If you haven’t seen the British comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb on their many shows (Peep Show, The Mitchell and Webb Situation, That Mitchell and Webb Look), look them up!
David Mitchell loves history, and they often do sketches about historians and the traps we can walk into. This is one of my favorites.
The Historic Present 
that is my favourite clip of the whole show, the ending is brilliant
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What’s not to love!
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I love this sketch.
The “fun historian” archetype seems immediately familiar, but I can’t quite place it. Are there any well-known examples?
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Hello; thanks for writing. I can’t actually think of any, except for another Mitchell and Webb sketch about a historian trying to film a documentary on the use of radar by the British during WWII who can’t stop wildly waving his arms when he talks. They have to tie him up. Let us know if you find any others!
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I realise this is rather late, since the comment was 7 years ago and probably nobody will ever read this, but I’m pretty sure the “fun historian” is specifically a spoof of Adam Hart Davis.
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Never too late! especially for this one. We hadn’t heard of Davis, but since you mentioned it we looked him up and it certainly seems likely that M&W were thinking of him. Thanks for posting!
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