"Drunk History" is almost always a subversive delight. But this week's edition with Lin-Manuel Miranda doing a bombed version of Alexander Hamilton's life is something special.
Creator Derek Waters and Miranda don't waste a second getting transgressive.
The episode opens looking much like a recent PBS documentary on Miranda and his making of the Broadway hit "Hamilton."
Walking with Waters along a residential side street, Miranda says, "This is the block where I grew up. I used to ride a bike …."
"Do you want to get drunk?" Waters says, interrupting the Broadway star's recollection of his roots with an invitation to get smashed.
"Yeah," Miranda says with a lot more enthusiasm than he had shown in talking about his past.
And they are off with Miranda getting loaded and tearing into a raunchy, profane version of the biography of the man on the $10 bill.
How drunk is the teller of this tale?
"Oh, (expletive), I'm drunk. I'm giggly, and there are gaps in my memory," Miranda says a few minutes into the narrative.
Gaps galore.
Like he has to gather himself to remember the Revolutionary War and Hamilton's role in it as an aide to George Washington.
And then, there's the adulterous relationship with Maria Reynolds.
Once he figures out the "straightest line" through that bit of history and moves onto Hamilton's relationship to James Monroe, he's interrupted by his smartphone.
"Sorry, got to put my phone on vibrate," he mumbles.
A minute later, he's confiding to the camera: "I want to order Domino's."
Miranda does remember the duel with Aaron Burr, which is helpful to the story of Hamilton's life and death.
"This feels like high school," he says just before the shooting starts.
The cast is great: Tony Hale, Aubrey Plaza and Alia Shawkat.
But it's the whacked and subversive take on one of our most primal founding narratives that makes this one of my favorite "Drunk History" episodes ever.
It airs at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 29) on Comedy Central.