Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Although both the books and the show don't treat them very kindly, lots of history teachers love Horrible Histories, and it is common to see skits from the show be used as introductions to a topic in UK schools.
Misaimed Fandom: Despite ostensibly being meant to mock schools, the books are themselves popularly used as materials for actual history lessons. Deary disapproves of this enough that he's rallied to have his own books banned from schools.
Periphery Demographic: Particularly the Live Action series. It's on CBBC, the intended audience could stretch to high-schoolers but assume for the most part they're looking at the 9-12 demographic. The show beat out other adult comedy shows for an award, and the first two series have been re-edited into an adult version hosted by Stephen Fry. Arguably, the writing allows for more of a Multiple Demographic Appeal, but its popularity is largely this trope. Also counts for the books.
Squick: A lot of the facts in the books and series are just disgusting.
Even Rattus, the rat announcer who laughs at most grisly facts and openly admits to eating filth, is disgusted by the Mellified Man mock-advert, based on the real truth that in Medieval Arabia, a popular cure-all was flesh taken from corpses that had been pickled in honey for a hundred years.
Rattus:Y.U.C.K: yuck! And that's not a word I use often.
Tear Jerker: In some books, especially the ones about the World Wars.
Terry Deary has a real gift for finding the humour in the worst possible situations in Horrible Histories, but in Frightful First World War, he manages to sum up the worst part of the war after telling the story of men making new friends during the Christmas Truce.
"Having to kill somebody you like, that's the horriblest history of all."
When the books stop with the jokes and start getting serious when talking about real life stories, chances are you're in for tears. Of special note are the stories in Measly Middle Ages (a girl unwittingly betrays her castle, kills her betrayer, then commits suicide), Frightful First World War (an amateur German spy, on the eve of his own execution by Firing Squad, asks for his violin and plays through the night before refusing a blindfold at his execution) and Savage Stone Age (an aging archaeologist commits suicide because his theories about ancient civilizations have been proved wrong and he believes he's wasted his whole life).
The quote at the end of Woeful Second World War:
"Why is it that the ones who most need to remember are the ones most likely to forget?"
The drawing◊ at the end of Frightful First World War, which is a chilling reminder of the futility and horrors of the war, and how it ultimately only led tomoreof them. It depicts a young girl and her veteran grandfather standing next to a War Memorial, which lists WWI near the top, and the many major conflicts that occurred since then (up to the then-recent Gulf War and Bosnian War) beneath. She sadly looks at him and says:
"Grandpa, I forget... which one was supposed to be the war to end all wars?"
The stories of the evacuated children in The Blitzed Brits, which tell of the hellish conditions (up to and often outright including Child Abuse in all its forms) a lot of them went through during their time. One of the worst things they touch upon is how after the war, over 30,000 children went unclaimed, be it through their parents being killed in the Blitz, or simply being abandoned by them.
The brief section in Cruel Crime & Painful Punishment that touches upon how far the Bloody Code — a series of laws from the 18th/19th centuries which mandated death sentences for a disproportionate variety of crimes in England and Wales — went in excessively punishing even minor crimes. In particular, how one 13-year-old boy was publicly hanged... for entering someone's house and stealing a spoon.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Many many facts (on top of the overall Black Humor and Black Comedy). Like, that Egyptians piled up dead foes' cut-off genitals after glorious battles, all the way down to the rather tragic morals in many book endings.
Specific to the TV series
Actor Shipping: Oh boy howdy yes. Pretty much every member of the main cast with everyone else, with a healthy selection of the supporting cast thrown in for good measure.
The most popular ship is likely "BayBond" (Mathew Baynton and Ben Willbond). This wasn't helped by the hair sniffing between the two during the original Alexander the Great sketch.
Second most popular would be "RickBond" - Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond. Not helped in the slightest by the two of them often hanging out together outside of work and sitting very closely together in interviews.
Third most popular (at least according to fanfiction sites) is "Rickas", or Laurence Rickard and Martha Howe-Douglas.
Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard are definitely both prolific ship launchers. Ben in particular is very big on physically touching his costars and gives off an air of genuinely caring about and for them, whereas Larry has chemistry with pretty much everybody and comes across as a very sweet, considerate person.
Alfred the Great is portrayed as this, from his terrible poetry to his nervous laughter. It makes you feel really sorry for him when he does burn the old woman's cakes.
Ijalf the clumsy Viking who constantly drops his sword, steps on his cat, and accidentally punches the scariest local in the village after getting excitable about the horse races. Then he tries to stop the man from killing him by selling him all the sheep on his farm.
Awesome Ego: Many characters are portrayed with massively over-the-top egos, but some of them are very likable, especially William Shakespeare (who's justifiably proud of his impact on English literature and language) and Charles II (who boasts of how much all the people love him and how he brought back fun to England.)
Contested Sequel: Season 6; One the one hand people thought it was a good follow up with decent songs, funny moments, and the return of Jim Howick and Simon Farnaby and others from the original and say that Season 7 is when the show really went down hill. However others dislike it and say it is the start of the show's downfall due to not featuring all of the six idiots, the use of celebrities playing historical figures, the jokes not being as funny as the original, and the replacement of Stupid Deaths with Chatty Deaths.
Draco in Leather Pants: The "Dick Turpin" song is all about Dick Turpin not deserving the Draco in Leather Pants reactions he apparently gets. Of course, given their plan for this was to take the resident Mr. Fanservice, dress him up and put guyliner on him, then have him sing about it, one can wonder how well they actually thought this through.
Fanon Discontinuity: Anything after the fifth season, with the fandom only doing polls and compilations on Series 1 to 5 only with many in the fandom denying there ever was a reboot due to not featuring all of the original actors and the show focusing on parodying popular trends such as Love Island & Dua Lipa. The fact that this very article on Horrible Histories only discusses tropes from Series 1 to 5 speaks volumes to how much the rest of the show is ignored by most fans.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show receives quite a large following outside of The U.K. in places such as Canada, Australia, and The United States.
Growing the Beard: As of the second series, or more specifically as of all the awards the second series won, and the adult adaptation that resulted there from.
On the TV Show, on one of the funniest World War One sketches, there was one scene where one of the military officers shouted 'Austria and Germany, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!'. Then if you have watched Hetalia: Axis Powers... It becomes hilarious.
At one point in the Evolution Song, Charles Darwin does a dance move that looks suspiciously like Gangnam Style.
This show has an oft-recurring sketch called "Stupid Deaths," in which Simon Farnaby is Death. Ten years later, Simon Farnaby plays the ghost of an MP who died a pretty stupid death himself!
Ben Willbond plays Adolf Hitler in the Hitler Youth sketch in season one. Ironically in Ghosts (UK) he plays a ghost of a British World War Two captain, who would have definitely opposed Hitler.
Ho Yay: Yes, it's there. Check out the hair-sniffing business in the Alexander the Great sketch for a start.
A very weird example is Death asking for a "kissy" on an autograph from Draco (the ancient Athenian law-maker, not the kindin leather pants.)
In the "Phillip and Mary" sketch, Phillip responds to the Priest saying "how about a kiss?" at his and Mary's wedding by kissing the Priest. On the cheek, but still.
Also, the Historical Paramedics:
Geoff: Nigel, treacle!
Nigel:(puts hand on his shoulder, tenderly)Yes, honey?note "Treacle" is a term of endearment in Britain.
Geoff: No, no, get the treacle.
In the Admiral Nelson sketch, as he is mortally wounded during the battle of Trafalgar and deliriously mumbling, Lieutenant Thomas Hardy happens to hear him say "Kiss me, Hardy." Hardy then starts to argue with the ship surgeon that yes, Nelson really did request 'a bit of a snog'.
Charles II and Thomas Blood ("The man who tried to steal the crown jewels"). Charles — while looking like a puppy — is saying "I love him". Or earlier: "You must come round to the palace for tea."
The camp Pharaoh who clings to the Viking's arm in the cosmetics ad sketch.
Read up on Spartan pederasty. Then watch the "Spartan High School Musical" number.
Danke magazine.
And then there's the extremely camp Georgian gents Lord Humbertold and Lord Cumberland in Series Four who somehow manage to ooze Ho Yay by doing little more than standing next to each other.
"Monstrous Musicians" has a sketch about Elvis Presley's provocative dance moves causing the camerapeople of The Ed Sullivan Show to zoom in more and more on him to hide them. Throughout the sketch, a female cast member keeps swooning at his moves until the end, when Elvis proves he can achieve the same effect with his face alone and the male cast member swoons.
"Ridiculous Romantics" has a sketch about the Sacred Band of Thebes, an ancient Greek fighting force made up of 150 pairs of male lovers. Pretty much the only thing that keeps it from going to subtext to full text is that they never outright say the characters are lovers. They do, however, call them "couples", the whole joke of the sketch is that they all argue Like an Old Married Couple, and in the lead-in to the sketch, the ancient Greek contrasts them to people who were separated from their loved ones by war. Then of course there's the very basic fact that the sketch is part of an episode expressly about romance.
Jerkass Woobie: The show's version of George IV has overtones of this; he's spoiled and gluttonous, but he was forced to get married even though he was in love with someone else, he had to wait several decades to become king, he was pushing 60 when he finally got the job for real and he only ruled officially for ten years, plus he really wishes people would remember that he actually did stuff during his lifetime other than being fat (e.g. defeating Napoleon). It helps that Jim Howick has a singing voice fine enough to actually make fits of royal self-pity touching.
"I'm sorry, is this some sort of peasant joke that I'm too rich to understand?"note One of the show's most iconic lines, which can be applied to quite a few situations.
"What do you think, Wackus Bonkus?" "Kill him!" "Ooh! You naughty Wackus Bonkus!"note Caligula asking his mallet for advice on how to deal with D.I. Bones, which became synonymous with many a Consulting Mister Puppet scenario.
Narm: In one Rotten Romans segment, Nero turns Christians into human candles. When we hear them screaming in pain, it sounds a lot more like an adult imitating a crying baby.
Nightmare Retardant: Scary Stories tales hosted by Vincenzo Larfoff, which don't turn out to be scary in the end... much to the host's vocal frustration.
The glimpse we get of Death's home life in the Halloween Special — turns out he's a suburban slacker who still lives with his mom. Even Ma Death being obviously inspired by Mrs. Bates is nullified by the chintz-intensive backdrop (and the fact that Death already makes something of a hobby of chatting to skeletons in wigs).
Painful Rhyme: The rhymes might be painful, but given what they've tried and managed to rhyme with they're also somewhat impressive. Like Richard III saying "Can you imagine it, I'm the last Plantagenet".
Portmanteau Couple Name: Spoofed in Victoria & Albert's love ballad: "The press watched every smile and flirt/Called us Alboria, but I preferred Vicbert!"
Seasonal Rot: Anything after the 5th season, with the cast changing and the skits in general becoming less funny and the songs less catchy and an increase in the use of CGI backgrounds.
The series can be seen as a live action remake of Histeria! as they both are shows that teach history to kids in a sketch comedy format.
To The Complete and Utter History of Britain, a sketch comedy show written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, broadcast by ITV in 1969. Both shows have a similar premise and use many of the same ways to present history in a comedic format. Among other examples, The Complete and Utter History of Britain has a scene where a presenter interviews William the Conqueror in his dressing room after the battle in the style of a football report, a sketch which wouldn't look out of place here.
Tear Jerker: It's mentioned on the Heartwarming page, but the sketch based around the Christmas truce turns right into this towards the end. After the soldiers have exchanged their greetings, we return to the modern day sports announcers. What really makes the scene a tear-jerker is the look on their faces, but what they say counts as well, especially with the quiet pause after it. After all, they know how it's going to turn out.
Steve: Touching scenes there. It's hard to know how these troops are going to go back to trying to kill each other tomorrow.
Other Announcer: Maybe they won't, Steve. Maybe they won't. *pause* Merry Christmas.
Steve: Merry Christmas.
Another good example comes in the first series, after a skit about children signing up for the Hitler Youth. It's a shining example of Mood Whiplash done well, as the usual background music drops, and there is not a single pun uttered as we are informed of how children in the Hitler Youth were effectively the only protection for the German capital by the end of the Second World War. Worse still, they were forced to fight as they would be executed if they refused or tried to retreat.
These actually pop up quite often. The treatment of the Aztecs under the Spaniards starts off funny, as a computer game called 'Warrior,' and devolves into Rattus explaining that the Aztecs had little chance against the superior Spanish weaponry - and none against the Spanish germs. Ten thousand died of smallpox. Rattus is even moved to complain that a badger should do the serious stuff while he does the Funny Moments.
The Grand Finale song, anyone? After all, it marks the moment Horrible Histories (or at least the original show fans know and love) became... well, history.
While many of the Historical Masterchef candidates advance to the next round by threatening the judges, they pass the World War Two-era German housewife because then she'll have a chance to eat more.
Lady Jane Grey is so stressed about Mary approaching the capital that her skin started to peel off, and towards the end all her supporters start to abandon her. It's actually worse if you know the real-life story because one of those who abandoned her was her own father.
The series doesn't depict the Pacific theatre of World War II at any point, possibly due to Unfortunate Implications with how they might depict the Japanese people.
The sketches about the The 20th Century outside of the World Wars are underused, despite it having more people as well as more information known about the time.
The Song "British Things" explores that many things considered "British" are actually from elsewhere, but never brings up that Britain itself is composed of different countries (England, Northern Ireland (or Ireland since it's a Victorian Era sketch), Scotland, and Wales) each with its own different cultures.
Despite the popularity of Dick Turpin from his song, he does not appear again in the show, disappointing fans.
The Stuart Monarchs after Charles II such as James II, William & Mary, and Queen Anne never appear in the show only being briefly mentioned. This is despite the fact that their reigns contribute to England to becoming a constitutional and protestant monarchy, as well as the creation of Great Britain itself.
Appeared in the BBC Audio Series:
Adorkable: A monk in the Stormin' Normans who is given the job of writing the diary of 1066, and later appears again and again throughout the tape.
The Joan of Arc song performed by a young Terry Deary and a group of French villagers in the style of a campfire song.
Terry Deary's Henry VIII song that he performs to his history class, in which he compares the king to Adolf Hitler, Attila the Hun, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and Jack The Ripper.
Young Terry: [why he did this] I think he was nasty because he was fat and ugly — just like Albert Dodge, the school bully. If he were thin, he'd be a nicer man.
The gospel-like Ancient Rome song "Bring Me Back Me Legions".
Tear Jerker: The World War Two story about a starving girl in a badly-bombed area looking for food. She comes across a blind man who gives her a letter to deliver to his friend with the house's address. Instead, the suspicious girl goes to the police who investigate overnight. Later, they turn up at the girl's house with the news on the case and recall visiting the place where the blind man's friend lives, and the friend that answered the door looked uncomfortable and sneaks out the back when no one's looking. The police claim no wonder he left because they discovered dead bodies in his cupboard, and why were they there? The blind man's friend was selling human body parts for butchered meat from the people that arrived at his house, meaning that the girl would've been lead to her death by the blind man if she was really naive. Think that's bad? The teacher didn't think so, until Terry points out that this story happened in GERMANY, which gives you a good reminder that people in the countries the Allies were fighting against were suffering just as much as your people.
Unintentional Period Piece: Much of the shout-outs might not make sense to an audience after the 2000s. For instance, BBC Sport's commentators Des and Alan are Recurring Characters, but in real life, had both left the position by the mid-2000s, which isn't including the point that if you never watched BBC's sports segments when they were commentators, the joke would fly over your head as well.
Tropes featured in Horrible Histories: Rotten Romans
Hilarious in Hindsight: Emperor Claudius and Sycophantus are portrayed by Derek Jacobi and Alex MacQueen; in other words, the younger Master is awaiting the death of the War Master. note Jacobi's role also counts as an Actor Allusion, as he also played the same character once before.
mock-advert, based on the real truth that in Medieval Arabia, a popular cure-all was flesh taken from corpses that had been pickled in honey for a hundred years.Rattus: Y.U.C.K: yuck! And that's not a word I use often.
Unfortunate Implications with how they might depict the Japanese people.