Hahaha, I love it!!! I have a few of those fellows in my "history crush" folder already...
Last year I had a class on collections management, which is very, very dull, and to liven it up our instructor gave us a a project where we had to address topics within it, but in the context of a museum we got to totally make up. So people had fun with it--there was a museum of UFOs, a museum of pickles, and "Museum About Nothing" devoted to Seinfeld. What was mine? Why, the Museum of History Crushes, of course! Obviously it was all very tongue in cheek, but gee did I have fun with it.
This is my "about the museum":
"The Museum of History Crushes (MHC) was founded in 2007 on the (cynical) premise that people take more of an interest in individuals who are attractive. The MHC uses this idea to encourage an interest in historical figures by pointing out the fact that many of them were in fact very good-looking.
The museum hopes
a) to dispel the stereotype that great authors, artists, scientists, and other major figures were eternally old and dusty;
b) to personalize historical periods and major events by highlighting “regular” people living through them who were just as attractive as the best today
and c) to provide an enjoyable route into history, particularly for those groups who generally don’t enjoy it, such as teenagers and superficial young adults"
And this is the formal mandate: (writing it was part of the assignment)
"The purpose of the Museum of History Crushes is to increase interest in, knowledge of, and appreciation of history through emphasis on historical figures deemed to have a high level of attractiveness by their contemporaries and/or modern standards. The museum aims to do this by acquiring, documenting, preserving, and maintaining photographs, paintings, drawings, and other image-based media depicting attractive individuals from ancient times to the 1950s, including both those who have made significant contributions to historical events, society, art, and/or literature, and ordinary and/or anonymous persons, but usually excluding individuals primarily known for their appearance, such as actors and models. The collection also includes objects and documents related to the individuals represented therein. Integral to the aim of the museum is a focus on exhibiting items in an accessible, engaging, informative, and entertaining manner. "
My specific topic was policies and procedures related to blogging, so I made a couple fake blog posts to screenshot with titles like "(Handsome) Faces of World War One" and "John Keats: Hot or Not?". Naturally, the entire Powerpoint was well-illustrated.
I'm not really known as a funny person but my audience laughed through the whole thing (I've acted a lot, so I was able to keep my delivery very formal and serious throughout). And I totally got an A+