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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Bulwark Takes. I'm very excited to be joined today by Kathryn Rampel, who I learned a very fun thing about just moments ago as we were, as we were getting ready for this video. But this is gonna be a fun video. We are celebrating Mel Brooks, who is turning 100 on Sunday. Sunday is his hundredth birthday. You know, it's. Cannot imagine the landscape of Hollywood or American comedy without Mel Brooks. He is kind of the defining figure and he, I look man's won it all. He's, he's a literal egot winner, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. He is a, he is a Kennedy Center Honors awardee. I interviewed Carl Reiner back in 2009 when he won that award and it was like, it was one of the great thrills of my life listening to Carl Reiner talk about Mel Brooks and their work together. Best selling author. He's, he's done it all. But Katherine, the big, the big news here, the big exciting news is that the American Film Institute has decided to, on the occasion of Mr. Brooks's 100th birthday, bump up Blazing Saddles to officially on their very official list of official comedy classics, be the number one funniest film of all time. You love to see it.
- [01:10]
B
Yes, they are the authority on the matter, but I don't even know that we needed their blessing. Blazing Saddles is obviously the funniest movie ever made. A movie that could not get made as it is today, of course, but it is a brilliant satire, brilliant slapstick. Like, there's just so much good stuff in that movie. I think about it all the time and I quote it all the time because I'm a very cool person. And I just.
- [01:39]
A
You were saying before, before the, before the show, you were talking about how you went through a Mel Brooks phase.
- [01:44]
B
Yes, I definitely did.
- [01:46]
A
I just imagine, you know, it's one thing, it's there, we all go through phases, but I can only imagine, like high school Katherine Rampel running around quoting Mel Brooks to everyone.
- [01:57]
B
It was more middle school.
- [01:57]
A
School.
- [01:58]
B
You know what it was? It was that I was in this. It was like a debate club thing, competitive. It was. What's the term for it? Maybe one of our viewers will know. But it was like this debate slash performance thing that I think still exists, where in addition to like actual debate, you would recite poetry or monologues or whatever. And I did a 10 minute condensed version of Spaceballs, of course, where I played all of the characters again. I was super cool, just like I am today. And I Did all of the characters in different voices and I competed with it. And I'm sure that there is very embarrassing footage somewhere in my parents house of this performance. But yeah, like Spaceballs. Even today, you know, I still could probably recite most of it. Easier to do a 10 minute version of the entirety of Spaceballs, probably than Blazing Saddles, given the racial slurs in Blazing Saddles. But yeah, but you know, Spaceball's also one of the comedy greats. I think actually one of my favorite things about Mel Brooks is that he's like still producing content. You know, they're coming out with a Spaceball sequel. I don't know when that is. Do you know? It's like next year.
- [03:22]
A
I think it's coming out later this year. I want to say. Oh, thank God. I'll effort the release date real while you.
- [03:28]
B
Yeah, they're doing like a sequel to that. They're doing a sequel to something else. I'm trying to remember Young Frankenstein or something. One of the other classics I think is getting rebooted. They did History of The World Part 2 A couple of years ago. And I think even though these movies are old and yes, parts of them are probably not going to hold up great given changing social mores and whatnot, there is really just so much good, solid comedy in them. And comedy nerds love it. And I think there's still a real following, which is why there's going to be an audience, I'm sure, for Spaceballs 2 and the other sequels that are hopefully lined up. I just love that like he's 100 years old or about to be 100 years old and they're still mining the catalog. They're still like. I don't know how involved he is creatively with these things, but the spirit of the work still goes on. And I love that, you know, he didn't wait until he had. He had passed away and his estate decided to do something with these properties, you know, with these, with the ip, he's. He's gonna oversee it while he's still around.
- [04:38]
A
Yeah, the new Spaceballs is coming out April 23, 2027. So next, next year, early next year, it'll be, it'll be out. Spaceball's the new one. Originally there was a joke, remember in, in at the end of the First Spaceballs, Spaceballs 2, the, the search for more money. The quest for more money, whatever. And, and they, he was like, I, I was gonna call it that. And then we decided not to. That was, you know, that was a little too on the nose. But it definitely. It's.
- [05:03]
B
It's.
- [05:04]
A
It's funny, too, because we are in such a. It's. It's a very weird kind of doldrums for comedy at. At movie theaters right now. Like, there just aren't a ton of them. Scary Movie 5, I think, is like the. Is the only real big recent or whatever. Whatever number of scary movie they're on. But even. But, like, you look at Scary Movie, and that's. That's a movie that itself, you know, kind of ties directly back to just the very parody ideas. One thing I've always loved about Brooks and one thing that. That comes through in all of these parody films is his love of the. The source material that he is parodying. Right. Like, you can't make a parody about westerns like that if you don't actually love Westerns. And he talk. He's talked about this before. That, like, that's the key to understanding all of this. You can make fun of it, but you have to actually love it and understand why it works to break it down.
- [05:55]
B
Yeah. And, you know, there are other ways in which he used comedy in really interesting and innovative ways. I remember seeing interviews that he's done where he talked about how radical it was to do the Producers and have a funny Hitler character. You know, this was not that long removed from World War II. Right. That was like in the 60s. Yeah. And the wound's still very fresh for a lot of people around the world, a lot of Jewish Americans who presumably were consuming this film as well. And he talked about how the most powerful move you can make in the face of great evil is to laugh at it. And, you know, that there was like a social mission almost in the comedy. It was like, stupid, stupid. You know, it's slapstick and silliness and all sorts of other things, but that in its. In and of itself is a power move. And I always loved that. And it's really true, even for, you know, modern politics, like Donald Trump, for example, can. Can stand almost any insult, it seems like, except when people laugh at him. You know, that famous White House correspondents dinner that apparently sent him off on his political career. So there's really, you know, there's really a. A potency in being able to laugh at terrible figures of history. And in some ways, Mel Brooks was an innovator in that art. Actually, another film where. What's the name of the film where he sings a song as Hitler as well, where he sings about how he wants just a little piece, but it's a little, you know, a little piece in the world, but it's a little piece of Poland, a little piece of France, and it's, you know, again, this was a favorite character for him to lampoon throughout a lot of his work and then obviously mined a lot of other silliness and genres. Like, one of my other favorites is Robin Hood Men in Tights. Great film. I haven't seen it in years, so, like, who knows how much politically incorrect stuff is in there today? But definitely loved it as a child and, you know, found some great talents in it as well. So it's just. It's so lovely that he's still around and. And hopefully creating more work. What's your favorite of the Mel Brooks overall?
- [08:20]
A
Well, so the little piece of Poland is from To Be or Not to Be. Just to.
- [08:25]
B
Thank you. Yes, yes, yes.
- [08:27]
A
No. So this is like. It's funny that you just mentioned Robin Hood Men in Tights because that is actually my favorite of the Mel Brooks movies. It's not the one most people go for, but it's the one that came out when I was 12 and very into Robin Hood. And it's like, well, this is amazing. This is the funniest thing I've ever seen.
- [08:47]
B
And.
- [08:47]
A
And, you know, I had seen. I had seen. I don't know that I had actually seen all of Blazing Saddles at that point, but I'd definitely seen Bits and Pieces because it was constantly on cable. Right. This is the. The other thing about his movies is that they were actually great TV movies because you could hop in at just about any point and laugh for a while and then, you know, and then stop watching a little harder on basic cable. Some of the language issues, you know, didn't. Didn't. Didn't quite translate. But the. But his movies were so good. But Robin Hood Men in Tights, it was one of the first times I can remember seeing a movie that was breaking the rules of movies and then putting them back together. Right. Like, there's the shot in Robin Hood, Men in Tights, where the crane. The camera crane comes crashing through the stained glass windows. Everybody's like, what's going on? And it's like, that's a silly thing, but it's also just very funny. And you're like, wait, they can't. They're not supposed to be able to do that. They're breaking. They're shattering the whole illusion here. And it's so funny. And like Cary Elway's saying, you know, unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with a British accent, which was just perfect, just a perfect kind of comment on the Kevin Costner Robin Hood that had come out in the years before. I love that film so much. And the first time most of us had seen Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle as, as his, his, his sidekick. I, I just, I, I love the movie and it, it has always been my favorite. We have not mentioned maybe his greatest film, Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein.