If you think world history is all dusty textbooks and sleepy lectures, "SNAFU" is here to smack that idea straight off the deck of a doomed ocean liner. In a brand new episode, Ed Helms teams up with Jake Tapper to revisit one of history’s wildest “wait… WHAT?!” moments: the sinking of the Lusitania. The vibe? Half hilarious cruise-ship comedy, half geopolitical thriller.
Helms kicks things off by comparing the start of World War I to a bar fight gone off the rails — think a domino chain of bad decisions, ego, and dudes with fancy mustaches. Tapper jumps in like the friend who actually read the Wikipedia page, breaking down how Germany’s sneaky new submarines were changing the game. Spoiler Alert: early U-boats were basically metal coffins filled with diesel fumes and bad life choices.
Then comes the Lusitania: a glamorous, super-fast luxury liner that also (plot twist!) happened to be secretly hauling munitions. So yes — the Titanic’s bougie cousin had a hidden weapons hoard. And nobody told the passengers.
When a German U-boat torpedoed the ship, the real chaos began. A second mystery explosion ripped through the hull, the whole thing sank in 18 minutes, and global outrage exploded faster than a trending hashtag. Suddenly, newspapers were screaming, politicians were foaming at the mouth, and the U.S. started inching toward war.
Tapper and Helms connect the dots with the energy of two guys deep into a 2 a.m. history rabbit hole. Was the British government reading German messages? Yes. Could they have warned the ship? Maybe. Did they? Nope. Why? Spycraft. Politics. Vibes. Pick your conspiracy flavor.
By the time they’re done unpacking it all — pausing every now and then to roast cruise food, swap terrible accents, and rant about upside-down pineapples — you realize something: the Lusitania wasn’t just a disaster. It was one of those world-tilting moments where incompetence, secrecy, and bad timing collided to shape the next century.
Listen to Ed and Jake unpack the sinking of the Lusitania in the latest episode of "SNAFU" on iHeartRadio.