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Though it rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as The Wild Bunch, McCabe and Mrs Miller and the wave of revisionist westerns that came out of Hollywood in the late 60s and early 70s, Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles doesn’t need any artfully hazy Vilmos Zsigmond cinematography to upend Old West mythology. True, it is a comedy where a horse gets cold-cocked, a Native American chief (one of three characters played by Brooks) speaks Yiddish and Count Basie’s orchestra makes an appearance on the plains. Yet from the opening sequence, where Chinese immigrants and recently freed Black slaves work under...

Released on this date in 1974.

This time, he's also joined by a huge new cast of comic geniuses, including Ike Barinholtz, Pamela Adlon, Zazie Beetz, Quinta Brunson, Danny DeVito, David Duchovny, Josh Gad, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Sam Richardson, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, David Wain, Reggie Watts, Tyler James Williams, Wanda Sykes and Nick Kroll. Also, Brooks has enlisted Taika Waititi as Sigmund Freud, Jake Johnson as Marco Polo and Hannah Einbinder as Amelia Earhart. Here's what you need to know about watching History of the World Part 2 online. Plus, check out the trailer below: History of the World Part 2 schedule Episode 1...

Mel Brooks might be one of the funniest people who’s ever lived. And at 96 years old, the writer/actor/director/producer has a long track record of knowing how to create top-notch comedic parodies that skewer the sacred cows in our culture and helping us laugh at them–and ourselves. I’ll admit, when I see certain celebrities’ names trending on the Twitters, I dread that it’s for … well, you know. But luckily, there isn’t sad news about the comedy legend.One of Brooks’ comedy triumphs, along with “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” and “Spaceballs,” is 1981’s “History of the World, Part I.” Not only...

On one occasion, comedian and film director Mel Brooks said, “The only weapon I’ve got is comedy…if I can make this guy [Adolf Hitler] ludicrous, if I can make you laugh at him, then it’s a victory of sorts. You can’t get on the soapbox with these orators…but if you can make them look ridiculous, you can win over the people.” As Thomas More observed of Satan, “the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.” If we consult the dark history of totalitarianism, we will see that any ideological and authoritarian system abhors humor. State-appointed writers, tasked with the grave...

Mel Brooks is considered to be on the short list of comedic legends to have written, created and performed in some of the most enduring classics for the stage and the screen. One of his most notable pieces of artistry over his seven decade career: the comedy film History Of The World, Part I, finally got a Part II after more than four decades, and has already begun shooting in Los Angeles. According to Variety, History Of The World, Part II, is a direct sequel to Brooks' classic film, but will come in the form of a variety series, complete...

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is denying reports of his possible involvement in the planning of the Jan. 6 rally, but said in an interview published on Monday that he would "proud" if a member of his staff had helped plan the event that that preceded the deadly attack on the Capitol. “I had no intentions of going to that rally until Jan. 5, when the White House asked me to speak,” Brooks told AL.com in a phone interview, explaining his appearance at the rally. During the interview, the Alabama congressman denied a report in Rolling Stone over the weekend that...

The comedian says Trump hasn't done a 'damn thing' about the coronavirus pandemic. Comedian Mel Brooks has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election. In a video posted Wednesday on Twitter by the actor's son, Max, Brooks explains why he's throwing his support behind the Democratic nominee. "My father, @MelBrooks, is 94. He has never made a political video. Until now," Max wrote. In the short video, Max and his son are standing behind glass doors as Mel sits inside alone. “Hi folks, I’m Mel Brooks and behind me you see my son and my...

Max and Mel Brooks doing a short (and sweet) public service announcement about how to protect yourself against the coronavirus. It is very well done.

An unassuming screenwriter and actor, Mr. Henry thought up quirky characters with Mel Brooks and inhabited many more on “Saturday Night Live.” Buck Henry, a writer and actor who exerted an often overlooked but potent influence on television and movie comedy — creating the loopy prime-time spy spoof “Get Smart” with Mel Brooks, writing the script for Mike Nichols’s landmark social satire “The Graduate” and teaming up with John Belushi in the famous samurai sketches on “Saturday Night Live” — died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 89. A friend, Dianne V. Lawrence, said Mr. Henry’s wife, Irene Ramp,...

LEXINGTON, Va. -- Mark Rush could not name the last movie in the past 10 years that gave him a belly laugh -- or made him snort or chuckle or laugh out loud, at least for any extended period of time. "The last side-splitting movies I saw were 'Caddyshack' or 'Blazing Saddles,'" the politics and law professor at Washington and Lee College said. "That was way too long ago." Rush and I were talking over dinner at the Red Hen, a farm-to-table restaurant that made headlines earlier this year for its unfortunate decision to refuse service to White House spokeswoman...

GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II” begins as many Holocaust documentaries do, with a history of the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany mixed with what is now standard archival footage of Brownshirts and Kristallnacht. Throw in interviews with some Jewish celebrities — in this case, Carl Reiner and his friend Mel Brooks wearing his old Army jacket — and it has all the workings of a typical PBS documentary. But the film, which premieres April 11, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, quickly takes an unexpected turn. Jewish-American soldiers, the viewer learns, weren’t only fighting...

Comedian Mel Brooks says political correctness is the death of comedy. Brooks is currently preparing to open his stage version of the film Young Frankenstein in London’s Garrick Theater. As the theater prepares for an October opening, Brooks gave an interview about the show and his long career to BBC Radio 4’s Rebecca Jones.Asked if any of his films could get made today, Brooks replied, “No, no. I mean maybe Young Frankenstein and maybe a few but never Blazing Saddles because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy.” He continued, “It’s okay not to...

society's "stupidly politically correct" sensibilities will lead to the "death of comedy", the veteran Hollywood comedian Mel Brooks has warned. Brooks, known for his plethora of acclaimed comedy movies, said political correctness was becoming a stranglehold on comedians. "It's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks," he said. "Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behaviour." The producer and director said that his iconic western parody Blazing Saddles could not be made in today's political climate.

FReeper fave Blazing Saddles is airing tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 10:30 p.m. EST. This FR thread from 2015 posited that Blazing Saddles could not be made today due to political correctness.Fortunately in 1974 Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, et al, were still free to make this comedy classic.The showing of Blazing Saddles is part of TCM's 31 Days of Oscar A to Z which started Wednesday.TCM airs films unedited, so all the jokes should be heard/seen.

‘Young Frankenstein” is one of those movies that, when it crops up on TCM, you drop everything and laugh yourself silly till the credits roll. You know all the lines by heart: “What hump?” “No tongue!” “Put . . . the . . . candle . . . back.” But here, from Brooks’ delightful new book, “Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film,” are a few behind-the-scenes tidbits you probably don’t know.

Gene Wilder, star and writer of some of Hollywood’s greatest comedy classics, passed away this week at 83 years of age from complications of Alzheimer’s. He partnered with Mel Brooks for the best work both of them have done, including the original version of The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and one of my all-time favorite films, Blazing Saddles. Those films and others have long been in rotation on the movie channels and even on cable and broadcast outlets, albeit with heavy editing, but have been absent from the big screen for decades. Those who never caught Blazing Saddles on the big...

The man who played the 2,000 Year-Old Man has gotten one year closer: comedy legend Mel Brooks is 90 today. Born Melvin James Kaminsky in Brooklyn, NY, Brooks started as a writer on Your Show of Shows. Brooks and another comedy icon, Carl Reiner first met in 1950. They delighted audiences and inspired a generation of comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and others with the improvised sketch about a really old man who has seen it all, as well as other now-famous bits.

Comedy legend Mel Brooks is a huge Donald Trump fan, but not because of his political prowess. The "Spaceballs" and "Blazing Saddles" director said Tuesday that the Republican presidential candidate, who currently is fourth in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, is "grist for the comic mill and we need it, God bless him." "I hope he never drops out of the race," Brooks continued. "If I were doing a sitcom I'd do it about a powerful idiot like this guy, who's running a big corporation or a big network and we'd get to see behind the scenes what an...

Olney Theatre’s production of Mel Brooks’s 2001 musical The Producers only has three more performances, but it’s not going to close without a bit of manufactured controversy. Audience members at Montgomery County playhouse are going to have to walk past a small coterie protesting the show’s play-within-the-play, because, the demonstrators say, it makes light of Adolf Hitler and the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.“I understand the intent is satire,” says Jeffrey Imm, who is organizing the demonstration through his anti-discrimination group, Responsible for Equality And Liberty. “This is the point of morality: some things we have to recognize as absolute...