Thug Notes is an American educational web series that summarizes and analyzes various literary works in a comedic manner. Thug Notes first aired on June 3, 2013, on YouTube, with the pilot episode centered on Crime and Punishment. The host of the series is Sparky Sweets, Ph.D., portrayed by actor and comedian Greg Edwards. In 2015, a book of essays based on episodes from the series entitled Thug Notes: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature was published by Vintage Books.
Style The series is presented by Greg Edwards in character as Sparky Sweets, Ph.D; the character hosts the series in an "original gangster" style.
The following is an example of Sweets' style from his analysis of To Kill a Mockingbird, one of his most popular: "Only a jive-ass fool would bother capping a mockingbird, 'cause all them bitches do is just drop next-level beats for your enjoyment. So what my girl Harper trying to say is ratting on Boo Radley wouldn't do no good. It would only rid the hood of one more true-blue player."
Explaining the usage of African-American Vernacular English within the series, Edwards stated, "but the truth is, the gift of literature is universal in meaning and should be made accessible to everyone on every plane. So, Thug Notes is my way of trivializing academia's attempt at making literature exclusionary by showing that even high-brow academic concepts can be communicated in a clear and open fashion." The style used by Edwards' character was a result of "frustration with the world of academia".
Episodes # Book Author Note 1 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 2 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 3 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 4 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 5 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 6 Lord of the Flies William Golding 7 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 8 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 9 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 10 Hamlet William Shakespeare 11 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 12 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 13 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 14 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 15 Beowulf Unknown 16 Animal Farm George Orwell 17 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 18 Odyssey Homer 19 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 20 Frankenstein Mary Shelley Halloween Special 21 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 22 Macbeth William Shakespeare 23 The Crucible Arthur Miller 24 Inferno Dante Alighieri 25 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 26 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 27 Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky 28 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 29 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 30 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 31 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 32 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 33 Oedipus the King Sophocles Valentine's Day Special 34 A Separate Peace John Knowles 35 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 36 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 37 Grendel John Gardner 38 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 39 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 40 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 41 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 42 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 43 The Stranger Albert Camus 44 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 45 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 46 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 47 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 48 The Grand Inquisitor Fyodor Dostoevsky 49 Dune Frank Herbert 50 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 51 The Giver Lois Lowry 52 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 53 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 54 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 55 Dracula Bram Stoker Halloween Special 56 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare 57 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 58 Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller 59 Othello William Shakespeare 60 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens Christmas Special 61 The Raven Edgar Allan Poe 62 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 63 A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry Black History Month Special 64 Beloved Toni Morrison Black History Month Special 65 The Color Purple Alice Walker Black History Month Special 66 The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe 67 Fifty Shades of Grey E. L. James BET Short Episode 68 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 69 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 70 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 71 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 72 The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss Mother's Day Special 73 Watchmen Alan Moore 74 King Lear William Shakespeare 75 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin Part 1 of the A Song of Ice and Fire series 76 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 77 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 78 The Outsiders S.E. Hinton 79 Go Set a Watchman Harper Lee 80 Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 81 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 82 The Fellowship of the Ring J. R. R. Tolkien Part 1 of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy 83 V for Vendetta Alan Moore 84 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 85 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis 86 No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy 87 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 88 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 89 Life of Pi Yann Martel 90 Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls 91 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 92 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 93 The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe 94 Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk 95 A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle 96 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 97 The Epic of Gilgamesh Sîn-lēqi-unninni 98 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 99 The Trial Franz Kafka 100 The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare 101 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 102 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 103 Horton Hears a Who! Theodor Seuss Geisel 104 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 105 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 106 No Country for Old Men The Great Gatsby The Hobbit Cormac McCarthy F. Scott FitzgeraldJ. R. R. Tolkien This episode promoted the new podcast Thug Notes: Get Lit107 It Stephen King 108 Emma Jane Austen
Reception Thug Notes has been met with a cumulative view total of over 160 million (as of June 2017) and critical acclaim. Thug Notes''' popularity has been documented by mainstream news publications such as The New York Times and HuffPost. The Tampa Bay Times has noted that the series can be used as an educational tool.
In 2014, Wisecrack/Thug Notes was listed on NewMediaRockstars'' Top 100 Channels, ranked at #94.
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