Mark Cooper-Jones’s Followers (18)

Mark Cooper-Jones

Born

The United Kingdom

Genre

Nonfiction

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Mark Cooper-Jones would like you to know that, actually, he chose to perform in the tiny Globe pub because its name encompasses the theme of his show. A former supply teacher, he's here to share his contagious enthusiasm for geography. The pub's cramped confines certainly help to create an intimate, if anarchic, classroom ambience.

Although he's partly in character as a manic teacher frustrated by a geography-indifferent society, it's amusingly clear that his life-long passion is utterly genuine. A likeable young fogey who's happily aware of how posh and uncool he is – he even manages a neatly surreal gag about his hyphened surname – Mr Cooper-Jones has a practised knack with captive audiences. Assisted by an overhead projector and a sharp l Mark Cooper-Jones would like you to know that, actually, he chose to perform in the tiny Globe pub because its name encompasses the theme of his show. A former supply teacher, he's here to share his contagious enthusiasm for geography. The pub's cramped confines certainly help to create an intimate, if anarchic, classroom ambience.

Although he's partly in character as a manic teacher frustrated by a geography-indifferent society, it's amusingly clear that his life-long passion is utterly genuine. A likeable young fogey who's happily aware of how posh and uncool he is – he even manages a neatly surreal gag about his hyphened surname – Mr Cooper-Jones has a practised knack with captive audiences. Assisted by an overhead projector and a sharp line in pedantry, he practically pummels the class into agreeing with him. Highlights include a pupil-pleasing game of 'Are You Worse Than an American at Geography?' and an impressively improvised segment in which he challenges the room to disprove his claim that geography relates to everything on Earth.

Full of actual interesting facts as well as gags, Geography Teacher revels in knowledge and the fun of learning. It's a minor joy.

Map Men
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 on the Jay and Mark YouTube channel for five series, alongside a series of specials relating to Geoguessr and Ordnance Survey. 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 title for the series, "Map Men", was coined by Cooper-Jones as a pun name based on the American drama series, "Mad Men".[7]

The pair have attributed the show's success to the growing redundancy of maps as an everyday item, making them a more "geeky" topic.[4] They attribute the channel's success to its unique mix of comedy and geography.[6] In 2021, the series was nominated under the "learning and education" category for the 11th Streamy Awards, losing to Veritasium.[8] 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.[9]

In October 2025, the duo released the book This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters) ...more