Puppet History
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Puppet History is a YouTube show by Ryan Bergara, Steven Lim, and Shane Madej in their company, Watcher. Bergara, Lim, and Madej used to work with BuzzFeed.[1] Bergara and Madej did BuzzFeed Unsolved. The show started in January 2020.[2]
On Puppet History, a colorful puppet historian leads a game show, a contest. Each episode is about one strange person or event from history. The two people in the contest answer questions, and the Professor gives them points.
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Format
All the history on Puppet History is real.
"Welcome one and all to Puppet History. Today we take an ever-widening look into the heavy heavy book we call history while our guests ruthlessly compete for the coveted title of History Master! I am obviously your beloved host, the Professor!" - the Professor at the beginning of most episodes
The show begins with the Professor, a blue puppet, saying hello to the guests from a puppet theater stage. The Professor then tells a story about history. He stops every few minutes to ask the two guests a question, sometimes multiple choice. The guests write down their answers on small whiteboards. Then the professor says "Let's see the answer through the magic of theater!" and paper cutouts of people from history act out the answer to the question. Then the professor gives "jelly beans" to whoever had the true answer. Each jelly bean is worth one point.
The Professor encourages the guests to speak and tell jokes. Sometimes, he will give a "rotten jelly bean" to whoever makes a bad joke. The rotten jelly bean is worth negative one point. The Professor gives the special guest extra points. This way, Ryan Bergara almost always loses. ("Stealing The World’s Most Expensive Necklace" ended in a tie.)
Before the end of the show, the Professor leaves to "tally the score" and another puppet comes onto the stage and sings a song about the historical event.
The show always ends with the "coveted cup and title of History Master" almost always going to the guest who is not Ryan Bergara. The cup is a small plastic trophy with real jelly bean candy or another small prize in it.
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Characters
- The Professor, a blue puppet voiced by Shane Madej
- Ryan Bergara, as himself
- Another contestant
- At least one other puppet, also voiced by Shane Madej
Episodes
In season one, Ryan Bergara and the other contestant sat in chairs in the same room as the puppet theater. In seasons two and three, the show was named as Puppet History: Online University and both contestants appeared through computers. This was because of the coronavirus pandemic. Each episode has about 1 million views.[3]
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Professor
The Professor is a small hand puppet with blue fur and a white nose. He usually wears a safari hat and jacket and carries a satchel. He wears glasses and a bow tie. Sometimes, he wears other costumes. For example, in the episode about Ching Shih, he wore a pirate hat.
The Professor sometimes talks about his life through wrong answers to the multiple-choice questions. These answers say the Professor found a magic lamp that had a magical genie inside it. He told the genie to turn a "seemingly ordinary household object" into a secret time machine. The genie did so, but was also "a total prick about it." In the flashbacks, the genie is played by Shane Madej. In other episodes, the Professor mentions visiting the past and meeting people from history. Sometimes he talks about the genie chasing him. For example, in "The Great Molasses Flood," the Professor gets stuck in the molasses and the genie almost catches him. But he reaches into his satchel for the secret time machine and gets away.
In the episode "The Affair of the Poisons," Ryan asks the Professor "Do you have a family? Or did you have any family?" The Professor asks "Did I?" and the audience hears a young child saying "Papá, I want a jellybean."
In the last episode of Season 4, we see the Professor go back in time to the Cretaceous period. A dinosaur eats him. Words on the screen tell the audience that the Professor is really dead.[4]
Season 5 of Puppet History began in November 2022. During this season, the real Professor is reborn in the Cretaceous Period, where he meets some dinosaurs. The host of Puppet History was an impostor: an evil hologram pretended to be the Professor. The hologram let Ryan Bergara win every time. Bergara's prize was always skin lotion. In the second to last episode of Season 5, the hologram ties Bergara to a chair and tells him he wants to steal his skin. Then, he says, he can become like a human, rub the genie lamp, and wish for everyone on Earth to be turned into puppets. Bergara escapes, takes the lamp, and saves the real Professor and his friends.
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References
Other websites
Wikiwand - on
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