Best Of All Time: 50 Timeless Jokes That Bring The Past To Life

There’s probably no more entertaining way to learn history than through memes and engaging online content. Let’s be honest—it’s far more captivating than textbooks. To explore why history feels exciting everywhere but the classroom, Bored Panda reached out to Angel Lawson, a history postgraduate student at the University of Birmingham and content creator on Instagram and TikTok.

“I find that history curriculums, especially in the UK, aren’t designed to make you love learning, and that definitely translates into how history is taught in UK schools,” Angel told us. “The majority of history curriculums focus on the last three hundred years and are so broad that you never get to explore the ‘nitty-gritty’ facts that might interest a wider range of people.”

Angel explained that the pressure to achieve good grades is also a factor. “The goal of needing to get a grade in GCSE and A-Level by learning broad facts is why many people don’t find history interesting. Regurgitating the same topics over and over again—like Weimar Germany or the Industrial Revolution—isn’t something most people particularly enjoy.”

However, Angel believes this can change. “It would be nice to see a broader learning scope, from the establishment of the Anglo-Saxons in England to more modern events, like the early 2000s. When you compare that to sixty-second viral videos online sharing shocking historical facts the general public often doesn’t know, it’s easy to see why history gains traction on social media.”

“You’re never going to learn in school why the London Tube system had to avoid plague pits or hear the personal stories of people from the past who had difficult childhoods, ” Angel went on. “This humanization of people who lived hundreds of years ago is exactly why so many are drawn to the niche parts of history.”