Draft:Map Men

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  • Comment: The use of YouTube as a source, in my opinion, is excused despite it being 'generally unreliable' (see WP:RSPYOUTUBE) under the following reasoning. WP:NOOR says "A primary source may be used on Wikipedia only to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the primary source but without further, specialized knowledge". This applies to the data on YouTube because it is numbers that are straightforward and easily accessible. It also says "Do not analyze, evaluate, interpret, or synthesize material found in a primary source yourself; instead, refer to reliable secondary sources that do so." This should be fine because I am just pulling the data. The "generally unreliable" status of YouTube is more related to the reliability of YT videos as a source, rather than YouTube's data.
Map Men
The logo for map men, made by combining a capital M with a compass, with 'AP' and 'EN' on its right on two levels.
The Map Men Logo
GenreGeography
Created byJay Foreman & Mark Cooper-Jones<
Written byJay Foreman & Mark Cooper-Jones
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish (UK)
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes26[1]
Original release
Release4 May 2016 –
present[1]

Map Men is a edutainment mini-series[2][3] currently in its fourth season, which is created, written, and presented by Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones.[2][3][4] A mix of comedy and geography,[4] its videos regularly attract 1-5 million views on YouTube.[1][2][3]

Premise[edit]

The series is created, written, and presented by Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones.[2][3][4] The pair have become to be known the Map Men themselves.[2][3] Mark Cooper-Jones is a former geography teacher,[3][4] and the pair met at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where both were performing that year.[4][when?]

The series started in 2016,[4] and is currently in its fourth season. The episodes are a mix of comedy and geography,[4] with each episode answering a short geographical question, often involving maps.[4] The style has been compared to Horrible Histories[2][3] and the pair cite their inspiration as Monty Python.[4] The videos feature deadpan, split-second visual gags, and comic sketches.[3][5]

The pair have claimed the show's success to be due to the growing redundancy of maps as an everyday item, leaving them to be 'geeky'.[4] They also cite the mix of comedy and geography as the unique element behind the series, leading to its success compared to other more education-based alternatives.[5] In 2021, the series was nominated under the 'learning and education' category for the 11th Streamy Awards, losing to Veritasium.[6]

Episodes[edit]

SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedAverage viewership (in millions)
First airedLast aired
15May 4, 2016 (2016-05-04)August 4, 2016 (2016-08-04)3.78
26August 7, 2016 (2016-08-07)September 2, 2019 (2019-09-02)3.52
311November 16, 2020 (2020-11-16)September 13, 2021 (2021-09-13)3.18
44 so farJuly 10, 2023 (2023-07-10)OngoingTBD

Season 1[edit]

No.
overall		No. in
series		Title [1]Directed by [1]Written by [1]Original air date [1] Viewers
(millions) [1]
11"Bir Tawil - the land that nobody wants"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones4 May 2016 (2016-05-04)3.9
22"Mappa Mundi - the worst world map?"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones25 May 2016 (2016-05-25)2.6
33"Where is the north/south divide?"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones10 June 2016 (2016-06-10)4.8
44"India/Bangladesh - The world's worst border"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones8 July 2016 (2016-07-08)4.5
55"Berlin Wall - Maps With Gaps[a]"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones4 August 2016 (2016-08-04)3.1

Season 2[edit]

No.
overall		No. in
series		Title [1]Directed by [1]Written by [1]Original air date [1] Viewers
(millions)
16"Who Owns the South China Sea?"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones7 August 2016 (2016-08-07)2.5
27"The world's oldest border?"Paul KendlerJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones15 April 2019 (2019-04-15)3.6
38"Can you spot a map trap?[b]"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones14 May 2019 (2019-05-14)3.1
49"Why every world map is wrong"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones20 June 2019 (2019-06-20)4
510"How did triangles shrink France?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones7 August 2019 (2019-08-07)3.5
611"The world's silliest time zones"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones2 September 2019 (2019-09-02)4.4

Season 3[edit]

No.
overall		No. in
series		Title [1]Directed by [1]Written by [1]Original air date [1] Viewers
(millions) [1]
112"The map that saved the most lives"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)2.0
213"Why are British place names so hard to pronounce?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones14 December 2020 (2020-12-14)5.0
314"Why does Russia have the best maps of Britain?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones11 January 2021 (2021-01-11)3.2
415"What will the world look like in 250 million years?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones15 February 2021 (2021-02-15)3.3
516"Who Owns Antarctica?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones15 March 2021 (2021-03-15)2.6
617"The mystery of the squarest country"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones12 April 2021 (2021-04-12)3.8
718"Where is America?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones26 April 2021 (2021-04-26)2.5
819"How do you start a new country?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)2.9
920"How many continents are there?"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones28 June 2021 (2021-06-28)3.1
1021"How to read a map with a clock[c]"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)2.1
1122"English counties explained"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)4.5

Season 4[edit]

No.
overall		No. in
series		Title [1]Directed by [1]Written by [1]Original air date [1] Viewers
(millions) [1]
123"Why is North up?"Jade NagiJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones10 July 2023 (2023-07-10)2.1
224"Why British cities make no sense"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones28 August 2023 (2023-08-28)2.4
325"Internet Vs Ocean: the essential wires we never think about"UnknownJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones29 September 2023 (2023-09-29)1.6
426"You'll never guess the most popular internet country code"Jade NagiJay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones6 December 2023 (2023-12-06)1.3

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Category Result Ref.
2021 11th Streamy Awards Learning and Education Nominated [6]

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Renamed to "Why is there a BLANK space in this map of East Berlin?" after airing.
  2. ^ Renamed to "Why do maps show places that don't exist?" after airing.
  3. ^ Renamed to "The longitude problem: history's deadliest riddle" after airing.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "MAP MEN - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Khomami, Nadia (31 October 2023). "Britons go map-crazy, with geographical games and books becoming bestsellers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Keogh, Glen (6 April 2024). "'Horrible Geography' jokers the Map Men chart out a path to fame". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 1 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Burton, Katie (22 November 2023). "Map Men: where comedy meets geography". Geographical. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  5. ^ a b Fitch, Chris (9 August 2016). "Map Men: teaching geography through comedy". Geographical Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ a b "11th Annual Streamy Nominees". The Streamy Awards. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
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