Mel Brooks fans have been waiting over 40 years for this — the sequel to History of the World Part 1. Part 2 starts streaming Monday on Hulu.
It’s a series this time around, with Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, and Nick Kroll as executive producers, with some help from Brooks himself, Barinholtz tells ABC Audio.
“He’s a national treasure who’s 96, and we want to make sure that we’re not making him too exhausted. But he would always be there to jump on a zoom and hear a pitch or do a table read. And he’s in the show,” he explains. “…And every time you see him, to quote Wanda, his face pop up on your screen you’re just like, you look around like, is anyone else watching this? Like, this is crazy.”
Barinholtz says Brooks was one of the biggest influences on his young comedy brain, crediting the comedy legend for introducing him to the R-rated comedies he’s grown to love.
“It was because of Mel in the ’70s that I watched movies in the ’80s that weren’t not just Mel’s, but also Trading Places and Vacation and Coming to America and then in the ’90s with the Farrelly brothers and then in the 2000s with… movies like Bridesmaids and Anchorman and stuff,” he recalls. “…And Mel started that s***.”
Sykes agrees, noting, “Blazing Saddles was like my favorite movie, watched it so many times.”
“I think what, Mel teaches us is that you can be hella silly and you can also be crass, but you can also say something,” she continues. “You know, I love how he went after whoever was in charge. He was always bringing down the big guy.”
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