I was traveling this week, which, in these days of the abomination that is HLN*, means I spend my hotel mornings watching random non-news cable networks. This time, the choice was HBO Comedy, which is how I ended up watching a great classroom-themed, comedic retelling of American history featuring Robert Wuhl.
I caught a couple of incorrect details here and there, but in general Wuhl was on track and worth watching...if only for his take on the ascendancy of Franklin Pierce and his (in my opinion) pretty insightful overarching lessons:
1) Our understanding of history is "based on a true story"
and
2) "We'll get through it" makes a pretty good philosophy from which to approach American politics.
UPDATE: I should note that there's swearing in these videos. So, play audio with caution in respect to bosses, small children and your own proclivities.
*CNN's "Talk Soup"-ish replacement for the Headline News channel is so horrible, I'm not even going to link to it.
RSS Feed
I've tried watching these previously on HBO - it doesn't really work for me. Wuhl pulls a Robin Williams and physically goes overboard in very calculated way to inject energy into the class. Needless, as what he's saying is entertaining enough.
The direction is distracting too, especially the constant handheld-out-of-focus reaction shots of the students. Pity.
For me Michael Sandel's Justice on PBS does a much better job of presenting University on TV.
I thought it was pretty good. One GLARING flaw: Comic Sans credits. WTF.
They should try these with a comedian. They might be funny.
Irritating...
History is interesting without having to dumb it down into some sort of comedy. To try to do so is patronising, to try to do so and fail is embarrassing, to constantly cut away to people laughing (like visual-canned laughter) comes across as being insecure.
The whole idea that a lecturer is there to entertain rather than teach is troubling on all sorts of different levels.
It might be annoying to some, but this kind of (attempt at) humor does make it easier to remember stuff than boring stuffy lectures, so it does have a use.
Mt. Rushmore should be a national shame, not a monument.
Warren Harding wasn't such a bad president as he's made out to be.
This guy should have taken notes from the Franklin Pierce bit in the way he explained the next bit. As in, he should have looked through the bullshit history and looked for the real story.
Good lord this is awful. His comic timing is terrible, and he's supposedly getting laughs at every pause, but they sure sound canned to me.
Also, I started getting kind of irritated at the crowd shots. Mention slavery? Show a black student. Mention immigration? Show a sorta-kinda-maybe-he's-foreign-or-something-I-dunno-but-he's-not-white-so-he'll-do student. I'm also entirely open to the possibility, however, that this was all in my mind. I don't think it was, though.
Finally, as a lecturer myself, I really do try to be fun/funny and engaging, because people really do remember more when that information is tied to positive feelings/memories. But there's a line, and he's way over it.
The editing in these videos just ruins it for me. As Kyle Armbruster describes, it is distracting and kind of forced. In many cases it almost feels like the laughter is taken from another joke and just popped in (as they do with stand-up comedy on TV sometimes, REALLY annoying).
Mr. Wuhl would be funnier if he didn't try so hard.