View source for Colin Quinn: Long Story Short

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Former [[Saturday Night Live]] writer and stand-up comedian Colin Quinn decides to tackle world history and he's doing it in 75 minutes. Directed by Jerry Seinfeld, ''Colin Quinn Long Story Short'' is a one-man show that runs in Broadway for a few months before it was finally shown on television as an HBO program. The show can basically be described as History [[The Abridged Series]] hence the title ''Long Story Short''. Or ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' as told by an American and with the good dose of [[Black Comedy]].

The story starts at long before the Ancient Greeks. Colin Quinn satirically evaluates various civilizations from the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, Britain, India, Africa, China, and finally America.

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* [[Anachronism Stew]]: The show runs on this trope.
* [[Black Comedy]]: Used heavily.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: And the reason why the Native American societies fell.
* [[Eagle Land]]: America is portrayed as Type 2. Though to be fair, [[Crapsack World|every country portrayed are basically assholes]], except Canada.
* [[The Eeyore]]: Russians, so much that when they tried to be idealistic, the result is the [[Soviet Union]].
* [[Evil Brit]]: The portrayal of England.
* [[Hollywood History]]: [[Played for Laughs]] of course.
* [[Humans Are Flawed]]: A central theme. Quinn argues that not only that there are no such thing as a perfect system but also that humanity keeps doing the same thing and makes the same mistakes over and over again throughout history.
* [[Jerkass Facade]] / [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Sort of Deconstructed.
{{quote|"I'm violent because I'm afraid, so I tried to cover it up. I'm shoving you to the ground because I'm trying to reach out to you and I have a bad depth perception. Don't judge me by what I do, judge me by what I'm telling you what I am."}}
* [[Mad Love]]: England's feelings towards France.
* [[Master of the Mixed Message]]: France.
* [[Mayincatec]]: The Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incas are grouped together in one segment. The shows also seems to mixed up some aspects of the Aztecs and the Incas.
* [[She's All Grown Up]]: Used as a metaphor regarding how Europe views Africa.
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Definitely lies on the cynical side.
* [[Talking to Himself]]: Done a lot throughout the show.

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[[Category:Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]]
[[Category:Colin Quinn: Long Story Short]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]