his power.)
• Building Angkor:
  • In Episode 2, as Suryavarman II is described as evidently not being as god-like as claimed by the depictions he himself commissioned, a thumbnail similar to those used by the channel is shown with the headline "10 war fails designed to make you click this!!!" Then his failed campaigns against Vietnam are represented by him fleeing in a panic with a few arrows still stuck in him, and later when it's mentioned that his skills as a builder shouldn't be excluded from his struggles as a ruler, a coffee mug with the words "World's Best Builder" is shown, and then turned to show the words "World's Most Alright Chair Thief and Spear Holder".
  • In Episode 3, Matt takes the time to note that Ta Prohm is known for two things, being visited by Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and, to his amusement, having a carved image of what appears to be a dinosaur. The "Lies" episode clarifies that the carving is more likely a stylized boar or rhinoceros, and that these two notions were mentioned together because they are the only two things popular culture knows about Ta Prohm.
  • Episode 5 describes how Western civilization misinterpreted Angkor enough for it to contribute to the myth of the "lost city", and as the narration states that some of the theories can get pretty... imaginative, an alien with a hammer is shown. This gets a Call-Back when the Europeans, when claiming that rulers like Alexander the Great or Emperor Trajan built Angkor due to their believing that Asian people weren't capable of doing so, are described as doing "the 17th century version of saying it was built by aliens".
• While the Haitian Revolution series doesn't sugarcoat the horrors of slavery in Haiti, there are a few moments of farce.
  • The racism the Haitian elites held toward the slaves was so extreme they accused each other of starting the 1791 revolt. A slave is shown giving them a look of consternation as a free person of color and a white plantation owner glare at each other while ignoring him.
  • The insistence that Toussaint L'Ouverture wasn't bringing back slavery but forced labor.
• Ibn Battuta:
  • When discussing Ibn Battuta's meeting with the IlKhan, The IlKhan is shown tossing away a spear to show that he's not a raider like his ancestors. The next frame, somebody off-screen yelps in pain.
  • Idn Battuta's trip to Delhi is constantly delayed by him going to different locations under the pretense he might never see them again. This gets punctuated by Matt shouting, "But first a SIDE TRIP!" every single time.
  • After one such trip to the Gulf of Oman doesn't go as planned, He's shown sitting on the beach with bloody feet next to a pile of sand. But as he's gathering his resolve to hurry up and finish his journey, the wind blows the sand away, slowly revealing a sign reading "SIDE TRIP!" three guesses what happens next.
  • Battuta goes to Anatolia, gushing about how awesome the people in the area were, gushing about how cool they looked and how friendly they were... then he sees somebody getting executed via catapult.
  • In a bit of a Black Comedy Burst, after the cruel sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq assigns Ibn Battuta to send goods to China, followed by Battuta missing the transport ships which are blown away in a storm (with the one carrying the goods getting wrecked), Matt narrates that Battuta isn't too keen on returning to Delhi and explaining his failure... to the sultan's execution elephants.
  • Ibn Battuta trying to convince the women of the Maldives to stop going around topless, which is shown as him throwing a blanket over a native woman, to which she responds by tossing the blanket back at him with an annoyed expression.
  • When Ibn Battuta finally arrived at China, he immediately regrets it: his previous trips had him mingle with muslim communities or monotheistic countries. China, on the other hand, had a culture that is against his tastes in every way. First, Buddhism and confucius philosophy means that Chinese are worshipping idols, which is a taboo in Islamic religion. Then, being a secular country means that they had no restriction on their diet, including pork. Worse, Quanzhou, where Ibn Battuta lived, did not have many muslims(most of the muslims in China lived in the northwest region, not southeast). Needless to say, this law-abiding Qadi find it a torture to live in Quanzhou, and decided to pack up and leave before he gone mad from all the idiosyncrasies.
• The April 1st 2020 video is on Rasputin. Or rather, it's Matt reciting "Ra Ra Rasputin" by Boney M.
  • Made doubly funnier by Rob running around in the background frantically holding up signs pointing out all the historical inaccuracies.
  • Made Triply funny when during the "Hey! Hey! Hey!" middle eight, it's portrayed as Alexandra and Zoey riding on the hay like horses.
• Ibn Fadlan's fascination mixed with revultion toward the Rus vikings is depicted as him being what amounts to Tsundere.
  • Matt's own enamoured reaction to Fadlan's description of the Rus is equally hilarious.
  Matt: Oh that's right. Shirtless, blonde, tattooed, armed to the teeth, (with heart eyes) and physically perfect. Ah! What, what, where was I?
• The video explaining the 1929 stock market crash injects a silly and sweet touch to an otherwise bleak topic by representing money and resources in the form of the bells, fruit trees, and turnips from Animal Crossing. The Memetic Mutation word "stonks" (used to represent bad financial investments) also appears once or twice.
• In Part 3 of "Dividing the Middle East," the British attempt to use the promise of a Jewish state in the Levant to bring the Bolsheviks back into the war on their side. The Bolsheviks respond by publishing every secret British treaty that the previous government had access to, including Sykes-Picot, exposing how the British had promised the same thing to multiple groups. Cue "Oh, Crap!" expression from Balfour.
• In Part 1 of "The Field of the Cloth of Gold" we are shown an interaction between Henry VIII and an ambassador which previously visited the French king Francis I. He asks how tall Francis is compared to him, and the ambassador says they're pretty much the same height. Henry asks how stout Francis is, and the ambassador once again replies that the two kings are equals on that front. Then Henry asks how do Francis' legs look like. The now clearly very uncomfortable ambassador says that they're nice. So Henry puts one of his legs up and asks the ambassador to examine it. The poor beleaguered man just slowly backs away.
  • Further, the ways Henry and Francis show each other up. Henry (drunk) challenges Francis to wrestle. This would normally be- oh wait Francis threw him. Turns out he had perfected that move. Then Henry shows he is far better with a longbow. (Even funnier, that was one of the key ways the English defeated the French in the 100-year war).
  • Henry's bewildered expression when Francis knocks him on his ass during the wrestling match is equally hilarious.
  • Charles V makes an appearance as well, and the Hapsburg strategy of marriage and inheritance led to him becoming one of the most powerful men in Europe. It also mentions how this often meant that the von Hapsburgs married close relatives. Which meant that Charles V ended up with "a strong jaw. A very strong jaw."
  Matt: Pro tip, don't marry your uncles.
  • Initially, both kings had made an agreement not to shave until they met, so they would be on equal ground. At least, that was until Henry's wife, Catherine of Aragon, who hated beards, forced Henry to shave before leaving for France. Cue Francis's advisors hurriedly explaining the sudden change in situation to him. Francis is clean-shaven in the next scene, having rolled with the explanation of a domestic affair.
• In Part 5 of "Exploring the Pacific," the tale of the HMS Dauphin, in which Captain Wallace experienced a unique problem to the ship's structure. The local Tahitians were willing to trade with the Europeans, and they had developed... friendly relations. it turned out that the Tahitian women had no qualms with trading sex for iron nails. The Dauphin's crew had quickly run out of nails to trade, so they started taking nails from the rest of ship. Captain Wallace had to cut his expedition short because so many nails were being removed that the ship was falling apart around him.
• Part I of Rome and the Third Century Crisis has Matt needing to run through all of the emperors between Maximinus Thrax (who kicked everything off) and Aurelian (the next important emperor). How does he power through all fourteen? A quick musical number set to 'Dem Bones'.
  • And the Praetorians (and at one point Sassanids) have the most goofy :D expressions.
  • The cause of death for one of the Emperors is unclear, so it's represented by Walpole wearing a hockey mask and wielding a machete.
  • Part 2 from the same series has the common mixup of Goths (as in the negative emotioned fashion style) and Gothic warriors. So, when Aurelian is proclaimed 'Gothimus Maximus' (Roughly 'Conqueror of the Goths') cue Aurelian briefly being shown as a Goth (fashion style) and Matt politely informing artist Nick that he wasn't talking about that kind of Goth.
  • Part 3, "Not Diocletian", is about Diocletian's rise to power due to everybody between him and the throne dying due to events that were certainly due to someone who was Not Diocletian, to the point it becomes a counterpart to "It was Walpole".
    • Diocletian has a constant "Who, me??" facial expression for most of the episode... until he suddenly doesn't.
    Matt: So it wasn't Diocletian's fault! I mean, really! Really. Really.
    • In the same episode, Aurelian's reputation for heavy-handed punishments is illustrated with a scene of him ordering someone's execution... over a pizza topped with pineapple.
  • Part 4 highlights the general instability that plagued Diocletian's early reign by showing a man running around with his head consumed in flame. Diocletian personally is shown facepalming on a throne embedded with arrows.
• The Syphilis- The Great Imitator video has Matt do a faux commercial on the wonders of mercury on treating syphilis...all while Zoey is freaking out at how to use mercury, to the point that she ends up shouting "WHAT THE *#!?" after the commercial ends.
  Matt: You've had your night with Venus. Welcome to your lifetime with Mercury!
  • At the beginning of Part 2, Matt makes note of an Austrian doctor named Julius Wagner Jauregg, who was given an award for curing syphilis in some patients by using malaria, and often experimented on unwilling/mentally ill patients.
  Matt: Austrian doctor, human experimentation, high death rates...this guy became a Nazi, didn't he?
  Zoey: (Holds up a sign reading "Yup")
  Matt: To the shock of no one...
  • In the second episode, Matt describes the Tuskegee medical experiment as one of the most revolting in American history, and to illustrate this, they show a doctor running off with a huge award saying "you suck the most."
  • Penicillin, which kills syphilis swiftly and efficiently, is represented by John Wick shooting a syphilis virus.
  • In the first video, Matt also notes that Renaissance doctors possibly being right in the origin of Syphilis (having originated in the Americas) was a rather unusual incident, calling it a "broken clock right twice a day thing".
• The Cleopatra series seems to be set up as a more comedic one. In the first part alone, there's a running gag of the Ptolemies doing the 'Walk Like An Egyptian' dance, and of an Asp constantly showing up when not needed.
  • In the display of the Decadent Court of the Ptolemies, they show various family members killing each other. The crime of Matricide, however, is instead shown as "Matress-cide" — a person stabbing a mattress.
  • While Matt knows that Caesar was deified, and Cleopatra, as pharaoh, was already seen as a living deity, he is not quite sure how that works with their son, Caesarion. How does divine genetics work anyhow?
  • In the final episode, Matt points out that Cleopatra is one of very few people who still enjoy as much fame as they do even 2000 years after their deaths. The list includes "The big JCs," aka Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar.
• The Theodore Roosevelt episodes have some great entries.
  • Episode #1 thumbnail features Roosevelt smacking an anthropomorphic representation of a monopolic trust in the face with a 2x4. "Carry a big stick" indeed.
    • And the fact Ida Tarbell was helped in her investigation of Standard Oil by the Vice-President of the company, thinking it would boost PR.
  • Episode 3's thumbnail has Teddy hitting Standard Oil with a folding chair, in classic 90s wrestling style.
  • Episode 4 is a goldmine.
    • The thumbnail is Teddy leaping at the offending Standard Oil and railroad colluders with his 2x4 upraised.
    • Ida Tarbell very much didn't like investigative journalists being called muckrakers.
    • Roosevelt Death glaring a very frightened looking Nathan Aldrich, captioned with just the word "SOCIALISM".
    • Left-wing interest in nationalising railroads is shown by an outlined USA with the word "Trains" repeating endlessly.
• The Jewish Pirates:
  • From episode 1: we have Matt making a pun, "lend me your buccan-ears"
  • Also, Ferdinand and Isabella's capture of Granada being represented by them throwing a Great Ball with a cross on it at the kingdom.
  • Further, Isabella being depicted as a Perpetual Frowner.
  • Matt, Rob, and Zoey riding across the sea on a ship, while poor Ali (the episode's artist) is lurched over the side of the boat, green in the face.
  • Episode 3: Firstly a Taken reference in the "I have a particular set of skills." line.
  • The sheer convoluted network Samuel Pallache was involved in: A Spanish Jew, sailing a Dutch ship, with a crew of Barbary Corsairs, fellow Jews, A Kosher cook, and Dutch sailors, plundering Spanish shipping, under the Moroccan flag, and being an Information Broker for everyone. Zoey struggles to draw all the connections.
  • Episode 4 has Moses Cohen Henriques sneaking around in a barrel to learn when the next Spanish treasure fleet is leaving, then excitedly popping out of another barrel to inform his employer Pete Hind, causing the other man to topple over and expose his polka dot boxers.
• Thirty Years War
  • After a pretty heavy episode about the famine caused by the war, Matt's segue into his sponsored ad, complete with a Grim Reaper reading his phone bill.
  Matt: Speaking of devastation, how's your phone bill these days?
  Grim Reaper's jawbone literally falls to the floor.
  Matt: That bad, huh?
• Vlad the Impaler:
  • After the intro, cue Dramatic Thunder, and Matt (in a serviceable transylvanian accent) hyping up the vampire bit.... Only to be corrected by Rob, remove his fangs, toss them at Zoey (who had been hanging like a bat) and admit they were uncomfortable anyway.
  • During a discussion about a rumour that Vlad's brother Radu and Sultan Mehmed II might have been lovers, Matt mentions that before this series, Rob didn't know that people on the internet actually ship historical figures. We're then treated to the sight of a horrified Rob slowly closing his laptop as Matt gleefully narrates that now Rob can't unlearn this knowledge.
• History of Coffee
  • Matt's description of Kaldi discovering coffee, complete with an overcaffeinated Kaldi dancing with one of his goats in the background,
  Matt: He'd been unable to sleep that night andhewantedtosharethisdiscoverywitheveryoneassoonashepossiblycould!
  • Matt reads from the "Women's Petition against Coffee", which has a big, fat asterisk noting that it was probably not written by women.
  • The Running Gag of coffee addiction being depicted as the drinker immersing their head in a large mug of coffee. At one point, this includes an eagle doing it to represent the birth of the habit in the United States.
• The Erfurt Latrine Disaster - A Meeting From Hell
  • It's a story about a real-life event where several nobles fell into a latrine pit and drowned. What more do you want?
  • Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's teary-eyed disbelief when Conrad declines to support his antipope. Plus him painstaking constructing a pope hat.
  • The crowd of nobles coming to watch a land dispute being mediated - "You have to understand, this was before television."
  • The digression on the Middle Ages equivalent of a Record Needle Scratch.
  • "Which is a useful reminder for all of us that history is written by the people who did not die in a toilet."
  • The outro has a Funny Background Event where Zoe walks out of an outhouse with toilet paper stuck to her paw. She tries to get it off and accidentally mummifies herself.
• Rasputin
  • In episode 2:
    • Rob is shown utterly flummoxed at all the red flags surrounding Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra.
    • When the Royal Couple are told by her Maid of Honor about the rumor the two were having a lesbian affair, cue all three having luminescent blushes of embarrassment.
    • The newspaper shown, if commenters are to be believed, reads "Extra Extra Credits"
    • Nicholas says he'd rather have ten Rasputins than one of Alexandra's crying fits. Cue just that, and Alexandra being shown with an even more over the top distraught expression.
    • When Rasputin is summoned back to court to heal Alexei, the scene is preceded by Alexandra and Alexei both in a panic, and when Rasputin walks in, he has this goofy :D expression on his face, which is immediately copied by Alexandra.
  • Episode 4:
    • Just the fact that the thumbnail consists of the three major conspirators to Rasputin's murder (Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, and right-wing ultranationalist Vladimir Purishkevich) screaming in confusion next to a gratuitous bloodstain, with Rasputin conspicuously absent.
• Conquest of India
  • In the first episode, the parties, feasts and other such rituals conducted for a monarch who was not there.
  • In the second, when they mention an EIC official being impaled, cut to Vlad the Impaler looking on in approval.
• Götz of the Iron Hand popularized a phrase that to this day is known as the "Swabian Salute" in German. Matt provides a surprisingly blustery demonstration, complete with Germanic accent.
  Götz: "HE CAN LICK MY A(Bleep)!"
  • In the same episode, they discuss how prosthetics and assistance/compensatory equipment were actually rather common. Matt mentions 'agricultural mishaps' taking the fingers of peasants, but the picture displayed is of a surly man who somehow got a hoe lodged in his head, visibly upset with his situation but none the worse for wear.
• Empire of Brazil
  • Episode 1 has John VI dislike his wife, suspecting her to be a political agent of Spain. Carlota resented him too, finding the court too restrictive, and was VERY MUCH a political agent of Spain.
  • After reaching Rio, John VI proceeded to make the popular decision of taking people's houses to house his courtiers. It got to a point where people would knock down the walls of their homes so they could pretend they were under construction.
• History of Beer
  • Ancient beer was much thicker than it is today, more like a gruel or a Guinness.
    Matt: Just kidding! I love my steak in a glass.
  • Roman historian Tacitus sneers at the disgusting barbarian practice of rotting barley and turning it into beer...right before taking a drink of wine.
  • They discuss the incredibly trying medieval job of aletaster.
• Tulip Mania
  • The numerous NFT puns throughout the first episode.
  • In the first episode, Matt encourages the viewer to close their eyes and imagine Holland. This is illustrated by the video screen actually going dark as if the camera is closing its eyes, then blinking open briefly to reveal a sloth on a surfboard before closing again.
  Matt: First of all, if you saw the sloth on the surfboard, you cheated.
  • In the fourth episode, detailing the crash, Matt explains a (false) story about how a man during the trade created a pure black tulip, which was purchased by three men for 1500 guilders, only for them to destroy it so that their black tulip would be more valuable. The funny part comes from the fact that the three men are portrayed by (of all people) The Three Stooges.
  • Also from the fourth episode, Matt mentions how the Dutch army was ordered to trample fields of tulips in order to stabilize the economy. However, he quickly explains that rumor was false, by channeling Jonathan Frakes, complete with his clothes turning into an Enterprise uniform (though that's not quite the Jonathan Frakes role he chose.)
  Matt: Now, is that rumor true? No. Not in the slightest. A fiction. Total fabrication.
  • When religious figures criticize tulip trading as a form of idol worship, a picture of Helga Pataki's Arnold shrine pops up on the screen.
• Ethiopian Empire
  • The European monarchs frequently wrote letters to the king of Ethiopia, but, having bought into the idea of the mythical Prester John, addressed them to Prester John. Matt compares this to someone writing letters to the king of Norway thinking he's Santa Claus. The last point is illustrated with a very confused looking Harald V of Norway (in his actual likeness) reading a letter for Santa.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine
  • Louis VII's older brother Phillip was expected to be king, but met an untimely end when his horse tripped over a pig. Yes, really. Matt even shows an illustrated manuscript of the event in question, where the pig looks like a demon from hell, and poor Prince Phillip is folded over his horse like a cheap lawn chair.
• The Easter Rising
  • In episode 2, Roger Casement tries recruiting a revolutionary force from Irish POWs in a German camp. Only 60 volunteer, and he has to scrap the plan when the other 1940 chase him out of the camp.
• The Eggnog Riot: Christmas Chaos at West Point
  • A pair of cadets try to smuggle moonshine back to the school only to find the dock under guard by a private. They bribe him with thirty-five cents. It works.
  • An officer walks in on three drunken cadets. Two hide under a blanket and one hides his face behind a hat, as if they're babies who think they can't be seen if they can't see you.
  • Captain Hitchcock bursts into a room of drunken cadets. Almost immediately afterwards, a drunken Jefferson Davis (Yes, that Jefferson Davis) bursts in to warn the cadets that Hitchcock is coming.
  • The fact that several participants in this drunken riot rose to prominent military and political positions. This includes two Confederate generals, a Texas Secretary of State, a Supreme Court Justice, and President of the Confederacy.
• John Brown:
  • The Pottawatomie Massacre is presented as the pro-slavery Border Ruffians "finding out" after "hecking around", complete with explanatory graphics.
  • The Marines prepare to respond to the raid so hastily that one is shown putting his pants on his head and pulling up his jacket over his legs.
  • The Marine who captures Brown could've killed him but he accidentally brought his parade sword rather than his real one. The show depicts this as him accidentally grabbing his "fun sword" instead of his "work sword."
• Napoleon in Egypt:
  • The first episode admits that the series will be full of cringe, given the motives Napoleon and his men had invading.
  • The first reaction to seeing Alexandria:
    Matt: Scholars and officers flooded in to see the Jewel of The Ptolemies, to witness the abode of Cleopatra, full of ancient splendor and-
    Matt: Wait what the beep is this?
  • To pass the time of the journey, Napoleon and his officer debate whether they are more like Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great. They basically write fanfiction about themselves being Marc Antony and getting exotic Cleopatra-like lovers.
  • Napoleon's attempts to appeal to Egyptian Muslims, which included wearing a turban, badly translated Arabic propaganda, and claiming to defend "the worship of Mohammed"^note Muslims don't worship Mohammed. They only consider him a prophet.. Muslims, including the scholars Napoleon hoped to impress, find this hilarious.
  • "Voila, our six acres!" ^note Napoleon promises each soldier six acres of land. His soldiers, dying of thirst, frequently say this while pointing out at the barren desert.
  • Once Napoleon takes power, his reforms include setting up local Directories, providing more rights to women, and teaching local bakers how to make a decent French baguette.
    Matt: Gotta focus on the Hierarchy of Needs, right?
  • The British capture a French mail ship and read several letters from officers about how miserable they are and one from Napoleon himself cursing out his adulterous wife. They publish this all with the headline "Cuckoldeon Amirite?"
• The Crimean War
  • Episode 1 has the Russian Empire depicted as Clifford the Dog.
• Henry Ford
  • The repeated appearances of the Foreshadow any time they mention something that would eventually link to Ford's antisemitism.
  • Ford bursting into the kitchen to test a prototype engine while his wife was cooking dinner for guests.
  • They say that internal combustion engines were once known by the "incredibly metal name" of "explosion engines."
  • Ford builds his first car but on the first day of testing, he realizes he forgot one variable: It's too big to fit through the door. He "widens" the door with an axe.
  • Ford's sheer terror during his first and only automobile race.
  • Ford tries to remove all excess weight from a high-performance car he's designing by ripping off his own mustache.
  • One of Ford's engineers (specifically John Dodge, of Dodge Brothers/Dodge Cars fame) once forced a bartender to dance on the bar at gunpoint while he smashed up all his glasses.
  • Ford’s lack of historical knowledge on the witness stand. He claimed the American Revolution began in 1812, believed Benedict Arnold to be a famous writer, and denigrated the studying of history all together, claiming knowledge of the past hadn’t prevented WW1. He won the trial, but was only awarded 6 cents as a result.
• Knights of the Golden Circle
  • The description of George W. Bickley's work history. He was a journalist, a quack doctor, and worst of all, an amateur historian and novelist. Writer Robert Rath is both of those things.

Extra Mythology

• Yes, a new series. They had planned on doing a four-parter on Greek Mythology... until the God of War (PS4) crew found out and sponsored them to do two episodes on Norse Mythology first. Given the context, that's funny enough, but the scenes of Kratos reading this on a computer, then threatening Dave with his axe really takes the cake.
• During the Izanami and Izanagi video, Izanami calls out the Shikome to go after her husband.
  Matt: Then, everybody decided...it was SLAPSTICK TIME! (cue Yakety Sax in the background)
  • And as the music plays in the background, Matt describes everything Izanagi had to do in order to escape: throw his headband (that turns into a bunch of grapes), throw the teeth of the comb (which turns into bamboo stalks), literally pee a river to block her and then throw some peaches. All while trying to understand the logic for these actions.
    Matt: Where did he get those [peaches]? I don't understand....he tosses the peaches her way and that apparently does the trick? Okay, good. Good peaches.
  • During the peeing a river sequence, the Shikome asks if they can settle it like adults.
  • Red and Blue show up and mildly Troll Matt. Unfortunately, the Extra Credits artstyle does not work well with Red and Blue's design, making them look like Color coded vampires.
• The episode on the Nlaka'pamux tribe's version of Coyote, which essentially treats him as the ancestor of Wile E. Coyote. The first three tales end with him falling flat on his face and breaking something, the fourth tale has him stealing a tool, being brutalized by it, and forced to give it up four times before he learns better, and in the fifth story he hides from the fire people by turning himself into dung.
  • The narrator wryly notes that Fox, Antelope, and Wolf all died in the last story, but not to worry because they'll be back in the next story, unharmed.
• The video on Warlocks and Warriors has a pretty fun rendition of said Warlock, but the crowning moment is at 4:48, when the Warlock explains how hard it is to kill him. He Squees.
• The brothers of Okuninushi, a group of 80 ancient Japanese gods, are all voiced like they're frat bros. It is extremely fitting.
  • Lampshading how the Princess of Yakami just sorta disappears from the story after Okuninushi falls in love with the Storm God's daughter.
  • Okuninushi is helped by a mouse. Who sounds like Mickey Mouse.
• Matt updating a Dungeons & Dragons-style Character Sheet with all the gear Hercules picks up on his Labors.
  • Said character sheet features a Strength of 24 and an Intelligence of 3 (10 is considered dead average in any score, and 20 is the cap without magical aid).
• While discussing the battle with the Lernean Hydra, Matt talks about the problem of how every time Hercules cut off one head, two more would take its place. Cut back to Matt in a Captain America costume as he throws in an obligatory "Hail Hydra".
• In the "Tale of the Golden Tree" video, when the young hero tells the seven identical brothers of his quest to track down the doves who stole the magic apples, they inform him that one of their sisters was gravely injured by an arrow during her last visit to the tree. The look of awkward realization that crosses the hero's face when he hears this is absolutely priceless.
• Matt and Zoey getting thrown into Hades in the "Greek Underworld" video, thanks to their Extra Mythology writer Jac's obsession with the video game of the same name.
  • Matt and Zoey come across Cerberus as they near the end of the Underworld, but Matt adamantly refuses to fight him. Zoey then proceeds to scare Cerberus away with a hellish transformation while Matt's back is turned.
  Matt: Oh no...Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! Not fighting the doggo! Too good a boy! You win, Hades. We're staying.
  (Zoey transforms into a giant shadow creature, sending Cerberus fleeing in terror)
  Zoey: Meow! (We can go now.)
  Matt: Wow, Zoey! What did you say to him?
  Zoey: Meow! (I just asked nice.)
  Matt: Okay, politeness for the win! I like it! I knew I raised you right, cat.

Design Club

• The BlueShell episode where they call the loathed item various names:
  Dan: "It is known by many names: Blue Justice, The Great Equaliser, Spiny's Revenge, Death and Taxes' jerk friend, The Liam Neeson, the Five Stages of Grief in three seconds."

... "Alright, I'm done."

James Recommends

• "Hello Youtubes! It looks like we've fixed the audio issues!" (pumps fist, 8-bit fanfare plays)
• James Recommends buying Tower Of Guns, even just "because you'll get your money's worth" enjoying saying "Tower Of Guns", and he repeatedly savours the sound of the name through the video.

Side Quest

Dark Souls

• Side Quest, also known as: "Dan Sucks At Dark Souls".
  • Getting into the spirit of the game as early as character creation:
  James: I don't have anything to say about your choice of name and gender, but do it better. That's the main thing I'll say in this series.
  Dan: I think that's going to be the theme of this series. "Do it better."
• Dan falls off a cliff. It's the context that makes it.
• In Episode 13, Dan charges into a hallway saying that he's prepared for anything... except for an Elite Mook slamming him into the floor from behind the camera.
  Dan: I got nothing to lose, come at me! *hammered* ...okay, done! What else was I expecting to happen?
• After a several-month-long hiatus, the series is back, and ^note after a brief interlude to deal with Havel the Rock Episode 16 is titled... "Dan Still Sucks At Dark Souls".
• Everything to do with Sen's Fortress/Funhouse. Dan being very tired and cursing at every trap and enemy just adds to the schadenfreude.
  • The best moment being when Dan spots an arrow trap, walks up to it with his shield up only for the arrows to come from behind him barely missing Dan.
  Dan: I hate this place.
• Dan summons Black Iron Tarkus, who then proceeds to tear through both the Giant Firebomber and the Iron Golem before Dan can even figure out what's going on.
  Dan: Tarkus you don't have to... do that... Tarkus don't... Tark- *Tarkus kills the giant* Okay, Tarkus. You do you, buddy. Thanks, man. We cool.
  Dan: This is interesting. We might kill him before I figure out what I was supposed to do!
• At the end of the Iron Golem episode, Dan tries to make a gesture to celebrate finally reaching Anor Londo. He was probably trying to do the "Joy" or "Hurrah!" gestures... but the one he picked (by accident) was "Well? What is it?"
• After defeating Ornstein and Smough and stopping to discuss his stats for a bit, Dan proceeds on into Anor Londo:
  Dan: OK. Onward. Let's see what else we got. I'm ready for anything! <pushes open the door of the throne room, revealing the enormous and voluptuous form of Princess Gwynevere reclining on her couch> ...I stand corrected.
• When he decided to try and clear up some stuff he'd missed, starting with the return to the Undead Asylum, he experienced some difficulties...
  Objective #1: Return to Undead Asylum
  Dan: I'm going to see if I can talk this crow into taking me back there.^note You do need to get the crow to return you to the Asylum, but doing so requires some trickery. ...hello bird. <walks around unsuccessfully trying to find an interact prompt> 'scuse me? Bird? Hello? I would like to go back, please. ...maybe this isn't the way to do it.
  Objective #1.5: Consult the internet.
• One particular display of ineptitude happens when he reaches the Tomb of the Giants and proceeds to shuffle through the dark, complaining all the way about not being able to see. Even when Patches kicks him into the pit and he finds the Skull Lantern, his only comment is that he already has one before going right back to complaining about the darkness.
  Youtube Commenter: Between getting through the catacombs without a divine weapon and now doing the Tomb of Giants without a light source, this is turning into an unintentional challenge run.
  • What's the name of the next episode? "Oh Hey, a Lantern". Suffice to say Dan was a bit embarrassed.
• Even the finale has one, where Dan makes the choice to Link the Fire^*(i.e. the final and biggest choice you can make in the game) ...completely by accident.
  Dan: Do I head back the way I came? Well, here's a bonfire, I guess so. I'll use that... *cutscene starts* ...oh. I seem to be on fire.

Dark Souls II

• how much gud would a good Dan git if a good Dan did git gud
• Dan is so bothered by the complete lack of any kind of animation when the Emerald Herald upgrades his Estus Flask with a shard that he edits one in himself. Every single time. With a different jingle and animation every time.
• Episode 5: Dan fails to make the connection between some strategically placed barrels and an Ironclad soldier with a gigantic mace.
• In Episode 12, Dan has an illuminating conversation with Lucatiel of Mirrah.
  Lucatiel: Have you heard of the Undead? These poor souls affected by the curse.
  Dan: Uh, yeah...
  Lucatiel: An Undead gradually loses his humanity, until his wits degrade completely. Finally, he turns Hollow, and preys upon others.
  Dan: [brightly] So I've heard!
  Lucatiel: And a Hollow can never be human again.
  Dan: Rub it in.
  • It becomes less funny when Luca takes her mask off, but it's good while it lasts.
• Dan is reading item descriptions when he is invaded. It's the way it's presented that makes it funny.
  • It happens again (with the exact same zoom on the notification) at the end of Episode 25.
• Episode 27: Dan trolls Blue Sentinel Targray.
  Hey man... the Sun People gave me a ring. The Sun People liked it, and they literally put a ring on it. So... checkmate.
• Episode 37: "Let us see what awaits us in the down below- baaaaaah I hate it already."
• Episode 43: Dan runs into a Dragonrider Degraded Boss in the Shrine of Amana.
  Dan: He does look different than anything I've fought.
  (Smash Cut to clips of previous Dragonrider fights, complete with "Previously..." caption and jaunty music)
• Episode 45: In the final part of the Undead Crypt (the great hall leading to Velstadt and Vendrick's tomb), Dan finds the bell under the stairs, and kills the nearby Hollow before it can ring it. So far, so good. Then the second Hollow shows up and rings it anyway. When the third one comes in, Dan resorts to whaling on the bell himself, in the hope of destroying it.
• Episode 64: Dan heads back to the Gutter to get an item he missed, which turns out to be the Havel Set and Shield. He's so thrilled he immediately puts it on (and equips the Dragon Tooth).
  Dan: <does "This One's Me" gesture> Everybody look at me, I'm Havel! Back from the Dead with a very important message for all you kids out there: stay away from dragons, don't use magic. I'm Havel.
  • From the same episode, Dan gives the Pilgrim of Dark covenant a try. He makes many new friends.
    Dan: All right. I'm feeling prepared to give this one more- [Killed Mid-Sentence] ...OK.
    (ok)
    • Cut to Dan rejoining the Heirs of the Sun.
• Episode 68: the Determination Montage of Dan and his allies fighting the Burnt Ivory King, which at one point features Dan's character making encouraging gestures at the camera.
• From the final episode, when killing the often-recurring pest Nevlaan.
  Dan: Hey! Nevlaan! Check it out. I'm invading YOU!
  • Also from the finale, Dan checks in with as many friendly NPCs as he can.
    Magerold (the merchant in the Iron Keep): Well? Where've you been?
    Dan: (in a feisty-teenager tone) Out. Get off my back.

Dark Souls III

• Dan finds his first treasure chest and hesitates before opening it, asking rhetorically if FromSoftware would be cruel enough to drop a Mimic on him in the first level. The comments section wasted no time in pointing out that Dan was one fork in the road away from discovering that the answer is "yes."

Dark Souls III Co-Op! (technically a Playframe series, but involving some of the same people)

• In episode 7, Dan and Dan get disconnected. Dan (Jones) takes the opportunity to attempt a Hostile Show Takeover. Once they get it resolved:
  Dan: I didn't say anything, you didn't miss anything.

Extra Play

• The Battle of the Dans begins! cue every gag the three can think of regarding the nature of dueling over their shared name. Are they fighting for the title of Dan Prime? the Dannest of them All? The True Dan? it all applies.
  • How about the fact they conclude every round with the message "DAN WINS"?
  • And the personal favorite of the first Dan: THE THUNDERDAN! THREE DANS ENTER, ONE DAN LEAVES!
  • Part way through the first episode, they realize that, since two of the Dans rarely appear on screen and the other Dan has his voice pitch-shifted in each episode, many fans would have no idea who was who from the voices alone, and be completely confused at who was winning anyway.
• LeeLee at the end of the third The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword episode relishes having power over Editing!Dan.

Extra Sci-Fi

• In the Weird Tales video, contrasting H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard's writing styles by showing how their characters would describe encountering an Eldritch Abomination. Lovecraft has a page filled with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. Howard's is simply "By Crom!"

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Bismarck has a plan — Bismarck always has a plan. It's Walpole.