Here’s a list of every “historical” guest that appeared on the hilarious Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers and pseudoscientific docu-series like Ancient Aliens perhaps didn’t appeal as much to millennials as those that came before them, the channel sought to draw in younger audiences by turning its attention to comedy-focused content.
And so, Night Class – a late-night programming block of short-form comedy shows – was born. The highlight of this block was Great Minds With Dan Harmon, which – as its title suggests – was co-created by Rick And Morty’s Dan Harmon. The show starred Harmon and his long-time friend and collaborator Spencer Crittenden as fictionalized versions of themselves, who build a time machine and transport some of history’s greatest minds to the present to interview them for the History Channel. Unfortunately for those historical figures, they disintegrate into dust – or suffer a “total protoplasmic disconversion” – after just a few hours in the modern world. Luckily for viewers, those few hours in the modern world are utterly hilarious.
The show featured some of TV and film’s greatest comedic talents playing a host of historical figures, from Betsy Ross to Sigmund Freud and William Shakespeare. Read on for a list of every “historical” guest on Great Minds With Dan Harmon and which actors played them.
- Ludwig van Beethoven – Jack Black
- Ernest Hemingway – Scott Adsit
- Thomas Edison – Jason Sudeikis
- Mary Wollstonecraft – Aubrey Plaza
- William Shakespeare – Thomas Middleditch
- Idi Amin – Ron Funches
- Betsy Ross – Sarah Silverman
- Amelia Earhart – Kristen Schaal
- Sigmund Freud – Nick Kroll
- Edgar Allan Poe – Paul F. Tompkins
- Buddha – Danny Pudi
- John Wilkes Booth – Andy Dick
- Ada Lovelace – Gillian Jacobs
- John F. Kennedy – Dana Carvey
- Harry S. Truman – Matt Walsh
Each “historical” figure got up to some hilarious high jinks during their brief time in the new millennium with Dan Harmon. Ludwig van Beethoven, for example, is fitted with a hearing aid and reveals he actually intended his classical music to have lyrics but being played by Jack Black those lyrics are suspiciously Tenacious D-like. In Shakespeare’s episode, Harmon attempted to impress him by showing him an episode of Dirty Grandpa which results in an argument in which the two exchange hilarious barbs.
As brilliantly funny as Great Minds With Dan Harmon was, the show unfortunately aired for just one season. On the upside, at least there’s the forthcoming fifth season of Rick And Morty and Harmon’s TV adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel The Sirens Of Titan for fans to get their fix of his unique brand of humor.