Puppet History

Puppet History is a YouTube series by Ryan Bergara, Steven Lim, and Shane Madej in their company, Watcher.  All three used to work with Buzzfeed. Bergara and Madej did BuzzFeed Unsolved.  Steven Lim did the Buzzfeed food show Worth It. The series started in January 2020.

On Puppet History, a colorful puppet historian leads a game show, a contest.  Each episode is about one strange thing from history.  The two people in the contest answer questions, and the Professor gives them points.

Format

Puppet History is not fiction.  All the historical events on the show are 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 voiced by Shane Madej, saying hello to the guests from a puppet theater stage.  He then tells a story about history.  He stops every few minutes to ask the two guests a question.  They are sometimes multiple choice and sometimes not.  The guests write down their answers on whiteboards.  Then the professor says "Let's see the answer through the magic of theater!" and paper cutouts of the 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 points.  The Professor gives the special guest extra points. This way, Ryan Bergara always loses.

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" going to the guest who is not Ryan Bergara.  The cup is usually a small plastic trophy with real jelly bean candy in it.  Sometimes it contains a small piece of Puppet History merchandise, for example a pin.

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 "Puppet History: Online University" and both contestants appeared through computers.  This was because of the coronavirus pandemic.  Each episode has about 1 million views.

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, or large bag.  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 also played by Shane Manej.

References

Other websites
IMDB
Official YouTube channel
Television series
2020 television series debuts