Do you like Epic Rap Battles of History? If so, what are your top ten episodes?
Yes, I’ve been meaning to watch more of them. Here are the episodes I’ve watched so far, in order:
- Clive of India (vs. Peter) (I can’t recall the actual debate but it was a “mythical Indian king is actually this historical guy”)
- Hannibal Lecter (vs. The Marquis de Sade) (the debate had to do with modern authors)
- Charles Darwin (vs. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck) (the debate involved “scientific” objections to Darwin’s theory, though in the actual video it got sidetracked and turned into an argument over whether Darwin was actually good at science as an amateur)
- Karl Marx (vs. Proudhon) (there were multiple different debates on this one and you had to scroll past a bunch before reaching the actual debate – it got very repetitive)
- Boris Pasternak (vs. Vladimir Nabokov) (in this episode the argument was just what you’d think it would be about the novel “Bend Sinister,” though for some reason the Nabokov vs. Pasternak part is included in the episode title)
- Albert Einstein (vs. Stephen Hawking) (“Einstein/Hawking” is just the name of the book, with no other connection between the names)
- Martin Luther (vs. Pope Leo X) (“The Popes and the Protestants: The Pope Vs. Martin Luther” is the actual title of this video and why I decided to start it with Luther)
- Socrates (vs. Plato) (there were many different debates on this one, but this is the “main” one: the debate was just what you’d think it would be about. There were also other debates on this video, but you had to scroll past a bunch)
- Sigmund Freud (vs. Otto Weininger) (this one was just “who is better, Freud or Weininger”? no real debate)
- Nikola Tesla (vs. W.C. Tandy) (also a “historical/biographical debate” – the debate was over “Is Tesla Actually Genius, Or Just an Egomaniac?”)
That’s the ones that I’ve watched, I hope it’s a representative sample!
I haven’t seen any of those yet, except for Einstein vs Hawking. By the way you should check out Eastern Philosophy vs Western Philosophy. Voltaire says “Let me be frank, don’t start beef with the Frank!” and that makes me think of you!
Oh, that was part of the same video!
Oh shit some of these sound absolutely fire tbh
A lot of the episodes aren’t really great. But that is mostly for the episodes where you can’t really make a case for one side or the other.
If I had to rank them entirely on the quality of the debates, then here goes:
- Thomas Aquinas against Aristotle (for some reason the Aquinas and Aristotle parts got spliced together into one long video)
- Juan Pablo II against Pius XII (the discussion is about why Pius XII should be regarded as saintly rather than a villain for opposing the Nazis – “is Pius XII a Villain, a Saint, or an Anti-Hero?”)
- Stephen Hawking for Albert Einstein (also the video has many different parts, and each part is just them having a “debate” where no one’s changing their mind – Hawking and Einstein are basically arguing about the issue at hand, but I guess one could call that “debate”)
- Marxism-Leninism and “The Two Imperialisms” (the debate is between, for example, Trotsky and Stalin)