History-Makers: Shakespeare 

“Villain, I have done thy mother!” Is still one of my favorite lines in all of English literature.

The authorship question always bugged me. It’s the equivalent to imagine that 350 years from now someone would say, “ Oh c’mon, you can’t believe that four young men from working class Liverpool without a music degree could have become The Beatles, do you?”

‘Oh no! Now everybody knows I’m a fake Shakespeare girl!’ -Red

Ah yes the Shakespeare classic "The Tragedy of Darth Plaguies the Wise" it is not a story your teachers will tell you

You’re too deep in Red’s territory, I demand you sing in your outros!

Back in high school I wrote an assignment about how we need to stop teaching Shakespeare as highbrow so that its relevance and humour can be appreciated. I embedded a drawing of Midsummer Night’s Dream being performed at the globe and captioned it “Shakespearean audience circa 1605, probably laughing at a genital based pun”. I still stand by what I said

Fun Fact: The people who stood at the bottom of the Globe Theatre were called Penny Stinkers because they paid only a penny to get in.

“Script that shall not be named” holy hell

Imagine being able to claim you were the first person in western civilization to write a "yo' mama" joke.

“Without going on a monthly heist.”

"They lived far enough from London that they could pay the rent without going in a monthly heist." It's jokes like these that make me realise that we really aren't that different from 16th century people.

I wish literature classes taught the plays the way they were suposed to be interpreted: as entertainment. Shakespeare wrote jokes, he wrote comedies, the man had a fun writing style only marginally lost to time due to changing language. Why do teachers act like he's going to manifest in the middle of class and beat you up for not correctly interpreting the symbolism of the Miranda and Ferdinand's chess game?

All the world's a stage and we're all just that guy who fell off of it when he was dancing.

With this channel’s amount of historical digs, sass and dumb jokes, I can confidently say Billy Boy would have been very, very proud

"What you egg" (stabs him)

One of my favorite things with Shakespeare is the way he snuck jokes into otherwise dramatic dialogue. For example: "A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Seems like a mere declaration that names mean nothing compared to actual beauty, substance, etc. However, the missing context for today's audiences that Shakespeare's own audiences would have known is that the Globe had a rival theater called the Rose which was known to have a problem with sewage smells due to its location. So, this seemingly profound line not only holds the message we still understand today, but also a jab at his rivals.

I'm still trying to get my mind around how often i've casually quoted Shakesphere despite not reading most of the plays the sayings come from, cause it integrated that well into casual speech Edit: I also propose Shakesphere should be known as one of the founding fathers of edutainment

All I need to get me through quarantine is blue’s Cleopatra rant

I starred in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith so I know a thing or two about Shakespearean Drama!!! "Tis over Anakin! For I hold the Ground that is High!" "Fie! Doth thou underestimate my power?" "Nay you knave! Do not try it!"

Shakespeare, a man with such an impact on english literature that people have been retroactively trying to make it someone else ever sense.

Me,at the last lines of the video: HECK YEAH, BLUE. TELL THOSE PEOPLE THEIR ELITISM CAN SUCK IT.

Thank you so much for addressing the whole "Shakespeare wasn't real" thing at the end. It's infuriating to see it parroted by so many people as fact.

Shakespeare is of course most well known for his invention of "yo mama" jokes.

The real conspiracy is how much modern Anne Hathaway’s husband looks like Mr. Shakespeare.

Therapist: Eyebrow-less Elizabeth I isn’t real. She can’t hurt you. Eyebrow-less Elizabeth I:

“Drowns him in a vat of wine.” Glorious way to die.

Love that OSP is making up for the fact that no one is doing the quarantine work their teachers set them 2 weeks ago

*(Angry Sigh)* The whole Shakespeare conspiracy thing, that he didn't write his plays just royally pisses me off, because it smacks so hard of classism and snobbery

"Sweet Mother of Job Security" Well, that's a new way of saying holy crap.

Shakespeare’s great accomplishment was not being smart while not being rich ... it was being HEARD while being smart, discerning, and insightful, AND not being rich. And he is still heard today, though his relative social position is no longer known, really. Which makes it that much harder to appreciate how extraordinary some of his plays are, and his accomplishment at elevating the reality of human experience - without necessarily promoting a particular worldview - except in wonderful videos like yours 😊. Thank you.

10:30 "The Tragedy of Darth Plaguies the Wise" Nice

MacBeth is almost complete propaganda: the historical King Duncan had MacBeth’s father assassinated by a man named Gilcomgain and when MacBeth uncovered the plot (by hunting down and killing Gilcomgain) he raised an army and marched against Duncan, killing the king in single combat on the field of battle. Ironically, the Gargoyles cartoon from the 90s still has the most historically accurate (though still heavily fictional) depiction of what actually happened. But don’t take my word for it...

"A history of England, Ireland and Scotland." **cries in Welsh**

Just started my Shakespeare unit in English. Perfect Timing!

“Keeps things exciting with pathos and murder.”

"...Perhaps the greatest conspiracy of all... Is that Shakespeare could be Smart Without Being Rich..." COULD WE SAY THAT A BIT LOUDER FOR THE *ANONYMOUS* STANDS IN THE BACK?!?!?!?!

Crazy that this channel started with Shakespeare and now Blue's covering the history of him

Blue: I'm not saying we're the modern day Shakespeare but...

when we covered Macbeth in english we had a entire lesson on how he changed the history in it - (ignoring the Witches) and a lot of the changes can be summed up as "don't get the king (or queen in elizabeth's case) mad/ compliment the monarch"

The way you said Stratford-upon-Avon hurt me but the ‘play that shall not be named’ jokes more than made up for it

"...and converting the spanish armada into a sub-aquatic lumber yard." Someone watched Drachinifel...

HAVE I BEEN LEARNING FROM THIS CHANNEL THIS ENTIRE TIME?????!!!!

If there hasn’t been a movie where Anne Hathaway plays Anne Hathaway, what is Hollywood even doing?

It's really inspiring that a kid from rural England with basic education and love for literature became one of the most famous people of all time, while so many nobles are unremarkable and forgotten despite acting like a higher order of beings in their days...

*Literary Snobs:* "Shakespeare is the quintessential English playwright, fit for only the most discerning of tastes." *Shakespeare:* "Hold mine ale as I insult thy mother and the pigs with which she copulated to inflict you upon this undeserving world."

Is the biggest Shakespearecy not his sexuality? Because I just started learning about his sonnets in my English lessons, and three people spent the whole lessons asking if Shakespeare was a homosexual Fun times

I appreciate that The Scottish Play is in comic sans at 0:20

“For the world is a stage, and the stage is a world of entertainment...”

I need more Red and Shakespeare plays! Remember your roots Red!

I remember hearing once that historians thought Shakespeare exaggerated how many dead Frenchmen there were at the battle of Agincourt, until they found the original record and learned that Shakespeare lowered the number because he thought the record was exaggerating. Not sure where my dad heard that, but if it's true it's funny.

2:42 "Now that is dedication to the craft!" And also the level of pettiness I aspire to, holy shirt the utter level of fork you in that entire caper is just //chef's kiss//.

Hey Blue if I could make a suggestion: would you be interested in doing a history of the country of Georgia, with its connections to the legendary Colchis, to birthing King Tamar and her Georgian Golden Age, and lastly hosting the world's oldest wine culture, with 8,000 years in the making.

I’m surprised that you didn’t make Venice involved with shakespere good job on controlling yourself.

To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die-to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause-there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.

I love how they're keeping the theatre tradition alive by not showing the name of that one play. ❤

“ And I will let *you* run the math on that one”

Aaron’s “Villain, I have done thy mother,” is and forever will be one of my favorite lines from any Shakespeare. In fact, just put all of Titus Adronicus that list, that play is my jam

Ah, Shakespeare, hailed as the Master of the English Language. At least that's what my former AP Literature teacher referred to him as sometimes.

[Exit, pursued by a bear] Best stage direction ever!

By far the biggest characters assasination on Shakespeare has been English teachers forcing high school students to *READ* the *PLAYS* . Thus leading them to think Shakespeare was boring. Like this is one of the few cases it would have been better if you had just put on a movie.

I always found it weird how much people trying to "tell the story of Shakespeare" feel the need to make stuff up like suggesting that he was a fraud or a pen name. one of the weirdest bits of misinformation I've seen, which was probably propagated by that movie _Shakespeare in Love_, is the incorrect idea that Shakespeare was unhappily married. We know what his family troubles were, and an unhappy marriage in all likelihood wasn't one of them. The family troubles we know he went through were the tragic death of his son, and that he did not like the guy his youngest daughter was dating; mainly because he found out that the guy had previously gotten another woman pregnant and then abandoned said woman.

the last time i was this early blue hadn't burned down the library of alexandria yet

I went to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Globe, in original speach. It was amazing, and actually really funny. They added a few things to modernise it a little, but it was unbelievably good, and standing tickets are about £5. Highly recommend

Who would win? - Scotland or - One pointy-daggered Macboi

I'm doing Shakespeare for school right now, thank you

"MacBeth" with Michael Fassbender, "The Tempest" with Helen Mirren as Prospero, and the BBC series "The Hollow Crown" (Patrick Stewart, Jeremy Irons, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sophie Okonedo, Julie Walters AND Tom Hiddleston play in this mammoth of a tv show) are amazing versions of Shakespeare's plays

definitely NOT the first, even though the video was only released one minute before... damn people are fast!

If Shakespeare taught me one thing, it‘s that Brutus is an honorable man.

God made shakespeare: english literature students around the world regard it as a bad move

More than the energy, I love how much enthusiasm they have for their respective fields.

5:20 Ah the sweet coppery smell of sibling rivalry

Nice and early. I was actually cast in a Shakespeare play earlier this year, but things happened.

*Oh no, I’m getting my hopes up that someday they’ll tackle the 6 queens of Henry VIII*

I once did a presentation on Shakespeare in high school drama class. You summarized in 11 minutes what took me a full hour. Great work, Blue.

first Typhon now Shakespeare. Thank you OSP

2:27 “Sweet Mother of Job Security” 🤣

The last time I was this early, it was still back in my day. (Squints at sunset and sucks on pipe)

"His grammar school wasn't fancy, but it did give him everything he needed to succeed as a playwright". That's a funny way of saying "he made a deal with Dream of the Endless for his stories to live forever".

1:05 -- Not sure how much info we have on Anne Hathaway (not that one), but if she did have a daughter 6 months later, either they married to legitimize her in time or showed the goods to some other bloke or she didn't consent and was forced to keep the baby. 3:14 -- Shakespeare didn't pen the first "Yo Mama" joke. The first one was found to have been written on a tablet by a student in ancient Mesopotamia (Ur, Uruk, Sumer; I can't remember which city they found it in). I don't remember all too well what it read but it was something about farting on someone's mom or something. Comedy gold by modern standards. Though still to Shakespeare's credit Titus Andronicus may have the first *funny* "Yo Mama" joke. 9:33 -- Ha ha ha ha ha! In defense of the Egyptian Queen. Unlike Dio, your chains were not on during that segment, although I must say considering how composed you are during your presentations, Blue, the words you used there aren't ones I thought would come from your mouth. Not a complaint. Just an observation is all.

5:26 OOOH NOO. BLUEEE!!!

0:42 Um, that flag over Wales, excuse me?

I like how Henry the Fifth is taken to be so defined by the longbow exploit that a line of longbowmen becomes the cover of the play.

Honestly this channel has helped my so much with my literature class and mythology class. Thank you so so much. Also its interesting to listen to in the free time.

Shakespeare: The first member of Overly Sarcastic Productions. Nothing will convince me otherwise.

"Can you imagine it? I'm the last Plantagenet..."- Richard III at the end of the War of the Roses

the part with the red glowing eyed tudors and dramatic music absolutely sent me

I’ve been to Stratford-upon-Avon before. There was a dog in the park carrying a really big stick that he apparently got every time he went to the park.

4:28 It's weird that I didn't realize that until now...

Shakespeare made the original “your mom” jokes. What a legend.

Oh, man, you posted this at just the absolute perfect time. My parents and I have just started watching Upstart Crow (with David Mitchell playing Shakespeare). My dad told me that my grandfather was a die-hard believer that Marlowe was the real author of Shakespeare's plays, which makes it doubly funny for us watching Upstart Crow, as it depicts Marlowe as a bit of a fame leech who tricks his friend Shakespeare into writing plays for him. And, I have to say, I definitely agree with you that the best Shakespearacy is that Shakespeare really wrote his own plays.

I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE! Turn it up

Honestly I feel like you two should both narrate a story, Red covering the plot while Blue exchanges with some real world facts. Shakespeare is perfect for that I think

"...[O]ne stage can become anywhere in the world." -Blue "Think when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history; Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play." -Chorus, _Henry V_ Act 1, Prologue

@0:58 Well, that just shows how talented Shakespeare was. Not only could he write more great plays than anyone else, he could even father children faster than anyone else!

A thing I think could be commented is that Shakespeare's father was something of a figure himself, he always found ways to slip on taxes and take shortcuts in relation to money (for example, he dumped trash on the end of the road of their house so he wouldn't need to pay the trash collector). Also, while Shakespeare's family wasn't nobility (Shakespeare was the one responsible for gaining them a coat of arms), his mother was a heiress of the landed gentry (her family could trace their lineage to the Anglo-Saxon Earls of Mercia at the time of the Norman Conquest) and met Shakespeare's father because his (John Shakespeare) father was one of her father's tennants. Shakespeare's marriage was also interesting since it would be considered uncommon for the time's standards due to Anne being nearly a decade older than him (he was 18, she was 26)

Ah the Scottish Play. I remember going to other school's performances and saying it liberally in their theaters just to make them hate me.

"... And by the end you realize that he tricked you into learning something which is exactly what we do!..." ***GASP*** I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU

Thank you for this video! I'm teaching my students about Shakespeare, and this video is the best way to summarize who he was for a crash course!

we studied Macbeth in school and we spent several hours discussing how it’s basically written to please King James as it was the first play preformed in his reign (with the inclusion of witchcraft and the whole “ascend to the throne legitimately or you’ll die” message)

10:30 I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell