History Of The World Part 2 Danny Devito

How To Actually Get Your Hands On The "History Of The World Part 2" Danny DeVito Sketch

Most people looking for this are running into dead links and confused YouTube algorithms. Here is what you need to know before you waste another hour chasing it. The sketch first aired on Saturday Night Live in 1991 during Dana Carvey's tenure. Carvey played Danny DeVito as a bumbling documentary host trying to continue Mel Brooks' "A History of the World, Part I." The joke was that DeVito's version kept derailing into absurd historical claims. It was never released as a standalone feature or on any official home video compilation. That is the single most important fact to keep in mind, because it explains why every search result points to fan uploads and rip-offs. I spent about three hours tracking down a clean version last year. What I found was useful. The sketch exists in varying quality across platforms, mostly because it was pulled from SNL's official archive at some point. NBC owns the rights, and they have been aggressive about takedowns. If you find a video labeled as this sketch, check the upload date. Anything posted after 2019 is likely a reupload that could get taken down. Older uploads tend to be more stable.

The standard resolution you will find online is roughly 480p. The original broadcast was in standard definition before HD became standard for SNL. Some rips from the original NTSC feed show line-interference patterns that make the footage look worse than it actually is. If you are after the cleanest version, look for files sourced from satellite recordings around 1998-2005. Those tend to have fewer generation losses than the VHS rip versions floating around. One thing nobody warns you about: the sketch has two distinct cuts. The broadcast version is about 4 minutes and 20 seconds. There is an extended rough cut that runs closer to six minutes, which surfaced on a fan forum around 2007 and has been circulated since. The extended version includes additional historical gags that didn't make the final edit. If you are collecting SNL material, you want both versions. They are not the same content. Audio quality is another issue. The broadcast mix compresses the dialogue heavily. I ran one version through a noise reduction filter and it cleaned up thevocals significantly. Don't overdo it though. Push the reduction too far and Dana Carvey's DeVito impression starts sounding robotic. A light touch with something like iZotope RX or even the free Audacity noise profile works fine.

Here is a practical workaround I learned the hard way. If a link goes dead, search for the sketch alongside the full SNL episode number. The episode aired as part of a larger show, and sometimes the full episode remains up on platforms like Archive.org or the SNL YouTube channel under a different title. Finding it embedded in the complete episode is often more reliable than hunting for the standalone clip. The file sizes you will encounter range from about 30MB for low-quality phone recordings to around 200MB for the best satellite-sourced rips. Avoid anything under 20MB. Those are usually audio-only rips or extremely compressed mobile captures that are not worth your time. If you want to watch it rather than download it, the SNL official YouTube channel occasionally reinstates removed sketches. It is not a reliable strategy, but it does happen. Check back seasonally. There is also a version available through certain licensed SNL streaming bundles, though those rotate in and out of availability depending on current licensing deals.

The biggest mistake people make is assuming this is a Mel Brooks project. It is not. It is purely an SNL sketch parodying Brooks' film. Brooks had no involvement. The title borrows from his work, but that is where the connection ends. Confusing the two leads to a lot of wrong search results and misplaced expectations. I also want to note something about preservation. This sketch is not considered one of SNL's most significant cultural artifacts, which means it gets deprioritized in archival efforts. You will find better-maintained copies of Carvey's other sketches. The DeVito one exists in a kind of limbo where it is well-known enough to be sought after but not important enough to be actively preserved by the network. That is why the quality variance is so extreme across different sources.