The (almost) entire history of the world in under 20 hilarious minutes? This video is your answer
Did it really happen this way? No. Yes.
The man behind the hit video “History of Japan”, American video blogger and musician Bill Wurtz, is back with another one. “History of the Entire World, I guess” has already got 12 million views and a whole lot of social media love, and perhaps for good reason.
Grander and quirkier than his last, the video follows his trademark style, with minimal, bright animation, lo-fi graphics and a sing-song-y voiceover.
In under 20 minutes, the video covers literally everything that has happened in the world, starting with, “Hi, you’re on a rock, floating in space. Pretty cool, huh?”
It moves on, at the speed of light, to the formation of the universe, the Big Bang, the evolution of species, the dawn of civilisation. It doesn’t skip important events like colonisation, the trade and industrial revolutions, the major wars, the battle between communism and capitalism, or the explosion of technology, right up to global warming.
Wurtz’s suggestion at the end of the whirlwind crash course: “Let’s save the planet, everybody. Let’s invent a thing inventor, said the thing inventor inventor after being invented by a thing inventor. That’s pretty cool. By the way, where the hell are we?”
The video also includes a neat little history of the major religions of the world – Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. If you skipped history class at school, you know what to watch (or not).