Talk:Epic Rap Battles of History 58/@comment-184.15.152.171-20150916212958/@comment-5264252-20150916214355

The general consensus is more the fact that Billy Mays and Napoleon Dynamite were for the most part used because, during Season 1, it was more of an "anything goes" for ERB where they did match-ups solely for the sake of having fun with it, and Billy Mays and Napoleon Dynamite were at least still slightly still relevant. While I believe Dynamite would probably still have a shot in these later seasons, I'm pretty sure that Billy Mays probably wouldn't.

It's a different case between distantly historical characters and figures more known in modern pop culture. With modern day figures, while they may have quite a bit of fame to them, it's almost always a "15 seconds of fame" deal, Deez Nuts being a perfect example in this case. With distantly historical figures that have had quite a bit of impact, it's usually seen as a different case where people seem to generally be fine with using them if there's a good balance between their notoriety and their impact. While Shaka Zulu is very much obscure in the jist of things, he's pretty influential as a figure in terms of how he influences war tactics, plus in general he was probably the best representation for any sort of African tribal figure, so he has that going for him.