Derek Waters put together one last Drunk History to raise awareness for safe, secure voting
A couple of weeks ago, we covered the news that, after six seasons on Comedy Central, the Drunk History keg was kicked. The series, which was created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner, took a boozy approach to key moments in both history and pop culture, including recreating the first meeting between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison (played by Crispin Glove and John C. Reilly, respectively) and that time Eartha Kitt bravely spoke up about the rising anti-Vietnam War sentiment in the country to an oblivious Lady Bird Johnson. In between sips, funny folks like Artemis Pebdani, Amber Ruffin—who played both amateur historian and starred in sketches—and Ashley Nicole Black tried to piece together what they recalled about these significant moments.
The last full episode of Drunk History aired on August 6, 2019 (what will likely be referred to in any Drunk History revival as “the before times”), but Waters has one last cocktail-fueled remembrance to share with fans. As part of the “United To Save The Vote” virtual event that streamed on August 30 (of this year), Waters joined Jennifer Lawrence, Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx, and Gloria Estefan, as well as a ton of other famous people, to raise awareness and funds to ensure voter access and safety. The virtual event included a Q&A about absentee voting by mail which was no doubt informative; slightly less so, but probably just as riveting, is this mini-history lesson from Drunk History regular Steve Berg.
The Good Place alum calls up Waters for a Zoom chat about the history of the absentee ballot, and while the recreations aren’t quite what they used to be, this mini-episode—the last Drunk History episode we’ll see for a while—is just as irreverent as any of the show’s full-scale productions. Waters isn’t able to engage with Berg as much as he had in the past, and there are no cuts to the host and storyteller mixing up drinks or sliding off the furniture. But as Berg notes, the most important takeway is that we find a way to make sure people are able to vote even as the chasm in this country grows wider and deeper, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the sitting president: “Democracy, dude—let’s not let it die.”
You can check out the complete “United To Save The Vote” event below.