Mel Brooks: Search and Destroy

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....