Thug Notes proves comical and educational

“You also best recognize that the central symbol up in this heezy is that pig head on a stick.”

Even after nearly a year, I still remember how this line from Thug Notes’ version of “Lord of the Flies” video made me chuckle and helped me grasp a central theme of the novel in a memorable way.

Thug Notes is a critically acclaimed web series run by popular YouTube channel Wisecrack, which prides itself in its comical yet educational content.

Thug Notes, now approaching its 100th episode, breaks down popular and famous novels, most of which are popular picks for inclusion in English classes nationwide, into comprehensive video summaries that use stereotypical colloquial language. These include Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”

The narrator of the show, Greg Edwards, who goes by the nickname Sparky Sweets, Ph.D., dresses in the most stereotypical “thug” manner, always sporting a colorful bandana, large gold chains and a tank top. In contrast to this ensemble, he sits in a fancy, library-like room with classical music playing in the background.

Each episode starts out with a brief 2- to 3-minute summary of the book. In this short time, Sparky Sweets goes through the main events of the novel surprisingly thoroughly, which helps viewers — provided that they read the text beforehand — refresh their memory of the text as well as tickling their funny bones through punchy one-liners.

After the summary follows the analysis portion, in which a few key quotes and important symbols are explained.

Throughout each video, the narrator uses comical and thug language, keeping students interested throughout the course of the video. For me, listening to Sparky Sweets explain sophisticated books helped me view literary works like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Romeo and Juliet” in a different perspective.

At first, I was caught off guard by the fun factor in the videos and ironically spent a lot of time watching other videos in the series instead of studying; however, it still helped me preview upcoming books in my English classes and I was able to go into new books with a bit of context.

The series is also a great way to review for finals. Watching the short videos for each book helped me recall the plots of each book and some key quotes.

However, relying solely on Thug Notes without reading the actual books won’t be enough to get an A on any test. The summaries are good for review, but they definitely fall short in terms of being a replacement for the book.

Thug Notes is a tool everyone should try out to prepare for their English finals — there’s no harm in doing so anyway. Next time you’re just watching silly Vine compilations on YouTube, make sure to check out Thug Notes; you’ll de-stress and prep for your exams at the same time.