Photo, BBC via YouTube
Nathan Lane:
“If audiences are offended by The Producers, then they should go and see Rent. There are people who can’t wait to be offended. Then they wonder why they are not invited to more parties. Who has time for that? If you don’t get Mel Brooks, you won’t get the film. Mel’s take on homosexuals is that we’re these flamboyant extraterrestrials.”
Young Frankenstein (1974) is my favorite, but Blazing Saddles (1974) is Brook’s masterpiece, a deft parody of Western films and a sharp racial satire. It is also filled with elements that can make it hard for today’s audiences to fully love it like I did in the mid-1970s, because of all of the ”N” words and jokes that not only mock, but also invoke, stereotypes. According to Brooks, it’s a film that would be impossible to make today, thanks to what he called our current ”stupidly politically correct” age.
Brooks:
”It’s okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups, but it’s not good for comedy. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king’s ear, always telling the truth about human behavior.”
Brooks was said that it would be impossible to take the risks he took with Blazing Saddles today:
”Without the willingness to examine and play with prejudice that informs the movie’s sensibilities, would not have had nearly the significance, the force, the dynamism, and the stakes that were contained in it.”
Brooks has acknowledged that he has some subjects where he is incapable of joking:
”I personally would never touch gas chambers or the death of children or Jews at the hands of the Nazis. In no way is that at all usable or correct for comedy. It’s just in truly bad taste. Everything else is okay.”
Brooks, who will be 92-years-old in June, has created some of the most iconic comedies in film history. The Academy Award, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning actor, writer, producer and director performed his act, An Evening With Mel Brooks at the Encore Theatre at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last night.
