Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has had an incredible 18 months. He wrote and starred in the most popular Broadway musical in years (perhaps of all-time), hosted Saturday Night Live, signed up for a bajillion prestige post-Hamilton projects (including, most recently, adapting Pat Rothfuss’ fantasy book trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle for TV), and played a role in in the surreal event that led to a Twitter tantrum from President-elect Trump. And now he’s starring in an episode of Comedy Central’s Drunk History series that focuses on, who else, Alexander Hamilton.
The episode features an inebriated Miranda narrating Hamilton’s rise to power and life as Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat portrays the Founding Father. Parks and Recreation alum Aubrey Plaza also stars as Hamilton’s eventual killer Aaron Burr, Fargo‘s Bokeem Woodbine plays George Washinton, and Veep’s Tony Hale is James Monroe. The show also snagged Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and The Roots’ drummer Questlove for cameos. Watch Questlove’s appearance and two clips from the show below, and then check out the full episode on Comedy Central’s website.
.@Lin_Manuel gets a surprise call from @questlove. As one does. Watch an all-new #DrunkHistory tonight 10:30/9:30c. pic.twitter.com/R49IIyii5p
— Drunk History (@drunkhistory) November 29, 2016
What About High History?
The episode got us thinking: What would High History look like as a TV show? Some of the cursing and interruptions would be similar to Drunk History‘s, but there would likely be a lot more drawn-out pauses as important parts of the story sloooowly returned to the narrator’s memory.
There would also be more tangents and rambling musings triggered by minor plot-points and inconsequential characters. Also, fits of giggling would occasionally and repeatedly disrupt the episode, which could be entertaining and fun at first but would quickly become annoying. Or perhaps—if the kush is too strong—the episode would be filled long silences because the narrator suddenly became too paranoid to carry on with the story. Hmm. Maybe Comedy Central and the Drunk History creators should just stick to their original idea.
