Map Men

Map Men is an edutainment mini-series^[2][3] currently in its fourth series, which is created, written, and presented by Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones.^[2][3][4] A mix of comedy and geography,^[4] its videos regularly attract 1 to 5 million views on YouTube.^[1][2][3]

Map Men
Logo since Series 3
Genre	Geography Comedy
Created by	Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones
Written by	Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones
Presented by	Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	30[1]
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	4 May 2016 (2016-05-04) – present

Premise

The series is created, written, and presented by Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones.^[2][3][4] Mark Cooper-Jones is a former geography teacher,^[3][4] and the pair met at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where both were performing in 2009 or 2010.^{[5][better source needed]} The series started in 2016,^[4] and has aired for four series. The episodes are a mix of comedy and geography,^[4] with each episode answering a short geographical question, often involving maps.^[4] The style has been compared to Horrible Histories^[2][3] and the pair cite their inspiration as Monty Python.^[4] The videos feature deadpan, split-second visual gags, and comic sketches.^[3][6]

The pair have claimed the show's success to be due to the growing redundancy of maps as an everyday item, leaving them to be "geeky".^[4] They also cite the mix of comedy and geography as the unique element behind the series, leading to its success compared to other more education-based alternatives.^[6] In 2021, the series was nominated under the "learning and education" category for the 11th Streamy Awards, losing to Veritasium.^[7] In 2024, an edited version of the video about why some British place-names are hard to pronounce won 'Video of the Year' in the inaugural UK and Ireland TikTok Awards.^[8]

The fourth series finished on 13 October 2024, after eight episodes.^[9]

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally released		Average viewership - YouTube (in millions)
			First released	Last released
1	6		4 May 2016 (2016-05-04)	7 August 2016 (2016-08-07)	3.85
2	5		15 April 2019 (2019-04-15)	2 September 2019 (2019-09-02)	4.16
3	11		16 November 2020 (2020-11-16)	13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)	3.74
4	10		10 July 2023 (2023-07-10)	13 October 2024 (2024-10-13)	2.43

Series 1

No. overall	No. in series	Title [1]	Directed by [1]	Written by [1]	Original release date [1]	Viewers (millions) [1]
1	1	"Bir Tawil – the land that nobody wants"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	4 May 2016 (2016-05-04)	4.2
2	2	"Mappa Mundi – the worst world map?"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	25 May 2016 (2016-05-25)	2.8
3	3	"Where is the north/south divide?"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	10 June 2016 (2016-06-10)	5.3
4	4	"India/Bangladesh - The world's worst border"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	8 July 2016 (2016-07-08)	4.8
5	5	"Berlin Wall – Maps With Gaps[a]"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	4 August 2016 (2016-08-04)	3.3
6	6	"Who Owns the South China Sea?"	Paul Kendler	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	7 August 2016 (2016-08-07)	2.7

Series 2

No. overall	No. in series	Title [1]	Directed by [1]	Written by [1]	Original release date [1]	Viewers (millions)
7	1	"The world's oldest border?"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	15 April 2019 (2019-04-15)	4.1
8	2	"Can you spot a map trap?[b]"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	14 May 2019 (2019-05-14)	3.4
9	3	"Why every world map is wrong"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	20 June 2019 (2019-06-20)	4.4
10	4	"How did triangles shrink France?"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	7 August 2019 (2019-08-07)	4
11	5	"The world's silliest time zones"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	2 September 2019 (2019-09-02)	4.9

Series 3

No. overall	No. in series	Title [1]	Directed by [1]	Written by [1]	Original release date [1]	Viewers (millions) [1]
12	1	"The map that saved the most lives"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)	2.3
13	2	"Why are British place names so hard to pronounce?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	14 December 2020 (2020-12-14)	5.9
14	3	"Why does Russia have the best maps of Britain?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	11 January 2021 (2021-01-11)	3.8
15	4	"What will the world look like in 250 million years?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	15 February 2021 (2021-02-15)	3.8
16	5	"Who Owns Antarctica?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	15 March 2021 (2021-03-15)	3
17	6	"The mystery of the squarest country"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	12 April 2021 (2021-04-12)	4.4
18	7	"Where is America?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	26 April 2021 (2021-04-26)	3
19	8	"How do you start a new country?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)	3.3
20	9	"How many continents are there?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	28 June 2021 (2021-06-28)	3.7
21	10	"How to read a map with a clock[c]"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	15 November 2021 (2021-11-15)	2.5
22	11	"English counties explained"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)	5.4

Series 4

No. overall	No. in series	Title [1]	Directed by [1]	Written by [1]	Original release date [1]	Viewers (millions) [1]
23	1	"Why is North up?"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	10 July 2023 (2023-07-10)	3
24	2	"Why British cities make no sense"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	28 August 2023 (2023-08-28)	3.6
25	3	"Internet Vs Ocean: the essential wires we never think about"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	29 September 2023 (2023-09-29)	2.6
26	4	"You'll never guess the most popular internet country code"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	6 December 2023 (2023-12-06)	2.3
27	5	"The Phantom Island of Google Maps"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	24 April 2024 (2024-04-24)	2.3
28	6	"There are NOT 195 countries"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	23 June 2024 (2024-06-23)	2.6
29	7	"How bad maps win elections - Gerrymandering explained"	Jade Nagi	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	31 August 2024 (2024-08-31)	1.5
30	8	"Map Men vs. Geoguessr"	Unknown	Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones	13 October 2024 (2024-10-13)	1.5
31	9	"We met Britain's best map makers (short)"	Unknown	Unknown	23 June 2025 (2025-06-23)	1.2
32	10	"Ordnance Survey let us change the map of Britain (short)"	Unknown	Unknown	30 June 2025 (2025-06-30)	1.1

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2021	11th Streamy Awards	Learning and Education	Nominated	[7]
2024	1st UK and Ireland TikTok awards	Video of the Year	Won	[8]

Footnotes

1. Renamed to "Why is there a BLANK space in this map of East Berlin?" after airing.
2. Renamed to "Why do maps show places that don't exist?" after airing.
3. Renamed to "The longitude problem: history's deadliest riddle" after airing.