# History of the World: Part II (2023)

> A raunchy sketch anthology that lampoons different eras of human history with anachronistic comedy.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/125449

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 27 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Mel Brooks
- Network: Hulu
- Cast: Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, Mel Brooks, Pamela Adlon, Dove Cameron, Danny DeVito, Josh Gad
- TMDB rating: 5.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15715052/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: irreverent, bawdy, breezy, satirical

## What critics say

Audiences broadly found this sketch-based history parody uneven and underwhelming, with a negative aggregate reception.

## Synopsis

History of the World: Part II (2023) is a US sketch comedy miniseries created by Mel Brooks for Hulu. Brooks also narrates in voice, linking eight short episodes that each reimagine a different stretch of human history as a broad, anachronistic parody. Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll and Ike Barinholtz play a rotating roster of characters across the segments, while Dove Cameron plays Anastasia Romanov, Johnny Knoxville plays Rasputin, and Danny DeVito appears as Czar Nicholas. Pamela Adlon, Josh Gad and Preston Lacy add further turns in recurring bits. There is no single protagonist or continuing plot; the engine is the joke itself, with each sketch escalating a famous event into crude, rapid-fire absurdity. The series runs as a single season of eight episodes, each roughly twenty-seven minutes long. Its tone is bawdy, irreverent and deliberately unserious, with a mocking affection for historical pageantry. Fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Blazing Saddles and Key and Peele will find the same appetite for anachronism, wordplay and irreverent sketch structure.

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