Mel Brooks has a way of turning a childhood memory or an awkward studio meeting into something absolutely hilarious, and he did it all with a few words.
His rather selfish definition of comedy
Brooks had a brutally simple idea of both tragedy and comedy. Yes, it was a little mean sometimes, too. He once said, ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die,’ while talking about how people react to pain.Â
It kind of sums up his approach to life. Small injuries can become a crisis, and huge problems can become something to laugh at. It’s something he clearly liked saying, as he repeated the line during a PBS interview and a 1978 profile.
The crib started everything
There was a time before movies and before Broadway. There was a time before all the awards, too. But Brooks apparently had an audience back then, even when he was a young child. He said, ‘I knew I was funny when people would peer into my crib and break out into laughter.’
He said he figured he could make a living by showing people his face. It wasn’t exactly a perfect career plan, but lucky for Brooks, it all worked out. He also once said that his childhood went downhill once homework arrived. You can’t blame him for that, really.
Presidential behavior, according to a 2,000-year-old man
Brooks isn’t the kind of guy to shy away from politics, especially when he was performing as the 2,000 Year Old Man with Carl Reiner. There’s one moment where he shares some wisdom, saying, ‘If presidents can’t do it to their wives, they do it to their country.’
It doesn’t take a genius to understand what he’s talking about. The whole routine began in the 1950s and involved Reiner asking questions while Brooks invented answers on the spot. No topic was off limits, not history, marriage, religion, war, none of it.
Asking the fans was apparently optional
Spaceballs is one of Brooks’s most famous movies. Forty years after it, he returned for a sequel announcement and immediately made fun of it. Typical Brooks. He said, ‘After 40 years, we asked, ‘What do the fans want?’ But instead, we’re making this movie.’
He’s just not the kind of guy to take things seriously, and that quote is a great example of it. We can’t wait to see him return as Yogurt. 2027 can’t come soon enough.
Even Brooks forgets his own material
There are times that even Brooks sounds surprised by Mel Brooks. In 2012, a PBS interviewer reminded him about something he’d once said about noticing the strange and ridiculous parts of everyday life. But Brooks couldn’t remember any of it.
He just responded with, ‘I don’t remember saying it, but I’m glad I said it.’ Brooks went on to praise the line and, more or less, congratulated himself. He’s just that kind of guy. Take that as a lesson that it’s perfectly fine not to remember your own achievements sometimes.
Star Wars received a small Yiddish adjustment
Spaceballs is one of those movies that’s just endlessly quotable, and something like Star Wars was never going to survive untouched in it. There’s a moment when Yogurt gave Lone Starr a magical ring and sent him off with, ‘May the Schwartz be with you.’
That’s a joke that doesn’t need explaining, and it’s probably why it’s so memorable. So memorable, in fact, that Brooks brought it back during the 2025 sequel announcement. The line still works all these decades later because Brooks’ jokes are just so timeless.
A sequel title with refreshingly honest motives
Toward the end of Spaceballs, Lone Starr asks Yogurt whether they’ll meet again. Brooks somehow manages to predict the future in his answer, all the way back in 1987. He responds by saying, ‘God willing, we’ll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.’Â
It’s not like a follow-up was moving ahead back then or anything. But he still managed to poke fun at Hollywood and the media as a whole. He’s just that smart.
Yogurt discovers the real money-maker
Time for another Spaceballs quote. This time, it’s when Yogurt’s talking about his business empire, and how it includes things like T-shirts and lunchboxes, along with cereal and coloring books. There’s a flamethrower, too, for some reason.
But the funniest part is when Brooks introduces the whole display by saying, ‘Moichandising! Moichandising!’ It’s not just the wording that’s funny. It’s how he’s poking fun at the whole Star Wars toy and product machine.
Studio notes get a very Brooks-style rejection
Brooks was just as funny in the boardroom, too, apparently. His company produced David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, and Paramount executives suggested that he cut its strange opening and closing scenes. Brooks wasn’t having it.
Rumor has it that he told them, ‘We are involved in a business venture. Do not misconstrue this as our soliciting the input of raging primitives.’ In other words, no. He had a way of being pretty direct sometimes, and even turning someone down could be a joke for him.
The beans raised an obvious question
A lot of old Westerns kept showing cowboys eating beans beside a campfire. Brooks being Brooks recognized something that a lot of other people didn’t bother to mention. He said, ‘That’s a lot of beans. Surely, there had to be a little bit of wind across the prairie.’
It’s thanks to this idea that we got the hilarious campfire scene in Blazing Saddles. You know, the one where one cowboy after another keeps adding to the noise. It might be childish, but it’s also kind of true. Brooks just knows how to balance the two.
A warm farewell, more or less
Brooks had some interesting words to say when he wrapped up work on High Anxiety. He started with a compliment by saying, ‘You’re the best crew I ever found.’ Then came the second part, ‘Of course, I didn’t look that hard.’Â
He followed it with some more mixed words and said they were the most fun crew he’d worked with, as well as the most expensive. The whole thing finished with him wishing them work on their next jobs. Not fame, not glory, just employment.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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