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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Hold onto your buckled hats…'cause today we're going to be talking about the Mayflower [Man's hat falls off head]

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Compact, a document signed on November 11th, 1620!

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…Okay, we know what you're thinking…"yay, a chance to wear my buckled hat! [Students wearing buckled hats in class]

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But also, that sounds kind of boring…"

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But trust us, it's not. Just take a look at it! Does this look boring to you? [Teacher holds large piece of paper]

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…Okay…so it looks a little bit boring.

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But, uh…hey, at least our hats look pretty sweet. So let's jump right in. [People jump into a river]

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It all started back in the early 1600s, when the Government of England wanted everyone

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to worship in a certain way.

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And we don't mean that they wanted everyone to pray while holding a funky yoga pose... [Girls praying and girl falls into river]

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Because then the only thing they'd be praying for is yoga to be over and done with.

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No, we mean that they wanted everyone to worship the Church of England. But just because someone [Priest in a church]

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wants us to do something, that doesn't mean it's going to happen…

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Our mom might want us to fold the laundry, but we'd rather curl up in it and take a nap… [Boy taking a nap and mom appears]

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So worshipping the Church of England? Not everyone wanted to do that.

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Because there's lots of different ways to worship, and forcing someone to worship in

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a way they don't want to is kind of like forcing someone to eat a kind of cookie they don't like. [Boy sat with a plate of cookies]

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And just because you might like Oatmeal Raisin cookies doesn't mean everyone will.

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So let them eat chocolate chip cookies if they want. Because let's be honest – raisins [Mom brings cookies to boy]

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are just the worst. So all those people who were fed up with being

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made to worship a certain way decided to separate from England, which is why we called them

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Separatists. Clever name, huh? [People walking away from church]

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These Separatists moved from England to the Netherlands, where they were free to worship

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however they wanted!

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Too bad a lot of them didn't end up liking living in the Netherlands all too much, which

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may or may not have had something to do with the fact that the most popular sandwich in

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the Netherlands is a raw fish and raw onion sandwich... [Waiter brings people raw fish and onion sandwich]

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The Separatists made a deal with a company called the Virginia Company, a group of people

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with a lot of money who would help pay for the separatists to move to what is now New

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York City in exchange for work.

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And replacing a fish onion sandwich with a good ol' American hotdog was a no-brainer, [Waiter carries hotdog to man]

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so off they went! Two ships set sail from Europe to the New World.

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Two full ships of adventurers! How exciting, right?

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Unfortunately, one started to leak pretty badly and turned around almost immediately. [Ship begins to leak water]

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One full ship of adventurers! Slightly less exciting, right?

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And y'know what that ship was named? The Picklebutt.

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….Wait. Whoops. Got our notes mixed up… it was called the Mayflower. [Picture of the Mayflower ship]

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That sounds more familiar.

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The Mayflower almost made it to its destination,

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but a storm caused it to land a little short of its goal. [People running screaming and man with hat on fire]

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But everyone was so happy to be on dry land, they decided to stay there. And after a leaky

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ship, a wild storm and a few too many fish and onion sandwiches, can you really blame them?

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It stunk like a picklebutt in that ship. Once there, the men signed a document – because

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only men were allowed to vote back then – and they called it...drumroll please…

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The Picklebutt Compact!

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…Shoot. Wrong again. Keep that drumroll going! [Hand swiping pieces of paper away]

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It was called…the Mayflower Compact! It was an agreement that they would remain loyal to the

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king of England and would obey laws that were made to help their new colony be successful.

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And why was this document so important? Because it was the first agreement to ever be signed [Mayflower compact document]

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in the New World – which was just a fancy way of saying the Americas back then.

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Isn't that pretty cool? We told you the Mayflower Compact wasn't boring.

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Especially when you fold it into a paper airplane and toss it through a bunch of rings of fire. [Teacher with paper airplane and throws it through rings of fire]

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Though we wouldn't recommend doing that with the actual original document.

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