Map Men
| 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. Logo since Series 3 | |
| Genre | Geography Comedy |
| Created by | Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones |
| Written by | Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones |
| Presented by | Jay Foreman Mark Cooper-Jones |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 35[1] |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube |
| Release | 4 May 2016 – present |
Map Men is a British edutainment mini-series[2][3] 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 to 5 million views on YouTube.[1][2][3]
Premise
[edit | edit source]The series is created, written, and presented by Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones.[2][3][4] Mark Cooper-Jones is a former geography teacher,[3][4] and the pair met at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where both were performing in 2009 or 2010.[4][5] The series started in 2016,[4] and has aired for four complete series, with a fifth one currently airing. 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][6]
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.[6] In 2021, the series was nominated under the "learning and education" category for the 11th Streamy Awards, losing to Veritasium.[7] In 2024, an edited version of the video about why some British place-names are hard to pronounce won 'Video of the Year' in the inaugural UK and Ireland TikTok Awards.[8] In October 2025, the duo released the book This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters) (Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).).
Episodes
[edit | edit source]| Series | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 6 | 4 May 2016 | 7 August 2016 | |
| 2 | 5 | 15 April 2019 | 2 September 2019 | |
| 3 | 11 | 16 November 2020 | 13 September 2021 | |
| 4 | 7 | 10 July 2023 | 31 August 2024 | |
| Specials | 3[a] | 13 October 2024 | 30 June 2025 | |
| 5 | 3 | 15 September 2025 | TBA | |
Awards and nominations
[edit | edit source]| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11th Streamy Awards | Learning and Education | Nominated | [7] |
| 2024 | 1st UK and Ireland TikTok awards | Video of the Year | Won | [8] |
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ^ Includes the sponsored episode "Map Men vs. Geoguessr", as well as two sponsored shorts about the Ordnance Survey, all of which were released between series 4 and 5 and were produced outside of the standard episode production cycle.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c d e f g Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 153: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).