Mel Brooks: Search and Destroy

Have you ever seen his v.o./improv animation The Critic? And as cited above, The 2000 Year Old Man album box set, some of the funniest stuff of which is 2000yo-unrelated... Tax expert: "I write off the entire country of Romania -- I send them socks, I send them oldtime magazines." Also his impression of Cary Grant's voice as heard by a fetus in the womb...

Brooks was on the Critic? which episode?

i liked him a lot in Curb.

FIlm Forum showed it before the Producers. There was someone in the audience who laughed at EVERYTHING Brooks said.

Casting announced for the Young Frankenstein Broadway musical, with Megan Mullally the required TV star in the Kahn role. I never thought The Producers would be a smash, but this seems a much less natural fit.

Hell yeah, Andrea Martin from SCTV as Frau Blucher

heh, I totally missed that! I saw her in Oklahoma! fairly recently.

Still, this is not gonna be in black-and-white. (I assume the set design might go that way tho.)

Ben Brantley gave the Young Frankenstein musical its banner quote: "I laughed three times."

i have had the inquisition song from history of the world part 1 in my head all morning for some reason. CLASSIC

well, mostly for the Jackie Mason lines.

"What a show!"

"You better change your point of views todaaaay!"

The Twelve Chairs is not as funny as I remember. DeLuise and Brooks, in small parts, get nearly all the big yuks, not Ron Moody and Frank Langella.

"I hate people I don't like."

receiving Kennedy Center Honors this year, along with Springsteen and de Niro. I guess the president will be hearing a Blazing Saddles joke from Mel.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/kennedy-center-will-honor-springsteen-deniro-brubeck-mel-brooks-and-grace-bumbry/?hp

“The Boss” and an actor who found early acclaim playing a mob boss are two of the five 2009 Kennedy Center honorees.

weird way to describe deniro.

is it? Vito Corleone was his breakthrough; Mean Streets was a small release.

anyway, I hope Carl Reiner appears at this, now that they are both 2000-year-old men.

tom carson on the pernicious influence of robert deniro:

http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_6737

by the way i saw the Producers in london, with nathan lane and lee evans, and witnessed one of the most amazing moments i've ever seen at the theatre - completely unplanned - although i don't quite have the time at this exact moment to properly recount it

you have before! the hat toss thing, yeah?

also, on the OTHER Mel Brooks thread, you mistakenly credited Mel w/ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

I saw part of The Muppet Movie in a bar the other night, and forgot about Mel's funny mad-scientist extended cameo. "In two minutes, he won't know you from kosher bacon!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPkk1sUFkI

ha, I can quote that w/out watching... "Dat looks like sumtin, dere."

That Tom Carson link is a goldmine: Is this the best link to keep up with his work?
http://men.style.com/search/results?cx=010858178366868418930%3A1uyj_dfm52w&cof=FORID%3A9&q=%22Tom+Carson%22#931

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aDGQgSGHGZ0&hl=en&fs=1&";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aDGQgSGHGZ0&hl=en&fs=1&"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I am still waiting for Jews in Space

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/06/MelBrooksJewsInSpace.JPG

dude is woody allen w/t the film crit wankery and bergman/fellini/artfilm mugging. and his funniest stuff is funnier than woody allen's funniest stuff.

and his worst is way less funny

saw part of The Muppet Movie in a bar the other night, and forgot about Mel's funny mad-scientist extended cameo. "In two minutes, he won't know you from kosher bacon!"

― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Friday, September 11, 2009 10:54 AM (1 year ago)

the last few Woody Allen movies were pretty damn dreadful (esp. the one with Larry David), at least the equal in awfulness to an awful Mel Brooks joint.

well, I haven't seen anything of Brooks' since Spaceballs (ugh), and have skipped plenty of Woody's lately. Mel peaked, filmwise, in 1974. Allen had a little more staying power.

Not sure this has ever been posted, from 1970... other panelists include George Segal and comedian/future TV director David Steinberg. This used to be rerun annually into the '80s on Susskind's show.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/video/article/video_the_david_susskind_show_1970_how_to_be_a_jewish_son_20081202/

Interview promoting new 4-DVD set of TV appearances, effluvia, The Mel Few People Have Seen:

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/mel_brooks_the_only_weapon_ive_got_is_comedy/

what a bro

http://www.avclub.com/articles/mel-brooks-on-how-to-play-hitler-and-how-he-almost,89843/

AVC: A lot of comedians nowadays are very open about their past, and discuss some darkness that drew them to comedy. For some, comedy comes from a place of insecurity and anxiety, very heavy stuff. What’s your take on that? What was there at the very beginning that drove you to comedy? Was it dark?

MB: That’s a good question, about what was the determining factor. What ignited the rocket that sent you up into the vast regions of comedy, and why? I would say, for me, that philosophical treatise about having black beginnings and wanting love to compensate for that, wanting audiences and wanting attention—I say, “Au contraire.” Completely opposite. I want the continuation of my mother’s incredible love and attention to me. I was the baby boy. There were four boys. I was 2 years old when my father died, and my mother had to raise four boys. She must be in heaven, because in those days you washed clothes, you washed diapers. There was no income, and she had to take in home work. My Aunt Sadie brought her work that made these bathing suits and stuff, and ladies’ dresses. And my mother would sometimes do bathing-suit sashes all night. She got $5 or $6, and it was a lot. She could feed us, you know? But certainly she’d feed four boys for that day. It was amazing. But she loved me a lot. I don’t think I learned to walk until I was 5, because she always held me. [Laughs.] She’d say, “You can do anything, good or bad. You’re the best kid.” So I say, “Au contraire.” I think my surge forward into show business and getting audiences to love me was to continue gathering that affection and that love. It’s the opposite of a dark place. I came from a lovely, sunny place. Even though we were poor, you don’t know it. When you’re a kid, you don’t know it. I love franks and beans. I wouldn’t have eaten anything else! I didn’t know that was poor people’s food. [Laughs.] I didn’t know there was such a thing as steak. I knew there were French fries. There was chicken. Things were good.

My mother used to make [lunch for me] when I played with the kids in the street. She’d slice a Kaiser roll and fill it with tomatoes and butter on both sides, salt and pepper. And she’d put it in a brown paper bag and throw it down, and I’d catch it. I’d sit on the curb with Benny and Lenny and whoever, I had my lunch, and I loved it. It couldn’t have been anything better. Except one day I missed. And the brown paper bag, which held the Kaiser roll with all the tomatoes, the sliced tomatoes, and butter, and salt and pepper, smashed on the sidewalk. [Laughs.] So I just carefully peeled it away, peeled the brown paper bag away from it, and held it, and ate it. I began crying, because it was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. The butter and the tomato had penetrated every crevice of that Kaiser roll. To this day, there will be nothing better.

I never realized we were poor, even though we really were. It was like the last apartment on the fifth floor. We had a family meeting once. I think I was, let’s see I’m trying to figure out. I was about 5, so it was 1931. We were sitting in the kitchen. The kitchen was everything. My mother had her bedroom, and there were four boys sleeping in one big bed. My brother had his own cot, so there were three and one. And my mother said, “I want to see the world.” I was 5. I thought, maybe she wanted to travel? I didn’t understand. None of us understood what she meant. She said, “All I see are cats. I see wet wash hanging on lines, and I see cats. I don’t want to see trees. I don’t want to live in the yards. I want to see the world. The apartment opposite us is open. We pay $16 a month. It’s $18 a month, and it’s on the street, where I can see the world. I can see into the courses and carts of people, whatever.” Whatever was on the street she could see, which was real action. And my brother Irving said—it was like a Clifford Odets play—“By God, we can do it.” So I ran for telephone calls, being only 5. I would call Mrs. Bloom to the phone. And Lenny would go to Sadie’s plant and work extra hours. Irving quit school and went to night school, and in the day he worked at one of mother’s garment-center places. And we all managed to bring in something so that my mother could move—all of us could move—to the front. And there was actually another little alcove, so we had more sleeping room. It was a wonderful story.

When I was very young and working for Sid Caesar; I was only 22 or 23. I called my other my brothers. I said, “I don’t want to tell mom what I’m making. She might have a heart attack and die. But I’m making over $150 a week.” Normal salary then was $57, $58 a week. I said, “So you guys, you’re off the hook.” They were still contributing to my mother’s household. I said, “Forget it. I got it. I’ll take care of it. Things are good.” That was a great day. I was making $50 a week with Sid for the first two years I worked for him. Then when the show went into a second season, I was given billing—“additional dialogue by Melvin Brooks,” or something—and $150 a week. So it’s a great story.

And later, my mother said, “Sadie and I want to live in Florida.” I said, “Okay.” [Laughs.] So they moved; this is true. They moved down to Florida. I was well-known then, you know? I became Mel Brooks. So they moved to Florida. I said, “Tell me about the apartment.” She said, “We’re living in a building, in a beautiful building, and I’ve got all of your awards on the television set. And once a week, I have the neighbors and friends come through and see them.” [Laughs.] Like a showing of my Oscar or whatever I had. An Emmy or this or that. And all my awards.

She’d slice a Kaiser roll and fill it with tomatoes and butter on both sides, salt and pepper. And she’d put it in a brown paper bag and throw it down, and I’d catch it. I’d sit on the curb with Benny and Lenny and whoever, I had my lunch, and I loved it. It couldn’t have been anything better. Except one day I missed. And the brown paper bag, which held the Kaiser roll with all the tomatoes, the sliced tomatoes, and butter, and salt and pepper, smashed on the sidewalk. [Laughs.] So I just carefully peeled it away, peeled the brown paper bag away from it, and held it, and ate it. I began crying, because it was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. The butter and the tomato had penetrated every crevice of that Kaiser roll. To this day, there will be nothing better.

damn now i wanna try this

Mel Brooks Blu-ray collection only $23.99 at Amazon.com today. Except for that last one that's a pretty unbroken string of greatness:

Disc 1: The Twelve Chairs
Disc 2: Blazing Saddles
Disc 3: Young Frankenstein
Disc 4: Silent Movie
Disc 5: High Anxiety
Disc 6: History of the World - Part 1
Disc 7: To Be or Not to Be
Disc 8: Spaceballs
Disc 9: Robin Hood: Men in Tights

-7 Featurettes Plus 6 Blu-ray Exclusive Featurettes
-4 Trivia Tracks
-5 Isolated Score Tracks
-Commentaries, Interviews, Documentaries, Still Gallaries and more on selected films

Except for those last six

(and the first one)

Have never seen the last three.

You don't like The Twelve Chairs, Morbz? I haven't seen it in many years, is it not as good as I recall? ISTR Langella and Moody being great in it.

Not liking High Anxiety, though, that's just . . . idgi.

The Twelve Chairs has maybe Brooks' funniest line, or at least it seems that way in the delivery: "I hate people I don't like."

I saw High Anxiety when I was 8 or so and before I had ever seen a Hitchcock movie. That same year I saw the Gibbs/Frampton Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band before hearing much of The Beatles. So Hitchcock and The Beatles seemed like cover versions.

Not liking High Anxiety, though, that's just . . . idgi.

igi, igi, idgi

I rewatched 12 Chairs a couple years ago; the first 20 minutes and Dom DeLuise hold up nicely, then it runs out of gas.

The problem w/ High Anxiety is that a good Hitchcock film is funnier; the deftest parody is Mel's of Frank Sinatra (God, I bet I've posted this at least 5x before)...

Except for those last six

― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 5, 2013 10:34 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You didn't like History? That's nuts! N-V-T-S nuts!

The series is about 5% funny, 10% residual good will on my part, and then 85% dud. But that still makes it the best thing Brooks has been attached to in about 30 years.

The trailer posted above showed absolutely no promise so I'm not surprised. Too bad. Love me some funny Mel.

Bryan Ferry was hired to write a theme song, written and produced with Nile Rodgers. Brooks didn't like that the song was titled "Help Me", and Rodgers described having trouble explaining to him why it was inappropriate for Ferry to sing a song explicitly about a man morphing into an insect.

how did I miss this

Idk, it could be much worse. It's very schticky but I'm content rolling with it for a couple good moments per episode, I mean he's 96 let's come him a break.

Did he write and direct this?!

Didn't direct, and while there's a whole bunch of writers and obviously a bunch of stuff he didn't write, he does have a writing credit on everything and a lot of it has a clear Brooksian touch imo.

Yeah, the writers were definitely invited to lean into their conception of a Brooks gag, to varying degrees

Even if he didn't write any of it there's something sweet about all these comedians and actors doing a tribute act.

Listened to Nick Kroll and Ike Barinholtz on Comedy Bang Bang talking a bit about their involvement in this. It's not a real interview show so they didn't drop a ton of factual details about the creation process, but definitely got the impression that Mel was sort of signing off on the whole thing and wasn't too involved in the nuts and bolts. That said, all these comedians presumably grew up on his stuff and the tribute act is quite on point, for better and worse

The first episode had two literal LOLs for me which is a better rate than almost every other sitcom/comedy nowadays.

NYT quotes on the writing:

They reached out to comedian Nick Kroll in 2020. He recruited Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz and the showrunner David Stassen. “I’ve been laughing at comedy, some of which I didn’t create,” Mr. Brooks said, “which is very weird for me.” The writers did remind themselves, though, as Ms. Sykes said, to “Mel it up.”

... Mr. Barinholtz added “He inspected our teeth and could tell that we were strong.”

Mr. Brooks joined the Zoom writers’ room sometimes to weigh pitches or offer jokes from his vault of unused material.

“The first time we talked, he was like, ‘I have an idea for this joke where Robert E. Lee is at Appomattox and he turns to sign and his sword knocks his guys in the balls,’” Mr. Kroll said. “Then when we decided to do a whole section on Ulysses S. Grant and the signing at Appomattox, we were like, ‘Perfect. We can do that joke.’”

My god, it's full of dick jokes.

https://variety.com/2023/film/awards/angela-bassett-mel-brooks-governors-awards-honorary-oscars-1235654578/

Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks and Carol Littleton will receive honorary Oscars at this year’s Governors Awards, announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards. The four statuettes will be presented at the 14th annual ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023, in Los Angeles.

Age 97 today.

As chance would have it, I watched High Anxiety last night. (Possibly a censored for broadcast edit.) Scattershot, but when it hit the target....