There are much drier ways to learn about the Los Angeles Aqueduct, a project completed in 1913, spearheaded by William Mulholland, commissioner of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Fred Eaton, his former boss and a onetime mayor of Los Angeles. (The LADWP has its own version, for example, as does History.com.) But as with most stories from the past, Comedy Central's Drunk History adds sloppy entertainment value to the quest to bring water — and thus people — to barren Los Angeles.
In Jeremy Konner's boozy retelling of the Los Angeles water story, Mulholland (Jack Black) is a sort of tragic quasi-hero, partly manipulated by a crooked Eaton (Kyle Gass). Drunk History devoted this week's entire episode to L.A., but while famous Hollywood canine Rin Tin Tin and armed law-and-order vigilante Andrés Pico are worthy subjects, the tale of the City of Angels' longstanding water shortages is certainly more relevant in today's drought-stricken California. Mulholland was done in by a dam break that killed hundreds, "but in the end, between Mulholland and Eaton, they created Los Angeles — but really Mulholland: If it weren't for him, there would be no Los Angeles," Konner said, noting again that the city is naturally a desert: "L.A. is a f—ing nonsense of nonsenses." Watch below, and mind the mildly NSFW language. Peter Weber
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